Seeing Opportunities at the Client: Why Visible Consultants Find More Work

A consultant sits at the client for months. He knows the systems and the bottlenecks in his own work, and he delivers the project properly. What plays out on the floor, he rarely hears. And still the assignment ends without a follow-up, while two doors down a budget is being freed up for a very similar problem.

In short

Follow-up work usually comes from conversations outside the meeting room: at the coffee machine, in the corridor, in the five minutes after a meeting. Consultants who are there and easy to talk to hear sooner what the client is dealing with. Being visible and approachable costs almost nothing and often gives the first hint of a new assignment.

Good work is not enough

The client is happy, the project runs, the code is in. After nine months the contract ends and everyone packs their things. On the next floor a budget is being freed up for a similar problem, and another firm picks it up.

Quality is not what fails here. New plans rarely appear in an official meeting. They get mentioned in a corridor conversation, and if you are not in that conversation, you do not hear about them.

Why consultants don't hear about it

It starts before listening. Headphones on, laptop open in a corner, lunch with your own colleagues. To the rest of the client organisation you are someone who drops in for a job. People do not share plans or frustrations with someone who looks closed off.

There is a second reason, and it is an honest one. "I don't want to end up as the salesperson at the client" is something I hear a lot. That worry is fair. Having a good conversation and noticing what is going on is a different thing from talking someone into something.

Being visible and approachable in practice

• Work from an open spot now and then instead of a closed corner.
• Walk to the coffee machine where other teams stand, not only yours.
• Greet people by name and remember one thing from the last conversation.
• Stay for five minutes after a meeting. There is often more to hear there than during the meeting itself.
• Ask one simple question: "What are you running into at the moment?"

You don't need anything clever to open a conversation like that. Small talk: how to get better at it has lines that work at a coffee machine. And when a conversation dies after two sentences, the 30 conversation techniques help; most of them are short and concrete.

And it is in those small conversations that you hear where things are stuck: a department that cannot move, a schedule that has slipped, a team that is quietly considering outside help.

What one of those conversations sounds like

Someone at the coffee machine says, carefully: "We've always been working on that same list with just the two of us."

You don't have to attach a quote to that. "Always?" is enough. A day later it turns out a second list is being set up and someone is needed to align the two.

That kind of information never makes it into a report. It lands in someone's head and goes nowhere if nobody passes it on.

The resistance to the word "commercial"

Many subject-matter experts lock up at that word. They don't want to become a smooth seller. They don't have to. You notice, you ask, and you pass it on to your manager. Someone else has the conversation about the assignment.

For someone who prefers to work quietly, this doesn't cost much. One short conversation a day at the client is enough to become known. That is also the smallest exercise in Social anxiety in conversation: why one small chat a day works.

Protect the trust

One thing comes before all of this. The person at the coffee machine tells you something because he trusts you, not because he trusts a supplier. When you pass on what you heard, you do so with that in mind: what the client tells you stays with the client, and an opportunity you report is one the client raised himself.

Firm owners are wise to make that explicit. A consultant who fears his remarks will be used as sales material keeps them to himself.

What you can do as a manager or firm owner

• In the team meeting, ask not only about progress but also about what consultants picked up this week.
• Don't treat time at the coffee machine as wasted time.
• Agree who passes what on to whom, so a signal doesn't stay stuck in someone's head.
• Give conversation skill as much attention as technical depth. The Talking with People course is built for that: exercises you can do the same week.

For teams that want to work on this together, there is a practice programme for teams and an on-site workshop.

Frequently asked questions

Does a consultant then have to start selling? No. It is about catching signals and passing them on. The conversation about the assignment is held by the account manager or the owner of the firm.

How do you become more approachable if you prefer to stay in the background? Start small. One short conversation a day, at one fixed moment: the coffee, the lunch, the end of a meeting. Keep that up for a few weeks and people start recognising you as someone they can knock on.

Why does this work better than a networking event? At the client you are already inside. You know the people, the problems and the internal relationships. An event mostly gives you strangers; here you pick up information from people you already know.

How do you make sure signals actually arrive somewhere? Agree one moment a week when consultants mention what they noticed, and write down who does something with it. Without that moment most of it disappears from memory.

What if the client feels spied on? Say out loud what you do with a signal. "I hear you're running into this; may I mention it to my manager?" Someone who asks permission doesn't have to worry about crossing a line.