Episode 154: Demand Decoded: Buyer Confidence Wins The Consulting Deal

The most frustrating consulting loss is when you know you were stronger on paper, yet the client chooses someone else. That moment can feel personal, but it usually is not. In this episode, I walk through the buyer psychology behind consulting decisions and why uncertainty is the default setting for clients. 

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Transcript

When The Better Consultant Loses

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I was talking to a friend and colleague the other day about another consulting group that won a client that they were going after and had been chasing for a while. What we thought was really, really interesting was the fact that the consultant that won was not more qualified. It's not that they were bad, but we knew that they did not have the same level of qualifications, nor, in my opinion, the strength of the offer. And that left, I know, both of us feeling a little bit confused, not knowing why this was the case, and maybe even feeling that it was a little bit unfair. Did they have some type of inside connection? Were they just lucky? Were there certain qualifications that they had that we couldn't see that weren't published or weren't public information? Sometimes, I'll be honest, those things are true. Typically, this does not explain why this happens over and over again. So today I want to ask a different question. Not why didn't the better consultant win or the most qualified consultant win? But what decision was the buyer actually trying to make? We assume buyers are trying to identify the most qualified person, the smartest expert in the room when they are not. They're trying to make a decision that they can feel confident defending. And honestly, those are two very different things. So today we're stepping into the buyer's shoes because once you understand what they are optimizing for, many of the decisions that once felt irrational suddenly begin to make perfect sense. And honestly, this totally changed the conversation I was having with my friend, and I want to have it with you too.

Welcome To Demand Decoded

SPEAKER_00 1:50

They say the odds are stacked against us as women, especially women of color, trying to thrive in the consulting world. But rather than wait for a seat at the table that may never come, what if we build our own tables? What if we challenge our talents into guiding each other towards the success we deserve? Welcome to the Black Girls Consulting Podcast. I'm your house I can enter in a day that healthcare consultants to a mentor for women like you. Ambitious, unstoppable, and ready to make waves in the consulting world. This podcast is your go-to talk for all things, entrepreneur consulting for us as women, especially women of color. We can add your weekly coffee date with a friend who's here to dig out the real talk of building a solid business, elevating your thought leadership, and mastering that all-important mindset. And let's not forget it, we're doing all of this while balancing day jobs, family life, and running teams. Yes, we can do it all. So if you're ready to dive into how you can grow a thriving consultancy or get strategies and insights that actually fit your busy lifestyle, then you're in the right place. Grab your coffee, tea, or hey, even a glass of wine. I will judge. And let's get started.

The Buyer Starts With Uncertainty

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Black Girls Console 2 Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Angelina Davis, and we are diving a little bit deeper into a series that I have called Demand Decoded. It's all about how we can begin to generate more demand for the services that we offer. And in this episode, I want us to dive a little bit deeper into what the buyers are thinking, tapping into the buyer psychology behind the decision making. Because when you think about it, every consulting engagement begins with a problem. It's a problem that the buyer doesn't have a clear answer for. Because if they did, number one, they probably wouldn't need a consultant. But also the buyer doesn't know exactly what the right solution is. They're looking for someone who is going to help them with that. They don't know whether or not the recommendations that you give will work. They don't know how their team is going to respond to it. They don't know whether leadership will support the initiative. They are making an expensive decision without having a lot of certainty. And when we understand that a little bit better, it changes everything. Because then you begin to realize that the decision on whether or not to hire you as a consultant, either you versus no one at all, or you versus someone else, is all about how they are managing risk. And once you understand that buyers are trying to reduce their level of uncertainty, reduce their risk, then you begin to better understand what it will take to get to a yes. And that at the end of the day is the goal because you need the yes in order to serve, in order to make an impact, in order to drive change. So this is not a yes that's selfishly or shouldn't be selfishly for making more money or just having more clients, but it is to truly do the work that you are meant to do, that you're purposed to do, and that you have built your work, oftentimes life's work around. Okay,

Trust Beats Capability Early On

SPEAKER_00 5:17

okay. I know you're probably thinking, well, get to the point. Tell me what the buyer is thinking. And one thing I can say is that buyers certainly do care what you're capable of. By no means am I trying to suggest that you don't need to know what you're doing. That is, I feel like the base level of everything that we're talking about here. You need to know what you're doing, you need to know what you're talking about, you need to know your stuff. Point blank, period. But the thing is that capability isn't usually the first filter. Instead, before they even get to that point of trying to overanalyze like your capability and what you're able to do and do those levels of comparisons, they're often asking such basic questions like, can I trust this person? Like, do they understand an organization like mine? Do they understand me in my personal situation if you're working with consumers? Will they communicate well with me or my leadership team? And if I recommend this consultant to another colleague, will I feel confident in doing that and defending that decision? Will working with them make my job easier? Or is it going to make it a lot harder because I got to go behind them and fix everything that they messed up? I just want you to notice something that very few of these questions are about your actual brilliance. So when we think about this in terms of risk, then we have to consider what we need to do in order to de-risk the decision to work with us.

