Loyalty Truth

When I was getting my feet wet in the consulting business I had a mentor tell me that, as I prepared for client meetings, I shouldn’t strive to be the “smartest guy in the room”. He must have noticed the intersection of a desire to succeed, a Type A personality and the tendency to be a perfectionist was creating unneeded and potentially destructive pressure.

This advice came from a person whose favorite answer to a tough question from a client was “it depends”. He thrived on being enigmatic and, by turning questions around and opening them up for discussion, he was able to encourage a room full of people to answer their own questions. Somehow in the process clients ate it up, often attributing the resulting consensus to my mentor as if he had come up with the ideas himself.

At the time I was not sure how to receive that message, but eventually realized there were several lessons to be learned:

1. As thought leaders, we have to be well read, well rounded and naturally inquisitive. Those are table stakes – essential minimums – if we are to successfully advise clients and lead roll-out of effective marketing campaigns.
2. We should be passionate for the subject we specialize in, Customer Strategy and Business Intelligence in this case. If not, then you will fail to rise above competition and clients may interpret your work as something closer to project management than strategic thinking.
3. We should realize that striving to be the “smartest person” in the room is probably shooting at the wrong target. In addition, we should accept the fact that we probably are not that person no matter how often we try. Everyone has a specialty or a specific experience set that brings fresh perspective to a project. By embracing the full project team and inviting different voices into the conversation, you can most effectively steward clients to meet their goals. That is the idea, isn’t it?

This is where tools and experience play a role. Consultants have methodologies for a reason as well as planning tools. Experience is something that cannot be manufactured or acquired by shortcut. It is like the power in a cyclist’s legs, it builds on a cumulative basis and gets better with age. The tools we create are improved through this experience and should be reusable to ensure that nothing is missed in the course of a planning exercise.

I’ve written before about why its important to hire a consultant from time to time, and the lessons here should help clients set expectations for the role of suppliers/consultants as well as provide a bit of solace to my colleagues in the marketing consulting community.

There has to be a balanced approach to project work in order to succeed. Being mechanical, aloof and enigmatic can cause clients to question your value. Being cute and arrogant doesn’t lead to success.

Leveraging the tools you have acquired and tested over time while honoring all those around the table will make you stand above the crowd. It will also draw easy recommendations from your clients for future business.

One of my favorite business quotes goes like this: “It is amazing how much people can get done if they do not worry about who gets the credit.” Remember that you should be shining brightly, just not too worried about shining the brightest.