When You Hire a Business Consultant, What Are You Really Paying For?
Business consultants are expensive. Many firms will charge you time and materials – an hourly rate anywhere from $125 to $250 per hour, plus travel, plus lodging, plus, plus, plus. So, what should you hire a business consultant?
What You Should Be Paying For... Results
But really, when was the last time you wanted to purchase an hour of time? Never. What you want to purchase is the results of that hour of time. And to get to those results, you need to work with a consultant that has extensive training and education in software and technology, business best practices, and your company’s way of doing business.
Said differently, what you are ultimately paying for is the knowledge and experience of a business consultant, their understanding of your business, their understanding of the results you want to achieve, and their ability to help you get those results.
Rather than going through the dance of hours spent, hours billed, and accomplishments made, wouldn’t it be easier to pay for the value of the results? “Of course,” you answer, but how do you do that when all the payment options you get from your consultant are based on hours? The simple answer is to get a new consultant.
How Paying For Results Changes the Process
When your chosen consulting firm focuses on value rather than time, your discussions sound a little different. Suddenly, why you do something is more important than how, and you spend a lot more time talking about why and what value that "something" adds to the business. After going through a business process review, you’ll be able to assess the true value of changing processes and the software that runs them.
If you work with a business consultant who takes this approach (as our consultants at Asyma Solutions do), you should expect to pay for one thing – results.
Please contact us for more information.