Consultancy: Know When To Not Give Your Client a Horse

Henry Ford – “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”

Why do people use your services?

The answer should be, because you know more about what you do more than that other person. If this is true for yourself, you become the highly acclaimed Consultant.

You should always think of yourself as a consultant and take pride in what you do. Whether you’re a barista, physiotherapist or recruiter, you should know more about what you do than the costumer/client/candidate who comes through the door. You need to be a valuable asset to that person’s life or you’re just not worth the money.

The customer is not always right. And the reason being is that you know more about what they want from your services, than they do. Henry Ford realised that what people needed is a new mode of transport instead of what people were asking for.

In recruitment, don’t be afraid to come back to a client and say, “Sorry, you are paying £20,000 below market rate and as such you will find it near impossible to attract top talent”, or “the technology your company is using is outdated. Have you considered going down this route…”.

For many clients, the work we do as a recruiter is completely free up until they decide to hire, and anything that is free often is abused. So you might here crazy demands and think to yourself, this is going to be insanely difficult but you go along with it anyway. Don’t be afraid to suggest and inquire back.

I have found that you gain more respect and business by truly being the consultant.