What Do Consultants Do?

A consultant is an expert with in-depth knowledge and experience in a particular area. They provide businesses and individuals with objective and professional guidance, usually on a temporary basis.

There are different types of consultants:

• Internal consultants: Employed by an organization and provide consultative services in their area of expertise.
• External consultants at a consulting firm: Work at a larger firm and take on different projects handled by that firm.
• Independent consultants: Run their own consulting business or consultancy and work with clients on a contract basis.

Consultants are not the same as advisors. While both may work for an organization on a contractual basis, advisors tend to be engaged over a longer period of time and deal with broader challenges. Consultants are hired to address a highly specific and timely issue.

Duties and objectives

As a whole, the consultant’s job is to use their specialized expertise and experience to solve problems or optimize business performance for a client.

In the case of a health and wellness consultant, the job might be to help a client lose weight in 3 months. In the case of a management consultant, it might be to help the HR department devise a more effective employee retainment strategy.

The definition of consulting and a consultant’s specific duties vary depending on the kinds of services they provide and industries they work in.

However, in most consulting roles, a consultant will be expected to perform these general duties:

• Evaluate the client’s current situation.
• Collect and analyze data.
• Diagnose the problem.
• Propose a solution and make recommendations on next steps and strategies.
• Set goals.
• Discuss the problem and solution with the client.
• Implement or oversee the implementation of the approved solution.
• Evaluate the outcomes post-implementation.
• Devise a long-term plan for corrective action and process improvement.
• Empower the client by providing them with training or education.

There are other reasons why an organization or entrepreneur might hire a consultant. For instance, consultants may be brought in to provide expert assistance for new systems or technologies. They can also be useful when organizations are dealing with internal changes related to acquisitions and mergers, staffing, layoffs, and so on.

Industries that hire consultants

Consultants can find work in any industry. Here are just a few popular examples:

• Construction
• Education
• Entertainment
• Finance
• Government
• Healthcare
• Hospitality
• Law
• Marketing
• Real estate
• Retail
• Security
• Technology

What a consultant or a consulting company does for their clients, however, depends greatly on the industry as well as the organization itself.

For example, a real estate consultant might help a property management company create a more streamlined application process. This would include everything from reworking the application to automating background checks and deposit collection.

A political consultant, on the other hand, might work with a congressional candidate to run their campaign, create ads, host donor events, and improve their overall public image. Because consultants are so highly specialized, they are sought after by business owners and management in every field.

While consulting services are needed for a wide variety of industries, there are a handful of fields that use consultancy services the most.

Management consulting

A management consultant works with a leader and often their team to address major problems within the organization or attain new levels of growth. Management consultants typically have a niche specialty and will focus on one segment of the business rather than the operation as a whole.

Here are examples of management consulting specialties:

• Organizational design consulting
• Strategy consulting
• Human resources consulting
• Financial advisory consulting
• Rick and compliance consulting

When you think of the Big Four consulting firms, this is the type of consulting they do. They carefully analyze all of the data available as well as the busines’s day-to-day operations before proposing a solution that addresses management’s goals.

Business consulting

A business consultant typically works with small and medium-sized businesses. They assist with different aspects of running a business.

Here are a few examples of business consulting services:

• Assisting with a business launch
• Providing guidance on market penetration
• Creating a business plan and strategy
• Training staff
• Managing layoffs
• Helping a business to pivot or rebrand
• Developing a lead generation strategy

Business consultants can help business owners and entrepreneurs start a business, revive a failing business, scale their operations, move into a new market, and much more.

IT consulting

An IT consultant is someone who helps an organization with its technological needs. From installing and maintaining servers to training staff on how to use proprietary software, IT consulting services cover it all.

Unlike an IT person who’s hired to work for a company full-time, however, IT consultants help out with big projects or problems. For example, if there’s a major security breach, an IT consultant would be brought in to identify the source, patch the breach, notify all those affected, create a disaster recovery plan, and so on.

Financial consulting

A financial consultant focuses on the financial health of an organization or individual and proposes a plan of action to improve it. That said, financial consulting is a bit of a catchall phrase.

Financial consulting can be broken down into several specialties:

• Wealth management consultant
• Investment consultant
• Tax consultant
• Debt consultant
• Estate management consultant

Then there is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC). This is an advanced designation awarded by the American College of Financial Services to professionals who have completed comprehensive coursework related to financial planning.

Sales consulting

A sales consultant specializes in improving an organization’s sales. There are many aspects of an organization that can affect sales, so sales consultants get involved various business processes.

Here are some typical sales consultant tasks:

• Revamp the sales workflow
• Develop new templates and resources
• Review and amend existing products, services, price sheets, and tools
• Choose a more effective customer relationship management software
• Train the sales team
• Analyze current strategies and propose new ones to generate more revenue

The primary goal of a sales consultant is to improve a company’s bottom line. In addition, it’s their job to ensure that management is onboard with the proposed changes and that the team is capable of implementing them.