Marketing That Reduces Perceived Risk

SPEAKER_00 6:54

And this is how marketing comes into play. Most often we think about marketing our business and we're focused heavily on sharing more information about what we do, how we can help, what our offer is all about. It's more or less us just giving out a lot of information. But when you're doing it right, when you are doing it in a way that helps to move the buyer journey along, what you're actually doing is beginning to speak to the perceived risk that the buyer is feeling and having when it comes to moving forward with working with you. So that's where we're able to use things such as case studies that show results that we've been able to generate before that helps to give proof of the work that we do and the fact that it has been beneficial and valuable to others. It can be in the form of referrals where that shared trust allows the buyer to feel more comfortable and secure with working with us because they know somebody else has done so and has been able to vouch for the work that we do. It could be different authority signals that we give through speaking engagements or maybe even webinars and masterclasses that we're able to do where we're communicating information in a way that they can sit back and assess whether or not this information is valuable to them, one, but then also does it pertain to their problem and their business? And then also thinking about our reputations and how others perceive us, because a reputation goes a long way in terms of creating social proof and building trust around the us as consultants, but also the work that we do. So all of those things are very, very important when we're thinking about ways that we can begin to decrease the risk that the buyer is actually feeling and taking when they are considering us as consultants. And I think that when we better understand the fact that what we're doing in terms of trying to create demand is that we're trying to create a scenario and situation where we're removing as much doubt as possible.

Familiarity And Social Proof At Work

SPEAKER_00 9:17

The reason why a lot of people gravitate to various gurus in the industry, or maybe even people that are famous, or even people that you see on TV. You wonder why some uh politicians who are uh in movies and things of that nature are easily elected to office. It's because people feel like they know them. And this is one aspect of beginning to decrease their perceived risk of voting for them because they feel, whether or not it's true or not, they feel as if they know them. They feel as if they understand the decisions that they would make or the way that they would approach a situation. So all of these things are embedded not just in the business transaction itself, but just in our society. We do this on an everyday basis. And if we begin to think about how our buyers are perceiving our business and the associated risk of working with us, it makes it a lot easier to begin to answer their questions and concerns in a way that makes them more confident. And the realization is that the more confident the buyer is in making the decision, the more likely that they are going to move forward and choose you.

The Core Takeaway On Confidence

SPEAKER_00 10:34

So the one thing that I want you to walk away with from this episode is that expertise isn't what gets us as consultants hired. The consulting decisions are rarely made based upon who is best qualified, who is the better consultant. Those things are not the driving factor here. Honestly, it is the fact that buyers choose the consultant who gives them the greatest confidence in the decision that they are about to make. And that decision has to be made in an environment that is filled with a lot of uncertainty. So you being able to decrease the risk of that decision is what makes the difference. And usually the consultant that's going to win at the end of the day, going back to my earlier discussion when we opened this podcast episode, is not going to be based upon the qualifications. It's not going to be necessarily based upon the offer being better. Most often, it is because that particular consultant made it a lot easier for the buyer to make the decision because they did not feel like the decision was as risky. And if we lean into that, then I do believe that we're going to have a much easier time creating and generating the level of demand that we want for our services because clarity matters. Not just because the clarity is going to magically make somebody decide to go one way or the other. Having clarity and understanding doesn't necessarily mean that they going they're going to make a particular decision. It still has to do with their perception, their perception of value and their perception of the risk associated with making that decision. So as the consultant, as the one selling our services, we need to do all that we can to help the buyer to make this very difficult decision. Because trusting somebody with a very important aspect of your life or your business is a difficult decision to make. We need to help them make that decision in a way that feels totally aligned for them and gives them the confidence that they are going to reap a return on the investment of their time, energy, and resources. So today's conversation was not really about marketing. It really is about human decision making. And once you understand that buyers are trying to reduce uncertainty and risk, then I think we'll stop asking the question of why didn't the more qualified consultant win? And then we'll start focusing on how do I become the consultant that buyers feel confident choosing. And this single little shift will make the biggest change. I guarantee. I promise. Trust me on this. So I hope this conversation helped you look at things a little bit differently and hopefully remove some of the frustration if you've ever sat back and wondered these things before. I know I've been there. So if you've been there, you're not alone.

How To Become The Safer Choice

SPEAKER_00 13:44

And as we continue through this series, I really do want to get more into what we can actually do in order to close a lot of these gaps and begin to create an environment that generates the demand that you deserve for the services you offer. All right. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure that you share it with a friend. As always, the more people that we can reach with this podcast and this platform, the more women are able to gain the insight and help for them to grow and build their consulting businesses. And if you're interested in learning more about how you're able to generate more demand in your business beyond the referrals that you tend to get, then just reach out to me on LinkedIn or Instagram via DMs. And all you have to do is DM me more info and I will share all of that with you. I am here to help. And just know that this podcast is one way of us uh talking more deeply about this. But then I do um offer other avenues for us to connect and to discuss this a little bit further, whether you're not you want to schedule a complimentary call or if you want to chat in the DMs. I am definitely open. All right, guys, until next time, take care.

Share Review And Reach Out

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Thank you for tuning in to the Black Girls Hunter 2 podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave your review on Apple Podcasts, subscribe, and share it with a friend. We're on a mission to increase the success and longevity of women in consulting. And you can help us do just that. Also, I'd love to hear from you. So let's be mad at Dr. Angelina Davis on Instagram or LinkedIn. And don't forget to visit Excel at consulting.com for more information to support your consulting journey. Until next time, be freaking glad to link my own.