Someone Called Me “a Consultant” This Weekend … Why, the Nerve of that Guy!

And what good nerves they were! And that “someone” wasn’t just anyone … it was one of our long-time clients who took some of his downtime this past Saturday to sit with me and go over some specific and time-sensitive project notes we had to cover.

At some point in the meeting, we came to a detail in the project where clearly there was some obvious hesitation and confusion. To help our client flush through the creative issue, I posed a question, made two suggestions and identified possible solutions as to how to approach, what to expect from X or Y direction and so forth.

You could see the client’s eyes light up as he had a major “aha!” moment. He seemed to be in awe of the information that had been shared and admitted he had never thought about the issues-at-hand in the way I had explained. “It makes perfect sense now,” he said. Then before we could continue, the client turned to me and said, “Wow, you ARE a consultant!!”

Well … ummm, errr … yeah, I guess I am ???

Hmmm, I wasn’t sure what the client had exactly meant by his “consultant” comment because it was just kind of randomly shared without much context. Soon, however, he happily explained and his comments were as insightful as they were complementary.

Essentially, the client indicated that he had in fact worked for years with various so-called “consultants” but really, they were not true consultants. He added he had hired his share of high-priced consulting agencies and individuals alike but never truly had an authentic consultant experience until just the few moments ago where, refreshingly, the “consultant” (I guess me in this case) actually offered practical advice and solutions rather than answering his questions with more questions. Often, he referenced, many consultants (in his experience) would have been just as stumped at the issues we had been discussing and would have looked at him and said, “Well, dude, so like what do you wanna do next, then??”

I was thinking about these comments on the way home after the meeting. Honestly, I’ve never met a consultant ever who had all the answers. And I think clients are ok with that as long as the consultant in question admits his or her uncertainty about a specific detail or question but commits him or herself to finding the answer or possible workaround and solutions.

At the end of the day, consultants are being hired by clients as THE subject-matter experts in a particular field or topic. Clients expect their consultants to *know* their stuff or to know where to go to get the answers; otherwise, why hire a consultant in the first place?

Just random, pre-coffee thoughts being shared here on a busy Monday morning. Your thoughts are always welcome …