Client Newsletter - Value for Money

Newsletter - Reading between the lines
Having moaned about consultants use of jargon last week, this week I've been having the same trouble with clients. We keep encountering tenders where the title is either impenetrable or completely misleading - my favourite from this week is one for 'Fizzbook Spin'.
read more

Consultancy creatures - what animal are you?
The question of how to present your business to clients is a perennial problem for consultants - do you aim for a small niche and risk being discounted for projects outside the niche - or opt for a more general approach and risk leaving the customer unsure of what exactly it is that you do?
read more

Client Newsletter - Value for Money

Our consultancy and freelancers fee rate survey has generated a lot of discussion among consultants about how to choose the right rate. A consistent theme is they feel the need to demonstrate the value of their services to you as clients. That may seem self-evident but as a client I know that working out how to measure the value of a specialist can be very difficult. You'll often hear consultants say that 'it takes time to achieve results' or 'the change in culture will impact your business over time'.

Unfortunately, businesses and managers need to see results when they spend money so it's critical that you set clear and easily measure goals for any consultancy or specialist intervention. Clearly the deliverables vary according to the specialism but you could consider;

Training - improvements in employee engagement & morale
Telemarketing - number of leads generated
PR - number of stories published/on-line hits
IT - reductions in fault calls, improvements in productivity

Any or all of these could be linked to a success fee paid as bonus to the consultant at specific points during the project, as long as you keep the goals simple.

Please note that as a client member of Skillfair you don't get access to any of the consultancy or service projects that we send out to our consultant members. If you think that hearing about consulting and service projects from a mix of private and public sector clients would be useful, please contact us and we'll switch you across to our consultant database.