Nicola Davis, managing director of N2 Consulting, gives some straightforward advice about how to use an external consultant
Does access to cutting edge business skills, a fresh take on how to improve your performance, and new ideas to galvanise your team sound of interest? Good external consultants bring all this and more, and can have a fantastic impact on the growth of an SME business. Yet many companies have never considered buying this sort of expertise, assuming it's for large corporates only, or blinded by the science and jargon surrounding it. But there are experts out there made to fit the SME market.
What consultants do
Consultants should bring skills and knowledge to your business that are over and above what you already have in-house, including the valuable experience, objectivity and hard challenge that is often vital to SMEs to move up a gear. They are (or should be) logical thinkers with disciplined ways of working. Consultants typically work on specific projects for a set period of time, and then transfer their skills or new ways of working to your team and move on, either out of the business or on to a new project if you like what you've seen and want to use them elsewhere. (Tip—if you need someone to integrate themselves for longer, consultants can prove an expensive way to do it—a skilled interim manager or full time employee might suit you better.)
Where to find a good consultant
A good starting point is to contact industry organisations such as the Management Consultancy Association (MCA) or Top Consultant.com to find out who the credible practices are in your field. Talk to other businesses your size that use consultants and learn about their experiences. Look out for consulting awards and business supplements in the national newspapers and business media and see who is being talked about in terms of their great client delivery or good customer relationships.
Choosing the right consultant—chemistry!
Once you have done your research and begun the first round of meetings here are some key rules. Don't be dazzled by big names and flash suits. What you need to know are: do these people know the SME market and have they tackled your sorts of issues successfully before? Make sure they don't over egg the pudding, and try to sell you a solution to a problem you don't have. SMEs have their own unique scale and size, are more flexible than large corporates, and often have less formal managerial and communications structure—and you'll want a consultant who recognizes that right off the bat. Look for chemistry between you. Do the consultants get you talking? Do they appear to be on your wavelength? You'll be taking these people deep into the murky corners of your business, so trust your intuition and look for someone you get on with straightaway.
Right kind of contract for your business
Once you have settled on a firm, it is essential to strike the right contractual arrangement. There are three kinds of deal: time and materials, fixed price, and risk and reward.
• Time and materials means you pay by the day, however many days it takes, a good approach if time is a factor
• Fixed price works well if you have a set budget
• Risk and reward suits a consultant and client who want to build more of a partnership. If you are asset-rich but cash-poor, this might be an option for you because you can hire the consultant in return for a share in the business or profits when their work has proved its value and helped grow your business.
In all cases, consultants should be brought in to work on a project that has a clear beginning, middle, end, and a process for transferring any new skills to your internal team—so that when they've left you can carry on working independently.
How to start work and build bonds
A good consultant should begin by 'workshopping' the problem or requirements out with you. They'll gather the key players together and run an informal session where the objective will be to identify the main problem/requirements and brainstorm possible solutions, looking in detail at how they might work, the pros and cons, possible issues and areas of concern, etc. In this session not only will you get a taste of what the consultants can do and how they work, but having been involved with the process from the start, your team will also be fully bought in to the solution, making for a smoother ride in the long term.
Tangible success
You should by now have a sound foundation for a productive relationship. However, people sometimes still have a sense that they have nothing tangible to show for money spent on consultants. So, how do you ensure you really get value?
First of all, you must have, and be able to articulate, a clear understanding of the issue that needs addressing and what you expect the outcomes to be. You must share this clearly with your consultants. Meet regularly to get an update on progress and issues. Never leave them just to get on with it. After all, one day they will leave, and you don't want them departing with any value in their heads and laptops rather than your own. Ensure your consultants have a process in place to transfer any new skills or thinking to your team, so results and improvements continue to come long after the consultants have gone.
One happy family
It takes a little while sometimes! In the beginning expect staff to feel threatened by the arrival of consultants and fail to buy into new ways of working or to share key information. Solve this by clearing the air in advance so there are no unfounded fears, and share roles, responsibilities and objectives so consultants and staff work as a single team. Ditch a 'them and us' culture. Communicate frequently and openly with your consultants. People should be responding to emails, picking up each other's phones, making coffee, etc. The more integrated the consultants' feel, the more they will be able to help, and the more your team will look on them as trusted advisers.
It is also important to remember that consultants are often with you to drive through a change that in itself may be uncomfortable for the organisation—that is not the same as your staff actually feeling uncomfortable with the consultant so try to distinguish between the two—it will make life easier!
Conclusion
By now you should have a basic understanding of the role of a consultant and how to engage them, and hopefully, the confidence to decide whether or not using one could be good for your business. One final tip: if you are not comfortable or convinced on what you are getting from your consultant, ask for clarification, and if you fail to get it—don't go there. Never be afraid to ask an 'embarrassing' question such as: 'I don't understand what I'll be getting'. The right consultant will be delighted to be challenged, and will happily explain.
www.n2-consulting.com
Posted 29 November 2007 : Director.co.uk