I've worked across 5 countries and spoken English in all my jobs but when I joined a Big-4 Consulting firm in the U.S., I was SO confused about so many terms that Consultants used on a day to day basis!

Body language is it's own devil (more on that in a later post) but Consulting has it's own written and verbal language. It took me a few years to figure out some of these, so this will definitely give you a headstart in understanding what your Consulting collegues are talking about!

Bandwidth – Availability – “Do you have any bandwidth to help with a proposal this week?”

Boil the ocean – To address everything all at once. “Let’s pick the top 5 issues to address that can have the maximum impact and not boil the ocean”

Bottoms-up - develop a strategy using assumptions at lower-level to drive numbers at high-level

Bottom of the hour – When the long hand of the clock is pointing downwards. “He asked us to meet him at the bottom of the hour”

Bucket – To categorize. “Let’s bucket these items and address by category”

Buttoned-down - Complete and thorough

Buy-in – Approval. “Let’s get the client sponsor’s buy-in before we conduct this analysis”

80/20 rule - Pareto rule - 80% of value can be achieved in 20% of time

C-suite - all execs with a capital C in their title (C stands for “Chief”)

Chargeable expense/project – Refers to a charge code that is used to capture time/ expense related to a project. This is used to track actual cost vs. budget. 

Circle back - to get together later or answer a question later. “Let’s circle back on this after we get the latest report from Finance”

Cycles – Unused capacity. “Do you have spare cycles to help with a proposal this week?”

Deck – Slides/ Presentation. “How’s the deck coming along?”

Divide and conquer – Split tasks 

Dot the Is and cross the Ts - tie out all loose ends

Drill-down / double-click / in the weeds- to get into the details. “We have the details in the supporting excel file if you want to double click on any of these numbers”

Due diligence - thorough research / study of an area. “

EOD - End of day  - 5pm for your client - for you its when the work gets done!

Facetime  - In person interaction with clients/ colleagues. “You need to be on the client site more often to get facetime with the client’s team”

Get in sync – Agree / Align on approach. “We need a workshop to get all department heads to get in sync and support this strategy”

Get their blessing – Approval. “We are waiting to get the CXOs blessing on this strategy”

Greenfield - new client opportunity

Hard stop - When you absolutely have to leave at a certain time

Hit the ground running - learning / getting up to speed quickly 

Impact - The tangible measurable results of the engagement

Lab / Greenhouse - Fancy name for a workshop

Leverage - Use of resources / people/ knowledge to achieve your goal

Line of sight

Low-hanging fruit / Quick wins - Easy to accomplish areas that have impact

Managing upwards - Helping superiors by providing timely updates

MECE - Mutually exclusive Collectively exhaustive

On the beach/bench – When you are not assigned to a project or waiting for your next project to start

Pipeline - Upcoming projects for a Consulting firm

Proposal - A pitch for a new opportunity/sale/ project 

Real estate (on slide) - White space available to write

Reinvent the wheel – Trying to accomplish the same goal without using a tried and tested approach

Smell test/ gut feel – What your intuition tells you to do

SWOT analysis - Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat

Think out-of-the-box - Being creative  - using a Non-standard way of resolving issues

Top-down approach - Creating a strategy using high-level assumptions to estimate 

Top of the hour – When the long hand of the clock is on top (e.g. 4 o’clock). “We are at the top of the hour – so let’s close and park these discussion items for the next meeting”

smaller-level numbers

Touchbase - get in touch with someone

Triage - to get more than 2 opinions on a matter to help you make a a decision

Value add/ Adding value - Increasing profitability/ reducing cost/ meeting deadlines

Any more Consulting terms you've heard of not in the list above? Share in the comments or write to me at punya@byondgood.com.

P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:

Want to know more about Management Consulting? Check out the BYOND GOOD BLOG at https://www.byondgood.com/community/public

Get more free resources at https://www.byondgood.com/freeresources

Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!

Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com 

 Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.