The Sales Person

Your first physical contact with someone from the consulting company is typically the field sales representative.  You will find that many of these reps are positive, energized and informed about business in your area.

You will also find that they will not answer any of your business solution questions.  It is neither their training nor their specialty.  Instead, they will ask you a few questions about your current concerns--whether they be operational, employee, sales, administration or management.  They will tell you that the way to handle any of these problems is through some form of a business survey that will look at your entire business (top to bottom, front to back, etc.) and provide you with a report on their findings, both the good and the bad.

This is all true from their perspective.  They cannot do a survey themselves and rely upon the professionalism of the surveying individual to provide you with the expected results.  Do understand that many of the companies provide only a verbal report.  Getting a written report from many of them is difficult to impossible at this point and there are reasons for it.  Here are a few:

   1.  The report could be seen as the solution to existing problems.  It is not.  It highlights the findings and crystallizes the problems without presenting either solutions or, more necessary, the tools and techniques for developing and implenting solutions.
   2.  Information provided from your company, its employees and affiliates might not be accurate or complete.  The survey takes place in a short period of time (typically two days but can vary from a single day to a week depending on the consulting firm and the nature of your business) and not everyone is willing or able to comply with the intense information demands.
   3.  Should management consultants come to the company they may find that the survey had not delved deeply enough into the company (for the reasons given in 2 above).  It might be that the items identified are symptoms rather than root causes or, in some cases, that even more pressing conditions exist that require attention quite apart from the points in the survey report.

At the end of the brief sales presentation you will be asked for authorization to advance to a survey.  I encourage you to have the survey because the fees are nominal (ranging from free to $100 to several thousand) and the insights could be invaluable.  One of the truisms is you get what you pay for so, even though the survey is a kind of loss leader for the consulting firm, sales pressure from the survey professional increases significantly as the survey fee decreases.

It is imperative that you let your employees know in advance that a survey is going to be conducted so that there is minimal disruption or stress.  People will wonder just what is happening and, if allowed to use their imagination, will often imagine direly.  They might think the company is in serious trouble, that massive layoffs are coming, that the business is for sale.  It is far better to prevent these negative imaginings.  You do that with full disclosure in advance.

Once you have agreed to have a survey conducted you will be asked to sign a simple form with a scheduled date for conducting the survey and, most often, a confirming phone call which introduces you to an executive in the home office.  This executive is responsible for making sure that you are fully informed about the details of the survey including objectives, dates and fees.  They will also want to know whether there has been any unwritten agreements.

The only agreements that will be honored with these companies are those in writing.  You will find that they will verify this point at various steps throughout the time of your involvement with the firm in order to make sure that both you and they know what is expected in order to make sure that neither you nor they are surprised (read that disappointed, frustrated, angry) because some expectation was not met.

Remember that you are responsible for your company and should insist that whatever you believe will be provided is agreed to by the consulting firm.  If you cannot confirm your expectations in writing and decide to go forward anyway, then you have only yourself to blame should you be disappointed.

One more thing.  In many instances and throughout the entire process the consulting firms will present you with prepared forms.  Some of them have some blanks to be filled in.  In all of the companies it is common that alteration of any of the terms and conditions in the prepared documents, especially agreements requiring signatures of both parties, will invalidate the document.  Should you want to change some of the terms by elimination, modification or insertion and meet this obstacle, do not be surprised to find out that the consulting firm's representative cannot satisfy your request without authorization from the home office--and that authorization is seldom granted.

The firm's documentation is, generally speaking, even handedly fair and has been developed over considerable time.  Changes are not taken lightly, if at all.  If you have an approved modification to an agreement from the field person, then you should point it out to the home office during your phone call with them.  Keep in mind that many of the phone calls are recorded for quality and training purposes--and to avoid faulty memories.

Until next time.

About Consulting Companies

There have been various postings and news stories about several of the consulting companies catering to small and mid-sized businesses, including a lot of negative commentary. These companies are not ethical, nor are they unethical.

You see companies are neither ethical or unethical. People are. Clients and employees of all firms have a responsibility to themselves to behave ethically. Even when leadership requires conduct that is viewed as unethical it is still up to the individual to choose how to act. Don't look for an easy to blame scapegoat. Accept responsibility.

This being said, today's posting presents a general overview of the operations of one of these companies. Future postings will go into more detail.

In general, the companies most typically have the following stages:

1. Pre-sales. In this stage the company's telemarketers or solicitation letters reach out to large numbers of companies with the sole purpose of selling an obligation-free interview with a field salesperson.

2. Initial sales. Very often your initial contact will be with a salesperson using a prepared script. Don't be put off by this. Listen and decide. Consulting companies have the ability to fill in the gaps in your business operations and management and it is your call. The sole purpose of this visit is to entice you to accept a survey of your business.

3. The Survey. For many, the Survey is the best part. Very often clients' eyes are opened to conditions. These are not necessarily revelations because clients are often aware of the condition and either do not know how to deal with them or, even worse, do not understand the repercussions of not dealing with them. The person or persons conducting the Survey have the primary business purpose of instilling a call to action in the business leading to an agreement to have consultants come into the business to develop and install a remedy or remedies. Surveys are usually flat fee based. Yes, they do cost money, although typically a nominal amount to discourage insincere engagements.

4. The Consultants. These folks come most often in teams, although solo practitioners are possible. The lead person is responsible for clearly defining the scope of work and obtaining both concurrence and commitment from the client (you) to develop and install solutions. If your commitment is minimal and your definition of the intended results are not clearly communicated, blame yourself for poor consulting. A responsible firm will deliver what is required by the client and little more; and the firm will use as many corporate resources (no additional charge) as might become necessary to bring in the results.

5. After Care. This varies widely amongst the firms and is intended to monitor your progress after the engagement is closed. It takes many forms ranging from a simple follow-up letter to phone calls and then to longer term retainers to verify progress on-site.

More in my next posting.

What Is This About

I have consulted with over 10,000 businesses over the last 30+ years and have owned and operated distributorships, distribution companies and a manufacturer. In addition, I rose to Managing Director of one of the oldest management consulting companies to small and mid-size businesses in the U.S..

I love to help businesses.

This blog is a forum for helping businesses deal with their business issues. There is no charge for the service provided through this blog and, in addition to myself, other experienced business consultants will be invited to participate in helping you with your concerns.

My next post will begin talking about the different consulting companies and how to use them to your advantage.

Take advantage of this site.