David A. Fields Consulting Group Okay, before you twist your propeller into a pretzel over the title of this article and the mere suggestion of mediocre consulting work, let’s break the idea down.
(After that, I encourage you to twist and comment.)
Part 1 – What is Consulting Work?
The core of a consulting firm’s work is a spinning, two-part cycle: Win Engagements and Profitably Create Value.
Part 2 – What is Mediocre?
The recipients of your consulting firm’s work (i.e., your clients) are the ones whose evaluation of your work counts.
In other words, you can grade your consulting firm’s work based on its impact on your firm’s reputation among clients and prospects.
This applies to your work winning engagements and to your work creating value during engagements.
A few points on the continuum are:
| Quality of Work | Impact on Reputation |
|---|---|
| Bad | Deleterious |
| Mediocre (i.e., average, satisfactory) | None |
| Good | Marginally Positive |
| Remarkable | Extremely Positive |
Part 3 – How is Quality Judged?
Your clients grade the value of your work on a steeper curve than the quality of your marketing.
It’s difficult to produce truly remarkable, visibility-building work. Fortunately, you don’t have to.
The value-creation side is different.
It’s relatively easy to create remarkable value for a client, so your client’s bar for acceptable work is fairly high. As is the penalty for poor performance.
While uninspired marketing goes by unnoticed, an uninspired deliverable can torpedo your reputation with current clients (and future prospects).
Part 4 – Is Mediocre Okay? Yes, if…
It’s one effort among many in your campaign to win clients.
In other words, mediocre is okay for marketing. Not ideal, but okay.
Mediocre is also okay in your delivery if it’s explicitly communicated as one step on your way to a good or remarkable final product for your clients.
An iterative, C2B2A or agile process can be highly effective.
Part 5 – Five Great Reasons to Do Mediocre Work
1. It’s Easy, and Jolts You into Motion!
This may be the most important reason to endorse mediocre work.
Many consultants struggle to start tasks that are difficult, distasteful or daunting.
The fear of failure freezes them.
But what if you give yourself permission to do a downright mediocre (or even bad) job—at least at the outset?
You’ll find your barriers to getting started drop dramatically.
2. High Quality is More Apparent by Comparison
In a vacuum, your work can be tough to evaluate.
However, you (or those around you) can certainly see what isn’t good.
Producing mediocre work casts your errors, imperfections and omissions into stark relief.
That’s how you learn what good and remarkable look like.
3. You Can Improve on It
Mediocre is a step along the way to remarkable.
Very seldom is a consulting firm’s output spontaneously outstanding.
The value you create and the marketing you produce will continue to improve with each iteration.
4. It’s Practice
As long as you’re constantly improving, practice rewards you with confidence and efficiency.
Your big deliverable or big speech might take six days to craft the first time; however, after 20 repetitions—even mediocre repetitions—your prep time to shine on stage or in front of your client could drop to six hours or 60 minutes.
5. A Mediocre Final Product is Okay (for Marketing, Not for Clients)
To a large extent, quantity and frequency trump quality when it comes to building your consulting firm’s visibility. (See this article.)
Not every marketing piece you produce will be remarkable and, in fact, it’s often difficult to predict which article, speech, podcast, post, webinar, etc. will be a hit.
So, keep pounding out the content, accepting the mediocre on your way to the occasional burst of superlative.
Now, are you still alarmed at the idea of mediocre consulting work?
When has (or hasn’t) mediocre work been effective for you?
Text and images are © 2026 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
