Five Types Of Business Consultants - Which Are You?
You don't just have to present yourself as the 'expert consultant' - it's often better if you don't. Make a deliberate decision to be a different type of consultant. Here are five options to explore.
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What Type Of Consultant Are You?
Pretty much every coaching client defaulted to being an ‘expert consultant’ or ‘strategy consultant’ without thinking through the other options.
The challenge with both options is that demand is lower while competition is higher.
You should make deliberate choices about the type of consultant you want to be.
It’s easy to be reactive and take whatever comes here. But, if you know the options available, you can ensure you have the skill set to do it well.
Once you have selected your niche and understood the market, you need to know what services you will offer. And this will play a critical role in determining what type of consultant you will be.
This decision will impact your role as a consultant, changing the deliverables you create and the interventions you stage.
Let’s go through the options.
1. Expert Consultant
An expert consultant provides specialised knowledge, insights, or solutions based on their domain expertise. They are often brought in to address specific technical challenges or advise on complex issues requiring deep subject-matter expertise. Their role typically involves delivering actionable recommendations based on analysis and experience rather than active involvement in implementation.
Typical Interventions:
Diagnostic Analysis: Conducting a deep dive into a specific area (e.g., financial performance, marketing strategy) and delivering detailed recommendations.
Advisory Reports: Offering expert opinions or roadmaps for addressing a specific issue.
Workshops or Seminars: Sharing cutting-edge insights or industry trends.
Knowledge Transfer: Educating client teams on best practices, frameworks, or methodologies.
Example: A cybersecurity expert evaluating vulnerabilities in a client’s IT system and recommending specific countermeasures.
2. Process Consultant
A process consultant focuses on improving the client’s internal processes to enhance performance and sustainability. Their role is not to provide answers but to help clients uncover inefficiencies and collaboratively develop better ways of working. Process consultants empower clients to diagnose and solve their own problems, building internal capability for future challenges.
Typical Interventions:
Facilitation: Guiding meetings or workshops to help clients identify and resolve issues collaboratively.
Process Mapping and Redesign: Analyzing current workflows, identifying inefficiencies, and designing more effective processes.
Change Management: Supporting the organization in navigating transitions and aligning teams around new processes.
Coaching and Capacity Building: Empowering teams to sustain improvements and develop problem-solving skills.
Example: Helping a client streamline their product development process by identifying bottlenecks and enabling cross-functional collaboration.
3. Management Consultant
A management consultant addresses high-level organizational challenges, often related to strategy, structure, or operations. They typically work with senior leadership to provide big-picture solutions that align with the organization’s long-term goals. These consultants often tackle issues that span multiple departments or impact the entire organization.
Typical Interventions:
Strategic Planning: Assisting leadership in defining vision, mission, and goals.
Organizational Design: Recommending structural changes to improve alignment and efficiency.
Performance Benchmarking: Comparing the client’s performance against industry standards and suggesting improvements.
Leadership Development: Coaching executives to enhance decision-making and team leadership.
Example: Advising a company on restructuring its divisions to better align with global market demands.
4. Implementation Consultant
An implementation consultant focuses on executing plans and ensuring the successful rollout of solutions. Unlike other consultants who primarily advise, implementation consultants are hands-on, working closely with teams to make sure strategies are translated into measurable actions. They bridge the gap between strategy and operations by providing tactical support.
Typical Interventions:
Project Management: Overseeing and coordinating the implementation of new systems, processes, or strategies.
Technology Rollout: Assisting with the deployment of software, tools, or systems.
Operational Support: Training teams and ensuring smooth integration of new practices or tools into daily operations.
Troubleshooting: Addressing challenges or obstacles that arise during implementation.
Example: Managing the deployment of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and training staff on its usage.
5. Interim Management or ‘Hands-On’ Consultant
An interim manager steps into a direct operational role within the organization, often during times of transition or crisis. Unlike other consultants who advise from the sidelines, interim managers actively lead teams and execute strategies as temporary members of the organization. They are often hired for their ability to make immediate impacts in high-pressure situations.
Typical Interventions:
Operational Leadership: Taking charge of a department or function temporarily to maintain or improve performance.
Crisis Management: Addressing urgent issues such as financial distress or leadership gaps.
Turnaround Strategies: Implementing short-term changes to stabilize and improve organisational health.
Team Building and Motivation: Strengthening team morale and cohesion during periods of uncertainty.
Example: Acting as an interim COO to stabilise operations after a sudden executive departure.
There Are Pros and Cons Of Different Consultants
It’s good to be mindful that there are pros and cons of different options for clients.
You should be careful to navigate this when both offering services to clients and engaging with clients.
Trust me, most clients will know the downsides of working with clients. The more you pre-empt those concerns, the better you will do.
You Don’t Need To Be An Expert Consultant
I suspect the vast majority of consultants consider themselves as ‘expert consultants’.
If you’re an expert consultant, you know your field, provide unique expertise, help clients follow best practices, and achieve the proper outcomes.
The advantage of this is that you get to sell your expertise, which feels easier. The disadvantage is that it feels competitive, and the barrier to entry is low. Almost anyone can claim to be an expert and begin offering consulting services.
I recommend to most of my coaching clients that they should really consider what the other types of options look like.
Good luck!
Good luck!
p.s. If you want to get better at writing proposals, sign up for our Proposal Mastery course.
Good categorization of something that tends to be slippery for both consultants and their clients: I always kinda defined and saw myself as a process consultant, but in the client's eyes there are oftenn overlaps between that and expert or management consulting.
I also agree on the pros/cons of being a process consultant, and that's why sometimes being seen as an expert consultant first might be a foot-in-the-door strategy, at least in terms of communication: I find that it's way harder to get immediate buy-in as a process consultant than an expert one.
I’d argue that the top 4 are all various types of “expertise”. One of the primary buyer values of is getting expertise; expert knowledge of process design which is categorically different than change management expertise; implementation expertises (project mgt, implementation approaches, software being implemented, strategy / business consultants are hired on their expertises as well). Only the 5th category is sometimes not driven by expertise, if it is for a very standard backfill Though sometimes these are just different buying procedures but they are still looking for highly qualified project managers or business analysts and the like. Usually these are procured through an agency type model