Re Consulting: Using a Consultant, Getting the Most From a Consultant

Using a Consultant, Getting the Most From a Consultant

This isn’t one of those lists of reasons to use a consultant or freelancer. The assumption is that you’ve already decided that you need Expertise, don’t have the Time, may need more Experience, need an Outsider, or figured that the Cost is in your favor. This is a quick outline of how to get the most from your engagements with outside help.

This process comes from my own painfully slow learning curve. It’s been said that experience is the best teacher and that’s certainly the case here. Tens of thousands of dollars into the experience have led to this starting point:

Begin with the end in mind

With apologies to Mr Covey, his advice is the perfect way to get started. When you have a problem that requires outside help, the key to getting the most from that help is for both parties to understand what success looks like. Sounds easy, but the reality is not that neat. You need help, but the reason you’re looking for help is because you have a gap, right? How frustrating is that?!? I want help but I’m not sure exactly what kind of outcomes to expect. . .now I’m uncomfortable. . .now I’m looking to minimize my risk in order to keep myself from being taken advantage of so I’ll default to behaviors that have worked in the past.

Is that close to what you’re thinking?

There’s no shame in operating in this fashion. The industry has adapted and you can find help at just about any rate you’re willing to pay, but you’ll need to work for results no matter who you engage or how much you invest. Here’s the process I use:

– Start talking but listen hard. You need to open up and talk about why you need the help and where you hope to see results. The more specific you are in describing your desired outcome, the more insights you’ll get. The key here is not to be burdened by any pre-conceived notions of what can or can’t be done. Not sure if a series of coaching sessions will get everyone working together and exceeding goal? Spell it out. Thinking you might be able to replace a body with some technology? Lay it on the line. Think you can get the same results from outsourcing at half the cost? Float the balloon.

Then listen carefully.

Your prospective helper should challenge your desired results. Why do you think that? How did you come up with that? If they pull out a list of “this is what you’ll get” and don’t tie in results or say something like “and that should give you the results you’re after”, then it’s time to press. How confident are you? Have you achieved similar results? Is there someone I can talk to that you have done work for?

Just reading through those questions it may sound like I’m suggesting you turn into a jerk, but I’m not saying that. I’m saying that walking down that path with 3 or 4 prospective consultants will give you a brief education and help narrow the actual results you can expect from investing in outside help.

At this point it’s probably fair to say that the definition of consultant and freelancer creeps in here. If you are looking for temp help, quizzing a contractor/freelancer isn’t going to do you a lot of good. They want to offer a service for a set rate and you have an opportunity to take them up on their offer. A consultant by definition is there to lend expertise and solve a problem that may or may not involve doing the actual work. The first step in the process outlined above is best to use with someone who considers themselves a consultant. An expert in applying best practices or training on best practices for solving a problem. Next step.

– Run your mental math on what the value of this work will be. By value, I’m referring to the place where you’ll see an impact on the weekly, monthly or yearly results of the business. Since I’m working in business development, it usually shows up in the top line revenue growth. My friend James at Expense Reducer impacts the expense line to maximize current revenue. Someone else may teach your staff enough to impact both revenue and expense. My point is that you’re hiring help in order to improve your business situation, so you should see that show up somewhere. . .

When you have the math in your head, spell it out for the party involved. Like anything else, what gets measured gets managed and once both parties are in cahoots on what will be measured and what the expected results should be, you’re well on your way to a successful engagement. Outside help is eager to please and if your expectations are realistic, the relationship is going to be off to a good start.

– Over communicate. Now that you worked from a rough idea of the results you’d like to see down to an agreement that both parties are excited about, it’s time to over communicate with one another.

It’s bizarre how many times I hired someone and then looked up a month later thinking “I wonder how things are going?” At first I thought I wanted regular reports or set meetings, but ultimately the very best engagements came down to treating the consultant like they were a new employee. If they were good at communicating, chances are they were good at asking how I thought things were going. They were usually good at getting communications out, but that didn’t help either.

It came down to this: if the goal was explicit, the communication was short, powerful and effective. Where are we at? What did we expect to see at this point? What are we seeing? What are we going to do next? Simple, effective communication.

– Cut it off when it gets off track. This sounds harsh, but when both parties agree on the value if you’re veering from expected results and it doesn’t look like the desired results are in the cards, dial it back or cut it off. The key here is to discuss where things will be cut off before you get started. It’s pretty easy once you have the results you want, the confirmation that those results are possible and you know where it shows up inside the business. Take an extra hour and discuss the point where you’ll cut the cord. “We’re all in agreement that XX is where we need to go and this will help us get there. If we’re 120 days into this thing are we’re not at 10% of XX, does that mean we’re hopelessly off track?”

Since this discussion takes place in the pre-work phase, the cut off points are pretty easy for everyone to agree to. You’re relying on the consultant’s integrity and experience and listening for where they’d say, “Yep, at this point it’s not working. I’m flabbergasted that it’s not working because it works most of the time but the results don’t lie. Let’s cut it off before we get any deeper.”

Now that I read through these 4 steps, I can honestly say that I would have driven more results from my outside help if I adhered to it. It wasn’t always possible to do but the time spent investing in defining the success and failure of a project up front worked well when it was done.

It’s hard to do.

It works too.

Good stuff.