Thoughts on Consulting

Successful consultants understand one thing: the sales process never ends. Once the CEO has been sold and agrees to the project, the sales process continues to the middle and lower level clients. These are the people with whom one must gain their trust and buy-in to the changes that must be made. One must continue selling the project to them, but from a different angle.

The fact that a consultant is siting in their office means that in some way upper management is not happy with the results of the department. This is a direct threat to them and they will often be passive at best or hostile at worst. I have found that using the angle of “what can I do to make your work life easier and better?” works well. Obviously, I have the CEO’s ear. So, if I recommend a change that makes sense and has data to support it, he will mostly agree.

Now, the Purchasing, Operations, Production, etc. Managers have a powerful ally on their side. Of course, the main project must be sold to these middle level clients to get their buy-in. The benefits of the results must be made clear to them. Everyone wants to be a part of a successful enterprise that does not waste their time by doing useless time-wasting activities. Everyone wants to do a good job and wants their job to be effective. You, as the consultant, have the power to incorporate these improvements into the project.

I also work in similar ways with the lower level clients, the line operators, etc. They know better than anyone else how to improve their productivity and the efficiency of the equipment. They just do their job as they are told, but in their hearts they probably know how to do it better. I ask them what they could do differently to improve their work and it always surprises me the quality ideas I get.

After gaining their respect, the success of the project is just about guaranteed. Another fear that must be dealt with is the common misconception and fear that the presence of consultants means layoffs are coming. It is paramount that you deal with this right from the start. I would never do a project that had laying off workers as the main goal. There is so much more that can be done before needing to push that red button. I have done many crisis management projects where by the end the client had to hire more people.