7 Things Decision Makers Want More of From Their Outside Experts in 2024

Here's what decision makers inside of organizations want even more of from their outside experts, such as consultants, coaches, and other professional service providers in 2024.

#1. Intel-Backed, Confident Guidance: Decision makers want to hear more about what their peers — as well as others in the market — are doing, planning to do, what's working, and what's not, as it relates to the type of services or expertise you provide. And they want that intel shared with them right along with your direct recommendations as to what, specifically, that means they should do / what course of action they should take.

#2. Simplicity: They want to understand exactly what they're buying from you, how and when it's being delivered, and the outcomes they can expect — without needing a PhD in gobbledygook or wading through pages and pages of information, charts, details, explanations and/or "cute terms" made up to make things sound important, yet only serving to cause lack of clarity.

#3. Scalability: They still want to start small in order to test out you and your service offerings. But they also want the ability to pull the trigger to scale quickly and seamlessly, if/when the initial gateway engagement is a success. And they want confidence in your ability to do that.

#4. Personal Interactions: Over 75% of decision makers in 2024 will be between 25 to 44 years old. For these younger buyers, person-to-person meetings (yes, one-on-one, individual meetings) are where they feel they get the most value and meaningful interactions, not just during the buying process, but throughout the delivery of the engagements as well.

#5. Flexibility: The back-to-office dilemma is far from over. M&A activity will be way up in 2024. Push back on programs that focus on some to the exclusion of others is continuing to build. And no one knows what will happen with the economy this year. All that to say, on one hand, companies want to know they are investing in PROVEN solutions from you (i.e. they aren't the guinea pig), yet they also want flexibility within that playing field to pivot and customize as needed.

#6. AI Integration: You can't escape it. The AI discussion will continue to dominate not just the news cycle, conference agendas, and social media channels, but also the head space of just about every professional and business leader on the planet. As a result, decision makers want to be able to share how AI is baked into the solutions they are buying. (Good news here: You can leverage/integrate third-party tools into the work you do that already has AI baked in — just make sure you highlight the AI aspect clearly and often.)

#7. A Compelling ROI Story: EX (employee experience) is reportedly on the budget chopping block this year, as are a lot of other things. That means every dollar companies invest needs to go a long way. Decision makers need and want to see big, visible dents being put in their problems quickly, and they want to see those results last for longer than sizzle on a steak. They also want to be able to summarize, in a simple yet meaningful way, what those results are, so they can evangelize them in their organization.

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