Branding for smaller consultancies

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Question - Why is branding so important for a small consultancy

Answer - To manage the high degree of perceived risk in employing you

Key Action Points

Consultancy projects tend to be high risk. Larger consultancies will usually have trustworthiness built into their brands to a level it will be hard for a smaller consultancy to match.

Smaller consultancies therefore have to play to their own strengths:

1. Focus:
• on risk takers within clients
• on specific technologies, processes or markets
• on smaller projects with fewer decision makers
2. Build personal intimacy with the client:
• use your top management throughout the project
• take every opportunity to socialise
• build a network of contacts within the client
• conduct formal Key Customer Reviews, and follow them up with proposed action plans

In more detail.....

Branding is becoming critical for larger clients

Whichever way you look at it, buying consultancy is a high risk decision:

• the project will probably be both expensive and high profile, and could therefore be career-threatening to the person who commissions it
• the client cannot know whether the project has been a success or not until some time after it has been completed. However, s/he can be sure that there will be many critics of the process within a few weeks of the project starting, and especially at difficult stages in the project (and there are always low points in any project)
• the reputation of consultants is that "they borrow your watch to tell you the time". The recommendations will either be much as many in the organisation expected, in which case why did they not simply ask Joe, who could have told them the answer for a tenth of the price (ha! ha!)? Or the recommendations will be radical, in which case they will provoke considerable controversy amongst those adversely affected
,
• in large organisations, the project will often be multi-country, which will add considerably to its complexity, and therefore to the opportunity for cultural, semantic or procedural errors which will undermine the credibility of the recommendations

For all these reasons (and more), many larger organisational clients will want to commission big consultancy brands to protect themselves. The major consultancies will cost considerably more, but they can also pack large numbers of experienced consultants into a room and, to some extent, gun down the opposition with the power of their credentials.

Smaller consultancy brands cannot compete with the larger ones on the trustworthiness of their brands. The larger consultancies have the size and the range in depth of expertise that a smaller consultancy simply cannot match.

Smaller consultancies therefore have to offer the opposite of the larger ones - focus and intimacy.

Smaller consultancies must focus

In theory all brands, both large and small, should focus on providing a consistent, compelling brand experience to a clearly defined target segment. In practice, the dynamic growth imperatives of large organisations usually force them to become much less focused, and much less customised, than they should be. This is where a smaller consultancy can win.

The first point of focus is on the client decision maker. Smaller consultancies generally need to focus their activities on risk takers rather than risk avoiders, especially in the larger client organisations. Risk-averse managers will prefer to buy a big brand name. Risk takers, who are more interested in the final outcome than in the process, are more likely to commission projects (in smaller clients) and more likely to commission smaller consultancies (in larger ones).

Smaller consultancies should also focus on specific technologies, processes or markets (or all three). This will allow a client to say "Of course, the Big 5 have many advantages, but this small consultancy is expert in ................ Their CEO was Vice-President of Blue Chip Corporation XXXX". What the smaller consultancies should never say is "We can do anything for you", which unfortunately they often do. Turn down work at which you will not excel (yes, we know this is a tough one).

Smaller consultancies should also concentrate on smaller activities. The larger the scale of the project, the more people will be involved in commissioning it, and therefore the greater the perceived risk for the client. This costs the smaller consultancy time, which means that its best people are tied up in extensive pitches for business, probably for lower profit margins, after the large client has sneaked in additional free-of-charge requirements.

In a word, smaller consultancies must think laser focus - intense energy aimed at a precise point of leverage.

Smaller consultancies must be intimate

The other big advantage of a smaller consultancy is the availability to the client of the top management of the consultancy. You do not use a top manager to sell the project, and then underlings to manage it. Clients will buy into literally the personality of the key person or people within the consultancy. Larger consultancies cannot afford to do this (or do not wish to). Take every opportunity to build personal relationships with the client.

Also, make sure that you do not limit your relationships to one champion within the client. Relatively large amounts of business should not be left in the hands of an individual. Build a network within the client.

Finally, conduct Key Customer Reviews. Talk formally to your key client contacts once every 12-18 months, within a structured framework, about your performance, and return with a proposed action plan. These reviews in themselves will increase your contact base within the client.

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