Is marketing consulting for you?

People often ask me how I knew that marketing consulting was a good career choice for me after working in medical and international non-profit fields.

In short, I love talking to people, planning, and explaining things. Not just in a professional setting, but in my personal life as well. In a way, I was already doing marketing for all the organizations I worked for by talking about their mission and companies whose services or products I used. (Let’s just say a lot of things were bought at Costco because of my recommendations).

For the purpose and simplicity of this blog, I will summarize the qualities I think are at the base of being successful in marketing consulting into seven points.

1. Love to learn. You are curious about new products and services. You ask questions to learn more about things you like and things you don’t like. You don’t take things at face value and do your homework on “ingredients.” You love new facts and check sources.
2. Great storyteller. You are great at telling stories. A scientific article, a book, or even a manual – you process it and share it with your friends in a short, to the point, and most importantly, interesting story. Yes, just what you read: you can keep the attention of other people while telling a story about how to use a thermostat.
3. Enjoy seeing other succeed. You are a cheerleader at heart and love seeing people achieve their goals, even if part of their success was because of your direct involvement. It’s nice to be credited for your contribution, but you don’t work for “kudos” – the real prize is to see a project you worked on win.
4. Passionate about project management. You take planning and tracking very seriously, keeping your fingers on the pulse of each project at all times. You make it a personal responsibility to make sure things are moving in the right direction, and are on time. I personally used Microsoft® Project® to plan a Thanksgiving dinner party at my house a few years ago, and it was spectacular!
5. Good communicator. More specifically you are not afraid of communication. You can whip up a report (you probably already have one just to keep track of all the items – see point #4), send email reminders, ask questions in person or online, and follow up on items that need to be updated.
6. Know when to say “no.” The most important thing to you is to deliver a product that is not just on time, but of the highest quality. All the above points help to put it together, but you know that spreading yourself thin will prevent you from being on top of your game. Setting expectations also means setting boundaries – you know how to do both.
7. Nice to others. No matter how good your work is, if your client doesn’t like you, you will not go far. People will always prefer to work with nice, honest, and kind people. You are a delight to work with.

Of course, there is a lot more to being successful in marketing consulting than just seven bullet points (BTW: you also must like bullet points.) However, if you have these basic traits and absolutely love working with people, learning about their passions, and helping them succeed, I strongly recommend checking it out. Audienz is looking for just your type.