Our clients are successful and ambitious small to mid-sized Canadian professional practices of all sectors. They, typically, don’t have the resources to develop and implement a professional marketing plan in-house. Movers and shakers in their fields, however, these entrepreneurial professionals don’t allow such limitations to create obstacles to their growth.

Under the right circumstances, outsourcing marketing can level the playing field for the small to mid-sized practice. Here are the essential pieces that would need to fall into place in order for that to occur:

1. Trust
To develop a marketing plan that delves deep down to the root of your authentic strengths, manages weaknesses and truly compels your growth market, your marketing consultant would need to be privy to, not only the good, but also the ugly! If there isn’t sufficient trust between you to allow for this kind of sharing, you will, likely, wind up with a generic marketing plan that doesn’t work for you because, simply put, it wasn’t really made for you.

2. Communication
Outsourcing your marketing plan is not the same as delegating it and then arriving for the unveiling. The marketing consultant’s role is to begin the process by extracting your vision for your practice. Your role is to commit the necessary time and attention to the process in order to allow this to happen.

3. Integration
Some of my clients like to playfully refer to me as their VP Marketing, even though I am, technically speaking, their marketing consultant. The liberal use of such a title, demonstrates how empowered these professionals feel to confidently manage their marketing plan and to respond to events, as they occur, backed by a professional marketer well versed in the unique nature of their practice.

4. Consensus
This relationship starts with clear and measurable objectives. Where would you like to go with your practice and are you and your marketing consultant on the same page about how to get there? Once the goals are set, in the same way that you would carefully carve out roles and responsibilities for employees, accountability needs to be established if the plan is to be actualized.

5. Fit
How do you know if you are a good fit? Assess your marketing consultant for experience, talent and the ability to come to the table with an open mind and attitude that invites you to share, rather than any preset agenda.

When all these pieces are in place and there is a true spirit of collaboration deeply entrenched on both sides of the relationship, outsourcing marketing can level the playing field for the small to mid-sized practice.

Related articles: How to Hire a Marketing Consultant for a Professional Practice, Is Your Business Ready for a Business Consultant?, How to Manage a Consultant and
What do Business Consultants do?.