Hidden in plain sight: the single, most important factor in driving clients’ perceptions of consulting firms

By Fiona Czerniawska

Last year, when we asked clients about the most important factors which influence their opinion about a given consulting firm, they told us it was the quality of people they encountered (no surprise there: consulting, as we keep saying, is the quintessential people business) and the results delivered (this was more of a surprise to some firms, though it really shouldn’t have been).

The same two factors top the list when we look at this year’s data. But then we realised we’d been missing something obvious.

Like everyone else who studies the consulting industry – and I’m including here the very many people involved in marketing consulting services – we’ve been assuming that clients’ perceptions change only very slowly. There are three reasons underpinning this view. The first two are, indeed, to do with people: consultants’ behaviour doesn’t change quickly and is in any case often inconsistent; clients, like people the world over, hang onto existing ideas even when the evidence to challenge them is growing. The third reason is the data: we’ve all seen surveys put together by consulting firms that show only the smallest of year-on-year changes.

But supposing – just supposing – the data is wrong. Perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong questions and, in some cases, the wrong people.

Let me explain. Quite a few of the standard surveys firms commission focus on questions such as, would you recommend us to a colleague? Did we deliver the project on time and on budget? Were you satisfied with our performance? As these examples suggest, the questions are almost always directed at actual clients – prospective clients being much harder and considerably more expensive to get feedback from. It’s therefore not really surprising that the results don’t vary much over time. It’s highly unlikely that one firm will suddenly become really useless at hitting deadlines, just as it is that another will make dramatic improvements. The clients who’ve chosen to hire a particular firm will always tend to think their decision was the right one, so are likely to be satisfied.

But what if we throw the net wider and survey prospects as well as clients? What if we ask some more contentious questions (our favourite is one about value)? Then – as our recent research on perceptions in the consulting market shows – we start to see clear differences between firms and more substantial shifts, sometimes over very short periods.

However, even this is missing the point, I think. This year's data reveals a sharp and positive jump in perceptions about quality - across all types of consulting.

The real thing that’s changed this year has nothing and everything to do with the consulting firms who are being surveyed. Nothing, because it turns out that the single biggest factor that influences client perceptions isn’t something consulting firms can control – it’s the pressure that clients find themselves under, the urgency with which they call consultants in, and the responsibility for success they play on the latter’s shoulders. In other words it's not consulting firms, it's the clients themselves. Clients’ views about consultants become more positive, the more they, the client, are relying on them to deliver. And that has everything to do with consultants because it says that, while marketing activity has an important role (especially when all your competitors are doing it), finding clients who really need you and being able to articulate the value you can add is what will really drive perceptions.

To find out more about our client perceptions research, please contact Ella-Sian Jolley, whose details you will find here.