How to be less “vendor,” and more “partner”

​If you act like a commodity, expect to be treated like one
 
There’s a line in the movie Top Secret!, in which one of the French underground resistance fighters turns to the American hero, and in a thick Gallic accent, says, “Well, Mister Rivers. It seems that you have become, how do you say, indispensible?”
 
Rivers replies with a shrug: “’Indispensible.’”
 
Who’da thunk he was giving advice for this article?
 
There’s a difference between providing a service and being part of a team. You could say it’s the difference between being reactive and being proactive, but it’s more than that. It’s a matter of doing more than what your client expects you to do. Big and small. It’s a matter of perceiving chinks in your client’s armor, and rather than pointing them out, doing something on your own to fix the issue. If you’ve got a billing-by-the-hour mentality, you won’t get it.
 
See the big picture.
 
This starts with exploiting two of your biggest advantages as a consultant: 1) your significant domain expertise, and 2) your outsider status, not blinded by the smoke of battle (or daily fire-fighting). While you may be providing valid strategic advice, your client may well be suffering in the tactical realm. They may simply lack enough bodies, or enough minds, to surmount an issue. Seeing this gap is an opportunity for you. It lets you step up and solve problems before they become crippling; it also lets you suggest more permanent fixes, in terms of, say, tapping your network to help your client fill a key role.
 
Any worthwhile client will recognize effort like this. They’ll appreciate your perspective and effort, and if you don’t bill for a “save” like this, they’ll love you all the more for “taking one for the team.” You’ll be brought into a smaller ring of their inner circle, ensuring that you can help them more going forward.
 
That’s a double-edged sword. You can expect more work from such privileged status, but you can also expect more night and weekend calls, more strenuous deadlines, and more difficult assignments. But the payoff is worth it, in terms of job satisfaction and client retention.
 
Bear in mind that you can’t switch this type of behavior on and off as you see fit. It’s an always-on kind of thing. You can’t be a team player one day, and a mere vendor the next. The latter is incompatible with the former.
 
Dazzle on details.
 
Little efforts make a big difference. When you see a just-breaking news story that would interest your client, share it with them ASAP (“You’ve probably already seen this, but just in case you haven’t, I thought you’d find it interesting”). Throw in freebies whenever you can: If your client needs their client at a meeting, offer to draft the invite. Or just draft it and pleasantly surprise them with it. If a client tosses you an assignment that’s too small to bill, do it, and include it as a line item on your next invoice, showing the full “street” value, and then discount it 100 percent. Respond, constructively, to their LinkedIn posts. Make clear just how much you’re willing to juggle your schedule to accommodate them—so they know how they rank in your hierarchy. And treat every request from them, no matter how minor, as a huge and flattering compliment (they need you and want your judgment!) and an opportunity to impress and help them succeed.
 
Be patient.
 
It may take some time to gain the level of client intimacy you desire. It can be affected by the client’s schedule (do they travel a lot?) or perhaps even their inherently private/insular company/personal/ethnic culture. But that’s no excuse to bail. Indeed, everything we’ve suggested in this article applies to any client anyway—but note we qualified that above by saying any “worthwhile” client. In other words, if it’s not a team in the first place, you can’t expect to join. 

---