David A. Fields Consulting Group Every time you reach a consulting project’s milestone you’d like your client to be so delighted with your deliverable that they leap with joy, slather you with praise and immediately investigate whether your results can be immortalized in a Taylor Swift song. How do you craft a consulting deliverable that compels such love?
The outputs of consulting projects vary widely. From simple advice, to plans, findings, recommendations, or complex implementation reports, just to name a few examples.
Regardless of the form your consulting product takes, you want your clients to prize your work.
Are there characteristics common to all consulting firm deliverables that invoke a positive reaction from your clients? Undoubtedly.
Let’s specify the attributes of the perfect consulting deliverable. We’ll create a checklist, of sorts, that will allow you to review your own deliverables before they grace your clients’ desks and dial up your consulting firm’s impact a notch or two.
The handful of suggestions below will get us started. Other consultants have supplemented my original list, but this article needs your recommendations too. (I’ve purposely left off one of the most obvious attributes so that you can mention it when you submit your suggestions. At the moment, no one has yet suggested it.)
Attributes of Perfect Consulting Deliverables
Right-Side Up – Your deliverable is about your client, not you. It gives the information they need, the way they need it. As Anne says in the comments (below), Right-Side Up deliverables also take into account any cultural issues or requirements.
Is your deliverable highlighting your work or your client’s results?
Told as a Story – Every consulting deliverable is a story. It articulates the ultimate point, message, or thesis, and includes an easily-followed path from where the client was to where you’ve taken the client. Note, I’m not suggesting your deliverables read like a novel—rather, your consulting outputs should lead your clients logically to a conclusion. Susan and Robert pointed out that deliverable stories are best when they’re practical, not theoretical, there’s a clear, summary and road map at the beginning and, if necessary, mile markers along the way.
What’s your deliverable’s story?
Clearly Communicated – Your story will only resonate with the client if your telling is understandable, unambiguous and compelling. Eschew ponderous , stilted, pretentious language. That’s for professors, not consultants. Make generous use of metaphors, frameworks and graphics. Below, Catrin gives a few more tips for clear deliverables.
Is your story plainly stated and illustrated so that it’s crystal clear to your client?
Reassuring – Your clients risk their money, time, and reputation when they hired you. Your deliverables should relieve any doubt about investing in your consulting firm’s work.
What will buoy your client’s confidence in the deliverable?
New-Balanced – The best consulting outputs perfectly combine information that is new (a.k.a. “Aha!”) and confirmatory (a.k.a. “I knew that.”). They simultaneously tell clients, “It’s a good thing you hired us” and “You’re smart too”.
Do you have the right new-balance in your deliverable?
Reputation Enhancing – As Simon points out (in the comments), clients take on reputation risk when they hire you. Your deliverable should reward them by making them look good to their colleagues and, especially, those above them.
Will your client be proud to show off your deliverable?
Collaborative – Joyce astutely noted that clients care about how deliverables are created and that partnering with them in the creation of your output adds value. Susan added that the delivery should also be open and engaging. Collaborative from end to end.
Are you building your deliverable with your client?
Forward Looking – Carole suggests (below) that your deliverables always suggest the clients next steps. Importantly, those next steps should be what’s best for the client, which may or may not involve further work with you.
Does your deliverable recommend the client’s post-project actions?
What else? There are more attributes to the perfect consulting deliverable. Contribute your suggestions as a comment, and I’ll add them to the list (like I did with Simon’s idea).
What else makes a perfect deliverable?
Text and images are © 2026 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
A go/no-go factor for the client may be that any consulting services fit within their budget. This may mean working with them creatively and flexibly to scale one’s activities into incremental steps of one smaller deliverable at a time, in a series, to achieve a larger goal over time. (Rather than “insist” they “buy the whole package” upfront, I am scaling down my activities into a sequence of more manageable “cost chunks” according to their time line.)
Note to David:
I am currently dealing with a multinational corporation with locations in different countries where we have learned of given national laws and socioeconomic / cultural factors that must be taken into account. This is a fascinating and challenging exercise, but I am grateful that my key contact in the company sees such a need for the “solution” I can offer (language training vs “just translation”) that he is working every angle he can think of to bring this English capability to his operations. I have also suggested that English-speaking management learn something of the local languages, both for practical (e.g., safety) and goodwill / reciprocity reasons.
(I don’t feel comfortable — ethically — giving any more detail, out of respect for an NDA we still need to work out. But I hope to be given permission, someday ‘way down the pike, to write this all up as a helpful and instructive case study in international business.)
The client’s budget is certainly a consideration when it comes to the scope of the project, Anne. It’s less clear to me that the budget plays a significant role in the quality of the project’s output.
