Aw. Now I want a pet goose. Although I'm afraid it might bite off my fingers. I think maybe it's better to sit back and admire the geese and talk softly to them until they trust you enough that they will come and take the bread from your hands. This isn't a metaphor. I really like geese. :P Seriously though, very good point. I met a few people at both of the podcamps I attended and you can feel that vibe of needing to find out what value you can be to them and extracting that value from you as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next person. It's unsettling, unpleasant and a bad way to do business because people can always see right through that.
There's a famous Dilbert cartoon about consultants, too. "I like to con people. I like to insult people. I'll be a consultant! I'm here to consult you."
I've had a number of bad experiences with consulting - both being one and working with several in the past. You're right to say that a lot of consultants want to be friends with your wallet and expense account. There's an equally great cartoon in one of Robert Allen's books, a couple holding hands at a beach, and the caption reads, "I'll be with you until the end of your money."
That's the way I've felt in the past, particularly in financial services, when you have a consultant march in, tell you everything you need to do, and then march out leaving you with a useless white paper and very large bill. SAS70 auditors, I'm looking at you.
Same for those day seminars you go to about this real estate investment or whatever. It's easy for the consultant to stand up in the front of the room and make condescending sneers at the audience about how they're simply behind the times if they're not leveraging tax lien certificates, while behind the scenes their only moneymakers are the seminar entrance fees and the books they write for the sole purpose of getting you to one of their seminars.
The relationship comes first - always. Without it, I can't tell the difference between you (and your fancy 401k tax sheltering plan) and snake oil. In an age when building credibility is as easy as slapping up a web site in iWeb and buying a vanity phone number, I will default to believing you're snake oil every time.
John Wall
· 2 years ago
Seth Godin had a related post this week - that slimy feeling you get from a hard sell the product of desperation, the fear of not finding the next gig.
Ronin have no fear, they know there's always another battle out there.
James Rafferty
· 2 years ago
Like anything else, there are good consultants and bad. I had a consulting business for 7 years and built up a good client list. But, as other have said, the relationship comes first. If your customers cannot trust your advice and judgement as a consultant, you are nowhere. So, I found it best to tell the truth to my customers, even when they did not want to hear it (for example, when I told my fax customers that they needed to come up with new business models because their traditional cash cow was maturing).
chrisbrogan
· 2 years ago
James- good point. In my effort to paint with a broad brush, I often forget that there are always good ones. Oh wait, I did say that. I've got lots of consultant friends. TONS, now that I think about it- is that wrong? And they're mostly okay. One comes to mind as much too pitchy, but otherwise, a reasonable fellow.
So anyhow, really great point. Good people in every stripe. Evil people in every stripe. Zebras.
All Comments
This isn't a metaphor. I really like geese.
:P
Seriously though, very good point. I met a few people at both of the podcamps I attended and you can feel that vibe of needing to find out what value you can be to them and extracting that value from you as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next person. It's unsettling, unpleasant and a bad way to do business because people can always see right through that.
There's a famous Dilbert cartoon about consultants, too. "I like to con people. I like to insult people. I'll be a consultant! I'm here to consult you."
I've had a number of bad experiences with consulting - both being one and working with several in the past. You're right to say that a lot of consultants want to be friends with your wallet and expense account. There's an equally great cartoon in one of Robert Allen's books, a couple holding hands at a beach, and the caption reads, "I'll be with you until the end of your money."
That's the way I've felt in the past, particularly in financial services, when you have a consultant march in, tell you everything you need to do, and then march out leaving you with a useless white paper and very large bill. SAS70 auditors, I'm looking at you.
Same for those day seminars you go to about this real estate investment or whatever. It's easy for the consultant to stand up in the front of the room and make condescending sneers at the audience about how they're simply behind the times if they're not leveraging tax lien certificates, while behind the scenes their only moneymakers are the seminar entrance fees and the books they write for the sole purpose of getting you to one of their seminars.
The relationship comes first - always. Without it, I can't tell the difference between you (and your fancy 401k tax sheltering plan) and snake oil. In an age when building credibility is as easy as slapping up a web site in iWeb and buying a vanity phone number, I will default to believing you're snake oil every time.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/02...
Ronin have no fear, they know there's always another battle out there.
So anyhow, really great point. Good people in every stripe. Evil people in every stripe. Zebras.