How to buy consulting services and to get the best people working for you?

When I was a marketing director for K-C in Russia, my team was very unhappy with the work of our creative agency. It came to the point where I felt like there’s no other way but to open a pitch for the Kotex? business. To be honest, when I started the pitch, I didn’t realize how big a revolution it was, as a global company to receive creative agency pitches in one important, yet not so big market.

We had invited the current agency and two other agencies to bring their strategy & creative ideas. Long story short, Ogilvy won it back, because they knew our business best and were most determined to keep the business. 

However, it was not the end of the story. It had grown to such a big crisis, that our regional team decided to intervene and put our relationship with Ogilvy into a counseling process. Yes, like a marriage counseling, but with our agency instead?.

We had hired a professional counsellor from London and both parties contributed €5k to cover the cost and to demonstrate our joint commitment. The process started with anonymous feedback from both sides and joint reflections on what each of us can do better. As you may imagine, it’s not an easy process to look in the mirror and acknowledge that you are not an ideal partner and to build the trust, you also need to make an effort to treat the agency with respect, listen to them and give feedback in a constructive way.

I realized in the process that to buy creative work or any other consulting service is not so easy and most of us are not taught that at school. Here are a couple of conclusions:

1.    It’s not about the agency. It’s about which agency people work for you, because in any agency, you have good and not so good people. Your goal to is have the best people working for you.

2.    How to get the best people to work for you? Well, you won’t be surprised, you need to inspire them to shoot for the stars, you need to listen to them, you need to show your respect even if you disagree and you need to give feedback in a constructive way for them to know what to do with this.

3.    This is the opposite to how many buying professionals are actually doing it. They tell consultants what to do, rather than ask for advice. They tell them that their work is “not good enough” and “to do better”, because they feel that way, rather than employing an objective evaluation process. Now, a question to you, would you like to work for such a client if you have a choice not to? Of course not, that’s why the agency protects their best people from working for such clients, to retain them for the clients they can also enjoy working for.

4.    My most practical conclusion was that if I’m not happy with the agency, I give heads up to their boss and have an open discussion about what we can do better. I found that they always reacted constructively and were grateful for the heads up.

It had taken us one year to restore our relationship and to take it to the next level. In the following year, we won together with Ogilvy, the Effie award for the Kotex? campaign for one of the most effective personal care campaigns in Russia.

These principles also apply to career management consulting. The choice of a dedicated senior career consultant is made based on an extended personal survey, clarifying client’s personality profile and background. This is to ensure the best personalized match between the client and the consultant. We measure client satisfaction during our process, of course, and we really appreciate to get a heads up if adjustments are needed.

If you would like to get the best professional support for you career advancement, let’s talk…