Polish your process to source consultants successfully

Key Takeaways

Putting several consultants in competition is a great way to evaluate them and start looking for the right fit. Working with the main stakeholders will ensure you have the right expertise at each step of the process.

Organizing a healthy competition is not that complex. You have to keep in mind that the goal of the process goes beyond the sourcing and focus on the success of the project.

You need to bring in relevant potential consulting suppliers and give them a fair chance to get the project.

Anticipate also spending some extra time for back-and-forth communication with the consulting providers to adjust the proposals.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the fourth episode of our podcast: Smart Consulting Sourcing, THE podcast about Consulting Procurement.

My name is Hélène, and I’ll be your host today.

Each week I’ll give you the keys to better use, manage and source consulting services. In this fourth episode, I’ll explain how to get started with the consulting sourcing process.

Last week, we chatted about the different typologies of consulting firms. We saw that many dimensions could impact the value they bring.

But how exactly do you source consultants?

Let’s start with this—putting several consultants in competition is a great way to evaluate them and start looking for the right fit. It will enable you to make an informed choice on the consultants, and who fits best with your project on levels such as skills, experience, and price.

Along the way, you might come up with ideas that are completely outside the box that you might like to explore as well. Designing a perfect RFP is easy when following the right process. To get the most out of this competition, you need to manage an efficient sourcing process adapted to consulting services.

Too many companies fail to define a specific process for consulting, letting their business lines define how to organize the competition when there is a better way. Ready to learn how?

Organize fair competitions

Organizing a healthy competition is not that complex. You have to keep in mind that the goal of the process goes beyond the sourcing and focus on the success of the project. Organizing a competition without putting all the candidates in the right conditions to give their best answer is meaningless.

You need to bring in relevant potential consulting suppliers and give them a fair chance to get the project.

Don’t forget that you are the client. Don’t let the consulting firm dictate the pace or the content of the conversation. Explain your process beforehand. They need to give you one contact person and comply with your rules.

The same applies to terms and conditions. Work with your documents, based on your internal policies. Define, for instance, your rule for travel expenses: Expenses capped at 12-15%, pre-approved by your teams, and based on your company policy.

Be fair to all consulting firms and apply the same rules to everyone.

Take your time

Most of the time, you are not in such a hurry. When projects are complex, integrate Q&A sessions in the process. In all cases, give the consulting firms enough time to prepare their proposals. They will only be more detailed.

Generally, response turnaround times should be in the range of one week for a small project, two weeks for a standard consulting project and three to four weeks for a very large project (Post-merger Integration, company-wide transformation, etc.).

Anticipate also spending some extra time for back-and-forth communication with the consulting providers to adjust the proposals.

Adopt the right process

The process can be organized into three main steps:

• Identify the scope and the budget of your project
• Identify, short-list, and brief the potential providers
• Review the proposals and make the decision

At each step of the process, business lines should focus on the business expertise, and procurement should bring their consulting and procurement perspective to the table. Collaboration is crucial to maximizing the chances of success of your consulting projects.

If the business lines take over the procurement process, there are good chances that they will cut corners. If procurement takes the helm on the needs and the providers’ selection, the business lines might end up with the wrong consultants or deliverables.

As Samuel Smiles said:” A place for everything and everything in its place.”

Well, the first step in the process is to identify the scope, but how do you do that exactly? That’s the topic I will explore next week: How to define your needs? So stay tuned.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, or want to learn more about what we do at consulting quest, just send me an email at helene.laffitte@consultingquest.com

Bye and see you next week! Au revoir!

Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants. Source consultants.

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