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So far in this series of posts, we've looked at why you might need a consultant, how you select a consultant and now in this post we take a look at possibly the most important part of the process; How do you manage a consultant … to deliver the desired outcomes, and to meet your project objectives?

It’s really a straightforward three step process:

1. Connect with the consultant
2. Monitor work
3. Evaluate results.

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In my last blog we talked about why you might need to hire a consultant for your business. Today we go to the next step and discuss how to go about engaging a consultant.

Having made an ‘in principle’ decision to engage a consultant … move on and follow this seven step selection process:

1. Develop initial brief
2. Scan for expertise
3. Shortlist
4. Seek more information
5. Request proposals
6. Make a decision
7. Finalise contract.

I’ve had senior executives and business owners "shy away" from the work that needs to be done here … and … it makes me wonder why there are so many ‘bad consultant’ stories.  You must put this effort in to get the best possible result.

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While business people typically have a broad range of skills, with perhaps some specialties; changes within the business, in the broader economic climate, or other unforeseen circumstances, can create a need that can't be met with the existing skills within the business. When that occurs, employing a specialist consultant can provide the skills necessary to deal with the situation as well as an objective viewpoint that can help to effectively focus the team.

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Very many business people simply don’t have a clear view about what is unique about their business.

The impact of this can be far greater than you might imagine, because it’s this unique business quality that defines so much of the communication that a business will have with potential customers, whether that’s sales conversations, advertising, PR, and of course online activity, from the website design to social media. For the website, the distinctive qualities will define the style the copy will written in, the page layout style and even the graphic design. These elements all need to be crafted to support the unique value proposition.

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