In recent times the importance in the generation of business strategies of Marketing professionals has grown intensely. However, this fact has caused that the increase in competition in the consulting sector has grown at a similar rate, which in turn requires the establishment of indicators that improve the economic viability of these businesses.
Reasons of the greatest relevance of the Marketing consultant
For some years now, the presence and importance of entities that are experts in Marketing issues has increased significantly. This phenomenon is probably not due to the arrival of new market analysis or strategic design methodologies, nor to the appearance of business segments or lines that require these services to a greater extent, as they are more critical to the good progress. of the company (it could be considered in the case of Internet companies that seem more aware of concepts such as personalization of the offer and customer loyalty). The cause of this phenomenon derives fundamentally from a new Marketing philosophy, Market Orientation.This new philosophy requires companies to carry out a deeper and continuous study of the market in which they operate in order to obtain competitive advantages. A study that covers all the forces that the organization is facing (customers, distributors, suppliers, actual and potential competition, Administration or even the company's own internal staff). Thus, the degree to which a company uses information to design its strategies, and therefore professionals in generating this knowledge, is a clear symptom of its market orientation (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990), in addition to a sustainable advantage.Administration or even the company's own internal staff). Thus, the degree to which a company uses information to design its strategies, and therefore professionals in generating this knowledge, is a clear symptom of its market orientation (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990), in addition to a sustainable advantage.Administration or even the company's own internal staff). Thus, the degree to which a company uses information to design its strategies, and therefore professionals in generating this knowledge, is a clear symptom of its market orientation (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990), in addition to a sustainable advantage.
On the other hand, this new Marketing philosophy, sponsored by authors like Narver and Slater, or Kohli and Jaworski, acts simultaneously with another line of work and research, Relationship Marketing. Relationship Marketing is also known as CRM, Customer Relationship Management, or simply Relationship Marketing, and relevant authors such as Morgan, Hunt, Grönroos, Bendapudi, Moorman, Deshpandé, Zaltman, Berry, Dwyer or Schurr have worked on its development. From Relationship Marketing, it is argued that a company will obtain greater profitability if it favors the development of relationships with its clients and other stakeholders.
If we look at the characteristics of these two philosophies we can understand how they have favored the growth of the Marketing professional, a professional expert in analyzing the market and using the existing information (Market Orientation) and understanding the way in which the company must act to achieve a difficult, but increasingly necessary, customer loyalty (Relationship Marketing).
We can therefore, in light of the preceding comments, consider the Marketing consultant as a key factor in the design of strategies in the new company philosophy. However, at this point it should be noted that the Marketing professional faces a question of enormous importance for the viability of his business, given the current competitive framework in the sector, its degree of reliability.
Why should the Marketing consultant be reliable?
For the relationship between a Marketing consultant and your client to be successful, trust is required. The need to trust a Marketing consultant stems from the existence of vulnerability and uncertainty in the relationship that he maintains with his clients. The vulnerability of the client exists because the consultant actively participates in the design of business strategies and therefore in its long-term evolution. On the other hand, uncertainty is a typical feature in any provision of consulting services, given the difficulty in evaluating the quality of these activities, as well as in interpreting the results that the consultant obtains in his investigations. For all these reasons, we can affirm that it is the presence of uncertainty and vulnerability that originates the need for trust between consultant and client.If the client company had complete information on the possible behavior of the consultant (absence of uncertainty), or the activities of the consultant did not critically affect the client's business (absence of vulnerability), trust would not be accurate and the relationship would lead to cape.
The previous delimitation of trust, as a result of the presence of vulnerability of a party and the presence of uncertainty, is understood by researchers as the expression of behavior. However, there is another non-exclusive conception that interprets trust as a belief. Moorman, Deshpandé and Zaltman's (1992) definition of trust considers these two aspects of the concept: "trust is the desire (behavior) of one part to depend on another in which one has faith (belief)". It is a somewhat hieroglyphic definition that can only be understood when the different works published on the determinants of trust are carefully analyzed, and that is something that is not relevant at the moment, given which we will go to the core of our article. How to improve reliability?
