by Ron Kahan

There is a powerful case to be made for hiring database marketing consultants. A knowledgeable and experienced consultant with a successful track record can guide your company around some costly (in money, time and resources) mistakes in the creation, maintenance and utilization of a strategic marketing database.

If you find the right database marketing consultant, they'll be worth a multiple of their hourly rate in return to your organization. Conversely, choosing the wrong database marketing consultant can cost your company much more than the wasted consultancy fees. It can cost a lot of money, but more potentially damaging, wasted opportunity and time. Time that your competition may be using more wisely to surpass you in gaining market share, retaining customer and boosting profits.

Fourteen years ago, database marketing was just coming of age. Since that time, everyone I speak with has embraced database marketing and become, if not an "expert" certainly a practitioner. In 1988 there were, perhaps, twenty qualified experts on database marketing. Today, there're hundreds of consultants with over ten years of experience. Where did all of these experts come from? There simply cannot be as many truly qualified database marketing consultants out there as people would lead you to believe.

Following I've outlined a little "score card" to assist you in grading either your current database marketing consultant or the one you're thinking about hiring. If they're doing their job, they should pass with flying colors. If they don't…well, let's see:

1. If the consultancy firm had one group sell you and another do the actual consulting work, then add no points. If the same group (or a portion thereof) sold you and is part of the consulting team, award 10 points.
   
2. If the consultant's tasks are well defined with clearly stated deliverables and dates, add 10 points to the score. The more undefined or ambiguous the deliverable, the fewer points you should give on a scale from 1 to 10. If the deliverables are not well defined, give no points. For extra credit, add another 10 points if the consultant has given you a project plan.
   
3. If you believe your consultant's credentials (and you'll know from working with them after a couple of weeks), then add 10 points. If it's hard to believe that they accomplished everything they said they did in their past experience, then add no points.
   
4. If the consultant recommends a database marketing solution that will take less than six months before seeing positive business results, then add 10 points. If it will take longer than six months to see any return on your investment, subtract 1 point for every month over six that it'll take. If there's been no time estimate, add no points to the score.
   
5. If your consultant recommends using your operational system for database marketing functionality, then subtract 25 points. If, however, they believe your marketing database should be sourced from your operational system, yet remain a separate system, then add 25 points.
   
   
6. If your consultant believes that data sourced from your operational systems can be ported into the marketing database without a batch cleansing and load process, then subtract 15 points. Add 15 points if they do recommend these processes.
   
7. If the database marketing consultant is working with an internal team of employees who are learning from the consultant to someday take-over the marketing database solution, then add 15 points. If no skills are being transferred to internal resources, add no points. If it's become clear that you'll need to go back to the consultant when you need to make changes, then subtract 15 points.
   
8. If your consultant has recommended and/or delivered a data dictionary and logical database model, then add 20 points. If there's been no data dictionary or logical model written, then add no points. If your consultant doesn't know what these things are, then subtract 20 points.
   
   Here's a bonus question…If the consultant knows what meta-data is then add 5 points to their score. Not knowing does not subtract anything.
   
9. Add 30 points if your consultant recommends analyzing your customer and transactional data first before applying any third-party marketing data. Subtract 30 points if they recommend overlaying and/or profiling your customer database before analyzing your customers by transactional behavior.
   
10. Subtract 50 points if business requirements were not clearly defined before the marketing database build/enhancement began. These business requirements must be clear, actionable strategies and tasks that the marketing database will facilitate to make money for the business. Add 50 points if these strategies were identified and cataloged prior to the marketing database build/enhancement.

Well, let's see how your consultant ranked:

200 - 150 points: Make sure your consultant is happy and will continue to work with
you as long as you need them.

150 - 100 points: You have a solid consulting resource. Listen to them and learn as
much as you can.

100 - 75 points: Your consultant is probably doing good things for your company,
but you might diplomatically suggest they do more research on successful case studies.

75 - 50 points: You need to consider looking for a new consultant.

50 - 0 points: Your consultant is harming your company's bottom line. Get a
new consultant immediately.

< 0 points: Call your legal department at once and inquire about the consulting
contract agreement and how you can get rid of your consultant as quickly as possible. If you made the decision to hire the consultant, consider updating your resume.

Ariss Kahan Database Marketing Group, Inc. assists clients build customer relationships through proven and innovative database marketing techniques and marketing database technologies. They specialize in customer acquisition, retention, cross-sell and up-sell initiatives and can be reached at (303) 368-9800 or via e-mail at rkahan@dbmktg.com.