Helping clients think well
I used to make fun of consultants.
Like this:
Definition of a consultant – someone who borrows your watch, tells you the time, then keeps the watch.
Or this:
Definition of a consultant – someone who knows 50 ways to make love but doesn’t know any women.
Or this:
Q: Why do we call them consultants?
A: Because first they con you, then they insult you.
But the reality is that the marketer’s role is more consultative than ever, whether we like it or not. The numbers prove it: media employment is down 11.8 percent since 2000 and market consulting is up 66.7 percent in the same time period*. Why? Maybe it’s because clients no longer want to be handed a set bill of goods; they want someone to help them think.
Used to be, you could call yourself an ad agency, and clients understood how to fit your services into their marketing mix. It was a natural part of doing business, and nobody questioned it.
Now clients can spend their entire marketing budgets on services that completely circumvent the traditional agency model. Search engine marketing, social network marketing, videographic web content generation, database-driven web analysis, super crunching, high-tech point-of-purchase solutions … good God. It’s scary out there in the 21st century, and the best thing we can do for our clients is to help them make sense of it all.
It means keeping up with the technology of marketing, so that you understand the meaning of new solutions when they come along–and before they’re outdated.
It means not trying to be the do-all agency anymore, but instead, finding the niches where you can offer genuine value, then steering your clients to outside, cost-effective solutions for other pieces of the puzzle.
It means giving good advice, helping them navigate a profitable course and becoming an ally rather than just a vendor.
I know, I sound like a consultant.
Today’s FREE BONUS CONTENT!
If it’s true that we’re here to help others, then what, exactly, are the others here for?
*Advertising Age, January 14, 2008
