There are consultants & there are consultants

by Marketing ON 28 October 2009

Being in the IT/digital space, I am often asked a myriad of questions about new technologies, existing technologies, trends, critiquing websites and the list goes on and on. The problem is everyone wants a solution and a full detailed strategy (for free) without realising that it is defrauding someone else’s IP. Let’s get real people!

Why should I spend hours burying myself in information online, offline, seminars, meetings, webinars, podcasts, blogging etc. and give it away for free. While everyone else is enjoying life, I am immersing myself in information overload and giving up my free time… but you couldn’t care less, especially when you can’t actually see or touch what it is that I have in my head!

Recently, my strategist and I were cornered by a colleague who desperately needed information to take back to a board meeting on the effects to their business (which is a technology company) if they were to partner with a major IT vendor. Of course, we were unable to answer, but what puzzled me more than anything is none of the board members of this IT company had any or some IT background! I asked if they had engaged an independent consultant to do a business analysis and he looked at me blankly…. go figure. I wouldn’t be buying shares in this company that’s for sure!

Consultants are not supposed to be a little bit of everything. They are meant to be experts in a field with a particular focus on a subject. It is irrelevant whether you are employed by IBM, Deloitte or an SME. What is relevant is your credibility in a particular space. Clients need to get a reality check on this! Most consultants outside the tier one firms are far more knowledgeable, passionate, degree qualified and focused on delivering key outcomes, using proven methodologies, at half the cost.

The world of IT/digital is complicated. It is impossible to keep track and up to date with all the new information. A marketing director or CEO is not capable of acquiring 100GB of information daily, because he/she is too busy working in and on the business.

Today, an organisation cannot survive without innovation, collaboration and change. Sometimes, your internal people can’t deliver new ideas because they have reached their own limitations or are too busy working on micro deliverables or are simply inexperienced. Consultants can add immense value to your business as long as you understand their value proposition. They can help you save money and avoid making costly and timely mistakes.

When you engage experts in any field listen to them and know they are actually there to help you. They are on your side. Next time your boss asks you to call your mate who is a guru in their field, tell your boss he/she has a value and its time to pay for information and value talent in the form of knowledge. We do actually have brilliant people living in Australia. We don’t need to go overseas to find them and pay astronomical amounts of money!

Mates rates?

by Marketing ON 28 May 2009

Recently I offered a friend some help to get publicity for her fabulous new fashion label. I wanted to. I really like her and really like her label and although she is a creative genius and a fashion leader, I know she knows Jack about PR. She is starting out and I also know she has no money, so this is a total freebie. When it comes to ‘mates rates’ what are the rules?

In some ways your ‘charity’ cases make the best clients. They never hassle you and are always really appreciative whenever you get them something. And sometimes they can form the basis of training in a new area. I hadn’t done anything in fashion before, so this freebie is my way to explore the fashion media and make some new contacts. Who knows, the experience might even pave the way for a paying fashion client down the track.

A full PR campaign can be very time consuming. Our ‘freebies’ don’t expect the full service from us. We would normally spend about 40 hours on ‘follow up’ where we call the journalists, editors and producers to find out if they have seen our release and ask if they are interested in featuring the product, service or person we are promoting. The freebie might only receive eight hours of follow up. And in this particular instance we actually brought the fashion designer in to our office and trained her to do some of the follow up herself. She used our lists and techniques, but used her own time too.

As a small agency we can only take on two ‘freebies’ at a time. Learning to say ‘no’ is an important skill. If a friend asks for your help, and you are at ‘freebie capacity’ you need to be able to say that their timing is not good due to your ‘two freebies only’ policy but if one of these drops off you will let them know.

Sometimes the person requiring your services is not a good friend, but an acquaintance or a friend of a friend. In these instances rather than do a complete freebie, we offer either a reduced rate (eg. we’ll do six weeks work for the price of four) or take a percentage of sales over the coming months in lieu of a fee. This sometimes works well when the publicity is sure to have a big effect on sales.

So next time you can see that a mate needs your professional services, lay out the ground rules, rack up the karma points, enjoy the warm and fuzzies and you never know, they may even throw you the odd gorgeous silk frock!

Have your say:

How do you handle mates and business?
Have you been burned?
How do you handle expectations?
Have you been able to make a real difference in their business?
Has it caused any problems in your friendship?

The independent digital specialists frustration honour roll

by Marketing ON 30 March 2009

How to quickly to get on the wrong side of people who can help you!

There are many brave, bold, wonderful people, who have left the corporate world, to be independent, offering their highly tuned skills, experience and networks to organisations. They are intensively experienced in their individual space and deserve to be recognised for their contribution. Sadly they are often exploited by organisations that gladly take their IP and represent it otherwise. Unfortunately the value of the advice on offer is negated by more established traditional forms, resulting in mistakes being made as our communications ecosystem has changed, which is an ever-growing trend with the emergence of social media.

This article is in support of the many individuals who offer highly valuable services to organisations as individuals and who deserve to be recognised for the exploitation factor they have to endure.

This is the frustration honour roll for all of those wonderful people who are at the heart of the digital industry!

The frustration honour roll

1. Ask these independent specialists to come in and drill them to give their thoughts free of charge (in return for coffee!).

2. Get lots of proposals and thought leadership thoughts, don’t pay and represent these ideas as your own input to company strategy – cut and paste …Yawn!.

3. Pay them the minimum and screw as much work value out of them over and above cos you think you can!

4. Tell these people, that the organisation isn’t quite ready for these ideas after they have given you the route to real commercial value through new spaces, like how to do social media properly, then try and do it yourself with no experience other than your Facebook page.

5. Make them work with some (NOT ALL BEFORE YOU BEAT ME UP!) badly educated agencies that earn buckets loads of more money for executing these ideas badly because they haven’t had the benefit of hindsight from the specialist who gave you the idea in the first place.

6. Don’t pay on time, what little you do pay

7. Never give credit where it is due. Publically announce at speaker events that these initiatives are your own

From Twitter responses, specific to digital complaints from these worthy people:

8. Prefix every site with The. ie – We want to be on the Twitter and have people rate us on The Digg. @jaredwoods

9. People that leave comments who are only interested in link building. @inspiredworlds

10. Use the word fad in reference to the internet. @joelyrighteous

11. By writing fake comments on peoples blogs! – el stupido behaviour. @neerav

12. They hate it when you get your zeroes and ones mixed up. One sure way to piss them off. @sboiling

13. Overt plagiarism – note this from @neerav

14. Leaving Twitter comment aside for a moment, last but not least: just not recognising the value of individual contribution to a company because it doesn’t come neatly packaged as traditional marketing services but offers better focused value, is a poor excuse for not doing your job properly in today’s evolving marketing climate.

I have had many experiences, over 22 years in business to form an opinion from agency-owner, agency-side, client side and independent. I currently operate through a collaboration with many individual digital specialists and bloggers internationally that has made me realise the fantastic talent available in uncovering the experiential value of the individual.

I listen and learn, many hours a day. I read and re-educate myself as the digital space evolves, to extend my day to many hours during the working week. I know there are many like me, where value is knowledge. But what value is put on that knowledge?

Crumbs from a king’s table and late payment are not worthy of the experience that these many highly knowledgeable individuals have. This is not a whinge, personal or otherwise, knowledge is paramount in this evolutionary period we are all working in. Sharing that knowledge has a real tangible value.