Your point about local languages and culture is very good and fits right in with the output being Right-Side Up. If your client only speaks English and you decide to write the deliverable in your native Cantonese, that would definitely lower the value. (Note for readers: Cantonese is not my native tongue.)
Deliverable must answer the initial project request fully. And then provide something extra to make client feel that they have got the upper hand in the deal. My motto is: ‘Satisfied clients send cheques, happy clients send referrals.’
You’ve given an interesting interpretation of over-delivery, Anatoli. If “upper hand” means they feel like they’re received extraordinary value for their investment, you’re 100% on the mark. Some readers might interpret “upper hand” as feeling like the client benefited at the expense of the consultant, which I don’t think is your intent or what you would suggest.
This comment is very close to the apparently not-so-obvious attribute that has been missing from my original list. Thanks for adding your two cents.
It could be as simple as: That is exactly what I wanted! You understood what I need even though I didn’t express it clearly.
Joe, that “Exactly what I wanted!” response is precisely what we’re shooting for, and you’re right that good consultants sometimes understand their clients needs better than the clients do themselves. The list of attributes in the article above, including contributions from other readers, all will help elicit pleased reactions from clients. Thanks for joining the conversation, Joe.
I’d disagree here: “Exactly what I wanted” does not always equate what client needs. When client knows exactly what is needed, the situation calls for an employee or an outsourced resource. Consultant becomes valued when s/he can identify root cause of the problem, see problem within context of industry or compare it to ones from similar companies and offer a solution that addresses the problem from this bigger perspective. When this happens, a solution solves the problem client say and then some more that client have not seen. In my experience this gets clients excited.
Here is an example.
Manufacturing client calls on consultant: “My plant does not have enough of compressed air. Need more compressors.”
An exactly-what-I-wanted consultant does the engineering and specifies a bigger compressor to be installed.
A bigger-than-claimed-problem consultant visits a plant to find air leaks and improper use of compressed air. Based on this analysis consultant recommends to re-do air distribution network, that solves not-enough-air problem and saves client lots of energy, capital expenses and floor space.
Anatoli, your interesting example appears to deal with the scope of the project–the front end, when the consultant and client are determining what needs to be done–rather than the deliverable of the project, which happens much later.
That said, we all know that the initial design of a project may point in a different direction from what is ultimately needed. “Exactly what I wanted” means, as Will pointed out, that you’re delivering the results the client was seeking. That may or may not involve doing what the client initially asked for in terms of tasks or activities.
There is something to be said about formatting, which might fit with “Clearly Communicated”.
I have seen power points where the slide can’t physically hold any more words! Breaking slides into digestible amounts of information is key. For example, sometimes it might be worthwhile to create 2 or 3 slides, even if they cover the same topic. This includes keeping in mind that any read-out leveraging a power point presentation or “deck” should be seen as a prompt to guide the conversation, not as a story book to read from. Visuals help, too! Talking in pictures (like you do so well, David) is helpful to process information more easily, so tables, graphs, and any other graphical enhancements to make the point better than words are important. I have a general rule of keeping bullets to be bullets, meaning, they are not sentences (remove all articles, pronouns, and so on), and they shouldn’t wrap (if they do, they’re too long – break them off and make a sub-bullet if needed). In addition, keeping font size and coloring consistent throughout adds to the professional look of things. Spacing is important, too, but I don’t want to bore anyone with things that are probably obvious to most.
Nicely said, Catrin. Too bad the comment feature doesn’t let you post a drawing, or else I bet you would have included one!
You’re absolutely right that if you’re using a powerpoint, it should support the conversation, not be a crutch. You can always give a separate document with more detail after the meeting. Also, as you said, a visually appealing and easy-to-read document goes a long way toward making clients happy.
I’m glad you added your perspective!
Fantastic article as usual David. Great characteristics to describe a document if that is what the client really wants. The document, though, is just a means to an end. Increasingly, I hear from clients that they don’t want a nicely bound deliverable – they want something to happen in their organization.
So I’d suggest that the perfect deliverable is not a “deliverable” at all – but impact.
Bravo, Will. That’s close-ish to the big, missing attribute I left off the list.
You’re right, of course, that given a choice between a pretty presentation and outstanding results, clients will choose the latter every time. (And we should always prioritize meaningful client benefits over snazzilicious presentations.)
That said, I’d like to gently push back, because most clients do want something concrete they can see, or hold, or wave around, or step on to reach a book on the top shelf.
The attributes in the article above are meant to make the client happy with the concrete expression of results that accompanies the actual results themselves.
I love that you joined the conversation on this one, Will.