Consultants are free spirits. Like wild horses. They need to burn a lot of energy in order to produce new one. They are passionate people who chose their path freely and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. They are hungry for information, innovation and new experiences, so getting involved in as many projects as possible is the only way for them to temper down some of that inner hunger.

There’s a reason why consultants don’t settle for a steady job, and money or position rarely have anything to do with it. Their scope is to crisscross the world and to get to know all the business models that are out there. They are jumpers. They best react to new challenges, because those give them the opportunity to grow and improve at a fast pace.
Although they’re not friends with chaos, they are pretty used to handling it. Chaos is one of the reasons why consultants get so good at what they do. And the fact that they dislike it so much only makes them more efficient in bringing light into the place where Satan, Lucifer or the guys from the Buying department have laid darkness on.

There is only one thing a good consultant will never make peace with, which is also their worst enemy: narrow minds. When you turn to a specialist for a collaboration you need to be prepared to hear some things you may not like and to be opened enough as to understand, accept and decide that there are things you need to change in your business. If you are too proud, too stubborn or too cheap, don’t bother wasting anyone’s time. You are better off without a consultant, just as they are better off without you.

That being said, here are some of the reasons why we believe you should trust a specialist to help you with your business:

Consultants start everything with a plan

If you meet a consultant today and they tell you can start making changes tomorrow, run the other way. A good consultant will first analyze your business, ask thousands of questions, hear you out and then start building a plan that will get you where you want to be, in time.

They have experience

Experience makes consultants very flexible to different perspectives, budgets, business approaches, management models, mentalities and teams. One of the great qualities of a good consultant is that, based on their experience, they can pick from the multitude of solutions on the market and recommend you only the ones that are compatible with your business model, requirements and plan.

They can help you define your strategy

Consultants are good at building or reshaping the direction your company should take in order to grow.

They can help you design and connect all the critical processes and flows to achieve a development plan, and they can also help you determine what roles you need in your company.

They offer clarity

When you’ve been in the business for a long time, sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. Consultants will turn on the light and show you what you’re missing. They can spot irregularities, patterns and mistakes in a business in a blink of an eye. They might tell you that things you thought work just fine might need to be fixed, replaced or removed in order to improve some processes you had no idea were wrong.

Consultants never lose their focus

We said earlier that they are used to messy environments, that’s why it’s easier for consultants to focus on one thing at a time. They’re not interested is sealing their position in your company and retire from it when they’re old. They are focused on results, so they follow the plan precisely.

They are the definition of objectivity

One of the advantages of working independently is that you only activate within your own terms and beliefs. Consultants don’t see things in black and white and they don’t judge things by good or bad. They don’t pick sides and they play no one’s dirty games. It’s not their mission in this world, or in your business. They are capable of telling you where you go wrong without fearing you’ll react badly because you know they work in the best interest of your company.

They read a lot

Smart people will never claim that they have seen, done and tried them all. There are constant changes in every domain and everything is submitted to improvement: technologies, tools, practices, procedures, people. That’s why good consultants will always read studies, do research and join various communities or events from where they can learn new stuff from other people’s experience. So when you pick your consultant/s, make sure they are the type that never stops learning.

They know people who know people

Consultants have highly-active social lives. Besides, part of their activity involves partnering up with different service providers with whom they collaborate on various projects. That’s why a business consultant is best qualified to recommend you the right partners because they are familiar with the solutions on the market area and they’ll always know which ones are fit for your type of business.

They travel the world

Imagine you can get valuable insights on the best practices of some of the biggest companies around the globe, and you can get all of that without getting up from your chair. Consultants are constantly on the move and they carry with them the cultures, beliefs and success stories of all the projects from all the countries they have visited. What more could you ask for?

Consultants have seen and experienced failure

Have you ever met someone who always carried a large smile on their face and whose confidence went through the roof? Did they happen to tell you how wonderful life is and how perfect they are, and how lucky you are to have run into the answer to all of your problems? Congratulations, you probably just shook hands with an imposter whose ignorance is very likely to sink down your entire ship.

On the other hand, an old frown on someone’s face is a sign that they have been through a lot and they can easily tell right from wrong. Good consultants are always cautious and calm. They probably have experienced more than one lessons-learned, so they know best how to prevent bad things from happening again. Instead of trusting a phony who will tell you nothing is impossible, always go for the one who can talk openly about the mistakes they’ve made in their career.

____

All in all, it’s important that you click with your consultant the moment you two meet. When the chemistry is good, things will go naturally and the relationship between you and your consultant will become a long-term, successful collaboration. What other things would you add to the list?

Authors: Vlad Diaconu, Andreea Mares