Clever Counsel #24 - Partners, Not Competitors
Some of you know this story already... but it's worth repeating because I see very few consultants taking advantage of this business development approach.
My last long-term client retainer came through a fellow consultant. It was actually in partnership with two fellow consultants. I hope it sparks ideas for how you can view your fellow consultants as partners, not competitors.
Here’s how it happened:
A senior consultant in my network (who’s now a part of our community at CommsConsultants.com ☺️) caught wind that a major global corporation was less than thrilled with the support from their current big-name firm.
The big fancy firm just didn’t have the REAL chops to handle change communications (though of course they said they could).
The client team wasn’t happy - and suddenly there was an opportunity for another agency team to swoop in and take the work.
Within what felt like hours (this happened fast), this senior consultant engaged another fellow consultant and myself as a rag-tag team under his business umbrella.
(Note, the lead consultant didn’t have a full-fledged agency, but like many of us - he has a business entity and a brand that could operate that way if needed. He quickly briefed us and put our bios up on his website.)
Long story short, we won the work.
Right time, right experience, right price.
In the end, three consultants banded together to operate as a small but mighty change comms agency.
We spent the next year on retainer with that client supporting a massive three-way global integration project. It was actually the longest engagement I’ve had in 10 years (I’ve always been a short-term project kinda gal).
If you have imagination and vision, and a terrific network of fellow consultants... there’s NO REASON why you shouldn’t be going out for bigger fish together.
I think we all know more than a few client contacts who are less than pleased with their big fancy agency (and the exorbitant fees they charge).
What if you consultants could come together to take the business yourselves?
What’s stopping you?