Marketing consulting

A marketing consultant analyzes the performance of a business’s marketing efforts and then helps them develop strategies to build their brand, improve online visibility, generate better leads, and improve marketing campaign outcomes.

Because of how many different marketing tactics there are, consultants may specialize in certain forms of marketing over others.

Marketing consultants may specialize in any of the following areas:

• Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Search engine marketing (SEM)
• Traditional advertising

It all starts with analysis. The marketing consultant uses the available data—from the organization, their competition, and the market as a whole—to identify obstacles and areas of improvement. They then devise a new strategy and campaign to help the company achieve its marketing goals.

Other specialized consulting areas

Just as there are many different types of industries that hire consultants, there are also many specialties of consulting. The list is endless, but here are some other popular types of consulting:

• Brand consulting
• Business systems consulting
• Customer service consulting
• Cybersecurity consulting
• Design consulting
• Environmental science consulting
• Fitness and wellness consulting
• Leadership consulting
• Legal consulting
• Professional growth consulting
• Public relations consulting
• Risk and compliance consulting
• Sustainability consulting

Although management consulting might be what many people think of when it comes to consulting, there are so many ways in which experts can lend their objective advice and guidance to organizations in need.

There may be a ton of variety in terms of what a consultant or consultancy does once they’re hired. However, they generally follow five key steps when providing professional consulting services.

1. Initial client consultation

The first step is the business consultation. During this meeting, the consultant speaks with the stakeholders about what’s going on.

They start by digging into the challenge that the prospective client is dealing with as well as the circumstances surrounding it. Then they discuss what their goals are.

It’s also important for the consultant to clarify what expectations stakeholders have. For instance, do they have a timeline for when they need this issue fixed? How much of a time commitment will they need from the consultant? What sort of deliverables or outcomes are they expecting in the end?

2. Proposal and contracting

After the meeting, the consultant starts to unpack what the client has shared with them. They may also draw on experiences with former clients in order to create a clearer picture of what’s going on and what the proposed solution is going to be.

In this stage, the consultant will create two types of documents:

• Proposal: This is a summary of the problem and the solution. It lays out the scope of work so that the prospective client understands what’s included in the consulting services and what is not. It also defines the relationship between the client and consultant.
• Contract: This document addresses the logistics and legal terms of the project, such as the budget, payment terms, timeline, deliverables, noncompete agreement, confidentiality, and so on.

Once these documents are signed by the client, the work can begin.

3. Data collection and analysis

The client is a valuable resource when it comes to naming the problem and describing the goals. However, consultants typically need to analyze all the relevant data available to find out what’s really going on so they can propose the right solution.

Data sources vary depending on the type of consulting work. For instance, a design consultant might use tools like Google Analytics and SEO analysis software, whereas a tax consultant would use something like QuickBooks and internal spreadsheets.

Some consultants may need to perform hands-on work and analyses to assess the situation. For example, an IT consultant would likely test and evaluate the existing systems and software, and they may even interview the staff who often interact with these systems.

4. Solution development and execution

With a more complete picture of the problem, consultants devise a solution. At this stage, it’s also the consultant’s responsibility to get buy-in from the client and all stakeholders who will be impacted by the changes. So being able to clearly communicate the problem and how the solution will fix it is crucial.

Jon Morgan, CEO of the business consulting firm Venture Smarter, described the implementation phase at his firm, which is executed after the strategy has been established. “This often involves hands-on support, training sessions, and regular check-ins to ensure everything is on track,” he said.

Not every consultant will be involved in the hands-on implementation of the solution. For example, let’s say a political candidate hires a PR consultant, who identifies issues with the candidate’s public persona and perception.

The political consultant’s recommendations involve not only changes to the candidate’s physical appearance but also a shift in how they communicate with voters online. The PR consultant may need to engage stylists, makeup artists, or other professionals to help the candidate undergo a makeover. On top of that, they might need to outsource social media marketing to someone else.

If the candidate already has a marketing team, they’d be the ones to handle the implementation. The consultant would only oversee the execution of their plan and analyze the outcomes.

5. Follow-up and feedback

Consultants are usually hired to deal with a sizable and urgent problem or goal. Because of this, they aren’t around to provide ongoing advice and management of what got the organization into that situation in the first place. However, consultants don’t just provide a solution and then jump ship.

First, they review the progress of the implemented solution. It’s their job to ensure that it was the correct solution, it was properly implemented, and the client saw the results they were expecting. If not, the consultant will loop back and address any remaining issues.

“We assess the outcomes, measure success against the set goals, and provide any follow-up support needed,” Morgan said. “This end-to-end process ensures that our clients are not only set on the right path but also supported throughout their journey.”

