All businesses, large or small, will at some stage need to invest in external expertise and guidance.
Management teams know their businesses well, but to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing environment, bringing in relevant experience to help and support can be a very effective and cost efficient way to navigate business challenges and build a roadmap for success.
External support is available for most areas in a business, and across multiple disciplines. External advisors can help in many aspects such as Sales growth, Strategy, Finance, Marketing, HR, and IT, to name but a few.
Depending on your requirements, external consulting can take the form of one off project based tasks or ongoing longer term support.
Bringing in relevant experience to help and support can be a very effective and cost efficient way to navigate business challenges
How do you choose the right advisor?
Business Need
It is critical to firstly understand what your needs are, and their priority. Do you really need external help on a low priority issue?
Look to bring in an advisor when you have a clear requirement, and a need that is really important for the business.
Be open minded, however, and understand that you may have blind spots. To try and identify these, and their importance, speak to your peers, your network and be open to meeting with potential advisors to understand what they can add to your business.
Expertise
Once you have identified what the business requires in terms of support, you should look for an advisor (or team of advisors) who possess the right skills in the particular area that needs to be strengthened. Your consultant needs to have suitable know-how to help solve your business problem.
When you are speaking with potential candidates, it is worth understanding in detail where they believe their proficiency lies. It is useful to ask specific questions to test that their knowledge level is appropriate for the tasks you will need them to support you with.
Relevant professional credentials and qualifications can provide key pieces of evidence to help you make your decision.
Your consultant needs to have suitable know-how to help solve your business problem.
Experience
You should consider how long the advisor has worked in their particular field, and more specifically, in the role that you would like them to fulfil.
If you are looking for senior level support and leadership, you would expect your advisor to have many years of experience in the role they are helping you with.
Do your research. Drill down into the career experience of your potential advisor.
Watch out for consultants that say the right things, but possess only a small amount of built up experience in the area you are looking at. Getting a potential advisor to talk through their CV can be very enlightening.
Strong experience is invaluable, and can only be gained by individuals who have spent meaningful time doing what they are advising you in.
Watch out for consultants that say the right things, but possess only a small amount of built up experience in the area you are looking at.
When an advisor has spent many years performing in their area of expertise, they will have naturally made some mistakes and the learnings from those mistakes coupled with accumulated time spent gaining knowledge in their field can be the ‘special sauce’ that your business can benefit from by bringing them in.
Reputation
Ensure that you have properly assessed the reputation of your potential consultant. Recommendations from trusted individuals in your network can be a powerful filter you can rely on to ensure that your consultant is fit and proper.
Recommendations from trusted individuals in your network can be a powerful filter you can rely on
It is more difficult to assess individuals who you have come across ‘cold’, and don’t be afraid to rely on your instincts here. Comfort can be gained from cold introductions by reviewing the websites/Linked In profiles of the individuals concerned.
Look out for customer testimonials and reviews – a good advisor will be able to demonstrate successful client relationships and also talk you through examples of their achievements. If you want further comfort, it is perfectly acceptable to ask for a direct client reference.
Cultural fit
When looking for the right advisor for you and your team, an important consideration is cultural fit. There are a number of key questions to consider.
Do you get on well with the advisor? Will they need to work with your wider team, and be able to slot in easily with your team when performing their tasks?
How do you plan to work with your advisor – will it be arms length, where you instruct and leave them to it, or are you looking for collaborative support where they are more involved in the business – and if the latter, does your advisor have the right softer skill set for this?
Does your advisor have the right softer skill set
Bringing in someone who can fit in well with your business culture is essential. For example, if your business has a hardworking but relaxed culture, it doesn’t make sense to bring in an individual who is overly formal and corporate.
Ability to listen
The very best advisors listen to their clients carefully and truly want to understand you and the business, and the problems they are trying to solve.
Every business is different and faces unique challenges.
Look out for potential advisors who are keen to push their own agenda and solutions without really getting to the core issues of your business. The danger of accepting this can be overly complex solutions to business issues, which can be difficult to implement, take longer, ultimately have a lower success rate, and end up with you spending more time and money than required.
Look out for potential advisors who are keen to push their own agenda and solutions without really getting to the core issues of your business.
Flexibility and availability
When assessing potential consultants, consider if they have the flexibility to offer bespoke solutions that truly address your needs.
Flexibility doesn’t just stop here – does the advisor have the ability to work with you in the way that you need? Do you need them to be available at set times every week, for example, or is your requirement more likely to be a scenario where you work with more fluidity? Will you need to be in touch with them regularly and be able to call without making an appointment?
How many other clients does your consultant have, and do they have the time to properly support you and your business?
How many other clients does your consultant have, and do they have the time to properly support you and your business?
It is worth checking that your consultant will be able to meet your needs and expectations.
Affordability
This is an important question. Does your budget allow for the consultant?
Understand firstly how much time they believe they will need, as well as their charge out rate.
It is worth shopping around and looking at a few candidates. A big price differential can be meaningful to the business.
However, it is important to get the right candidate who offers the best solutions, and it can be worthwhile reassessing your budget if the advisor who ticks all of your boxes is more expensive than you’d hoped.
Avoid the pitfall of false economy – it’s better to pay more to get things right, first time, than make a decision based on cost alone.
Avoid the pitfall of false economy – it’s better to pay more to get things right, first time, than make a decision based on cost alone.
Values
Does your consultant share your values and are you aligned in your vision?
This is key if you are looking for long term compatibility. Are you clear on your own values? Thinking about this will enable you to have more clarity on whether your advisor will align with your goals. The stronger the alignment, the better the chances are for success.
If you are confident that you can build trust in your consultant, that they are transparent and can communicate well, you are significantly down the path to choosing the right advisor to support you and the business.
In summary, selecting the right external advisors can be critical to achieving business success. Having clarity on your needs, your values, and properly assessing potential candidates in various areas, will give you a much better chance of finding the right support to help drive the business forwards.
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