What to expect from your consultant

"My consultant hates me!"

That's the first line of an email I got last week. Here's the second line.

"I need someone who believes in me and supports what I'm trying to do."

If you are thinking of hiring a consultant, don't expect a cheerleader. That's not what we do.

Any consultant in any field absolutely does want to help you succeed. After all, you are supposedly hiring us to do just that, so we can't succeed unless you succeed.

When a consultant goes into a business, their job is to find the things that you can change that will help you to be more successful. If everything is already perfect, then you wouldn't need a consultant, right?

In the beginning it might feel like all the consultant does is find fault with everything, but to fix a problem, you have to focus on the problem.

Make no mistake, it takes real guts to bare your operations to an outsider, and your consultant knows that. We also know that we are going to deal with a certain amount of hurt feelings and bruised egos. No one on earth loves criticism, no matter how tactfully it is given.

Still, you are paying a consultant to give you advice and strategies for improvement.

Consultants should be asking you tough questions. That doesn't mean they don't see the good things you are doing. It's just that the good things are already working, so while they need to be considered and credit given for them, they aren't the problem.

When I start working with a client, the first thing I do is ask what is working and what isn't, relative to the overall goal. For instance, maybe your community outreach or marketing is bringing lots of new faces to your website or store, but you aren't seeing an income bump from them.

It's my job to find out why that happens. Are you targeting the wrong market demographic? Does your sales team provide lousy follow-up after the initial contact?  Does your program or product fail to perform as advertised?

To answer those questions, I need to find the cause.

For instance, maybe your customer follow-up is slow because you don't have enough staff to handle all the new inquiries. Perhaps you need to provide better training, or maybe your team leader isn't tracking performance.

Whatever the problem, as I evaluate your organization I am going to look at numbers and talk to people below the management level. When I have a picture of that area, I'm going to report back to you. I certainly don't want to insult you, but I also don't want to lie to you.

You may not like what you hear. For instance, if your team leader is a close friend or family member, you might not like it when I tell you that the person needs to have better tools to do their job, or be held more accountable for their performance. You might even dismiss what I say completely.

That's your prerogative.

I can't force anyone to adopt different practices. If your team leader is your spouse or other family member you might feel that you can't  "treat them like an employee". If that's your decision, I can't force you to do otherwise. I can suggest ways to make the process less painful, but I can't ignore the need for the action.

All any consultant can do is to  accurately identify problems and suggest solutions. As the old saying goes, "to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs".

You should expect a consultant to investigate thoroughly, report honestly and suggest solutions.

There should be logic behind those suggestions. Don't be afraid to ask "If I do this, what is the result I should expect?"

Working with a consultant will probably have its tense moments, but at the end of the process you'll be glad you did it.