Consultant Credibility

Written By Ted Grigg

After nearly 16 years of off and on consulting, the requirements for having fun and making a little money in the process revolves around one's credibility as a consultant.

DMCG Results

Some of you who are new to consulting should understand that successful consultants know how to build trust very quickly. Though obviously not always successful, what helps me in this process is a trance like attention to the client. I try to see the fever behind their need and how they like to work.

This refocus on the client instead of myself really helps to bring down the sometimes destructive excess of energy and tension in the initial conversations.

Great consultants just seem to exude competence.

They do it in the way they express themselves and listen. But above all, competence is reflected by the easy manner in which such consultants readily admit that they do not have the answers to everything related to their field of expertise.

Clients still want competence. But they cannot stand feigned infallibility.

Such a demeanor from a consultant screams, "I really don't know what I am doing!"

Be confident in your skills, admit to what you don't yet know, and remain at ease. Clients know you don't know it all and want you to show your human side along with your expertise. What they want is your judgement based on a thorough review of their situation.

If all they need is knowledge, then they could do a web search to find it. Consultants take their encyclopedic experiences and apply them to the client's problem with judgement and objectivity.

These days I try to jump to the client's problem beginning with the first meeting if at all possible. Demonstrating capabilities using stories and tying them to the client's need informally works best during your initial conversations.

Don't get in the way of the client who really wants to move on to their problem. The client is usually ready for this more quickly than most consultants realize.

Remember. It's all about the client, not the consultant.

What tools do you use to build your competency in the eyes of your clients? And if you are a client, what advice could you give us so we can become more effective as consultants?

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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