I often hear consultants bemoan clients’ resistance to implementing recommendations. Most often, client reticence means that you have failed to make a compelling enough case for change.
A common reason for that failure is how you interpret and present the facts of the client’s situation. This month in The Guerrilla Consultant, I offer some advice for using the power of facts to help clients understand and follow your recommendations.
Don’t get tripped up on your facts. Read the September issue of The Guerrilla Consultant.
Hi Michael,
It’s funny, the basic consulting training most firms give talks a lot about “resistance to change” and focuses on the psychological issues why clients often take this “irrational” perspective.
It’s only after a few years of practice that you learn that, more often than not, resistance to change is caused by one of two factors:
1) As you point out: you’re not explaining yourself well – you haven’t built a compelling case, or
2) They might actually be right and you might actually be wrong. Surprisingly enough, their decades of experience in their business might not just have led to entrenched opinions – it might have led to deeper insights which you ought to listen to.
Ian