You are one percent of your client’s share of mind

The project is your entire focus. For the person across the table it is a line item on a list they did not write. Most things about good client work follows from that one asymmetry.

You work for the client and the client pays the bill. But very few clients were waiting for a young consultant to arrive and explain their business to them.

Think about who you are actually sitting across from. Your day-to-day counterpart often had no say in whether to work with you. Their boss decided to buy your firm’s services, after a convincing pitch or on the back of a relationship your partners built over ten years, and then told them to make this a priority and make the project a success.

On top of their actual job, which has not gone anywhere.

The project is your 110% focus. For them it may be one of fifteen things, and not the one their own performance review will turn on. You are perhaps one percent of their share of mind.

And yet, especially in the first weeks, that same person may give you up to half their time: teaching you the ropes of an industry you had never heard of a month ago, pulling data, explaining why the obvious answer does not work here, and eventually implementing whatever your team recommends. Be respectful of that. Every single time.

What follows from the asymmetry

•  You bundle your questions instead of sending six emails across a day.

•  You come to every session having done the reading, because their thirty minutes cost more than your three hours.

•  You send what you promised on the day you promised it, because a missed commitment will make them deprioritise you permanently.

•  You never make them look uninformed in front of their own colleagues.

•  You notice what they are being measured on, and where your work could help them with it.

The principle that captures everything else

--> Always make your client shine.

There is almost nothing better than helping your counterpart look good in front of their team or their boss. Your work is their work. When it lands well, they get the credit inside their organisation, and that is the correct outcome rather than an unfortunate side effect.

This is uncomfortable for a certain kind of high performer, so it is worth being direct. You are a service provider. Your name is not on the recommendation. The value you create is measured by what your counterpart can do with it.

In practice that means preparing them before a meeting rather than during it, so an uncomfortable finding reaches them privately first, with time to think. It means giving them material they can forward without editing, and numbers with the source attached so they can defend them without calling you. And when they are open to it, or ask, it means spending the extra hour on a task of theirs: teach them a shortcut, share a framework, help them prepare for their own internal meeting.

The better off they are, the better off you are. Everybody remembers the people who helped them out in a tough moment, and cases have a lot of tough moments.

The fundamentals, practised consistently

•  Respect your clients at all times. Avoid the arrogance some consultants fall into. They know their business better than you do, and they hired you for a specific reason rather than because they cannot think.

•  Be reliable. If you say you will send the data cut by Thursday, send it by Thursday. If you cannot, send the heads-up. Nothing builds trust faster than consistent follow-through and nothing destroys it faster than missed commitments.

•  Be respectful of their time. Ask only what is necessary and focus on key topics. They have their own deadlines and their own manager. Do not create more problems for them.

•  Be professional at all times, in every interaction, with every person. In meetings, in hallways, in the elevator, over lunch. You are always representing your firm.

•  Keep them informed. What is going on, when the next update lands, when you will need more information. Proactive communication reduces anxiety and builds confidence.

•  Remember you are an outsider. Your actions carry weight and what you say gets interpreted and sometimes misinterpreted. A casual comment about a department’s performance can travel through the organisation and take on a life of its own.

Ask for the context nobody gave you

“You very rarely get a proper onboarding or someone sitting you down to explain the dynamics. I was regularly in meetings where people on the team asked questions that were politically very difficult, simply because nobody had told them what had just happened. Don’t assume the Partners will tell you what’s relevant. Don’t assume you have all the context. What’s obvious to everyone else in the room might be completely new to you, so ask before you walk into a minefield.” Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Company, Zürich

A former Bain Senior Partner framed the whole thing more bluntly:

“You are not that important to the client. I know that it may sound harsh, but I believe it provides the right perspective to become an effective advisor. Clients care about the project you are involved in, but they have a business to run, and many other priorities. Once you accept that, you stop trying to be impressive and start trying to be useful. Be the person who always follows up, always delivers, always thinks one step ahead of what they need. That is how you become relevant.”

Do this consistently and something else follows. The client starts coming to you directly for quick, accurate, professional support, which is one of the most valuable positions an associate can hold. Your supervisor will notice, particularly when the client asks for you by name on the second phase.

START THIS WEEK

1.  Find out what your main counterpart is measured on. Ask them directly if you have the relationship, or ask your manager if you do not. Then look at your workstream and find one output that would help them with it.

2.  Stop sending questions one at a time. Collect them and send one batch per day, ordered by urgency.

3.  Before your next client meeting, ask your manager one question: “Is there any context about this room I do not have?” It takes thirty seconds and it prevents the minefield.

Clients do not owe you their time, their enthusiasm or their patience.