Make Your Benefits Analysis Stand Out

Stephen Covey teaches that highly successful people [insert, consultants] "begin with the end in mind". This advice is helpful when creating a new benefits analysis. As you begin to collect your data and complete your analysis, try to envision how you will display and format the results. You want to make the data come alive to help your client make a decision. Logical decisions (math and facts) should be obvious. But don't forget to present the soft benefits, as well.

Three Ways to Get Inspired for Creative Data Visualization:

1. If you need a little inspiration, do a quick Google search for "data visualization techniques" and then click on the images filter. You'll have a lot to consider, although a lot of these examples will require advanced graphics tools to generate. 
2. PresentationPro.com has a wide selection of presentation diagrams, maps, and infographics (fully editable charts and graphs for PowerPoint). The infographics are professionally designed and will help you stand out above any competition using the regular tools.
3. News periodicals, like the Wall Street Journal, and magazines are another great source of fresh ideas for presenting information. With a little creativity and standard software, you can bring some of these these ideas to life. 

So, what if you don't have a creative streak, or a graphic artist on staff? The new Microsoft Office 365 (or Office 2013) builds its tradition of solid charting tools with brighter and cleaner looks.

Examples of bubble charts using Microsoft Office 365:

Bubble charts are useful for plotting three dimensions of data, in a single view. Consider using the following example in your next benefits analysis.

• You can emphasize the ROI Ratio of a given set of solutions from different vendors [Figure 1], or for separate components (products) within a single vendor's offering.
• (X) = Cost,
• (Y) = Estimated First Year Benefits (i.e., net profit), and 
• (Z) = ROI Ratio (to control bubble size)

Figure 1: Investment Analysis Visualization
(Bubble Size = ROI Ratio)

In the fictitious example above, option "A" has the highest ROI Ratio (largest bubble size). The midpoint of the x-axis represents the point at which any projects equal to, or exceeding, this cost must go to a capital committee for spending approval.

• Alternatively, you could use the bubble chart to emphasize the expected benefits (performance gains) [Figure 2]  while projects that use more resources, or take longer to implement, are plotted farther to the right on the x-axis. 
• (X) = Complexity to Deploy, 
• (Y) = Total Project Cost, and 
• (Z) = Estimated First Year Benefits (to control bubble size).

Figure 2: Investment Analysis Visualization

(Bubble Size = Estimated First Year Benefit)

In the fictitious example above, option "A" has the highest expected first year benefit (largest bubble size), and the smallest project complexity (e.g., implementation time in months). The vertical tick marks of the x-axis could be decision points at which projects, or optional capabilities, might get pushed to a later deployment phase.

Remember, an executive summary should be brief, but comprehensive. If you are including the analysis in a consulting abstract, be sure any supporting data and analysis are included in an appendix. While executives look for the bottom line analysis in any kind of presentation, they still want to see the detailed analysis for their own due diligence.

There are many ways to display the results of your benefits or investment analysis. No matter which options you choose, make sure your data visualizations communicate a clear and concise message.

Copyright © 2013 | Howard Leary

Essential Ingredients of a Powerful ROI Analysis

If you are consulting as part of a sales team, the simple truth is that your client isn't going to completely trust you. That's why it is critical to gain their participation and buy-in throughout the analysis. Clients who own the inputs to the analysis, will own the results, as well.

Conducting return on investment (ROI) workshops with your clients is a great way of getting them to consider the expected benefits of a proposed solution. The workshop can involve one or more sessions, and often includes a broad representation of the client's management team. To ensure a great workshop experience, be sure to: use active listening skills, vet any disagreements, and ultimately gain consensus among the participants.

Three steps to building a powerful ROI analysis: 

First, help your client to summarize the current business process and to identify anything hindering better performance. These hindrances are called the business challenges. This is the basis for your work, identifying the specific problems to be solved.

Before clients can quantify expected gains (or losses), they must understand the current cost of the business challenge. This often means the client has to start thinking about cost in a different way (e.g., cost of goods sold, waste in the business process, risk of non-compliance, contributing factors to lower satisfaction, etc.).

Second, the analysis requires an understanding of the proposed solution. Help your clients to visualize, describe, evaluate, and select the solution. Solutions can be new people, processes or technology. Be sure to quantify the estimated results.

Third, a powerful ROI analysis includes an executive summary. Decision makers need to understand the bottom line. A powerful summary always makes it clear "how much the solution is going to cost", and a quantifiable measure of "how much the solution is going to help."

Essential ingredients for a powerful return on investment analysis:

• Cost of keeping the incumbent solution.
• Actual productivity measurement (before)

• Cost of doing things the new way.
• Projected productivity measurement (after)

• High Level Description of Proposed Solution(s).
• Common examples include: 
• new personnel to handle increasing transaction volumes,
• new process automation (applications, databases, etc.),
• new self service technology (IVR or Web), and
• new contact channels (email, social media, sms, etc.).

