Why asking colleagues is the worst way to scale a consulting company

Consulting companies live on questions. It’s the best way of unpacking your clients’ needs, their business models, and of finding the ways you can help them. But when it comes to sharing internal knowledge for client-winning proposals, questions are outdated, inefficient and incredibly risky.

“Good consulting practice always starts with a question.”

‍‍WRONG. (Here’s why.)

Consulting companies live on questions. It’s the best way of unpacking your clients’ needs, their business models, and of finding the ways you can help them.

But when it comes to sharing internal knowledge for client-winning proposals, questions are outdated, inefficient and incredibly risky.

A question-based knowledge sharing system threatens:

• our scalability : If your sales professionals have to email other team members for information – who might be away from their desks or even on leave – they may have to wait hours to get the answers they need. It’s simply not scalable.
• Your productivity : It’s hard to keep track of who might have the knowledge you need, and it can quickly result in a daisy chain of team members asking one colleague after another for an answer. What suffers? Your efficiency, your time to build proposals, and your response speed to client questions.

Demonstrating your expertise to your clients with clear, efficient and in-depth answers to their questions is key to winning their business.

That’s why the most successful consulting firms I speak to connect their teams to the knowledge they need in one centralized location, so they can always find the answers, even when a colleague is away. They use systems that allow them to carry best practice forward to a new proposal, saving over 80% of the work and increasing their response speed. Finally, they focus on scalability, removing dependence on individuals so queries can be answered quickly and accurately.

And what’s their reward for getting rid of the question and answer approach?

Faster responses, increased productivity and a higher proposal win rate. Make sure you don't fall in the decentralized knowledge management trap!

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