If, on the other hand, you are known for having strategic insights, for being focused on your client’s outcomes, and for being flexible and creative, your expertise will never become outdated. Your clients hire you for your wisdom, not your oh-so-current skill set.

There will always be other people who are familiar with bleeding-edge technology, but no one stays at the bleeding edge for long. When you’re known for your thinking skills, your value increases every year.

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This, of course, does a huge disservice to most clients. If they wanted information overload, they could Google it themselves. Clients ask an info pro or researcher to help answer a question because they have confidence we can not just find the best information given the time frame (and budget, if applicable) but distill it down to something that enables the client to take an action, finish a project, complete a presentation, or otherwise move on to the next step in their work.

I was talking with a coaching client recently about her deliverables; she was struggling with providing the best service possible while not overwhelming her client with too much information. After talking with her about creating value-added deliverables, we focused on the need to make her report as frictionless as possible for her boss. The higher up the org chart you get, the more the recipient expects distilled answers, with a minimum of extra verbiage. After our call, she sent me an email summarizing the conversation. Her bulleted list not only captured the key points I talked about but she practiced the advice in how she summarized it. Here, in short, were her key takeaways:

• Distill, distill, distill
• Keep it brief and to the point
• Include plenty of white space
• Bullet points are our friends

I couldn’t have said it better myself!

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Actually, value-adding is more than “merely” finding the information. It means transforming it into something more. One metric I use to evaluate a deliverable:

• If most of what my client reads is my own writing, I’ve provided added value.
• If most of what my client reads is others’ writing, I’m providing little value.

You provide value by distilling the information, by enabling your client to gain insight without reading more than a couple of pages or a short slide deck. Look at what you send to clients and consider what they will focus on. Are they reading your analysis and synthesis, or are they reading a lot of third-party content?

Look at your last few deliverables. (Haven’t started your business yet? Look at the examples you have in your portfolio.) Is it primarily a collection of material from other sources? Or does it feature your distillation of the information, your summary of the key facts, your charts and graphs that highlight key trends?

This sometimes means moving beyond your comfort zone… so take a deep breath and do it anyway. The only way to differentiate yourself from anyone with Google, and the best way to build fiercely loyal clients, is to see yourself as your client’s strategic partner. And how do you do that? Just ask!

Every time you talk with a client about a project, you must learn what your client will be doing with the results of your work. That usually involves asking. “So, I’ll be looking for trends in Brazilian widgets and the industry’s impact on the US electronics market. Now, so I can make sure that this is as useful as possible for you, tell me a little bit about what you’ll be using this for. Are you incorporating this into a larger report? Would it be helpful to have a slide deck of the key findings? Would you like a five-minute briefing on the phone with your project group? Do you need a fact sheet to share with your team?” Then stop talking and just listen… for ideas of other ways you can enhance your deliverable, for other services your client needs, for other questions your client didn’t anticipate, and so on.

By asking these questions, you let your client tell you exactly what it will take for you to gain another client for life.

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