• Estimated hard benefits (savings) for doing things the new way. 
• Common examples include: 
• improved capacity (production throughput, top line revenue),
• improved efficiency (reduced COGS; Improved EBITDA), 

• Estimated soft benefits for doing things the new way.
• Common examples include: 
• improved customer experience (satisfaction),
• improved containment (self service automation),
• improved escalation ratios (factors that impact NPS),
• improved employee retention rates, 
• improved quality and or accuracy,
• improved retention & loyalty, and
• improved customer engagement capability.

Before presenting the final analysis, it's a good idea to do a quick reality check on the results. If the results are unbelievable, your project won't get past the board of directors or capital committee.

As consultants, we have to keep our need to control and manage in check. Peter Block [author of "Flawless Consulting"], teaches us that our job, as consultants, is to help our clients learn how to think about their decisions, not to make the decisions for them. In short, clients must own the analysis, because they are the ones who must ultimately own the decisions.

Copyright © 2013 | Howard Leary

Build Trust to Win More Deals...

The consultant title tells clients you have been where they are, you have made some mistakes, and you have learned what really works. Clients know that consultants also have the benefit of seeing the mistakes and successes of other companies. This experience and perspective is what clients pay for when they hire a consultant.

When consulting a solutions consultant (sales engineer), the client is looking for the technical person on the sales team to keep the sales rep honest. Sales engineers must overcome clients' naturally defensive posture, and fear that they will be sold something that doesn't really work the way it was positioned. In short, the client must trust you.

One of the key skills that solutions consultants need to constantly work on is competency. However, developing competency takes time. As Stephen Covey teaches in "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", we have to take time to "sharpen the saw". In part, this means consultants must spend time learning more about their subject matter (products, industry, integration, and so on).

Here are four things you can do to keep sharp:

1. Keep up with sales bulletins, solutions briefs, white papers and technical manuals for all of your products. If these resources don't exist, create them! You'll learn more by creating the content, and you will also help your peers.
2. Setup a web dashboard to proactively monitor current events related to your company, field, clients, and competition.
3. Read magazines (trade publications) to gain perspective on trends.
4. Read books related to your field. If you need some inspiration, go browse the aisles of your local book store.

TECHNICAL TIP: Setting up a web-based dashboard that monitors news feeds, and social media, is fast and easy. Some services even allow you to setup alerts. My personal preference is NetVibes, but some other good ones include: HootSuite and TweetDeck.

(For more on how consultants can build trust, watch my video on YouTube)

Copyright © 2013 | Howard Leary

Influencing Change

Peter Block (author of "Flawless Consulting") teaches that, as consultants, our primary objective is to influence our client to "do something differently", and not to do it for them as a surrogate manager. In my experience, that something varies by client, but typically results in a change to a business process, management method, or in the way technology is used in the business.

During discovery, it is tempting to create the return on investment analysis for the client. However, in doing so, we take on the role of a manager. Instead, our focus should be on influencing how to build the model and providing guidance on realistic expectations. Take the time to counsel your clients on which factors to consider, but insist that they create and own the analysis.

When clients begin to rediscover their customers, employees, and processes, there is a palpable difference in their mindset and approach to the business. This awakening helps put the consultant in a better position to influence the actions the client will take to fix the issues.
Copyright © 2013 | Howard Leary

The Importance of Building Trust

The importance of building trust-based relationships is more important now than ever.

Your clients need to know that you understand their challenges. However, they also want you to be proactive about protecting their interests after the consulting engagement. Being proactive and providing alternatives that benefit the client builds trust, repeat buyers and the coveted “word-of-mouth” referral. This is a fundamental truth in any relationship, and it carries over into our consulting lives, as well.

To build trust, you must provide value. One way you can do this is to help your client discover ways to make it easier, friendlier and faster for their customers to do business with them. To be extraordinary, make sure it’s easy to do business with you, as well.

Do something today to start listening to your client's customers. Their frontline retail sales associates, bank tellers, contact center agents, and anyone who participates in the delivery of their products and services are a great place to start. Exploit social media and other feedback loops to tap into this knowledge. However, any market researcher will tell you that the best research is primary research. Get firsthand accounts about what your client's customers want, directly from the customers.

“Most importantly, everyone in the organization should understand how their contributions impact customer satisfaction.”

Everyone in the company should know what their customers want. Dashboards are an effective way to monitor customer satisfaction and to communicate results to the client and their organization. Just like any good information vehicle, keep these dashboards simple and highly visual. Everyone in the organization should be able to instantly tell how well the company is doing in meeting customer expectations.

Help your clients use this information to drive product development, marketing, sales and service to deliver what customers want. Companies who can tap into this knowledge will have an edge on their competition. However, companies who take action on this knowledge and use it to differentiate the customer experience will dominate their marketplace.

Copyright © 2013 | Howard Leary