Clients have an impression that consultants and contractors – especially for marketing and communications – perform and deliver a similar scope of work. While many service providers can deliver both roles and scopes, it is important that brands understand when to use the relevant role or scope for their business.
In a previous article, we shared about working with a remote consultant as the working environment continues to adopt and adapt a WFH format. It is important that the client and brand deliver a good brief, that is clear about the workflow and outcomes needed. The role of the client and the internal manager is to help remove obstacles and ensure consistent over-communication in order to prevent misunderstanding.
It will not be surprising to brands that many consultants are also highly capable contractors when it comes to execution of marketing and communications operations and tactics. The industry tends to expect retainers and projects to cover both the planning and thinking as well as the doing and measuring.
However, this does create a potential area of tension as the scope for a consultant and that of a contractor can differ. The earlier is focused on building a plan with strategic intent and ensuring that the structure, positioning and approach is good to implement. The contractor’s scope – while typically delivered by the same provider – can be different. Contractors deliver on tactics and operational outcomes. Also, it is within a brand’s prerogative to hire a contractor to deliver the plan; and not always hand it to the consultant that came up with the plan.
Contractors come with a variety of engagement models. They can be outsourced partners, tasked to deliver specific tactical outcomes. Or they can also be the equivalent of a full-time team member, working within an organisation to deliver a variety of outcomes.
Due to the differences in managing a consultant and contractor, we have drawn up a short list of recommendations on how and when to use either role. From our perspective, regardless of whether the roles are split up, it’s more about understanding when the service provider is consulting and when they are executing.
Use a marketing and/or communications consultant optimally in the following scenarios:
· When the brand has a skills or competency gap and need a specialist to evaluate steps to move forward
· When the brand requires a third-party to evaluate needs and outcomes
· When the brand wants to adapt a previously successful outcome from elsewhere and brings in expertise that can do so
· When the brand wants to build their offering differently from before, and in a direction or positioning that is atypical to their current culture or business model
Use a contractor when there are the following needs or workflows:
· A structured team player that can lead or support the plan as well as the other stakeholders at play
· No requirement for re-doing the master plan, strategy or roadmap; and instead to focus only on executing what has already been decided
· Clear briefs, tactics and outcomes have been established with a realistic workflow in place
· A client – serving as the internal champion – is keeping pace with the contractor and ensuring two-way communication is taking place; and that changes are internalised by stakeholders first before moving them into the workflow
Many brands and clients assume that consultants and contractors can perform and code-switch constantly with changing scopes. However, from a time and cost perspective, that is inefficient. A consultant’s rates are higher for planning and conceptualisation work. A contractor charges more for achieving output and results. Trying to get the service provider to do the wrong scope will result in more time or resources spent; and therefore, more fees charged to the organisation.
Clients and internal champions would do well to understand the outcomes they are trying to drive, before deciding on the external resources they want to bring into their team.
We are Brand Utility is a business consultancy. We work with brands in the corporate, retail, travel and technology spaces.
We offer strategy and tactics to support growth outcomes - revenue, scale, regional expansion and market entry – for our clients.
Areas of support include:
· Strategic communications: Approach to market, brand concept and map, positioning, messaging, story and narrative, thought leadership
· Marketing: Campaign/programme planning, story-based marketing execution, digital marketing, community amplification, content planning and production, go-to-market execution
· Lead generation: Digital advertising, social media advertising, social commerce, e-commerce
· Integration of marketing with business operations: We plan and execute as a seconded marketing and/or PR lead for your brand
Discover more about our services at our website or book an exploratory consultation through this link.
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash
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