Choosing a Consultant: The Three Essential Elements

As a manager many years ago, I was completely at a loss when it came to deciding on an external consultant. Two of the three selection goals were intuitively hit, which was fortunate for me. With a communication video in mind, it was simple to examine and compare what each consultant had previously created. After interviewing many consultants, I settled on the one I felt most at ease with and whose work pleased me the most. The project was a success, and I gained a great deal of knowledge as a result of it as well.

Since then, I've had to hire a slew of consultants, worked as a consultant for over two decades, and collaborated with a slew of major and small consultancies alike. My managerial and consulting expertise informs the following advice on how to choose a consultant.

What are the three things you need to keep in mind in order to choose a good consultant? In this context, "consultant" may refer to either an individual or a business. To begin with, and most clearly, the consultant must be able to carry out the task at hand. First and foremost, the consultant should blend in with your employees and those who will be working on this project. If the consultant is excellent, you should always learn something new from the project.

Is the consultant capable of doing the job? There are a few pitfalls to watch out for. When I first started out as a consultant, I recall filing a tender for a huge assignment with a partner (who was also new to the field) and getting picked in the last few for interview. Only as a partnership had we had any previous experience with that sort of job, and we'd never worked with a company that was in that area. We won the contract. Why? The customer liked the fact that we were different from our competition because of our innovation and newness. But this was a one-of-a-kind customer. A consultant (such as ourselves) who lacks the depth and breadth of project expertise should not be hired.So, unless you're looking for "freshness," here are some rules to follow when selecting for experience:

Are there any particulars you'd want to take note of? Make sure you know exactly what you want out of the project. Quality, quantity, time, and cost should all be taken into consideration while evaluating them. Compare consultants based on these output metrics.

Inquiring minds want to know: Check their referencesb ask for the contact of the last task they accomplished. Use your "output criteria" as a guide while verifying references.

When looking for someone to implement solutions, are you looking for someone who can help you identify and better understand the issue you're trying to solve? There might be a combination of the two. Sometimes it's beneficial to divide a project into these two halves.

There are a number of things to keep in mind while interviewing potential consultants, such as: people who "know all the answers" may not be listening properly.

Do they seem to have a "one size fits all" solution? Take caution if it doesn't particularly fit the bill for the job.

How good are they at explaining what they can't do as they are at explaining what they can?The integrity, truthfulness, and dependability of a person may always be judged by this.

Does their first answer to your request meet your quality requirements, provide enough information to make a choice, and meet your timing expectations?

The depth and breadth of the consultant's competence in the subject field are important considerations.

Ask the consultant what sets him or her apart from other consultants. What distinguishes them from the rest of the consultants?

First and foremost, will the consultant be able to work well with the individuals they'll be dealing with? While they may be able to perform the task, if they can't get along with humans, the outcomes will be less than ideal. This is a crucial implementation problem. When working on a large government project (with a total budget of more than M $43 million), the customer was notorious for keeping us at a distance (for example, on a residential workshop, we were not encouraged to eat or mix socially with the client project leaders). The customer was satisfied with our work, but they might have gotten more out of it if we were given more freedom to collaborate with them. As a result, the customer should have hired another consultant in this circumstance.

In order to have the best possible client-consultant match, you should follow these guidelines.

Is the consultant capable of gaining the confidence and respect of your key stakeholders?

Do you have faith in this person or people?

Do they have a plan for how they will do this? In other words, how will they function inside the company? What kind of impression will they leave on you? Make a mental picture of yourself and your coworkers working alongside the consultant to finish the task at hand. Is there a chance this will work? Is it probable that this will be a fruitful collaboration?

How will the consulting firm be involved in the project and what are their responsibilities? The folks you're interviewing, for example, may or may not really be working on the project. Look out for consultancies with "front people" who gain the business, only to bring in less-experienced employees to do the task.

What does an "excellent working relationship" mean to the consultant? The consultant says they have an "excellent working connection," but does that mean a partnership between the two of you?

As a third consideration, will you be able to get knowledge from the consultant? Your lack of experience and breadth of knowledge may be the primary reasons for hiring an outside consultant for your project. One of your goals should be to get more experience through this assignment. As an example, consider the following:

Which of the following factors led you to hire a consultant? What were the internal voids that you couldn't fill?

Do you know what you can expect from this person?

Will you learn more about the consultant's process (how they operate) and content (their expertise) management?

Can the consultant help you advance and strengthen your position in the company?

Make sure your requirements are satisfied before making a final decision on which consultant to hire. Then, give each of them a little assignment or a piece of the project to do as part of the selection process. On the other hand, a few years ago, we were competing with an even larger consulting firm for a multi-million dollar assignment. So, since he couldn't decide between us, our customer hired both of us to do a little project that would eventually be integrated into the bigger project. When we finished the tiny job, he got a good sense of our abilities and working styles. In the end, isn't testing the consultant's abilities the most important factor in the selection process?

Definitely. For those wondering, we got the job done!