Human Resources consultants, like many service professionals, relentlessly struggle against the dilemma of how to deliver outstanding client service on a full-time basis while still planning ahead for the next project. The issue is particularly acute for entrepreneurs and small-businesses - in their cases, waiting too long to begin a new sales process risks an extended period of little to no income, but diverting time and attention from critical current work risks compromising the work´s potential success and reference-ability.
The issue is rendered somewhat more difficult in a consulting environment because of the personalized nature of the work and of the sale. Working as we do on often-touchy change management issues, our existing clients rightfully demand something of a "personal touch"- face time with key executives, individual coaching efforts, and availability on short notice. But potential clients also need to have a strong flavor for us, as individuals, before they go ahead and buy - which exacerbates the project management difficulty of completing a sales process "just in time" so that just as existing project work is completed, we´re ready to launch into the new work just sold.
What makes this high-wire act even more difficult in the HR consulting space is that utilizing superb project management skills is not enough - these skills can only help manage the problem if all the relevant time parameters are known in advance. But what often happens is that in the sales process, longer-than-expected lead times surprise us, as budgets for taking on efforts that are sometimes perceived as secondary fluctuate.
The landscape thus created (along with the difficult consequences of lumpy or no earnings if it´s not managed well) to our minds demands some new thinking on how to go about marketing. How can we retain the personal touch, but achieve some volume and scale of proposals, so as to mitigate the long lead time as well as time management challenges described above? And how do we do it cost-effectively - syndicating the knowledge of who we are out there in the market, all with minimal distribution and advertising expense?
We are experimenting with some success with the new platform of Internet video clips, and think that these may be part of the answer to the consulting conundrum. No longer the "herky-jerky" fuzzy images we all remember, and professionally produced in media studios for from $2,000-$10,000, these clips have brought Madison Avenue-quality advertising capabilities to individuals and small businesses. Once completed, the clips can be sent to potential customers electronically at no cost, and accessed by them via a hyperlink on a Web site, e-mail, or Word document. In addition, CD and DVD versions with simple graphic arts work on the covers supplement electronic mailings for higher-potential clients.
Richer than any of our previous marketing brochures, we´ve found that the clips, and sites that host them, provide several advantages:
- Give potential customers in a few minutes an outstanding, personal flavor for our work and biography
- Establish trust and likeability
- Enable a platform for real-time measurement of "eyeballs" and response rates
- Convey an innovative, cutting-edge image for our work.
We´re seeing higher response rates on the clips than our brochure mailings had, at lower cost, all while retaining the engaging, individual feel that we want potential clients to have about our small consulting company.
If one decides to go this route, a critical success factor in working with a vendor deserves elaboration. It´s easy to get "wrapped up" in technology, and to feel that the snazziest solution is best. But remember that the goal is to sell professional consulting services, and as such, the ideal vendor is not the slickest software guru/media maven who will point and click the camera at you and quickly do post-production edits. Rather, it´s critical to find media-savvy people who are also marketing experts, and who will for your investment take you through a deliberative, careful process - working with you in advance to articulate your professional story in a media-friendly way, and when you´re "under the lights", prompting and supporting you effectively in a limited time interview.
I´ve posted a clip of our firm´s here which was produced by our particular vendor, Reel Biography. I´d be interested to hear feedback on it, as well as our fellow practitioners´ experiences with newer marketing vehicles. How are you tackling the consulting conundrum?
