This is a guest post by Trainual Certified Consultant Wendy Tadokoro from Organising Works.

Congratulations! You’ve found and hired a consultant to help you scale your business. They’ll provide you with their expertise and a more objective-based approach to improving your business.

Even still, you may be feeling a little nervous about how the consulting relationship will work — after all, you’re investing a lot of time, effort, and money into this individual.

So, what’s the best way to get the project off to a good start? Having helped scores of businesses organize and systemize their processes, I’ve compiled the ultimate guide to getting the best results when working with a consultant. Whether it's improving operational workflows or building your company playbook, a consultant with the right know-how can save you time, effort, and frustration.

Step 1: Communicate goals and timelines.

Sharing the longer-term goals of your company with your consultant will help them understand how their work fits into the bigger scheme of things. Additionally, getting a sense of your company culture, personality, and working style will help your consultant feel more connected to your team.

Plus, without clear goals and timelines, it’s difficult to measure the overall progress and performance of ​the project. So it’s important to share all of these things with your consultant the very first time you interact with them. 

Most consultants will hold a strategy or discovery session where they meet your team for the first time and try to establish a good understanding of your business operations. Be prepared to share your big picture goals, benchmarks, and areas of focus while ensuring you communicate what it is you ultimately want to achieve.

Step 2: Set clear expectations.

Both parties need to be super clear on what’s expected from the agreement. So after the project has been scoped and agreed upon, make sure you have a documented proposal in place that clearly outlines these expectations.

Determining who does what in the consulting arrangement is often overlooked. But everyone involved in the project needs to understand what part they play and why.

For example, it’s important to know how many hours your team is expected to contribute and when work will be completed. Making that clear at the beginning of the engagement will help to avoid confusion and frustrations later.

Here are some questions you and your team can ask your consultant if they aren’t already covered in the proposal:

• Who will lead the project internally, and what are their key responsibilities?
• Will the consultant be bringing in additional consultants in other areas of expertise? 
• In the case of process documentation, will your consultant create the documentation, or will they provide a coaching and training approach? 
• How will reports and progress be tracked?
• How much time will your team be required to work on assigned tasks? 
• How will you know when the project is complete?
• What measurements or milestones will be set?
• Who will be responsible for setting up any new software that may be required?

Let’s take a look at a case study:

Jordan, the CEO of JBC Soft Furnishings, hires a consultant to help create and implement training materials and process documentation for his company. Jordan and the consultant attend an online strategy session to discuss the overall goals and scope of the work.

The consultant establishes that JBC has some existing documentation that can be migrated into their playbook software and plans to improve and optimize the content’s structure, formatting, and engagement. Jordan assigns Michael, his operations manager, as the primary contact person for the project — Michael’s role includes coordinating the team, delegating tasks, and following up on requests.

The consultant provides a list of requirements, such as requesting an invite into the client’s playbook software system, getting access to files in their Google folders, and providing a copy of the company logo so they can set up branding in the system.

Jordan and the consultant agree on several milestones and a completion date. The plan is clearly written into the agreement, and a copy is made available to all relevant stakeholders.

Finally, Jordan briefs the team and schedules the kick-off meeting.

Because Jordan and the consultant set clear expectations for the project from the start, they both understand what they have to do to contribute to the project's success.

Step 3: Provide resources.

Next, establish the resources your consultant needs to get started. These can include logins to relevant systems, a copy of your organizational chart, or your company’s directory.

And if the consultant is working in-house, make sure you have a workspace allocated for them (access to parking is nice, too). As the project gets underway, provide information when needed and required.

The most significant resource, however, is time. So make sure you and your team can undertake the work you agreed upon at the start of the project.

It’s helpful for the consultant to know what the team’s availability looks like for the project at hand. Consider allocating time each week for you and your team to focus on the project instead of trying to fit that work into an already busy schedule.

Here are some other resources you might need to provide your consultant:

• Access to documents and folders. 
• Access to your Trainual account.
• List of roles and responsibilities.
• Company logo and brand colors.
• Access to images, photos, and multimedia.
• Team availability.

Step 4: Brief the team.

To give the project the best chance of success, your team needs to be on board. And the best way to do that is to help your team understand what’s in it for them. It can be challenging to bring a consultant into an established team, especially if they solve problems your team can’t seem to find solutions to themselves.

