This feels like one of those so obvious it’s not worth stating questions, but you’d be surprised how often clients engage too early with consultants – even before they’ve thought long and hard about what they really need. Instead, sit down with your own team and define the main priorities.

Where are the gaps in your skills and knowledge? For example, do you need a fresh new perspective that will really challenge you and the marketplace? Perhaps the goal is to elevate or course-correct something that’s already there.

Maybe your time is limited and you’d like help implementing an idea that’s already fully formed. Or is it advice and expertise you’re after to embed skills that aren’t there in your own team? Not every project needs to set the world on fire. Not every idea needs to follow the crowd.

But, internal agreement and clarity about what you really need from the get-go will preserve everyone’s sanity further down the road. And it will certainly make writing that ugly first draft of a creative brief much much easier.

More on that next week.