How Can We Compromise Our Principles

A brand strategist consultant was telling the story about how she was fired by her client.

As starting point of discussion both parties had rightly covered the brand strategy and were in alignment.

However later as she went about executing the strategy, to her best of her professional ability, she found the client to be at odds.

Knowing that implementing what the client wanted would lead to a negative outcome, she persisted on what she knew would work and had so proven in the past. Unhappy and unconvinced, the client fired her.

Her tale rings very close to home. As an independent consultant myself, I can relate to the internal conflicts and frustrations that we as consultants often face when dealing with clients in the line of duty.

As a Marketing consultant, I too sometimes get frustrated, and at times enraged, at the amount of pushbacks I get from clients who believe in their own version of marketing or branding.

Everybody's An Expert

Suddenly everyone’s an expert in Marketing regardless of their lack of educational or work background, because apparently, Marketing, unlike engineering, I.T. or medicine, does not seem to require technique, foundational knowledge, skill, experience.

It enrages me because you would not be found arguing with your plumber about fixing your water pipe, but you would argue with me about fixing your marketing.

Plumbing and marketing are both specializations requiring skills and experience.

Plumbing and marketing are both skills that people who do not have training or experience in hire people who do. Period.

You get my drift. I truly can relate to consultants who face clients who think they know better.

Consultants have a clear obligation to provide their best professional expertise and advice, for which they have been paid to do, yet in servicing these obligations, these professional advice are often undermined by the very clients paying for them.

On the other hand, clients believe they know their business best. They have specific visions and goals, which they often feel are challenging for external parties, like consultants, to fully understand. Consultants have text-book or “generic” propositions that do not fit into the client’s “unique” business.

All valid points.

How Should We Respond

The take on how Consultants should respond to these issues are equally widely varied. Some view that consultants, like other service providers, should view clients as the ones who can ultimately take the call, as they are the ones who will need to live with the consequences.

Others believe that consultants who have specialized knowledge and expertise in the area for which they are hired, should stand their ground as compromising with clients’ desires that would lead to failed projects, would reflect badly on the consultants themselves.

Another view is that depending on each Consultant’s goal, varying approaches can be taken. If the goal is to ensure that the consultancy business must run and pay for monthly bills, then the actions should be driven by the goal to not get fired by clients, or perhaps using a very business-like lens, to be exact - to not get fired by “big fish clients”.

It implies being fully aware of standing by those principles or actions that would not risk getting terminated or at least not get repeat business from the client.

However if the goal is to grow the Consultancy based on the Consultancy or Consultant’s brand reputation, and is confident of the expertise and execution’s success, then the consultants need to make decisions and take actions that are motivated by the vision of building and not hurting the consultant’s own brand/reputation. Period.

This means choosing to draw a clear line on which projects to take - making decisions and taking actions that would not jeopardize the consultancy’s reputation or professional track record, while making compromises on matters that are less detrimental to the outcome.

Just so we are aware that one of the consequences of such actions may be lower revenues than what could have been possible.

What is the takeaway?

Although life is a series of trade-offs, there is no one-size-fits-all reference to copy. It is important to have clarity of our goals and priorities.

For clear goals will be our North Star as we go through the process of making hard and uncomfortable choices, then, finally be at peace with them.

The hardest part, I feel often times is not changing the situation, but changing ourselves and our perspectives - to let go of our pride, ego, envy, or greed in exchange for something more lasting and worthwhile.