In fact, there is no single reason to turn to an external consultant: things can change a lot, for example, if the request comes directly from the owner or from the marketing office; if it is a question of rethinking strategies to give greater impetus to an existing market or of approaching a completely new one (for example, at a geographical level).
Keeping in mind these differences and the various difficulties that can arise, in this article we want to give an overview of how our work can be carried out, what it can bring and above all how the company should move to take full advantage of it.
A small vademecum, therefore, so that the investment in the external marketing consultant brings the maximum return.
The assignment: who and why calls the consultant
Who calls the consultant?
As already mentioned, the external consultant can be called either directly by the marketing department or by the company's owners (or top management).
For a consultation to be successful, it is important that a climate of full trust and collaboration is created around the consultant: sharing information, being available to discuss different strategies together, and mutual respect.
This climate is much easier if the request for an arrival has come directly from the marketing department. In the second case, however, it becomes important that top management and/or ownership foster this atmosphere by presenting the external consultant as a help and not as a sign of distrust towards the work of the internal marketing department.
The moment of consultancy, in fact, usually represents an enrichment for those who are already within the company: it is the possibility of dealing with a different working method, learning new approaches and growing professionally and these aspects must be valued right from the presentation of the consultant, or even before.
Why?
Often the consultant is called because skills are needed that the company does not have internally. Among the most common examples, there are…
the company that opens up to the web, perhaps with a new e-commerce;
the company that wants to enter a different geographical market;
a new product, which has a different target than the usual one, for which you seek support from someone with more experience in the sector you want to approach;
a transition from B2B to B2C or vice versa…
Obviously this list is not exhaustive.
In other cases, it is a need for help due to time. When the marketing department is busy 24/7 with a myriad of tasks and activities, an external force can be used to help in a specific area, or to support the entrepreneur in setting up a new strategic plan.
In any case, the recommendation is always to encourage maximum collaboration. The presence of the consultant forces the company to recover the sense of strategic marketing and for this reason the consultant can be a formidable ally of those who deal with marketing within the company, enhancing their work.
Set the timing
Has the consultant arrived? Perfect! In a week we will do the next product launch, tomorrow we can send a mailing for this other initiative that they have been planning for a long time, next month we will do this other thing and in two months we will see the results…
It is clear that if the collaboration starts with these premises and these expectations from the company, it cannot work. Yet, when faced with an outsider, a sort of frenzy is often activated in company managers, who suddenly find themselves wanting to do everything right away. Thousands of projects, objectives, ideas that had often been set aside due to lack of time are recovered, generally focusing on the tactical aspects of marketing work.
In this way, however, the focus is lost on the true value of marketing consultancy, namely its strategic part: doing everything immediately means moving blindly. Expecting to see immediate results is simply counterproductive.
On the contrary, those who turn to an outsider must understand that giving them time to get to know the environment and the structure of the company is essential. A rather long period of exclusively audit and market research is needed, indispensable to formulate truly effective strategies.
What does audit work consist of?
The first period within a company is always exploratory. In addition to studying the product and markets with extreme attention, he will observe the internal dynamics of the company to understand its way of working.
