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There are many factors which contribute to an effective working relationship between consultants and clients. It is crucial that a purchaser of consultancy understands what they aim to achieve from the outset. This section contains some information that may help firms to get the most from their management consultants. Click here to download new guidelines on how to source and manage consultants.

The ultimate success of a consulting project is determined long before you've talked to an actual consultant, and depends on the extent to which you have been able to identify and agree the precise reasons why you're hiring consultants. In most organisations, managers think about these reasons in terms of what they expect the consultants to do, not in relation to the underlying role they're expecting the consultants to play. Nor do they consider how their expectations match the prevailing market conditions. What kind of client are you? Do you really want to bear the risk of developing a unique approach to an idea? Is the issue you face a new one, or are you trying to catch up with your competitors?

Why use consultants?

Probably the single most important reason for hiring consultants is to bring in people with a particular set of skills. The more specialised a consultant is in his or her field, the more valuable they are to clients. Specialist know-how falls into two categories. First, there's 'industry-specific skills' – you need people who are experts in your sector, perhaps to assess the implications of a move by one of your competitors, or to help decide whether a new management approach – customer relationship management (CRM), for example – would have benefits in your unique organisation.

Second, there's what you could call 'issue-specific skills', which is where you need people who are experts in a particular issue – it may be a problem or an opportunity. You've decided that CRM is for you: now what you need are some CRM experts to apply it.

But there are times when you simply need help – bright, energetic people who are well-informed, who can help you get a new initiative up and running at a time when it's proving difficult to free up your own internal resources. You're quite definitely not looking for specialists here. You need the consultants to be very flexible – rolling up their sleeves and doing whatever it takes to get the job done – and that's something that requires a broad base of knowledge, rather than in-depth expertise in just one or two areas.

Even in the smallest organisations, managers find it difficult to stand back and analyse what's happening. Opportunities are missed, and threats are ignored. Even where time is allowed for such reflection, how can you ensure that you're seeing what matters most to the organisation, not just what matters most to you as an individual? Outsiders, like consultants, can provide you with an invaluable perspective because they're looking at your organisation with new eyes. This may be just what you need when, for example, you're wondering whether a difficult decision is in fact the right one.

Sometimes an outside opinion, expressed by an expert is enough to jump-start a project. 'Yes', the consultants effectively say, 'we agree that entering this market with this product is a good idea, now go for it'. And you do. But there are many other occasions when you need hard data to help you decide what to do. Here, you're not so much looking for an opinion which your colleagues will accept, as the underlying information from which such an opinion can be formed by your colleagues themselves. It might be, for example, that a particular initiative you're proposing is very controversial. In such circumstances, there's no point bringing in an expert to rubber-stamp something that you believe in but that your peers don't: you only open yourself up to cynicism. It's much better to hire consultants who can lay the facts as they find them in front of your colleagues, enabling each one to take their own decision.

There are also occasions when you want access – not so much to an outside view, or new data – but to creative thinking, when you want someone to sit down with your organisation and devise an innovative approach. It may be that you and everyone in your industry face a similar threat – for example, the appearance of new, potentially disruptive technology. All your competitors may have adopted the same stance, but you may be looking for a different approach, one that takes the problem and converts it into an opportunity for you to differentiate yourself.

Sometimes it can be difficult to keep things moving. People assigned to internal projects have day-jobs they still have to think about; not everyone may yet be committed to a particular course of action. A key way consultants can help is by providing the energy and determination to make sure a project, once started, is finished. Unlike many internal participants, consultants can dedicate all their time and efforts to this one project, and they're much less likely to get distracted. Consultants can also be helpful in keeping a project going, if your own people start to lose interest or faith in it – as often happens in large projects.

An important part of that momentum will be provided by the extent to which a consulting firm provides a tried-and-tested approach to the issue in hand. Faced with a new problem or opportunity, you may not know which way to turn, what to do next. What you need is a plan that takes you from where you are today, to where you want to be. You may also be looking for confidence that the project you're about to undertake will meet the expectations of its sponsors. What you’re therefore seeking, when you bring in a team of consultants, is a track record in successful implementations of such a project and a structured methodology that captures the accumulated lessons of previous projects.

