Safety Culture Excellence®

A person who has a ready-to-use safety program or process and wants to convince you to use it is a salesperson, not a consultant.  Sales is a matter of creating a sense of need that fits the product and closing the sale.  It involves a compelling story of past successes and value for the money and creating a desire to join the club of successful users.  It might include a profile of other clients broad enough to help you find parallels between them and you.  The salesperson must convince you to buy.  Then, you seek to make your organization fit the product or process you just purchased.  They sell it to you and now you must sell it to the organization.

A consultant is someone who seeks first to understand your unique needs or problems.  They then explore what you might have already tried and analyze why it did not produce the desired results.  Then, a collaboration begins to find the best strategy for success and the best tactics to make that strategy work.  There is no need to sell anything because it has been mutually created.  It is customized to fit your organization so there is no need to try to change the organization to fit it.

The difference between these two is profound.  The salesperson is often finished with you unless he can sell you something more or gouge you for ongoing royalties or licensing fees to continue using the program or process.  The consultant becomes a partner and adviser and only costs more if he adds more value.  The program or process your purchased gets used but remains the property of the salesperson. The strategies and tactics you mutually develop with the consultant are your own.

-Terry L. Mathis

Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS’ in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.