Beware The Solutionist Professional!

By Ed Kless

She felt the excitement of solving problems, the insolent delight of taking up a challenge and disposing of it.

– Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Too often, the billable hour has the negative effect of enticing professionals into practicing solutionism. I have coined this term to describe the condition wherein a professional provides a solution for a client, not for the benefit (i.e. value) of the client, but rather for the sole purpose of solving the problem.

We must remember that solutions, in and of themselves, have no inherent value, and everyone seems to be offering them nowadays. For example:

• At the post office I picked up a brochure boasting the title, "Solutions for your business." A quick review of the material demonstrated the flaw – my business does not need a "complete shipping solution." I only send out a few pieces a month.
  
  
• A local limousine company now talks about how they are "transportation solution specialists." Give me brake, literally.

The post office and the limo company fail to recognize that the solution only has value when it is applied to a current problem or potential needed result.

The Almighty Billable Hour (ABH)

Consultants are often no different. Add the ABH into the mix and you have potential powder keg of problems.

The ABH often causes trouble because it can lead professionals astray at the expense of the client. Let me explain by giving an example.

A client comes to a professional with a current problem or requirement, for example, a seemingly needed new report that they, the client, could not develop on their own. The client will ask, "So, how much will that be?" The solutionist professional will take the client's view of the problem as sacrosanct with no additional inquiry and respond as follows, "About 8 hours."

Strangely, the professional did not even answer the question. Rather, he responded with a nonsensical time estimate leaving the client to remember the professional's billing rate and do the calculation in her head. "Oh, so $1,400. Your rate is $175 an hour right?"

"Yes, $175 an hour, so about $1,400," he echoes. Notice his restatement of the estimate by repeating the word about.

"Ok, let's do it," the client replies.

Now, it begins to get interesting.

Want to read more?

1. Access to our library of articles, case studies, and interviews
2. The Rainmaker Report weekly e-mail newsletter
3. A free electronic copy of Master Rainmaking Conversations