When a business needs some fresh ideas or content marketing needs empowerment, it seems to be a good idea to look for a consultant or marketing agency.
It is relatively easy to find contacts to talk to, but the most complicated is to select one.
I would not cover how to select a consultant or agency at an initial phase, but I will talk about the initial communication phase when you brief an agency or consultant.
Normally the first contact starts with questions from the agency like "Tell me about your business." And you start talking.... You know a lot, you love your product, you explain about your competitors, customers, product and so on. And after 1-2 hours of your presentation, you feel happy. And agency seems to be happy as well. But, here is a trap.
The biggest mistake you made here - you do not know what is really important for your consultant and what data or information they will use for the job you hired them for.
If you need to understand the real value of an agency, do not talk too much. Let them ask you questions, and try to answer as few as possible, allowing them to ask more. When I hired people years ago, I was talking too much, and my long conversations never led to finding productive or creative people, as normally the mental trap here - if you say something and another person listen and agrees with you, you feel that he or she is thinking the same way as you, and it means "it is a great candidate, as he/she understands all".
Once I realized that and let people ask questions, my employee's and partners' quality improved dramatically. Based on the questions the person is asking, we can define relatively precisely the way of thinking and key focus the person will use in the ongoing projects.
There is no "ideal" set of "right" questions available. Everything is dependent on the role you need to cover, business type, and business development stage, as well as the final goals you hire people for.
Oleksii Sologub
Business development and strategic consulting in healthcare.
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