How to improve the reliability of the Marketing consultant?
So far we have tried to delimit the framework in which the reasons why the Marketing professional is placed in a privileged place within the functional areas or in the staff of the company, as well as the irrefutable profitable-consulting consultancy binomial trustworthy. Taking both aspects as a reference, we are going to indicate what the factors may be, which according to the investigations carried out during the 1990s, with greater intensity would affect the reliability of the consultant.
The consideration and analysis of these aspects can be extremely useful for those professionals who wish to improve their results in the medium / long term.
Specifically, the most influential factors would be the following three:
1st Integrity:
It assumes that the Marketing professional is unable to give up his professional ethics to achieve goals.
A lack of integrity could materialize in an alteration of the research results, a deliberate misuse of statistical methodologies or a biased interpretation of the information.
This is the factor that most strongly influences the reliability of the consultant. In fact, the rest of the conditioning factors mentioned below are at an enormous distance in terms of statistical significance (Moorman, Deshpandé and Zaltman, 1993; Hunt, Chonko and Wilcox, 1984)
2º The consultant's ability to reduce uncertainty
The client highly values those professionals who are able to offer an interpretation, based on extrapolations or even on their own intuition, of the data emanating from the work (Barabba and Zaltaman, 1991).
3rd Confidentiality:
According to which, the consultant will implement the necessary measures to safeguard the secrecy of the information provided by his client or generated in the course of his professional activities (Bailey and Pearson, 1983).
4th Experience:
The experience of the consultant in the performance of his professional activities is highly relevant in his reliability, however, although this would be the primary factor for many, the studies carried out place him in a discreet fourth place.
5th Touch:
Frequently in consulting tasks the results presented do not coincide with the client's expectations. In this case, it is especially important that the professional is able to report according to standards (what Anglo-Saxons call etiquette), at a touch, that does not hurt the pride of their client (Deshpandé and Zaltman, 1982).
In general, we see how the individual characteristics that refer to the consulting professional are the most significant. This allows companies specialized in strategic advisory tasks, and especially in Marketing activities, to have some control over their degree of reliability, and therefore, the possibility of improving it. We must emphasize that the consultant must take into account that the aforementioned factors are the result of the perception of his client, and therefore, each and every one of the activities carried out in order to improve any of the aforementioned elements. they must be clearly identified and correctly interpreted by the clientele. Therefore, it will be useless to design strategies aimed at improving, for example, the integrity of the professional,if they are not perceived by customers.
Conclusions
In recent times the importance in the generation of business strategies of Marketing professionals has grown intensely. However, this fact has caused that the increase in competition in the consulting sector has grown at a similar rate, which in turn requires the establishment of indicators that improve the economic viability of these businesses. Without a doubt, the trust that the client places in the professional will be a critical aspect. In this sense, it is the integrity, the capacity of interpretation, the confidentiality, the experience and the tact, the elements that properly managed will improve the relations with the client, and therefore, the levels of benefits.
© Miguel Guinalíu Blasco. Spain, 2001. All rights reserved.
Bibliography:
- Moorman, Deshpandé and Zaltman. Factor affecting trust in market research relationships. Journal of Marketing, vol. 57, pgs. 81-101, (1993).Moorman, Deshpandé and Zaltman. "Relationships between providers and users of market research: The dynamics of trust within and between organizations". Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 29, pgs. 314-329, (1992).Kohli and Jaworski. "Market orientation: the construct, research proposals and managerial implications". Journal of Marketing, vol. 54, pgs. 1-18, (1990).Hunt, Chonko, and Wilcox. "Ethical problems in marketing researchers". Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 21, pgs. 309-324, (1984) Barabba and Zaltaman. "Hearing the voice of the market". Harvard Business School Press (1991). Bailey and Pearson. "Development of a tool for measuring and analyzing computer user satisfaction". Management Science, vol. 29,P. 519-529, (1983) Deshpandé and Zaltman. "Factors affecting the use of market research information: a path analysis". Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 19, pgs. 14-31, (1982).
