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Written by: Tim Sutton | Tim Sutton Photography
I’ve worked the last ten years in the field of strategy and innovation consulting. During that time, I’ve had some amazing clients, many that I still consider friends. In my experience, there are a lot of great agencies and consultancies. Most of them are tireless in trying to do what's best for their clients.
Despite that, after leaving my last role in a "client service" firm I had this visceral, primal "fight or flight" instinct to run as far away from "serving clients" as possible.
At the time, I didn't know why. But I knew I would have sooner signed up to be Himalayan Sherpa than signed up for another client services role. Believe me, when I had that reaction I was in no physical shape to Sherpa anything anywhere.
In the months since, my family and I made a conscious decision to design our lives openly, honestly, and courageously. I took time to reflect, to get away from my computer, and to move around in the world more. It’s helped me gain more clarity around what I believe, what I need, and who I am. And, as I shed the stress of living in a world that wasn't congruent with my own beliefs, I also shed 30 pounds and feel healthier than I have in years.
But, the question kept nagging at me - why had I developed this deeply imbedded and involuntary cringe reflex around the term “client” when in fact (1) I loved the type of work I had been doing, (2) I loved the clients I've worked for, and (3) I was reasonably good at it?
As I dug in, I became clear it had nothing to do with the clients themselves. It has much more to do with how consultancies can be run. Behind the scenes, “clients” can morph into “accounts”. This transposition is critical because “clients” are people but “accounts” are assets . To say the least, this way of thinking can create all kinds of hidden tensions. Account profitability often becomes more important than client satisfaction.
I frequently think back to a client who hired us to help with a major innovation project. As usual, the scope of the project expanded and the client expected us to expand our support. But, as the hours committed to the project stacked up, in the eyes of the firm it was becoming “unprofitable”. Meetings we should have been at we weren’t. As the senior leader in charge of the account, I had to make a hard choice – either make the client happy or make my employer happy. I couldn’t do both.
I still shudder at the memory of meeting with this client after the project wrapped up. We considered the project a success – it had resulted in several concepts that rated highly with consumers. But, the feeling wasn’t mutual. As I sat and listened to project feedback from the person who hired us, I’ll never forget the hurt and anger in her eyes. And she was right. I’ve rarely felt so professionally ashamed.
Most consultants are highly professional and well-meaning. But if we’re not careful, the people who hire us (and who trust us) can go from being our patrons to being seen as “future revenue”. And, there are very heated, very real arguments about “who owns the account”. From what I’ve seen, this isn’t limited to a small group of firms, it’s widespread in the industry.
This is crazy to me. I believe if you are paying someone, you deserve to be much more than an account. And, that nobody that serves you “owns” you. It’s your right to hire whoever you want.
I’ve since come to peace with the idea that “client services” can be compatible with serving clients if done right. In designing our life, I've decided to make a big part of it a new firm I'm calling Brain Trust Collective. It’s not a traditional consulting company but a “strategy solving” collective built to collaborate with you rather than asking you to outsource your important strategic thinking to us.
It’s still in the early formative stage, but there are some foundational beliefs that will be embedded in our constitution.
Customers are NEVER accounts.
If you hire us, you're not our client. You are our supporter, investor, conspirator, and customer. You are never our account. We have to earn everything. If we don’t deliver, don’t work with us. The day I wake up feeling entitled to your business is the day I walk away from this.
Nothing we do is about creating a dependency on us.
I’ve settled on the name Brain Trust because this is about helping customers trust their own brains rather than creating a (false) dependency on hiring ours. We focus entirely on helping your team to massively leverage your one true differentiator – your own critical thinking – so you are repeatedly making winning choices and plans.
We have to do in order to advise.
Believe it or not, I was once required to get pre-marital advice about marriage and sex from a Catholic priest. I don't care how well meaning (and he was), there's just no way he can relate to the situation he was advising me about. Along those lines, I once asked a retail consultant I hired why they don’t use their expertise to actually open retail concepts. His response surprised me - “we can't sell ourselves as experts if we fail”. I’ve never understood this. How I can advise anyone about building or growing a business if I’ve never tried to build or grow a business? I’ve founded several companies – some of them have succeeded and some have failed. I don’t know how I can honestly guide you if I’ve never been in your shoes.
Look, I don’t know if this will work. I don’t know if anybody else cares. But, I know if I’m going to continue to do the work I love I have to do it on different terms. I have to be true to what my beautiful wife calls my super objective : I want to build winning businesses that are robust and revolutionary with people that inspire me.