The Benefits of On Demand Consulting: How It Can Transform Your Business
As natural disasters occur alarmingly and companies multiply, scalability becomes more critical.
Companies need consultants who can help with various tasks, from strategic planning to implementing automation.
These professionals have unique experiences that make them valuable assets to any company. Fortunately, consulting services are now more accessible than ever before.
Flexibility
Many consultants have a wide variety of experience and expertise, making them well-equipped to tackle many issues. It makes them a valuable resource for businesses looking to solve problems, whether building financial models, writing investment memos, or gaining insight into a new market.
Consultants are often brought in to challenge the status quo, and they must be able to share their honest opinions, ideas, and recommendations. Buyers value the objectivity of having a professional outsider analyze their business.
Because they’re independent, consultants can choose clients that align with their interests and career goals. Many consulting firms offer secondary benefits that help with work-life balance, like reimbursing expenses for parking fees or a monthly phone allowance. Some even offer company cars.
Scalability
While the consulting industry offers lucrative opportunities, it’s important to understand how to scale. By leveraging productization, standardization, and automation, you can maximize your team’s productivity and deliver the most value for your clients.
Typically, the biggest bottleneck in your business is the AE: SE ratio. It occurs when sales grow and hire without providing a correlated budget for presales to grow on the same linear path or when your AE’s are spending too much time on lower impact tasks, such as standard demos, instead of doing discovery or strategic consulting with their customers. To solve this issue, you must define your demand gap and focus on activities that generate the most measurable ROI. That’s where on demand consulting comes in. It provides a reliable, flexible way to increase consulting hours.
Predictability
As you shop for consulting talent, look for vetted professionals with an incorporated entity and an EIN (IRS-issued employer identification number). These details indicate they’re dedicated to their consultancy business and have financial backing. Ask for referrals from trusted colleagues, review their LinkedIn profiles for red flags, and request work samples that showcase the strategic insights they’ve delivered in the past.
On demand consultants are often available in bundled packages that allow you to budget consistently for remote service and support, decreasing the likelihood of surprise costs and saving time on administrative tasks. It helps you prioritize projects that align with the overall strategic direction of your company and simplify the decision-making process. This type of planning makes for more effective indirect procurement, a critical component of successful demand management principles and processes.
Cost-Effectiveness
A clear strategy can help you make the most of your consulting budget. It is essential given the current pressure on operating expenditures.
This rational economic explanation – which uses past expenditure levels as explanatory variables for future MC use – is complemented by psychodynamic perspectives, where consultants’ promotional practices appeal to and paradoxically feed clients’ uncertainties and anxieties (Armbruster 2006). This results in a cycle of over-demand for their services.
It is why a good strategy requires companies to set thresholds for purchasing consulting and involve their top management in the decision-making process for each project. It also involves prioritizing projects based on their strategic importance and thoroughly evaluating their ‘make or buy’ options. It helps them stay agile and competitive in the market.
Scalability
In a world where natural disasters seem to occur in cities around the globe, it’s no secret that companies must be prepared for any emergency. Whether it’s a natural disaster, a cyber attack, or simply unexpected growth, it’s hard to stay ahead of the curve without the right technology resources.
Fortunately, there are many scalable solutions for businesses to meet any need. Many options exist for businesses looking to grow and scale, from consulting services to digital tools.
For example, bundled packages for remote service and support allow organizations to get exactly what they need within a predictable budget – reducing the time spent on administrative work. Additionally, demand management for consulting allows organizations to prioritize projects based on strategic importance.