There are also situations when it is not appropriate to use a consultant. For example, to confirm a management decision that has already been made or in order to deflect blame onto the consultants. Clients must also take responsibility for briefing their consultants and keeping them informed. It is difficult for consultants to offer sound advice without all the appropriate information or when the client is unclear about their own objectives.

The most effective consultancy projects are those in which client and consultant work as members of a team each bringing their own knowledge, expertise and resources to bear in realising an opportunity or resolving a problem. Team members who trust one another will share information and knowledge and, as a result, work together effectively and efficiently. Getting the commercial relationship between client and consultant right is essential in establishing this kind of trust.

The MCA has developed a Statement of Best Practice in conjunction with the Office of Government Commerce and the Institute of Management Consultancy. The document provides practical advice on project definition, consultancy selection, contract terms, project management and evaluation.

The statement highlights four general principles that underpin an effective working relationship between clients and consultants.

Clients	Consultants
Be truthful and constructive to, and easily contactable by, consultants and other stakeholders	Be truthful and constructive to, and easily contactable by, clients and other stakeholders.
Do not be defensive. The consultants are there to assist your organisation.	Respond to the client’s initial request and avoid second guessing the problem at an early stage.
Do not be afraid of providing too much information. Consultants would prefer this to lack of detail.	Always listen to the client’s opinions first before explaining your own.
In general, ensure that risk lies with the entity with the greatest ability to manage that risk.	In general ensure that risk lies with the entity with the greatest ability to manage that risk.

The following guidelines from the Statement provide a useful framework for the management of consulting projects. 

• The briefing for the consultants should contain information about the project and the people involved, and should outline broad criteria used at the selection of bidder and evaluation of tender stage.

• Build in the expected outputs from the project and any budgetary constraints which the business case has highlighted.

• On appointment, confirm with a written statement the key elements of the way the project will be carried out, to include a plan, deliverables and expectations. This should also contain a risk register defining who is responsible for which risks.

• Flag up problems with the project early on so that remedial action can be implemented.

• Hold regular reviews on the progress and delivery of the contract and project. Action points arising from review meetings should be agreed in writing.

• Where necessary and agreed, provide staff, facilities and information promptly.

• At the end of the project both parties should undertake a joint project review to see what they might gain from the experience.

Many clients rely on word-of-mouth recommendations when selecting a consultancy. Whilst this is an important element of the process, every organisation will have different requirements of a consultancy and the client-consultant ‘chemistry’ can vary enormously according to the culture of the two organisations.

The MCA would suggest a combination of personal recommendation and a more structured approach to consultancy selection. We are able to provide detailed information on our member firms, what they do and the types of clients they have worked with in the past. A confidential shortlisting service is also available.

The guidelines below show the steps that might be taken in selecting a consultancy.

• Create a brief for the consultants.
• Identify a comprehensive list of consultants to whom you might send the brief.
• Conduct a discussion with each of the firms on the list about their overall approach.
• Hold an internal consultation to revise the brief in light of your discussions and to decide on a short list of firms on which to focus.
• Conduct a more in-depth discussion of the revised brief with each of the firms on the short list. This should go into considerable detail.
• Hold a further internal consultation to narrow the short list down to as many as cannot be discounted from your in-depth discussion.
• Begin negotiations with your preferred bidder/s.

How you approach these steps is determined by the level of formality you require, and the level of client-consultant interaction you envisage. Each approach has its particular strengths and weaknesses, and needs to be evaluated on an organisation-by-organisation, and project-by-project, basis. Some organisations, and most public sector clients, have a formalised approach to the purchase of consultancy.

This tends to drive down the level of desirable interaction. However, where possible it is preferable to keep a high level of informal interaction with consultants on both your long and short lists, as they should have valuable input about how the project can be scoped and structured to give it the maximum chance of success. You also need to consider how you will make your decision-making process transparent, even to those not directly involved in it.

This material is adapted from "The Intelligent Client: Managing Your Management Consultant" by Fiona Czerniawska. For more details click here.

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