An HR director was referred to my consulting team by a happy client. We did the normal things of listening and understanding her problem and agreed on how to solve it together.

We started with a two-phase approach to train their principals who do most of the hiring to use one of our interviews. This would make it more cost-effective for the client since we missed the budget window.

After talking about it, they decided training both groups at the same time was best. BUT that would cost too much off budget.

So, what are the options? We started thinking about what was good for us… then shifted to solving the client’s problem. When we were done, it made me smile.

We offered the HR director 3 viable options — from the client view — to help achieve the key parts of the goal now. It was fun to bring back some ideas from the past and then add some things new for this client.

When we talked about options, she focused on the second one and then added parts of the other two. I didn’t expect that, but it made the overall plan even better!

When someone asks to make a plan cheaper, be careful about just cutting the price. In our case we didn’t have much room to cut. However, giving simple and productive options that help the client solve their problem is a better path to a long-term relationship.

Life is a team sport. Help your team think options to solve client problems (not yours).