Consultancy receives mixed reviews. Possibly because good news does not make the news, so we only hear about it when it misfires, such as the alleged $110 million paid to Wolf Olins for the bizarre suggestion that the Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) consultancy should demerge from its accountancy arm as ‘Monday’. However, good consultants are often the unsung heroes of companies large and small, which have been given wise guidance concerning business and marketing plans that fit into the strategy.
The problem for smaller organisations is two-fold: recognising when to call in a marketing consultant and knowing how to find one. Some creative marketing agencies appear to be offering consultancy services, but there is a marked difference.
Leon Edwards, marketing consultant and proprietor of The Marketing Helpdesk, comments, A good agency will ask what you want to achieve and why. If they don’t ask, they are creative rather than strategic.
In Edwards’ experience, prospective customers fall into two categories. The first has been running their business for a while, wants to grow it and accepts he or she cannot do it alone. The second has been trying to grow it, investing time and money to do so and is not getting anywhere. By then the majority are at crisis point,î he says. They are looking for someone to guide them through the maze.
Building and understanding However, people’s expectations of consultants and marketing are often unrealistic. ìThey expect us to have all the answers and think we will be able to do it on the phone, with minimal investment, says Edwards. But we need to be able to understand the business and that takes time.
Edwards worked on the client and agency sides of marketing before setting up The Marketing Helpdesk 18 months ago. A lot of small businesses could not find what they wanted, he says, ìand consultants use too much jargon. People think it gives them credibility, but it is confusing to anyone who is not an expert in that subject.
He also says flexibility is important. I have access across the whole business and although I am employed to improve sales, I tend to be asked about other areas and become a coach to the entire organisation.
The Government also recognises that smaller organisations need support, and advisors at Business Link provides this; however, they are not consultants. Neil Higginson, advisor at Business Link West, comments, Consultants come in, identify the problem and provide a solution. We look at the whole business with the owners, identify key issues and bring in consultants to deliver.
Government-funded organisations often receive mixed reviews, partly because they become burdened with a political agenda. Higginson admits that Business Link had problems trying to position itself, but say it has found its niche. We are in a good place for finding things out, such as opportunities in UK and overseas markets, and what sources of grant funding are available from the private and public sector.
He also insists that Business Link is demand-driven, not supply-led. It sets its own targets: ìWe do what our customers want us to do, he says. The organisation has three main areas of expertise: penetrating a marketplace, customer satisfaction and growth potential. Funding is received from the DTI and the contract for running Business Link is now handled by the Regional Development Agencies, so it has to acknowledge a new agenda perhaps an emphasis on particular sectors but still respond to customers’ needs.
A business advisor has to import knowledge to the business, Higginson says. We talk to a company, understand the business and agree on a particular plan of action, he says. We look at what is required to move a business forward and then deliver what needs to be done via consultants, allowing the business manager to run the business and service customers. Relationships last from six months to three years.
Whatever the size of a business, it is important that the marketing strategy fits in with the business strategy and is viewed as part of a bigger picture, rather than dealt with in splendid isolation. Deloitte takes an unusually broad view of what constitutes marketing and is one of the few consultancies that operates across the board, from blue-chip to relatively small organisations.
Consulting partner Robert Bryant says the difference between the two is subtle. ìWith larger organisations, it is about controls, co-ordination and management of marketing; with smaller companies, it is more about content, which market to go for, or which segment of that market,î he says.
To achieve this, Deloitte looks at four areas: trade marketing, market and customer analysis, brand values (and how they are reflected throughout the company) and human capital: staff turnover is unusually high in marketing, with the average tenure at 18 months.
Many companies, he says, are let down by their own culture. A lot of medium sized and large enterprises are investing in their brand values and the behaviour of their staff does not reinforce them. If a company says ‘We are the best to approach for impartial advice’, we would work with them to ensure staff were trained to come across as impartial and know what products were available, so that brand values were delivered and reinforced each time someone used the chain.
People are altogether a thorny area; because careers move on quickly in marketing, there is a lack of continuation. Bryant comments, With some clients, we are looking at how marketing staff are motivated and rewarded, so that they do not leave; and how to retain staff knowledge as people move through the organisation, or outside it.
Consultancy comes in a number of forms and Robert Craven, MD of the Directors’ Centre, deals direct with clients, gives seminars and holds workshops. One-to-one consultancy is far more expensive but you can gain up to 30 years’ experience condensed into half a day and that is focused on your business. It is good value for money, he says. We work with businesses to understand how they do what they do with regards to their marketing. It is important that they present their products and services in such a way that people will naturally want to buy them. We get people to think through what makes them different from their competitors and why people should bother to buy from them.
Craven says that many businesses imagine better marketing email, DM and directories will deliver better sales. But a powerful way of expanding a business is using the stuff that is not for sale, word-of-mouth, referral and recommendation; 45 per cent of people get most of their sales from referrals and recommendation. That is really powerful.
Craven offers a ‘try-before-you-buy’ service, which allows potential clients to attend free business surgeries. ìWe are interviewing them too. We only want to work with people where the results far exceed the cost of employing us and if we cannot do that, we will walk away, he says. Partnership is key, he comments, ìMarketing cannot be done to you. You need to be part of it, determining what you are selling to whom and how: you know more about your business than a consultant.
MyFD is a recruitment consultancy for financial directors and controllers. Fred Edwards, managing director of MyFD, comments, It is difficult to fill that role in a £10 million business and we do that. We had reached a point where we needed to ramp-up further growth and to get the message to MDs of growing businesses. One of our non-executive directors introduced us to Robert Craven.
He advised us that the language we use has to be different. The key message was be different, says Edwards. ìFinance people tend to use jargon, so we expect not to use it. Robert Craven gave us a useful framework for putting our proposition ‘what we do is this’, ‘which means that’. We will help you sleep at night. MyFD also concentrated on networking, which quickly produced one customer and some prospects. That had quite a rapid return,î says Edwards.
Consultants have the twin advantages of specific expertise and an ability to look at businesses dispassionately. However, they will not know your business better than you do. The combination should create a powerful vehicle for moving your company forward in a way that also makes you stand out from the competition, ensuring targeted growth in the markets that best benefits your business.
