Everyone can become a consultant nowadays. Thus, the challenge of “branding” falls squarely to the individual consultant oneself. The traditional consultants sell their problem-solving expertise or past experience. Trusted by the clients for their abilities to solve the problem though an outsider’s capable eyes and creative thinking, they are selling “the Brains” –  demonstrating competence on the spot for a new problem or situation,  then building reputations by doing so. Well, as the companies often encounter similar business problems, a potential client may want a consultant to solve a problem that he or she has already solved for another company. Then the consultant starts selling “the Gray-hair”, an easier adaption for the consultant and easier customer-driven business to attract as well. In modern days, especially in the every-increasing popularity of outsourcing non-essential business functions or tasks, many companies hire vendors or consultants to do the tasks that their own people are unwilling to do or considered cheaper by outsiders. In this case, many clients are only buying “the Hands” by the load, not “the Brains”. This is obvious especially in the popular technology consulting. Sometimes no experience is even needed, a pure play of the headcounts, the Hands service.  

“Where there is a need, there is an offer”, a description for many short-term profit-focus consulting companies or individuals, especially with the ebb and flow of the world economy. What many have failed to realize is that once a consultant shifts focus from selling the Brains business to selling the Gray-hair, or even worse, to selling only the Hands services, one moves his/her most valuable “specialty” brand as a consultant to a pure commodity service provider. Commodity is most easily replaceable.

Of course, the true enduring value of a business consultant, especially in modern-day business and technology consulting, is from the Brain business. Thus do more the Brains projects should be the goal. While the clients may not be smart enough or quick enough to realize the needs to buy more of the Brain services when the current business and technology problems are increasingly intwined, complex, new or need new solutions or perspectives everyday, it is the pure responsibility of the consultant to stay true to oneself and not to be distracted by short-term pursuits,to accumulate the cutting-edge skills and knowledge and to persuade the clients for their Brains work. Yes, it may mean walking away from some lucrative deals or a sacrifice of some short-term profit margins along the way, but the short-term focus is a slow poison and ticking bomb for a consultant’s value and career. There is also rarely a middle road.