The process is similar for all different types of consultants, including Tori Bell, a digital PR consultant we spoke to. She says she’ll typically produce a report at the end of the project detailing the company’s status at the start compared to where they stand now. She also provides recommendations on the next steps the business can take to continue their digital PR efforts.

The idea is to equip the client with the knowledge and tools they need to maintain the solution and keep on improving, even without the help of a consultant. In this sense, a consultant’s impact on a business continues long after they’re gone.

When some people think of consultants, they just imaging huge salaries and a glamorous jet-set lifestyle. The truth is that the consulting industry can be a difficult one to break into and an even harder one to make a successful career in.

We asked several consultants working in different industries to share some of the most common misconceptions they’ve encountered about what it’s like to be an expert consultant. Here’s what they said are the biggest myths about consulting.

Anyone can become a consultant

Consulting may seem easy from an outsider’s perspective. However, to be a good consultant, you need a combination of technical skills, interpersonal skills, and industry experience—something that most people just don’t have.

While it’s true that there’s no regulatory body dictating who can call themselves consultants, don’t expect to take the title and get hired. Consulting services cost businesses a lot of money, and they won’t give their money away to people who can’t demonstrate the tangible skills and experience required to help them achieve their goals.

Consultants are constantly traveling

Historically, consultants have been viewed as external parties who travel around from one company to the next, imparting their expert knowledge and then departing as quickly as they came. But this isn’t really an accurate representation of what consulting is like in today’s world.

With the rising popularity of remote work and technological developments, it’s becoming increasingly common for consultants to work from home. Many people work as virtual consultants or online consultants, holding meetings, sending updates, and communicating key information to clients via video calls, emails, and other means of digital communication.

All consultants do is give advice

“One common misconception is that consulting is only about providing advice,” Morgan said. “In reality, consulting is about delivering tangible results and driving meaningful change.”

Bell has a similar perspective. “It’s more about metrics and data than actually talking,” she said. “People starting off as consultants often consider consulting just as advising broadly. Without considering the hard work needed to actually give solid advice, your consulting career will fail.”

Consultants do everything on their own

A consultant is an expert, not a jack-of-all-trades. The most effective consultants outsource whatever isn’t in their wheelhouse to someone else.

In fact, delegating tasks to other professionals is the type of big-picture strategizing that is characteristic of great consulting. Consultants don’t need to know how to do everything on their own, but they do need to what tools, resources, and experts to use to solve a particular problem.

Consulting is just giving orders

Another misguided belief about what consultants do is that their job is mainly to come in and tell businesses what to do. “This is farther from the truth,” Morgan said. “In my experience, the best consultants are those who collaborate with clients, empower their teams, and leave a lasting impact.”

Successful and effective consulting requires not just helping to solve a business’s problems in the moment but also creating systems and strategies to help the company maintain its success in the long term and deal with similar problems later down the line once the consultant is out of the picture.

The only way to succeed is to work for a major consulting firm

It’s true that there are plenty of professional consultants who begin their careers at one of the Big Four accounting firms or one of the nation’s leading consulting companies. However, this is far from always the case.

There are plenty of consultants who’ve found work with smaller consulting firms or with other employers. Many even start off working independently by forming their own consulting companies.

Tech-focused consultants only deal with data and numbers

We spoke to an SEO and analytics consultant, Matthias Kupperschmidt, who said that a common misconception that people have about his line of work is that it only involves numbers and data. “It’s a lot more about analyzing technologies of websites to understand their issues and fix issues impacting the web tracking,” he said.

In addition to analytical skills, communication skills are still front and center for consultants operating in technical fields, just as they would be in other consulting disciplines. “People skills are just as important when delivering actionable insights or communicating about complex findings to non-technical stakeholders,” Kupperschmidt added.

There’s a reason why consultants have the potential to make a six-figure salary. They’re not hired to come do a quick fix. Consultants offer clients a high-value, long-term solution for major challenges that are hindering their progress.

Here are some best practices to help you do the same as a consultant:

• Know when to say “no”: Not every client is going to be a good fit for your services, and you’ll be doing them and yourself a disservice if you say “yes” to everyone.
• Be goal-oriented: A solution might make a business owner feel better once it’s implemented, but the only way to know that your solution was a success is to measure the results against your goals.
• Empower your clients: The greatest value of consulting services comes from equipping clients with the knowledge and tools they need to maintain their newfound success.
• Create thought leadership content: For consulting jobs to go smoothly, the client needs to trust you. By regularly publishing trust-building content, you’ll give them a reason to give you that trust even before they hire you.

Consultancy is a highly varied and versatile role, and there’s no textbook definition of what makes a good consultant. Each professional consultant follows a unique set of principles based on their industry, their specialty, and the type of clients they work with.