Ever wondered; how did the expensive dressed regimen of qualified, dry and witty salesmen became such a high profile profession? Im not going to delve into a historical narrative of consultation and talk about the ifs and buts but you can see for yourself just how glittering of a profession it has become. For businessmen who employ the services of such consultants the time is a purposefully tumultuous one because not only are they dealing with a workforce that is insistently quicker but increasingly becoming more expensive.

if you take a round at ranking and rating the workings of businesses then you will probably come across companies who make quite an earning working through the consultancy departments. The biggest example I can think of in this respect is probably the IT industry which has now gone hand in hand with its consulting resources. This does not just apply to your bigger software services like ERPs and data warehousing tools like SAP Hana but even with smaller customized web development services the need for consultants has become apparent. Plus with the entire software engineering procedure present within the IT firms, the practices of requirement gathering and quality assurance is where consultant level workers come in.

Even with website development and WordPress deployment, aspects which are deemed too simplistic, the consultant industry has caught on and become a pretty fundamental part of the web. To the businesses who employ the services of consultants it is important to take note of two things at least before they go hunting for their consultant in any service area.

Monitor your ROI

Return of investment? But of course. Except with consultancy you are getting an intangible service to you so how do you measure the return? Many businesses like to draw an agreement with their consultant, clearly defining the nature of the service being offered to them and defining the amount of business or return expected within a timeframe. Best approach? Well that is debatable.

The other approach is to try and value the business or flow that results after the agreement of service with the consultant. But really this is akin to saying that you credit the consultant for a business deal after they have advised you to do something that works. The problem with valuing that is that it has resulted in too many intangible services now becoming far too expensive.

Question

The best you can and should do is question those who you consult. The consultant’s job description after all involves answering all the queries involved with making a business decision so if at any point you feel that the advice given does not cover your grounds then question them thoroughly. I know professional settings in which many consultants simply take advantage of the newness of a business to certain aspects of business. This element plays itself rather badly in a few bigger software settings too which is why expertise is needed on the client’s side as well when they are making use of a consultant’s service.

The idea of keeping faith in the industry is a lot more to do with a rather intuitive reaction. At the end of the day even though many businesses try to blame the consultants the ones who actively make the business decision are still them which is why the element of care and the locus of control should never be disregarded. The rest as they say play itself out with time.