Thriving in the Gig Economy by Marion McGovern

Author:Marion McGovern
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Career Press
Published: 2017-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

Using Traditional Intermediaries

Intermediaries can provide you with opportunities you might not encounter on your own, but you take the risk that the projects may not be the optimal content for your skills. Similarly, the price point may not be at the rate you have set for your services and so may not be right for your economic situation. Nonetheless, it can be a solid sales strategy.

Specialty consulting firms, such as McKinley Marketing and the Business Talent Group, operate on the value proposition that deploying independent consulting expertise is a critical business strategy. They work with clients to help them understand ways they can tap this just-in-time marketplace for competitive advantage. The consultant’s benefit from the firm’s reputation as a problem-solver. These firms are not selling a consultant individually, but they are selling the fact that they can find the right expert to solve the problem. In essence, consultants working through these firms are leveraging the firm’s brand to help burnish their own.

When you work through a specialty firm, they will secure a project through their sales team and contact you if they think you are a fit for it. The project typically has a budget that the firm has negotiated with the client. That budget may or may not be in line with the pricing you have established for your business. You need to decide whether or not to put your hat in the ring for consideration.

There are several reasons why you should consider a lower fee when working through an intermediary:

• A project may afford the opportunity to add new skills to your repertoire. Perhaps you have been a digital marketing specialist with a domestic consumer brand, and a project comes up for a digital strategist for that same product category in key international markets. The ability to add the international skill to your own inventory of skills is worth a lower rate. (As I mentioned in Chapter 5, capital formation is worth the investment.)

• You had little or no sales expense associated with securing this project. As such, you should be willing to reduce the fee you might charge in your direct sales channel.

• It could be a company for whom you always wanted to work. Back in the day, M Squared did a great deal of work with Lucas Films and Lucas Digital. Several projects were out at Skywalker Ranch, which is approximately 45 minutes from San Francisco in the middle of nowhere (literally—directions to the ranch included the dirt road one used at a certain mile-age point to find the unmarked location). An inordinate number of consultants were willing to reduce fees and commute for these opportunities.

Most firms check references specific for a given engagement. To optimize your dealings with them, you should have such references organized. A marketing communications consultant with diverse clients, for example, should be able to easily offer references specific for a speech-writing gig versus an annual report project.

The intermediary firm typically handles the invoicing and collection of funds from the client. Similarly, the firm deals with the contracts and insurance requirements.

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