The document discusses a three step approach for consultants to excel at client interviews. The steps are: 1) Preparing for the interview by researching the client, their business, problems, and key stakeholders. 2) Asking open-ended questions to gain a broad understanding without assumptions. 3) Listening for non-verbal cues and analyzing the responses to understand the true nature of the problem. Implementing this approach builds client confidence by demonstrating understanding of their needs and situation. Continued listening is important as client needs may change over time.

1. 48 / Corporate Citizen / October 16-31, 2016
CORPORATE COLUMN
A THREE
STEP
APPROACH
I
f I were to ask you, “What are the top at-
tributes of a successful consultant?” what
would your answer be?
Your response would most likely be
traits such as, a strong sense of integrity,
ethics and values, expert domain knowledge,
unrelenting hunger for challenges (and solving
them), helping the client achieve their goal (and
realising their vision), delivering maximum val-
ue wherever possible. All these traits are must-
have; however, one skill that every consultant
should definitely possess is listening attentively
while interviewing clients and their stakehold-
ers. Clients may not precisely know what or
where the problem that is hounding them lies.
Supplementing this with the skill of asking the
right questions (at the right time and to the
right people) leads to clarity on whether the
stakeholder is focusing only on the symptom or
the root cause of the problem.
If you are not listening and probing at ap-
propriate points, you stand to lose out on
important information such as, the complex
inter-working of various departments, the busi-
ness situation and the delicate fabric of culture
that binds the organisation together. The con-
sequence of not listening is you face the risk of
falling short of recommending a solution that
fits their needs.
In these scenarios, one may want to adopt
the the three step process to excel the client
interview stage:
Preparing for the interview
Before interviewing your client, one
should research about the company – listen to
what is said about the client and their organiza-
tion, read and understand all about the client’s
business and problem areas, no matter how
small or insignificant it may seem. Areas you
can deep dive into could be – the client organi-
zation’s vision, their performance over the last
couple of years, the customers they work with
(and any reported issues such as changes in
their investment, etc.), the markets they operate
in, their position with respect to competition
(and the edge they hold over competitors), etc.
Ask yourself questions on what you have gath-
ered. Being prepared definitely helps in struc-
turing questions you want to ask your client. It
is important to keep an open mind and avoid
getting into assumptions or getting influenced
by the pre-work that may lead to ignoring cer-
tain scenarios.
It is also extremely vital to list all the stake-
holders you plan to interview in the client or-
ganisation. Getting insights into the role they
perform, who their influencer are, the social
structure that exists in the client organisation
and the rapport your stakeholders hold with
their peers and others help in framing the right
kind of questions.
Asking the right kind of
questions
Begin with posing open ended questions that
span across a broad area of the role your client
or stakeholders perform. For example, if you
are interviewing a CEO or a department head,
pose high level questions which they can an-
swer, rather than questions to which they have
no clarity or visibility into. This ensures your
credibility as a consultant remains intact – their
confidence in you is strengthened and you have
not wasted their precious time which may have
otherwise been spent elsewhere. When inter-
viewing mid-level managers and other stake-
holders further down the chain of command,
you could pose more specific questions on the
processes, procedures, systems in place. With
sufficient research prior to the interview pro-
While communicating with clients, it is important to understand
that the listening process never ends. Being alert with “an ear
on the ground” can go a long way in successfully completing a
consulting assignment
ADITYA NAGARKAR
Manager, Centre for Behavioural
Excellence, Talent Transformation,
Wipro Ltd.
ACING CLIENT INTERVIEWS—

2. October 16-31, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 49
With sufficient research prior to the interview
process, a consultant can avoid asking tricky
or sensitive questions that may put off the
client or stakeholder being interviewed
More
Indians are buying cars
tadka
CC
Passenger vehicle sales in July 2016 grew by
9.62 per cent year-on-year to 177,604 units
as compared with 2.68 per cent growth and
223,454 units in June 2016. According to
Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers
(SIAM), domestic car sales for FY 2015-16
stood at 20,25,479 units as compared to
18,77,706 units in FY 2014-15.
cess, a consultant can avoid asking tricky or
sensitive questions that may put off the client or
stakeholder being interviewed.
Listen to the
unspoken words and
analyse what it means
In this step, a crucial element that a consultant
mustpossessisthepowerofobservation.Acon-
sultant should assess the situation and observe
non-verbal communication of the stakeholder
being interviewed. Vital clues can be picked up
for analysis at a later stage by making a note of
how the question was answered (speaking tone),
were they making eye contact (and if not, does
it mean the answer is not true?), silence before
answering the question (which could mean that
the answer could be an opinion or fact). Ana-
lysing these responses across multiple sources
of people and data provide a more realistic view
of the problem at hand. Conducting private in-
terviews at the initial stages followed by group
interviews provides insights into that influences
whom and how to leverage the delicate fabric of
relationships that hold people together.
Implementing this three step approach will
instill confidence in your client as you have not
only listened to their responses but also provide
them with an assurance that you have under-
stood them. Further, this would help you in
summarizing the expectations and then fram-
ing the desired results in the client’s own words.
Another factor that is important to consider is
that clients are strapped for time and they ex-
pect to see tangible results. Nothing is more
conclusive and credible than a solution which is
hardened with data, facts figures and research.
Lastly, the client’s business environment and
their needs may change in many ways through-
out the entire life cycle of the consulting en-
gagement. It is important to understand that the
listening process never ends. Being alert with
“an ear on the ground” can go a long way in suc-
cessfully completing a consulting assignment.
(The author is Manager, Centre for
Behavioral Excellence, Talent Transformation,
Wipro Ltd.)