Know-How Exchange : Customer Behavior

Quote others, cite studies, bring along articles, recommend books.

Then it's your scholarship speaking and not just your opinion.
When you have enough grey hairs to pull it off, you can spout
your opinion as if your head were full of pearls of wisdom.

www.useit.com
www.grokdotcom.com
www.marketingsherpa.com
www.marketingprofs.com
and so many others....

If you think things need to be changed on their website, that's fine. But HELP THEM SEE IT, don't just show up with a laundry list of problems in order to demonstrate how smart you think you are.

How do you do it? Ask questions.

For example, ask:

"How many visitors does your site get daily? How many of them go to the donation page (or click on XYZ, etc.)?"

Even if the director doesn't know the answers, you can help HER draw the conclusions about what needs to be fixed.

Get yourself a copy of Peter Block's book "Flawless Consulting." I hear that Michael Goodman's book "Rasputin for Hire" is good, too, but my copy hasn't arrived yet. ;]

Hi michaldover,

Remember that the dynamics will hopefully be better face-to-face and your presentation skills are adept enough to establish an engaging and helpful presence.

If not, polish these up also.

Whatever references you have definitely use them.

You will find that your MBA will not impress as many people as you think it will until you have the experience to augment it, so don't flaunt it. It's cool, but not as cool as you think right now.

In fact, I would talk it down and not really mention it too much unless you need to or they ask. This will impress them even more.

Also, start contributing here at the forum, this will beef up your knowledge base and your professional contributions.

I hope that helps.

I have a few suggestions, though I'm not sure they are really very different from many of the comments offered so far.

First, you need to have an in-depth interview with the client to find out what they really want and expect. It's almost impossible to meet or exceed client expectations if you don't first understand what those expectations are.

Ask about the organization's objectives, what they've tried before (and how well it worked), what opportunities they see, who makes the decisions, etc. This isn't an inquisition, but a fact-finding mission. Don't offer any suggestions or recommendations at this point. Just listen and take notes.

Then when you present your findings and recommendations (weeks later), you can tie everything to meeting their objectives, taking advantage of what they've done that worked, furthering their mission, etc. Suddenly your criticism is really couched in terms that say "here's a way to do it better," not "you screwed up."

Second, without any dents in your helmet, so to speak, you have a crdibility challenge. You are not bringing a lot of experience to bear on the subject, only your own smarts and your education. To counter that, I'd be armed with references for all the recommendations. Make your presentation a gentle lesson in marketing.

I always viewed consulting as a form of teaching, and that's a good perspective to keep. You're not telling the client what he/she should do; you're teaching them things they didn't know. Once they learn the lessons, they'll understand why your recommendations are the right ones. Without the lessons, you're just pontificating and acting like a smart-ass MBA.

Finally, I really would recommend you pick up a copy of Rasputin For Hire: An inside look at management consulting between jobs or as a second career. There are a number of good tips and pointers that will serve you well whether you become a consultant or not. You can get a sense of the kinds of things in the book by visiting the website at www.rasputinforhire.com . You can also read the introduction and chapter 1 there, take a short self-assessment, etc.

Good luck.