{ "thesis": "The general explanation you give on every call should be turned into content that buyers can read before the call, so the conversation can focus on their specific case rather than starting from zero every time.", "claims": [ { "text": "Small consultancies often repeat the same explanations during the first half of discovery calls before reaching the client's specific case.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "If you run a small consultancy, you probably know the first half of your discovery calls by heart. The prospect describes their situation. You explain how the problem usually works, why the obvious fixes don't stick, what the real options are and what each one costs. Somewhere around the half-hour mark, the actual conversation starts: the one about their case." }, { "text": "The explanations consultants give repeatedly during discovery calls disappear when the calls end.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "You've given that explanation dozens of times. You give it well. And every time, it disappears when the call ends." }, { "text": "A consultancy's valuable explanations come from years of project experience, including knowledge of which clients succeed, which shortcuts backfire, and what people misunderstand at the start.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "That explanation is valuable precisely because it isn't written down anywhere. It's what you learned from years of projects: which clients succeed, which shortcuts backfire, what people misunderstand at the start." }, { "text": "Ikujiro Nonaka described tacit knowledge as highly personal and difficult to formalize and communicate to others.", "type": "factual", "source": "Ikujiro Nonaka", "source_span": "Ikujiro Nonaka, who spent his career studying how companies create knowledge, called this tacit knowledge: \"highly personal,\" \"hard to formalize and, therefore, difficult to communicate to others\" [1]." }, { "text": "Tacit knowledge makes a firm good but also makes it difficult to grow.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "Tacit knowledge is what makes a firm good. It's also what makes it hard to grow." }, { "text": "When the explanation exists only in the founder's head, the founder must participate in the sales call.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "As long as the explanation lives in the founder's head, the founder has to be on the call." }, { "text": "Sales representatives reported spending only 28% of their week actually selling in Salesforce's survey of 7,775 sales professionals.", "type": "factual", "source": "Salesforce", "source_span": "And sales time is already scarce: in Salesforce's survey of 7,775 sales professionals, reps said they spend just 28% of their week actually selling [2]." }, { "text": "In a five-person consultancy, the sales representative is usually a partner who also delivers the work.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "In a five-person consultancy, that \"rep\" is usually a partner who also delivers the work." }, { "text": "Firms develop their knowledge by converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge that others can use.", "type": "argument", "source": "Ikujiro Nonaka", "source_span": "Nonaka's point was that firms grow their knowledge by converting it: from tacit (in someone's head) to explicit (in a form others can use)." }, { "text": "For consultancy content, converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge means turning the explanation given on every call into something buyers can read before the call.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "For a consultancy's content, that means taking the explanation you give on every call and turning it into something a buyer can read before the call." }, { "text": "When buyers read the explanation before a call, they can arrive understanding the consultancy's view of the problem, the available options, and its way of working.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "The prospect arrives knowing how you see the problem, what the options are and why you work the way you do." }, { "text": "Pre-call content can turn the first half of a discovery call into a short confirmation, allowing the conversation to start where it previously ended.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "The first half of the call becomes a short check (\"Did that match your situation?\") and the conversation starts where it used to end." }, { "text": "This kind of content is easier to write than people think because the consultant is recording and shaping an explanation they already give rather than inventing something new.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "This is also why this kind of content is easier to write than people think. You're not inventing anything. You're recording something you already say, then shaping it." }, { "text": "Converting tacit knowledge is difficult and involves finding a way to express what is inexpressible.", "type": "factual", "source": "Ikujiro Nonaka", "source_span": "Nonaka himself was clear that this is hard. Converting tacit knowledge, he wrote, \"means finding a way to express the inexpressible\" [1]." }, { "text": "Judgment about a specific client in the moment does not fit into an article.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "Judgment about a specific client, read in the moment, doesn't fit in an article." }, { "text": "In a 2026 Gartner survey of 645 B2B buyers, 69% said they prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales representatives.", "type": "factual", "source": "Gartner", "source_span": "In a 2026 Gartner survey of 645 B2B buyers, 69% said they prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales reps [3]." }, { "text": "Buyers still want a person to confirm whether a general answer applies to their specific situation.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "People still want a person to confirm that the general answer applies to them." }, { "text": "The goal of consultancy content is not to replace the sales call but to stop spending the call on information that could have been read beforehand.