SUBJECT: How to determine the worth of your consulting team.
Choosing a consultant can be a daunting task. Many people claim to be an expert or a consultant, so how do you know?
KEYS TO A GOOD CONSULTANT:
1. The consultant must be relevant to the reason you are asking him to join your team. In other words, will he add value to your assignment? Value adding is important.
2. The person or team should be experienced with years of success in the field you are in.
3. The consulting team should have a diverse background amongst themselves. This is true for nearly every industry. With Edge the spectrum of services is very broad because the partners each enjoyed a long career in separate but similar disciplines- i.e., Sales, Marketing and Advertising plus Building, Development and Financial.
4. Chemistry within the group. A consultant will likely be around for some time interacting with your group. He must be compatible with the client’s team.
5. Commitment to excel. Generally a consultant is coming aboard to solve a problem or affect a solution or new direction. Smart people hire consultants, so the fix or that little bit of key advice that will make the difference is generally hard to find at first. A real commitment to the task is a must. This goes back to #1; is there value added to justify the fee. Committed consultants are worth their weight in gold because they become the least expensive cost to solving your problem.
6. The client must be open to “outside the box thinking.” This is easy to comprehend and is often the best reason to periodically hire consultants even when you may not need them. A business or corporate culture gets predictable and looses creativity over time simply because they are used to their way of operating. Consultants not only work for you, they may work for someone in your business or even in your area. Consultants see a broader base of successful tactics to common problems from their client base. The broad over view a consultant offers its clients gives you ideas beyond your own business culture……truly outside the box.
7. Having a consultant on fee for the time necessary to analyze the corrections and make mid-course corrections during the implementation phase. Consultants are human and they need to evaluate their own solutions as an ongoing process. They need time to watch their recommendations flower into a successful plan.
8. A consultant should always stay in touch, even after the completion of an assignment. Prudent clients realize that overhead is expensive but consulting is not. It saves money in the end and often replaces overhead.
9. Good in any region. Real Estate is Real Estate. There certainly are regional differences both geographically and otherwise. But nuances by Region are generally not difficult to quantify and overcome, and can in many cases offer fresh solutions to that region from outside. We have worked with California architects in Florida and North Carolina. The brainpower and creativity was worth the adaptations required. Building codes may vary, but sticks are sticks and bricks are bricks. Good floor plans and elevation designs cross regional boundaries easily and frequently.
The Keys to a good consultant are many, but the overall cost is a bargain if the consultant has done his job.