When talking to your team, explain specifically how the consultant will help them — whether it’s saving time on training or creating consistency in their workflow. Additionally, focus on how your team can use the consultant to learn new skills and approaches. For example, your consultant can provide strategies for content creation and maintaining your company handbook.

The key to handling resistance is to communicate with your team, involve them in decision making where possible, and address their concerns. You shouldn’t have any pushback if you communicate the benefits of the project and focus on the positives.

However, any concerns your team has need to be addressed before introducing the consultant. You don’t want an individual team member sabotaging an initiative. Emphasize that the consultant is there to work with the team to bring a different set of skills and a fresh perspective to the table. They're not there to remove anyone.

A consultant does their best work when they have full cooperation and collaboration with the team members they’ll be working with. In a larger company, this may be the leadership team. In a smaller business, it may be all team members.

Remember that the key to participation is to get your team aligned and singing from the same song sheet. Having your team members' support will help contribute to your project’s success.

Step 5: Assign a project leader.

For the consultant relationship to run smoothly and on track, identify a project leader to be the primary contact. Someone who will coordinate the efforts with the rest of the team. 

This doesn’t mean that this person does all the work. Instead, the project leader is responsible for following up with the consultant as needed and updating the rest of the team — including you.

Consider scheduling a weekly team meeting that allows your project leader to provide updates. Or have them post the project progress and requests in your company’s task management tool. Provide your project leader with all the  guidelines (and autonomy) needed, and resist the tendency to micromanage.

Step 6: Communicate and provide feedback.

Establish a system for communication to ensure information is being exchanged between the right people at the right time. For instance, if you’re working with a consultant to help build out your company playbook, you’ll have a lot of content for them to review, and there will undoubtedly be questions.

For this reason, you’ll need a simple way to communicate regularly and share content easily. Your consultant may have a communication tool such as Slack or a client portal; alternatively, you may invite the consultant to use your company’s internal communication tool.

Feedback is a crucial part of your communication and helps to improve and enhance the outcome of the project. If you feel things aren’t moving fast enough, be sure to send a message to your consultant to let them know. Additionally, don’t forget to tell your consultant when they are doing a great job — everyone likes positive feedback and assurance!

Step 7: Evaluate the results.

During the project, you should regularly evaluate your consultant’s work and results against the milestones you set at the onset of the agreement. When you reach the end of the project, assess the results and resolve any outstanding issues.

What if things haven’t gone to plan? There can be times when the unexpected happens, such as a team member leaving or a priority shift. If you’re in a situation where expectations haven’t been met, the best course of action is to schedule a meeting and work out a plan to get back on track. After all, your consultant wants you singing their praises and writing a glowing testimonial — they’ll work with you to make sure you’re satisfied with the project’s success.

Step 8: Set a maintenance strategy.

When you’ve worked hard with your consultant to achieve a result, you want to ensure that it doesn’t unravel once the work is completed. For example, if you worked with a consultant to build your company playbook, you want everyone on your team to use it. So have your consultant help you with a strategy to get your team on board.

With your initial objectives achieved, this is the time to assess your team's level of confidence. Plus, you need to determine which team member will take responsibility for maintaining the training and documentation of your business. This person may be your project leader, or even a team member who loves organization and is motivated to improve processes.

You might want to consider developing a cross-training plan with your consultant so that your team has a plan for success moving forward. It’s also worth discussing any ongoing assistance they can offer to help create, update, and improve processes and training material.

The magic of working with a consultant.

Consultants come with a magnitude of knowledge and can work effectively with your team to help you build and implement your company playbook. With a consultant, your team will have access to new skill sets and different approaches to projects.

The key to a successful consultant relationship is to be clear about expectations and deliverables. Give your consultant detailed objectives, clear feedback, a primary contact person, and the resources they need to work efficiently and effectively.

A good consultant provides lots of added benefits. If you have an important project on the horizon, such as documenting your processes and building your company playbook, get a consultant to help you navigate these milestones with ease and confidence.

Ultimately, working with a consultant will save you a ton of time, energy and frustration. At Organising Works, we work with clients every day to improve and document processes and training, and we’re happy to help you take the next step to organize and systemize your business.

We help capture your internal knowledge, provide the strategy to maintain your processes and training, and create an engaging company playbook — one you can be proud of.

Learn more at www.organisingworks.com.au. Or contact Wendy at wendy@organisingworks.com.au.