Not Everyone Is a Consultant: How to Identify True Professionals in Communication and Marketing

In recent years, communication and marketing have become extremely crowded sectors. Access to tools is easier, online visibility is within reach for many, and calling oneself a “consultant” doesn’t require any formal certification. The problem isn’t the market’s growth, which is normal in itself, but the increasingly evident difficulty in distinguishing between those who provide services and those who truly play a consulting role.

This distinction is neither theoretical nor marginal. It has direct consequences on results, customer expectations, and often on the very health of a project.Communication and marketing are not neutral fields: they shape perceptions, influence choices, build promises. When managed without skill or responsibility, the damage isn’t just economic, but also reputational, organizational, and structural.

Communication and marketing are not just execution

One of the most common confusions concerns the role. Many professionals operate as executors: they produce content, launch campaigns, manage channels, replicate formats. All legitimate, but not enough to define consulting work. Consulting begins much earlier, often coinciding with the ability to bring order before even “doing.”

Consulting means analyzing the context, understanding real constraints, assessing whether what is requested is truly useful, sustainable, and coherent with the organization. It also means taking responsibility for saying when a route isn’t the best, or when an action risks creating expectations that the company will not be able to meet over time.

In tourism, dining, and hospitality in general, this aspect is crucial. Communication doesn’t just describe a product or service, but a future experience. That’s one of the reasons why I have repeatedly insisted on the concept of desirability: when the promise isn’t aligned with reality, the damage doesn’t stop online, but surfaces on the ground, in the service, in reviews, and in trust.

Why experience makes the difference

Experience isn’t an abstract concept nor a badge to display. It’s the ability to recognize patterns, anticipate consequences, connect communication decisions with real effects on operations. Without experience, there’s a risk of working in silos: marketing on one side, management on the other, communication rushing ahead without consideration of real constraints. This often happens when those working in communication and marketing have never gone through the critical stages of a project: periods of stagnation, reputation crises, organizational issues, internal reorganizations. Without this background, it’s easy to focus on visible activity and ignore what happens behind the scenes.

In my work, my journalistic background has played a decisive role—less for style than for approach. Journalism teaches rigor, source verification, attention to words and their implications. It teaches that every piece of information published creates an expectation, and that expectation, sooner or later, must face reality.

Applying this approach to communication and marketing means rejecting shortcuts, easy promises, and narratives that only work on paper. It means working on content that stands the test of time, on messages consistent with what a company, hotel, or restaurant can truly offer. It’s also why, when I talk about content, I always distinguish between useful content and strategic content.

The problem of “improvised” experts

Today, the market makes it easy to build an image of expertise. All it takes is a well-managed online presence, a few well-told case studies, and some self-promotion skills. But that’s not how competence is measured, nor can it be improvised. A seasoned consultant has been through different phases: growth, stagnation, crisis, reorganization. They’ve seen strategies work and fail, learned to spot signs before they become obvious problems. They know there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, and that every project requires adaptation, listening, and method.

When this maturity is lacking, communication and marketing become a series of disconnected actions. Trends, tools, and platforms are chased without an overall vision. The result is often more activity, but not higher quality or better results, with unnecessary waste of time, resources, and energy. It’s the same mistake I see when work is done without a real editorial plan, mistaking publishing for strategy.

Consulting means working for the client’s best interests

Consulting, as I see it, means taking on a clear responsibility: working for the client’s best interests, even when this doesn’t coincide with what is easiest to sell. Sometimes it means doing less, not more. Sometimes it means rethinking goals, timelines, and expectations that are not realistic. Communication and marketing, if well integrated, should help an organization grow sustainably, not chase short-term results or metrics that do not reflect reality. That’s why I often emphasize the value of data and its proper use—not as vanity metrics, but as decision-making tools.

A good consultant doesn’t create dependency but builds awareness. They don’t promise miracles but lay foundations. They don’t work to impress, but to make things work over time, even if that means slowing down or simplifying.

How to recognize someone who truly provides consulting

There is no universal formula, but some signals can help you find your way.A competent consultant asks questions before proposing solutions. They try to understand the context, processes, and people involved. They talk about realistic goals, not guaranteed results. They connect communication and marketing to the real management of the business.

Above all, they take responsibility for their choices. They don’t blame everything on algorithms, the market, or seasonality. They know every decision has consequences and work to ensure these are understandable, measurable, and manageable over time. It’s the same approach I use when I talk about AEO in tourism: not as a writing trick, but as an organizational discipline.

Conclusion

In an increasingly noisy market, it’s not those who talk the most who make the difference, but those who work best. Communication and marketing are not a storefront, but delicate tools that require skill, experience, and professional ethics. Real consulting is not spectacular, but solid. It doesn’t promise shortcuts, but builds pathways. This is the philosophy on which I continue to base my approach, especially when it comes to projects that need to last over time and not just perform in the short term. If you’d like to discuss these topics or find out whether a project truly has the conditions to grow healthily and coherently, you can request a free consultation here:Free consultation.