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "So the goal isn't to replace the call. It's to stop spending the call on what could have been read." }, { "text": "General explanations should be put into content, while judgment about the client's specific case should remain part of the conversation.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "The general explanation goes into content; the judgment about their case stays in the conversation, where it's worth the most." }, { "text": "Consultants can identify initial content topics by reviewing their last ten discovery calls and listing the explanations they repeatedly gave and the things prospects misunderstood.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "Look at your last ten discovery calls (recordings, notes or memory). What did you explain in almost all of them? What did prospects misunderstand at the start? Make a list. The items that show up most are your first pieces." }, { "text": "Interviewing the founder or a senior partner can help extract tacit knowledge by asking about difficult project decisions, common client mistakes, and factors that determine whether choosing the consultancy goes well or badly.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "Usually the founder or a senior partner. Three questions work well:" }, { "text": "Each extracted story should be turned into a principle by documenting the client's situation, why the usual approach failed, and the rule applied now.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "For each answer, write three parts: the situation the client was in, why the usual approach didn't work, and the rule you apply now. The story makes it credible; the principle makes it useful to someone else." }, { "text": "Content answering the first half of a discovery call is most useful when published where buyers can find it and sent in the call confirmation email before the call.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "Publish it where the buyer will find it, and send it before calls. A piece that answers the first half of your discovery call is most useful in the confirmation email for that call." }, { "text": "An engineering firm that repeatedly explains why fixed-fee bids on underdefined projects lead to change orders could turn that explanation into an article and recommend a paid discovery phase before agreeing to a fixed fee.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "Say you run an engineering firm and every first call includes ten minutes on why fixed-fee bids on underdefined projects usually end in change orders. That's one article: the situation (client wants certainty on price), why the usual approach fails (the scope isn't known yet, so the price is a guess either way), and your rule (a paid discovery phase before a fixed fee)." }, { "text": "Sending such an article before the next call allows the firm to see whether the ten minutes previously spent explaining the issue can be recovered.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "Send it before the next call and see whether those ten minutes come back." }, { "text": "Writing down what a consultant already explains is presented as the most direct way out of the cycle of publishing weekly without moving the sales pipeline.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "Writing down what you already explain is the most direct way out of the treadmill described in *You post every week. So why isn't your pipeline moving?*" }, { "text": "Identifying repeated explanations is presented as the fastest way to find initial content topics.", "type": "argument", "source": "", "source_span": "It's also the fastest way to find your first topics, which is what *Stop asking what to write about. Ask what your buyer can't decide.* covers in more detail." }, { "text": "The article's free diagnosis tool examines what buyers ask before deciding and whether anyone in the market already answers those questions well.", "type": "factual", "source": "Deiji", "source_span": "If you want a head start, our [free diagnosis](https://wearedeiji.com/tools/buyer-questions/) looks at what your buyers ask before deciding and whether anyone in your market already answers it well." } ], "entities_discussed": [ "Ikujiro Nonaka", "Tacit knowledge", "Explicit knowledge", "Salesforce", "Gartner", "B2B buyers", "AI-generated insights", "Discovery calls", "Consultancy content", "Fixed-fee bids", "Paid discovery phase", "You post every week. So why isn't your pipeline moving?", "Stop asking what to write about. Ask what your buyer can't decide.", "Deiji free diagnosis tool" ], "cites": [ { "name": "Ikujiro Nonaka", "detail": "Referenced for the concept of tacit knowledge and the difficulty of converting it into explicit knowledge; includes quotations describing tacit knowledge as highly personal and difficult to formalize and communicate, and conversion as finding a way to express the inexpressible. [1]" }, { "name": "Salesforce", "detail": "Survey of 7,775 sales professionals reporting that sales representatives spend 28% of their week actually selling. [2]" }, { "name": "Gartner", "detail": "2026 survey of 645 B2B buyers reporting that 69% prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales representatives. [3]" }, { "name": "You post every week. So why isn't your pipeline moving?", "detail": "An article referenced as describing the treadmill of publishing every week without moving the sales pipeline." }, { "name": "Stop asking what to write about. Ask what your buyer can't decide.", "detail": "An article referenced for a more detailed discussion of how to identify initial content topics." }, { "name": "Deiji free diagnosis", "detail": "A free tool at https://wearedeiji.com/tools/buyer-questions/ that examines what buyers ask before deciding and whether anyone in the market already answers those questions well." } ], "author_stance": "Consultancies should turn their repeated general explanations into accessible pre-call content to preserve scarce sales time and make discovery calls more useful, while keeping client-specific judgment and validation in the human conversation." }