How to Identify Pain Points Proactively and Be a Consulting Genius
When it is your area of expertise, do you want to be first choice for all your clients’ consultancy needs? The ensure you recognise all your client’s pain points.
Uncover Valuable Insights in Business Consulting
Let’s consider your current or recent consultancy project. How would you rate your ability to recognize pain points that affect every or any aspect of your client’s business?
It is a useful question to ask before moving on.
Sherlock Holmes referred to himself as a consulting detective. So even he, or the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, saw the value in consultancy. What if he had been a management consultant instead?
He would have closely observed everything about his clients. His magnifying glass and keen eyes would have studied every detail, looked at every need the client had, every question, their main desires and above all, their challenges blocking success. Mr Holmes liked to win, therefore he would have wanted to break down those barriers and leave the client in the best position possible.
Consulting excellence with the help of Sherlock
Accordingly, identifying and being able to skilfully address such pain points would surely have been Sherlock’s first goal. A satisfied client who sung his praises would have been everything. Dr Watson, the reliable narrator that he was, would have been famous for stories of consulting success. Indeed, each client, visiting Holmes as a last resort, would have left content and full of admiration for his methods.
Can you be the Sherlock Holmes of the consulting world? Of course you can, if you have the right tools.
The Case of the Unseen Client Pain Points
Your success as a consultant is limited by your client’s insights into the key issues blocking the path. Unless, of course, you do something about it. For a consulting project, the brief and pain points presented by your client is a starting point, and only that. Meanwhile, you can rely on your expertise to identify and solve what is in front of you.
However, that is not the case for what is unknown. What if the client is not aware of and therefore not identified key challenges? Even Sherlock Holmes could not solve pain points beyond those that he was aware. Would you see benefits in digging deeper? Furthermore, could that lead to a more complete solution and better path for the client?
Would our famous detective be content if the goals on paper were achieved but evidently not the entirety of the challenges faced? Would you?
Unlocking hidden pain points and go beyond expectations
We can shift the responsibility onto the client, whose own analysis presented the issues at the start that you were tasked to fix and the job is done. Issues remaining post-consultancy may not be seen as the fault of the consultant. Even so, do you want to be a consultant who meets expectations or exceeds them?
According to a Zipdo report, 65% of business in the consulting industry comes from repeat clients, highlighting the importance of identifying and resolving business pain points. That is a important number. Every returning client already trusts you, you have a head start with the knowledge you already have, and you save a lot of time and money on marketing.
So what if you could know how to identify pain points before or early on in the consulting period. What if you could go beyond the common client pain points that are set out at the start, and uncover more of the reasons that are holding your client back? The chance would be there to solve all current challenges, including the unseen ones. You could implement a more valuable strategy. You could excel. The client will view you as the solution they did not expect, and want you back. Sherlock would surely approve.
Unlocking Deeper Insights: Get Smarter with Feedback
All you need is data. More specifically, actionable data from key questions that dive deep into the challenges the client is facing. Combined with your expertise, that will give you the greater insights into exactly what barriers stand in the way of maximum productivity and effectiveness for your client.
As a consultant, with experience (or our help, more about that later), you can craft questions that approach the challenges from different angles. You want to make the client think and explore the problems, and give time to do that properly. You cannot rush this.
Go beneath the surface with surveys
What you want here is to learn more about your client’s current struggles, in a way that is not a struggle in itself. With the right approach and by asking the right questions, you can find those golden nuggets.
What is the answer? Glad you asked! You can wrap this up in an easy-to-use, client-centred and focused survey. Use and get beneath what the consulting brief laid out. Ask yourself how you can dig deeper and uncover that which is currently unknown. Get this right and your on your way to becoming the most valuable consultant anyone could hope for.
Better than a Magnifying Glass: Use Online Surveys
Great surveys collect all relevant information with the least amount of effort. There is a balance here, and getting it right leads to your chance to be brilliant. The thing is, with the right tools, online surveys are one of the simplest ways to drill down into people’s thought-processes and experiences.
Time is precious, and the right survey is a minor time cost. With a multitude of types of pain points, which can evolve over time, you want to hone in on the specific problems that are limiting business productivity now, that fall within the realms of your brief. The client will likely notice and appreciate what your are trying to do for them, and see that you are going the extra mile.
Effortless survey creation
Surveys via a good online tool such as Spark Chart are quick to create using survey templates, easy to duplicate, and a breeze to adjust. They can be sent at the click of a button, to one or more participants. As soon as the surveys are opened and questions answered, valuable, real-time actionable data is right there and easily accessible.
And there is no need to start from scratch. Survey templates cover a range of survey types, including customer surveys, employee surveys, board surveys, leadership team surveys and Net promoter Score, amongst others (links to posts about different survey types are included at the end of this post). Your initial interaction and project spec will likely make your ideal starting point clear. If not, Spark Chart support can help.
Smarter Questions: Identify Pain Points that Matter
104% of all people love surveys. Ok, that is not true. But surveys are one of the best ways to gain insight into your clients’ pain points. Keep questions focused, varied and on point and avoid irrelevancy. Then everything will be good. Your clients will understand early on that you indeed have their back.
Even Sherlock would not spend his time learning facts that were not relevant to the case in hand. He would, however, perform careful analysis and know everything there was to know about the people and challenges involved. He would do what was needed to get to as close to a perfect solution as possible.
Tailored surveys to optimize insights
With your survey template giving you a had-start, you can choose your questions based on known pain points as well as areas you feel need more insight. Multiple question types offer the chance to tailor the survey to encourage valuable insights and ask the questions you want, in the way you want. This can include open-ended questions, when you want to give the client more freedom. You decide how your questions should direct the feedback.
Follow the trend and benefit from the convenience of online surveys. A series of well-crafted questions that can be answered at leisure can make all the difference. Make that executive decision today. Your potential client may not be able to identify all the pain points limiting their performance and productivity, but you will.
Cracking the Case: Turn Feedback into Solutions
With this critical knowledge and deeper understanding of the additional challenges faced by your client, you are ready to bring more to the table. As the expert, you are now perfectly placed to identify and fix all the problems holding your client back, and offer a complete solution that goes beyond expectations.
So do yourself, your client and your standing as the greatest consultant who ever lived (why not?) a favour. With the right questions and the best tool for the job, get a full analysis of all pain points and be able to maximise your experience and expertise. Benefit from the efficiency of focused online survey software, and let Spark Chart guide you towards greater consulting success. You can discover your clients needs, take client retention to the next level and be a star. You might just end up with a stream of returning clients knocking on your door.
We can help
Would you like some free advice? For survey ideas that could help your consulting projects solve more of your clients’ pain points, our experts can help. Would you like to talk to one by scheduling a free 1-to-1 call? If so, click the banner below.
Do you want to learn more about the different types of surveys?
| Survey Type | Description | Link to Post |
|---|---|---|
| SWOT Analysis | Assesses a company’s Strengths and Weaknesses while also identifying Opportunities and Threats within the sector. | sparkchart.com | Blog Post How to Grow Consulting Revenue with SWOT Analysis |
| 360 Degree Feedback | Provides a complete and accurate assessment of an employee’s performance from multiple perspectives. | sparkchart.com | Blog Post Why use 360 degree feedback? |
| Net Promoter Score (NPS) | A simple survey to run, asking one main question about how you are likely you are to recommend the product or service. | sparkchart.com | Blog Post How to Get Value from Net Promoter Score |
See our articles about surveys for business consulting:
sparkchart.com | Surveys for Consultants
Read our business consulting articles
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