Businesses won’t hire us unless we appear credible and trustworthy. The questions come down to: 1) How do we project trust and credibility and 2) Why Do Businesses Choose One Consultant Over Another? The same questions apply to getting hired and being trusted as an employee.
Since 1983 I have either run a consulting business or served as a manager or executive within mid-sized or large business. Therefore, I have had to either prove the value of my consultancy or my own worth in the business world. Based on those experiences and having hired more than a few consultancies and employees and having had more than my fair share of both business successes and failures in terms of revenues and client relationships, here are the primary characteristics I think businesses look for in hiring consultants or employees.

1. Values–What are your personal values and your business values and how do you apply them in your work?
2. Personality–Are you someone who is easy to work with and a team player?
3. Point of Reference–Do you understand what the business needs, where it is going, what solutions will work, and that your primary role is to produce results?
4. Strategist or Tactician–Are you able to think and execute on strategies or are you a tactical thinker? Strategists make good consultants and leaders; tacticians make good employees and workers.
5. Experience–What experiences do you bring to the business? Are they in line with what the business needs?
6. Client List–Do you have a list of clients that make the potential client comfortable that you can meet its needs?
7. References and Testimonials–What do they look like? Are they from executives, managers, and/or co-workers? Do they reference results and successes?
8. Presentation–How do you present yourself? Are your shoes shined and your attire suitable to the business culture? Are you confident and look people in the eye? Do you think quickly and answer strategically? Are you goal and results oriented? Do you ask questions about the business’s needs or only about yours?

There’s much more and please share your thoughts, as well. The point I want to make here is that at the end of the day a business hires a consultant or an employee because it trusts you will deliver the results it needs.

So it puzzles me when a client will say, “I showed the draft of the brochure (fill in your own blank here — logo design, tagline) to my accountant (again, choose your “expert” of choice — cousin, sister, the HR director, babysitter, lawyer, wife) and they don’t like this word (pick a variable — color, shape, phrase, tone).”
I get the psychology of asking for second opinions. And I understand that marketing is not a precise science like medicine. But it also seems to me that if we are going to engage a company for their expertise, we need to actually give them their due.
So if my lawyer says “you should file this report with the state” but the woman who cuts my hair says I don’t need to bother — shouldn’t I give the lawyer’s opinion a bit more weight?
And if I were going to disagree with the lawyer’s advice, I’d sure come up with something better than “my hair stylist said…”
I don’t tinker with the lawn guy’s fertilizer formula or recalculate the tax computations that come from the accountant. So why is it that marketing clients often let emotions, their own response (whether they are the target audience or not) and other people’s subjective reactions jerk their agency partners around like a puppet on a string?
Here’s why I think this is worthy of some discussion.
Because we let them. As marketers we are so driven to deliver a good customer experience that on a rare occasion, we forget that we were hired to do what they could or should not. I doubt there is a marketer practicing today who has never given in or compromised to make the client happy when they shouldn’t have.
Another reason why it happens is because marketing is not a precise science. It’s sometimes difficult to articulate a rational reason for each and every nuance of a campaign because let’s be honest here, some of it is based on intuition and experience, not cold facts.
Which is probably why the client can’t come up with anything better than “my daughter says the logo is too small.”
So once in a blue moon, we give in when we shouldn’t.
In the short run it feels like good customer service. But in the long run, and we know it in our gut, it is cheating our customer. We owe it to them to say no.
On occasion, you need to remind them that they came to you for a reason. Because this is what you do every day and you’re good at it.
Otherwise, they might as well let the babysitter do it.

Hmm. That was several days ago, and I can’t stop thinking about her point of view. My initial reaction was that I can think of about 100 things more fun than making money. I held my tongue.
I’ve written about this before, but money is seldom something to which I aspire. My business is focused on giving me and my family the kind of lifestyle that we want, which revolves around freedom, flexibility and fun. As for clients, I control how many I have at any one time so that I can focus on a few rather than many solutions to grow their businesses.
Understandably, to achieve our lifestyle we need to make enough income to pay our mortgage and meet our basic needs. Neither my wife, who also is an entrepreneur, nor I care much about material things, so we enjoy our simple lives. And we are happy, which is what we have worked for all our lives.
That said, I recognize that money is a driving force in our society. I am curious, however, how many of you agree with my friend’s philosophy that asks: “What can be more fun than making money?”
Is making money fun for you? Do you enjoy accruing adult toys such as plasma screen TVs and new cars and do they bring you joy?
One last question that I often thing about: Does making money hurt our clients if it drives us to recommend our more profitable products and services even if something less expensive works just as well or better?
Speak out! I am sure we all can learn something about the ways fun equates to money.