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Reasons for selecting a particular

Consulting Firm
The ability to deliver is the most important reason
why clients chose a particular consulting firm.
Clients do not want consultants who fall into the
conventional trap of writing a report, then walking away
from its unfeasible recommendations.
They want consultants who are committed, who can
roll up their sleeves and make things happen.

Reasons for selecting a particular

Consulting Firm

Researcher have ranked factors that clients rely on for

selecting a consulting firm
Ability to deliver
Experience consulting team
Specialist expertise
Originality of approach
Experience of client sector/market
Reputation
Existing relationship with individual
Technological resources
Recommendation from client networks
Existing relationship with firm
Price competitiveness
Size of firm/team
Geographical representation

Reasons for selecting a particular

Consulting Firm

Firms Reputation,
Word-of-mouth referral and
Original Thinking.

Reasons for selecting a particular

Consulting Firm

Knowledge of a Particular Sector.

Reasons for selecting a particular

Consulting Firm

Technology Resources
Geographical Coverage
Size of Firm

Reasons for selecting a particular

Consulting Firm

Geographical coverage is not important

Sourcing Strategy
Supplier Selection

Reasons for selecting a particular

Consulting Firm

Relationship

The Challenge of Consulting Projects

Consulting firms face daunting challenges:

Stakeholder Buy-in
Complexity of Project
Time Frame
Cultural Challenges
Expectations of Client
Scale of Project
Communication with Client
Consultancy firms understanding of the business
Changing requirements
Budget limitations
Skill limitations
Changing deadlines
Changing Personnel (Client)
Changing Personnel (Consulting Firm)

The Challenge of Consulting Projects

Clients also face face daunting challenges in consulting

projects:
Cultural Challenges
Time Frame
Complexity of project
Scale of Project
Consultancy buy-in
Resource limitations
Budget limitations
Skill limitations
Consulting firms understanding of the client business
Expectations of consultants
Changing requirements
Changing deadlines
Changing Personnel (Client)
Changing Personnel (Consulting Firm)
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The Client-Consultant Relationship

Degree of understanding particularly on some
sensitive issues

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The Client-Consultant Relationship

Even the best relationships go through rocky
patches, particularly in the early stages of a
project, primarily caused by individuals failing to
get on. There could be a few minor hiccups
during the early phases due to individual
personalities.

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The Client-Consultant Relationship

Close communication and understanding.
Open and honest.
Open, constructive, mutually supportive and
open to change.

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The Client-Consultant Relationship

Trust and respect.
It takes time to develop trust, and the most
effective way of building it.

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The Client-Consultant Relationship

While trust is clearly important glue at all levels
in a relationship, a significant difference emerges
at the way in which the client and consulting
organizations view each other.
Consulting firms are more likely to focus on
high-level sponsorship, suggesting that they tend
to view the relationship top-down.

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The Client-Consultant Relationship

Clients, by contrast, seem to have a more
bottom-up perspective and are more likely to
highlight
issues
that
affect
day-to-day
interactional-the transfer of skills from the
consultant to client, and the professionalism and
flexibility of the consultants.
Clients also tend to see the benefits of working
with consultants in practical terms: They roll
their sleeves up and behave like true partners. It
feels like: we are in it together.

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The Client-Consultant Relationship

There is an important message here for
consultants, who often invest most of their time
in building relationships at high levels (the
buyers) within organizations.
Clients
see
trust
reinforced at other
management levels.

being
developed
and
particularly at middle-

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Meeting Client Expectations

Clients want the reassurance that, in bringing
in consultants, they have made the right decision
and that their selection of a particular firm will
stand up to scrutiny.
Consultants want to be able to demonstrate a
track record of quantifiable results to an
increasingly sceptical client base.
However, no two consulting projects are alike
and measuring them against a single standards
would be highly misleading.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Although clients are obviously concerned that a
consulting project should be completed on time
and within budget, they otherwise tend to judge
the success of consulting projects in terms of
softer issues such as motivational impact,
customer
satisfaction
and
management
capability.
They are also more likely to be concerned about
productivity and cost-reduction issues than
revenue-generation ones.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Trilogys
work
with
Tesco
and
Penna
Consultings work with Evotec OAI both involved
gauging and implementing ways of improving
staff engagement.

