The McKinsey Way - HOW TO SELL WITHOUT SELLING

It's a great book that trademarked McKinsey consultants' thinking as their own. I have put all my takeaways in this article and tried my best to concise the topics.

McKinsey Way of Thinking is divided into 5 parts

1. Thinking About Business Problems
2. Working To Solve Business Problems
3. Selling Solutions
4. Surviving at McKinsey
5. Life after McKinsey

 In the first three parts, the author explains how McKinsey-ites think about business problems and how they work at solving them. Part 4 and 5 are concentrated on authors experience and lessons learned at the firm. Hince this article is focused on problem-solving, I will summarise the first three parts.

First: Thinking About Business Problems

Building the Solution- The Firm’s problem-solving process has three major attributes. When team members meet for the first time to discuss their client’s problem, they know that their solution will be

? Fact-based

At the start of your time at McKinsey, gathering and analyzing facts is your raison d’étre. As one former SEM observed: When you strip away a lot of the high-minded language with which McKinsey dresses up its problem-solving process, it comes down to a very careful, high-quality analysis of the components of the problem combined with an aggressive attitude toward fact gathering.

? Rigidly structured

A good McKinsey issue list contains neither fewer than two nor more than five top-line issues (of course, three is best). There is a solution to this dilemma—the magical category “Other Issues.” If you can’t figure out where to put those two or three brilliant ideas, there is always Other Issues. There is a caveat, however. Avoid using Other Issues in your top-line list—it looks out of place. It’s fine lumped in among a bunch of sub-issues, but on the first slide of a big presentation, it sticks out. So try a little harder to fit those brilliant ideas into your top-line issues. Chances are you can. Still, if all else fails, Other Issues will help you stay MECE(Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive).

? Hypothesis-driven

The initial hypothesis (IH), the third pillar of the McKinsey problem-solving process, is the most difficult to explain. To make the explanation easier Rasiel(author) divider IH further into three sub parts- ? Defining the initial hypothesis. ? Generating the initial hypothesis. ? Testing the initial hypothesis. He used an example to demonstrate the procedure clearly.

Second: Working To Solve Business Problems

 In Part Two, we will see how the Firm implements its problem-solving model on a day-to-day basis. We will go through a McKinsey engagement in chronological order, starting with the selling (or, in McKinsey’s case, non selling) process, progressing to organizing a team, conducting research, and brainstorming.

? Selling a Study

The selling process at McKinsey differs from that of most organizations because, as any McKinsey-ite will tell you, the Firm doesn’t sell. The Firm may not sell, but it certainly brings in a continuing and growing volume of business, so there’s something to be learned from the way McKinsey gets itself through its clients’ doors.

HOW TO SELL WITHOUT SELLING: Business problems are like mice. They go unnoticed until they start nibbling your cheese. Just building a better mousetrap will not make the world beat a path to your door. People who don’t have mice won’t be interested—until the mice show up; then they need to know you have the mousetrap. This might sound like the musings of a Zen monk (or perhaps a management consultant from California). But sometimes the right way to sell your product or service is not to barge into your customer’s home with a bunch of free samples. Just be there, at the right time, and make sure the right people know who you are.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PROMISE: STRUCTURING AN ENGAGEMENT: When structuring your project, whether you are selling your services as a consultant or have been picked by your organization to solve an internal problem, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Set definite milestones that you can meet. That way, you’ll have targets you can achieve and your client will be satisfied.

? About TEAMS at McKinsey

At McKinsey, you never walk alone—or, at least, you never work alone. Everything at the Firm happens in teams, from front-line work on client engagements all the way up to firmwide decision making. McKinsey relies on teams because they are the best way to solve the problems that the Firm’s clients face. The complexity of these problems makes it impossible for one person to solve them—at least to the Firm’s high standards. More people mean more hands to gather and analyze data and, more important, more minds to figure out what the data really mean. If you face complex problems in your business, you should probably put together a team to help solve them too. In the face of complexity, many hands don’t just make light work; they make for a better result.

? Managing Hierarchy

You can’t just throw four random people at a problem and expect them to solve it. Think about what sorts of skills and personalities will work best for your project. Then choose your teammates carefully. To succeed as a business problem solver, you must choose your team carefully, getting the best mix of people from the resources you have available. McKinsey benefits from a global pool of talented, intelligent individuals whose strengths and weaknesses the Firm tracks closely. Even with this advantage, EMs and EDs must learn the art of team selection. Their experiences can help you, even if you can’t call on the same level of resources

? Doing Research

The McKinsey problem-solving process begins with research. Before a team can construct an initial hypothesis, before it can disaggregate a problem into its components and uncover the key drivers, it has to have information. At the start of a McKinsey-ite’s career, most of his time is spent gathering data, whether from one of the Firm’s libraries, from McKinsey’s many databases, or from the Internet. Gathering, filtering, and analyzing data is the skill exercised most by new associates. As a result, McKinsey-ites have learned a number of tricks for jump-starting their research. You can use these tricks to find the answers to your business problem too.

Furthermore, Rasiel added ?Conducting Interviews ?Brainstorming to the list. In context to brainstorming - IN A WHITE ROOM: The point of brainstorming is the generation of new ideas. So start with a tabula rasa—a clean slate. When you get your team into the room, leave your preconceptions at the door. Bring the facts you know, but find new ways of looking at them.

Third: Selling Solutions

? Making Presentations

? Displaying Data with Charts

? Managing Internal Communications

? Working with Clients

I found "One message Per Chat" technique interesting. And their keep it simple strategy. Use of WATERFALL CHART to show the flow: The waterfall chart—seldom seen outside McKinsey and not generally available in computer graphics packages—is an excellent way to illustrate quantitative flows.

Suggestions by Rasiel on communication and working with clients

THE THREE KEYS TO AN EFFECTIVE MESSAGE: A good business message has three attributes: brevity, thoroughness and structure. Include all three in every voice mail, e-mail or memo you send and you’ll get your message across.

ALWAYS LOOK OVER YOUR SHOULDER: You cannot be an effective consultant if you don’t maintain confidentiality. Know when you can talk and when you can’t. Be just a bit paranoid.

KEEP THE CLIENT TEAM ON YOUR SIDE: When you’re working with a client team, you and the team have to work together or you won’t work at all. Make sure that members of the client team understand why their efforts are important to you and beneficial for them.

I have covered all the skills and techniques, that I find them interesting in the book. Examples for each method mentioned above in the book enhance the understanding and the way of approaching a challenge. I appreciate you for taking the time and reading this article. Suggesting books on similar topics and sharing your thoughts in the comment section would be helpful.

images source: business insider | case interview | internet