I was having a heated conversation with my friend who was arguing strongly in favor of hourly-billed consulting. Ultimately, I was able to diagnose that he did not discern a difference between a deliverable and an outcome. In a stroke (of genius?), I was able to come up with a succinct way to illustrate the core of that difference.
I put a short version in a Quick Fact (an Answer-Engine Optimized snippet on the topic), and elaborated more in a LinkedIn post and an article because I think it's one of the most useful distinctions a consultant can use. But I wanted to present it more thoroughly for the SPC community.
The difference between a deliverable and an outcome
A deliverable is what is delivered to a client, while an outcome is the strategic, tactical, psychological, or otherwise beneficial value of what is delivered.
The difference between a deliverable and an outcome is akin to the difference between what is delivered to the front lines and the outcome of the battle.
I like this illustration because of its clarity. This sentence helped me communicate what I’ve learned reading and applying Alan Weiss’s book on Value-Based Fees. Munitions, food, drones, orders, geospatial intelligence, etc, etc, many things are delivered to the front lines. The outcome of a battle is whether or not it was won.
Few are grateful for the crates outside of the context of their use. They're grateful for what the crates enable. If the crates arrive and the battle is lost, the delivery was complete but the outcome was a failure.
As a potentially offensive aside, here’s a saying I don’t like: “Better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.”
With all due respect to those who have taken a different position on this: are you kidding me? Wars can be won and lost on the basis of supply chains. People need food. They will die without it.
Farmers and gardeners absolutely bring value to a war, just like they do in peacetime. Shoutout all the veterans who have taken up these practices!
Outcomes matter more than deliverables
Many consultants describe their work in deliverables, because deliverables are easy to point to as a work product: a report, a workshop, a strategy deck, a website, a design system for content, and so on.
They're also easy for clients to compare, which can be a problem. Once the work is a list of things, the next natural question is if someone else can deliver it more cheaply.
When you talk about what you aim to do (or did) for someone, is it more important to describe the work you did, or to describe the joy you brought from working your magic? There’s a reason magicians don’t reveal their tricks: it’s not fun anymore after that.
"A 40-page report" is a deliverable. What the client can decide, stop worrying about, or start doing once they've read it, are examples of outcomes. The latter is why they hired you. I’m sure if they could get that benefit without having to read 40 pages, they would be glad to.
And after delivering that 40 page report, if you ask them for a testimonial, what proof are you left with to help you help more people? “They gave me a 40 page document. Hurrah.” Not as strong a testimonial as “after I read her stunning report, joy was resurrected in my once lifeless body. It was more than what I wanted. All I wanted was answers, and I got those too.”
For a more realistic approach to collecting testimonials which is great for outcome-driven work, see this LinkedIn post.
Of course, a client's outcome depends on the client too. You can deliver the report to someone who will ignore it. Who wants to read 40 pages in the age of tweets X posts? The ultimate objective is something you should ask about before you start: what will be different if this goes well? Will you, dear client, do your part to get these results? It’s hard to guarantee an outcome, especially when the client is not held accountable (contractually or otherwise) to their end of the effort to reach it.
That question is worth asking even if the answer is vague, because a vague answer helps you find an opportunity to elicit precision.
A web artisan’s example
Whatever you may think of President Biden, he had an excellent saying in his inaugural address: “We should not lead by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.”
I build web presence and positioning, so here is my own example. The deliverable is the site and everything else I give with it, like a design system that can be used to make branded content. Outcomes can include that a prospect can find you, believe you, and get in touch. A site can be delivered and have none of those outcomes, especially if it's slow, inaccessible, undiscoverable, an inauthentic corporate brochure, or says nothing a prospect cares about.
That's why I would rather be judged on whether the site does its job: a good site is one that fulfills its concept. But the concept of a site has to be based on the strategic goals of the one whose name is on it.
Truth is, I may have issues in my current pricing model. At the time of this writing, this is a project-billed system, too limited by its focus on deliverables. That’s a big problem with the framing of my offer (and its pricing) right now. If you see my website before I overhaul the copy in the context of this article, and think like a prospective client, you can see precisely my point.
As it stands, I’m saying look, my websites are amazing: they load instantly, they’re built fast and with high conscientiousness, edits take me seconds because I’m really good with command-line AI, and they’re so accessible that my blind aunt can use them. And so on and so on and so on and so forth. Look at me! I’m delivering so much!
So what? How does this help you? What outcomes are you getting from the fact blind people can use your site? Are you getting more leads? More clients? More awareness and recognition? More opportunities to speak? An improved reputation and image? Better discoverability? More executive visibility? Faster trust-building with potential clients?
You care about outcomes, not deliverables. Imagine I cold called you right now and said “would you like a new website that does x, y, z, a, b, c, and other alphabets too?” We already know how it goes: “no, I’m good, thanks.” Because I’m pitching a deliverable with an easy no, instead of an outcome you really want, an ideal outcome co-designed together on a foundation of trust, respect, understanding, and mutuality.
The same goes for your clients.
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Chandra Kethi-Reddy is a new member of the SPC. With twenty years of experience working for Universities, non-profits, Fortune 500, small businesses, and startups, he brings a wealth of experience that is utterly unrecognized. Most articles about him right now are negative. He was a controversial student, but got all his classmates free buses across three counties. At the time of this writing, he has not released his personal website. He aims to use this fact to prove how rapidly he can build a web presence and positioning from scratch. Using his depth and breadth of skills, he helps others gain the visibility and recognition they deserve online.
