Leveraging Business Through Consultant Relations (With a Postscript on the Andersen/Enron Effect)

Abstract

In the complex world of business-to-business (B2B) marketing, three varieties of stakeholder have great influence on company reputation and revenue growth: media, analysts, and consultants. The last of these publics is the least understood and least systematically cultivated. The first three parts of this article look at who the major management and technology consultants are, what they do, and why they matter to B2B corporations as a source of direct and leveraged business. The fourth section explores organizational options as well as the most effective strategies and tactics for managing relations with consultants. The fifth section focuses on the soft and hard results of a consultant relations (CR) program that need to be examined in order to evaluate its true effectiveness; and the last section, “a postscript,” investigates the sea-change that has occurred in the top-tier consultant community in the years since scandal brought down both Enron and Andersen in 2001.

KEYWORDS:

• analyst relations (AR)
• business-to-business (B2B) marketing
• consultant relations (CR)
• public relations (PR)
• publics
• tracking metrics