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Selecting the Right Consultant



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Opening a New Office Location - By Jesse Hopps

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Selecting the Right Consultant Selecting the right consultant for your organization can be a very daunting task. Choose right, and you have a very successful project and everyone is satisfied; choose wrong, and you have a recipe for disaster. Use Demand Metric's downloadable Consultant Evaluation Matrix to compare your potential consultants across 5 key dimensions.

What Makes a Good Consultant?

Action Plan:

1. Document Requirements- before you go into the market to find the right person for the job, be sure to have a good understanding of what you are looking for in the first place. Document and prioritize your project requirements, in the form of a Request for Proposal (RFP) or similar method.

2. Research Top Candidates- speak with peers and colleagues in your industry to identify which firms, or particular consultants, have a strong history of delivering projects in your area of need. Industry associations are another great place to start the research process.

3. Conduct Initial Interviews- invite your top 2-5 consulting firms to an informal interview. While this can be done over the phone, looking each consultant in the eye is a much better way to judge his or her character. Ask for any reports or thought leadership they have contributed to their subject.

4. Compare Contenders- use Demand Metric's Consultant Evaluation Matrix to do an apples-to-apples comparison across the 5 key dimensions: relevant experience, skill set, professionalism, methodology & tools, and personality.

5. Check References- before signing on the dotted line, check the references you are given, along with a few indirect references from their customer list. Typically this list can be found on their company website.

6. Make a Decision- after reviewing proposals from your top 1 or 2 consultants, make a decision and move forward with the project. Be leery of proposals that are based on a Time & Materials (T&M) cost structure. You should favor fixed pricing & deliverables over time & materials.

Bottom-Line:

Choosing the right consultant can be a difficult task for any executive. Use a systematic evaluation method to separate the wheat from the chaff.


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Free PDF Download
Opening a New Office Location - By Jesse Hopps

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About the Author: Jesse Hopps

RSS for Jesse's articles - Visit Jesse's website
Jesse Hopps founded Demand Metric in October 2006 and is the active President & CEO, focusing on sales & product development. Prior to Demand Metric, Jesse worked as an independent consultant specializing in Internet Marketing and Business Continuity Planning. He began his career with the Info-Tech Research Group in London, Canada, where he helped contribute to their explosive growth. Jesse holds a business degree from the University of Western Ontario and lives in Panama City, Panama.
Click here to visit Jesse's website.
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