💡 Monologues welcome

Published about 4 hours ago • 1 min read

I sit on the receiving end of a lot of consultant monologues.

One simple question can elicit a 3-, 5-, sometimes 10-minute response.

I don’t mind it. It’s actually by design.

Because I’d rather a consultant dump all that on me, than on the prospect they’ve been angling to get a call with for months.

Unrefined insights can confuse an already distressed prospect.

Unorganized insights can overwhelm them just the same.

Walk into a conversation with both, and let’s face it - you’ve probably lost them, and perhaps have done more harm than good.

I was wrapping an Intellectual Headshots sprint last month, and my client shared this reflection about our sprint together:

We had all these random ideas, right? But it was difficult to kind of convey what we do in a concise way.

I think the visuals help do that quite a bit, and just kind of create a storyline through.

It helps to crystallize our own thinking in terms of where our value add is, and how we differentiate ourselves and our thinking and our logic around this whole space.

This came from a consultant with some objectively impressive consulting chops:

a long career at an MBB firm
followed by an executive role at a former client
then 10+ years building his own niche consulting firm

And still…

…when it came to concisely articulating what his firm “knows” or “does” in their space, all the consulting training in the world still fell short.

My client continued:

I’m glad I did this to get our thinking a bit more structured in this way.

I don’t know how else we would have done that.

It would have all just been, I think, verbally or even with classic management consulting visuals…

And I just don’t think any of that would have gotten the point across in the same way.

To telegraph your expertise to your potential clients, you need:

A space to empty out your brain.

A partner to cull and pressure-test it together.

And a visualization process to reflect back your expertise in a way that words alone simply can’t.

If this sounds like it would be helpful, let’s chat.

Monologues are always welcome.

💡

-Wes

P.S. February "Headshots" sprints are open.

Just three Feb starts are available. Details on how to claim yours here.

Share this page

💡 The Lightbulb

💡 Monologues welcome

💡 The Lightbulb