No client wants to waste time familiarizing a consultant with the issues faced by a particular sector. Thus, when it comes to hiring consultants, clients consistently rate the consultants' understanding of a sector or other specialist know-how far higher than factors such as an existing relationship, the geographical coverage of a firm, the size of a firm, and even price. The best consultants, they believe, bring a wealth of experience of issues they, as clients, may only encounter occasionally. According to one client: ‘The days are gone when a consultant borrows the client's watch to tell him the time.'