Consultants are often seen as expensive and sometimes get a bad reputation due to a perceived lack of ROI.
I remember once hiring a consultant from a big-name firm to explore the potential of using SharePoint as a workflow management platform. He asked all the right questions and delivered a seven-page document with a few diagrams. We paid $17,000 for it—and it didn’t move us an inch forward. It felt like an expensive mistake. At the time, I thought maybe I was missing something.
So, should you even hire a consultant?
The answer is YES.
Just because you’ve had a bad experience doesn’t mean all consultants are a waste of money. A poor hire doesn’t invalidate the entire profession. What matters is hiring the right consultant for the right reasons.
Here are some scenarios where hiring a consultant makes sense and reasons why you should hire a consultant:
- You’re dealing with a complex problem that needs an urgent solution.
- You lack the skills or capacity to complete a critical task.
- You need a fresh, independent perspective on a situation.
- You need an unbiased facilitator to help your team align.
- Your project is stuck or going off track, and you need help to rescue it.
- You want oversight and assurance during implementation.
- You need to accelerate outcomes using proven tools, frameworks, and methodologies.
At some point, you will need to hire a consultant. When you do, make sure it’s for the right reasons—and never compare their cost to that of a permanent employee. They serve different purposes. Consultants aren’t there to replace your team—they’re there to bring targeted expertise, momentum, and clarity.
Treat consulting as a partnership, not a transaction. When you have a good consultant by your side, you gain more than just advice—you gain a reliable partner to call on when it matters most.
