Advicetap Blog

Today’s guest post is written by Advicetap member, consulting expert, and author Rebel Brown (www.rebelbrown.com). Rebel is a veteran consultant and in this post she speaks on using “Objectivity” as a business tool.

Consultants bring an objective viewpoint to our clients. Take for example when working with a marketing team to position a company. I don’t believe I do, say or create anything of value that my client didn’t already know. After all, they’re the ones who gave me all the fodder for the story I create.

The difference is my objectivity. They live and breathe their business and strategy. They know it inside and out. So much so that that they can’t see the changes around them. My clients are heads down in their details, running a business. We all get dragged down into the way we’ve always thought about it. It’s human nature. Being objective, I am able to spin their story in a new way.

Objectivity is a beautiful thing for consultants. We can leverage it as one of our key value propositions. We can all tell a story about how one of our clients benefited from our objectivity.

Here’s an example of my own experience.

I met a new client a few months back. The guy is sharp, and the opportunity he unearthed is strong. All the pre-requisites for success are there: current customers are clamoring for the solution (it saves them major money), there’s an un-served and significant market demand, minimal investment is required and there’s a significant upside.

He hired me to help him communicate his strategy to the board and fellow executives. The first morning we met, it didn’t take long before we were both drawing pictures on the white board, talking at the same time. We were both passionate about the opportunity. By the end of the session, we had the fundamentals of the story down pat. Yes, it was and is compelling.

So why was I able to capture that story so quickly when he’d struggled for weeks, even months? I’d like to say it’s because of my brilliance, but that’s not true. My experience did help – all that practice does payoff after all!

I brought one really helpful thing to the table: Objectivity.

This quote by Stephen Chow says it well.

‘A creation needs not only subjectivity, but also objectivity.’