<p>As the recession ends, and companies start looking for ways to gear up for recovery, many will turn toward external consultants and advisors. Small and medium enterprises, particularly those that may have had to lay off staff during the downtimes may need outside expertise to augment their capacities on a temporary basis. For many, this will be their first experience in working with a consultant, and it is easy to pick the wrong one.</p> <p>So...how do you hire a consultant? As a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), I'd like to offer the following rules to avoid being burned. <br /> <br /> <strong>Rule #1:</strong> Know when NOT to hire a consultant There are innumerable cases where hiring a consultant is the wrong decision. Here are some questions that you need to ask yourself: <br /> <br /> <em>Why are we hiring a consultant?</em> I wish I had a nickel for every project that was started without clearly understanding what problem was being solved, what the scope of the engagement was, and what the deliverables were. It is absolutely vital that the client understand what they are attempting to accomplish, and retain control of the project. Not doing so results in frustration, finger pointing and wasted time and money. Make sure you have clearly identified what you want, and why. This leads to the second question:<br /> <br /> <em>Could (should) we be doing this ourselves?</em> Often the work that is assigned to outsiders is valuable work that could be done by your own people. Imagine, for a second, the impact on morale when the "big problems" are consistently farmed out to external consultants. What signal does it send about your belief in your people's competency? While there are plenty of occasions where outside expertise is essential, even in these cases your own people should be intimately involved in the project. <br /> <br /> <strong>Rule #2:</strong> Clarify your expectations and put them on paper. Quantify the deliverables you expect, and include them in a formal Request For Proposal (RFP) document. If you can't clarify what you want, how can you expect anyone else to know? And if there is a budget (dollars, time) attached to a project, let the respondents to the RFP know what it is. As a consultant, if I have to fit a project into a certain container, it always helps to know up front what size the container is. This prevents generating a million dollar proposal for a thousand dollar project, which wastes your time as well as mine. <br /> <br /> <strong>Rule #3:</strong> Open a dialogue if you are unsure what the scope should be. The formal method is called a "Request For Interest" (RFI), which is used to solicit ideas from the consulting community in response to a stated problem. RFI's allow you to find out if there is anyone out there who can help solve your problem, without going to a formal RFP. The responses to RFI's can be all over the map, but at least they can provide a range of options that can be used for determining eventual budgets. You may want to send the RFP out only to those companies that respond to your initial RFI. <br /> <br /> RFI's can usually be posted on-line through the professional associations that represent the interests of consultants.<br /> <br /> <strong>Rule #4:</strong> Check the credentials of the firms bidding on the work. Consulting and training aren't professions in the traditional sense, as there is no regulatory body or enforced standards or certifications. However, more and more firms and individuals are voluntarily following the standards set by various professional associations, and if nothing else, their acceptance of these standards demonstrates a dedication and level of professionalism that may be lacking in firms that don't follow these standards. This is not to say that firms not following the standards aren't any good: there are many excellent consultants and trainers who may not even be aware that the standards exist. But following standards and achieving professional certification is another means of filtering through the myriad of firms and individual practitioners out there. Also, if someone offers a certification as proof of competency, get details of what the certification means and the means of obtaining certification.<br /> <br /> <strong>Rule #5:</strong> Ask tough questions. Every firm has a few "train wrecks" in their records: your job as the client is to ask about the projects the firm doesn't want to show on the resum&eacute;. A consultant's willingness to talk about their disasters and discuss what went wrong and why, their recovery actions and "lessons learned" is a measure of their confidence and ability to improve. <br /> <br /> Ask about how the firm will transfer skills/knowledge to your own team, and how long that will take. Good consultants work themselves out of a job. <br /> <br /> Ask about competitors, and ask us to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. If we weren't in the running, which should you select, and why? <br /> <br /> <strong>Rule #6:</strong> Check references. <strong>Never skip this step</strong>. Check with the issuing authority for certifications that are listed. Go beyond the submitted references and try to find other firms that weren't listed. Then call those firms to find out why. <br /> <br /> <strong>Rule #7:</strong> Think about cultural fit. As consultants we are hired because of the technical expertise we can bring to bear on a problem. Unfortunately, organizations are full of people, people who interact with the problem and with each other. You need to find a consultant who not only has the technical ability to do the job, but also the "people skills" to fit in and work effectively with your organization.<br /> <br /> By following these rules, you will increase your odds of having a successful experience with external consultants, and you will get more value for the money you spend on consultants. And frankly, you'll make the consultants you hire much happier too.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> 2009-10-16T00:45:06Z -1.5428 99 6957 true 5 43750 how-to-hire-a-consultant 0 2009-10-19T11:09:20Z 2009-10-19T18:09:43Z

Some simple rules to help new businesses save themselves grief when hiring a consultant.

1 2009-10-19T18:09:43Z