Businesses engage with consultants for a variety of reasons. It could be to help solve a pressing issue or to improve performance. A consultant gives access to a specialised set of skills and capabilities. Being an independent third party, consultants ideally look at your business objectively.
Consulting is a very popular career choice in this gig economy. There are a wide variety of consultants peddling stuff such as strategy, operational improvement, digital marketing, IT security and many others. You name the sector or solution and there will be a consultant serving that space. There is also a widely varying quality of consultants available. Hiring a consultant can be a great investment. Equally, it could be a waste of time and money. Sometimes consultants are to blame for the wastage. Often, clients are to blame. This article will not help you separate good consultants from bad consultants. But it does look at how to maximise returns on your investment in a consultant. And that’s important since good consulting expertise charges good money.
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Return maximiser #1: Clear outcome definition
While it seems like a no-brainer, the lack of outcome definition causes most issues between a client and a consultant. A business may have many problems, all of which need solving. Yet, it’s easy to try to solve everything and end up not solving anything well. Identify which problems need to be addressed immediately and which can wait. Basis that, articulate the outcomes you want from a consulting engagement. It also worth remembering that each consultant has a specific set of skills. So, the consultant, for instance, who handles your growth strategy isn’t likely to be the best consultant for designing the technical specifications of your IT security system. And the consultant who helps you optimise operations costs isn’t likely to be a good sounding board for the business owner.
There is another critical advantage to articulating outcomes. During the process of articulation, you will find some of your problems are symptoms of a larger issue. For instance, you might think that your issue is that your salespeople don’t have the right capabilities to sell. Its possible though that the real issue is that there isn’t a coherent go-to-market strategy for the product. Identifying this larger issue is critical. Even if you don’t hire a consultant to help you solve it. It makes sense to involve the consultant in framing outcomes. It helps gauge consultant capability. A consultant who understands your problem, differentiates them from the symptoms and defines outcomes, is likely to be in a good position to help you solve them. An independent and informed point of view could add value.
Return maximiser #2: View consulting differently from outsourcing
“Since they’re being paid, a consulting firm is responsible for all outcomes.” It’s not uncommon for business leaders to think that way. Yet for most consulting assignments that’s the wrong way to go about it. Think of it akin to going to a doctor and refusing to tell them your symptoms. Or not sharing your medical history. And still expecting the doctor to prescribe you the right treatment and get you back to health.
There’s a difference between consulting and outsourcing. Outsourcing is giving the entire responsibility of a task to someone outside your business. Consulting often needs more of your involvement and time. Don’t hold back in sharing key information. Some businesses view consultants who want a lot of interaction with them with suspicion. This could be because of the issues such as confidentially or uncertainty over why the consultant is asking specific information. Or they might agree with Martin Kihn in House of Lies that consultants steal your watch and then tell you the time! This might happen. Yet, without a consultant understanding your context, it’s impossible to develop actionable insights. Often the answers are present within the organization. Making sense of the problem, prioritizing potential solutions and converting to actionable steps is where the consultant adds value. Don’t discount that value. Open communication is a critical requirement for a successful consulting intervention.Recognize that both client and consultant have responsibilities towards achieving an optimum outcome.
Return maximiser #3: Take your time and then don’t!
Take your time prior to engaging a consultant. Think through and discuss outcomes. Be convinced of the need to engage a consultant. And check whether you could achieve the same outcomes internally at a lower cost. That said, set triggers for hiring a consultant or deciding not to. For instance, you could link consultant hiring to (non-)achievement of a target. Or set aside a specific time period where you will try to take solve your current challenge internally. The best outcome is if you manage to meet outcomes in that period. Else, engage a consultant.
Triggers are important to stop you from pushing decisions forward. Which neither helps you nor the consultant. Instead, set a trigger and take a decision either way.
Return maximiser #4: Appreciate simple and workable over impressive
“I knew that already”, say many clients to consultants at the end of an intervention. This drives the consultant’squest for fancier looking deliverables. The larger the page count, the more impressive it seems to clients. This focus on ‘deliverables’ is equally the clients and consultants’ fault. One key solution is to focus on outcomes – see Return Maximiser #1.
It’s also important for clients to realize that simple is often best. It may be obvious in hindsight. Hindsight is always 20/20. But it’s a solution which has been jointly chosen by you and the consultant. If there’s diligence in looking at alternatives and examining the pros and cons from an internal and external perspective, you should be happy with a simple solution which is actionable, practical and makes for easy implementation.
Return maximiser #5: Focus on implementation
Your consultant has proposed a simple, beautiful solution. Don’t stop at that point. You need two more steps. One- an implementable action plan with set accountabilities and timelines. Get the consultant to give you a practical action plan. With KPIs to measure that you’re going in the right direction. Two- start implementing! If you’re not confident about implementing internally, get the consultant to help. Yet, the core of the implementation should be internal. Limit a consultant’s role, if at all, to making sure that everything is going to plan. And to flag areas where they aren’t. In the implementation process make sure you articulate your plans well with your employees. Effective communication with the employees makes the buy-in very significant. If there is no buy-in, then there is a possibility that the recommendations will get poorly implemented.
Closing thoughts
You’ll never be happy with a consultant’s work if you treat it as a cost. Instead, look at it as an investment. And remember the 5 return maximisers to supercharge your returns on that investment.