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Meeting Client Expectations

The consulting firms performed well, in those
softer areas important to most projects, such as
improving management capability.

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Meeting Client Expectations

The work of RightCoutts with the Harrogate
Healthcare NHS Trust was not designed to tell
the Trusts senior managers the answers to all
their problems, but to improve their ability to
take the right decisions more quickly.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Similarly, the success of Edengenes work with
two different areas of BT depended on improving
BTs ability to generate and evaluate new ideas.
Consultants also do well when it comes to
helping clients improve productivity. Some of the
celebrated projects often quoted where clients
expectations exceeded are : Kepner-Tregoes
work with Sun Microsystems; Atos Origins work
with the Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust and
Impact Pluss work with Aon.

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Meeting Client Expectations

But the consulting industry can not afford to
rest on these laurels : when it comes to harder,
more quantifiable measures and particularlyto
those relating to growing the revenues of a
business, rather than cutting its costs there is
significant room for improvement.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
Clients of outsourcing-related consulting
projects are more likely to be satisfied across the
board than clients of other types of consulting.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
In particular, their expectations for increasing
market share, increasing revenue and improving
customer satisfaction are more likely to be met.
The growth of the outsourcing market has
accelerated since the millennium.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
These findings suggest a more positive reason:
many clients are simply pleased with the results.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
By contrast, clients of IT-related consulting are
more likely to be dissatisfied.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
Disappointment is most apparent when it
comes to rating the impact of projects in broad
business terms (increased revenue and market
share, improved share price performance).

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
Of course, it may be that technology consulting
clients simply have higher expectations than
outsourcing clients, but it does suggest that
clients continue to find it difficult to relate the
immediate increases in productivity that come
from using IT with business performance overall.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
HR consulting clients are more positive than
others when it comes to cost reduction and
headcount issues not surprisingly.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
Perhaps more worryingly from the consulting
firms point of view, they are less likely to be
satisfied when it comes to improving productivity
or management capability.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
The surprise in change management consulting
lies in the extent to which projects exceeded
clients expectations when it comes to the
financial impact.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
Increased revenue and market share, and
improved share price performance are areas
which are not associated with something as
traditionally soft as change management.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
Like outsourcing-related consulting, change
management consulting may be benefiting from
low expectations- neither clients nor consulting
firms have historically found it easy to correlate
its soft process with hard economic facts.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
That expectations are being exceeded here
may indicate that this is now changing, that
clients can see a connection between changing
peoples behaviour and overall performance.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
Strategy consulting was one of the principal
casualties of the 2001-02 downturn in the
consulting market and, although this type of
consulting may now be picking up speed, it still
appears one of the more vulnerable areas of
consulting.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
There are only two areas in which strategy
clients aims are more likely to be met, compared
to other types of consulting headcount and cost
reduction.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
Those measures that reflect growth rather
than retrenchment increased revenue and
market share, improved customer acquisition
rates and satisfaction all scored particularly
badly, suggesting that clients still see strategy
consultants as delivering less than they promise.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Analysing
client satisfaction in different
types of consulting suggests that:
The overall scorecard is therefore good, but
consultants can do even better. And that is the
challenge for the consulting industry. .

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Meeting Client Expectations

Anne
Bennett,
a
consultant
Consultants, puts it:
We need
consultants.

to

reframe

how

at

ER

clients

see

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Meeting Client Expectations

Anne
Bennett,
a
consultant
Consultants, puts it:

at

ER

Compared to the amount of money auditors and

lawyers take out of a business, consulting should
be a net gain.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Anne
Bennett,
a
consultant
Consultants, puts it:

at

ER

Hiring consultants shouldnt be seen as an

admission of management failure or a smack in
the face to your own staff.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Anne
Bennett,
a
consultant
Consultants, puts it:

at

ER

Consultants arent there to take over a clients

business but to supplement in-house skills.

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Meeting Client Expectations

Anne
Bennett,
a
consultant
Consultants, puts it:

at

ER

We need to overcome the predominately

transactional nature of consulting at present, and
move to a more transformational agenda.

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