Clients and Consultants: Venus and Mars?

Who knew? The key tasks or touch points that clients think are important for their advisers to do and what advisers think make their clients happy are very, very different. Worlds apart, in fact.

I was surprised by the results of the survey done by Jenny Sutton and The RFP Company. Jenny wrote a terrific book called "Extract Value from Your Consultants" - which sounds like a bad trip to the dentist, but if you are an adviser, this is the one book for your summer vacation - it has been a must-read in my office. Here's Jenny:

Earlier this year we conducted two surveys on the drivers of satisfaction when it comes to using consultants. One collected information from the users of consulting services, and the other from consultants themselves.

We were surprised at the massive difference between average client satisfaction and satisfaction as it is perceived by consultants. In addition, consultants and clients seem to have very different ideas about what the important factors are in creating a satisfactory outcome.
You can download a full copy of the report here.

Economist Article

In a recent article on the state of the consulting industry, The Economist  contacted Jenny for her thoughts!

“But increasingly, says Jenny Sutton of the Hong Kong-based RFP Company, clients are refusing to pay for junior staff’s on-the-job training. Instead, they are asking for fewer and better consultants and setting them to work alongside their own staff.”

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