The Truth About Consultants – How to Leverage an Expert for Fun and Profit

This week’s podcast shares how to properly leverage subject matter experts or “consultants”. Too often clients unknowingly sabotage themselves with regard to deriving value from the work of the consultant, advisor or expert. They don’t know how to USE that third party expertise and apply it to their business in tangible ways. Much of this disconnect is how “consultants” are perceived by many people in the business world due to the poor practices of a few. I can say with confidence that the industry is not inherently shady. The consulting skill set can be used for good or for evil. • You can build an accurate model or a misleading model. • You can wordsmith your way through a meeting or you can have a real conversation. • You can manipulate data or you can analyze it objectively. The vast majority of professional consultants I know (and I know a lot of them) work hard for their clients, care deeply about their success and hold themselves to a very high standard of ethics. Could it be that many clients don’t know how to work with the consultant? (although one could argue that a good consultant will help his/her client get the most from the engagement.) At the same time we have all heard these cliches stated as indisputable fact: “Consultants steal your watch and then bill you to tell you what time it is.” “Consultants just tell you what you already know.” “A consultant is another word for “unemployed middle management.” “Consultants are wildly expensive and only for big companies.” What’s the truth? Join us as we share exactly that and nothing but. We’ll share how to spot a phony BEFORE you hire them and how to really leverage the client/consultant relationship to return multiples on your investment in expertise.