Client Newsletters

might also need to be re-examined.

Procurement departments are getting involved, and it's here to stay.

WHO NEEDS CONSULTANTS?

In New York, the Search Consultant panel was launched with an off-putting "have you stopped beating your wife" question and things went downhill from there. That wasn't fair, and it's about time everyone accept the fact that consultants of all kinds are here to stay. Does that mean there's room for a bad consultant? Certainly not!

Search consultants are needed where clients are rusty; where clients need help identifying exactly what they need in an agency, and what they don't; when the client organization is a political hotbed that could cloud the process and confound the likelihood for any decent agency relationship; when the client isn't necessarily looking to be certain the agency maintain profitability, or wants little more than "Kinko's-on-call;" where a client is more impressed by attractive ads for others or doesn't see the imperative umbilical connection between strategy and execution; or where client management wants a "kept" shop to name-drop, rather than an extended-life marketing partner.

What's the Search Consultant's job? To facilitate the coming together of a handful of well pre-qualified agency candidates and a prepared, rehearsed client. To guide the client through that myriad of steps and examinations that will allow the client (not the consultant) to clearly see which agency is ultimately the best choice. It means no tedious, redundant RFI's or RFP's. It means allowing each agency to speak with the client directly - no screening or big-brother thing. It means allowing open dialogue and due-diligence early-on so agencies can see to drop out - saving time and much money. It means first visits and capability presentations at each agency and not at client headquarters. It means client briefing documents (and non-disclosures) so each competing agency doesn't have to assume or speculate. And it means no spec creative.

If it's a New York client and a New York consultant, it's pretty easy to find a New York agency. A quite lunch at a big table, AdAge and ADWEEK top-100 lists, ADWEEK and Redbook directories, a generously circulated invitation and a tip to Stuart Elliott at the New York Times. But most clients want and deserve more than a "good-olde-boys" review. So above and beyond all the handholding and professional guidance, the search consultant owes each client the use of a meticulous process to identify that handful (not a shotgun field) of pre-qualified and worthy candidates.

That's when clients need consultants.

Sincerely,

Charles G. Meyst, Chairman/CEO

Business Partnering International, Ltd.
Vantage Place, 4327 Cox Road
Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 USA