As we look to hire a consulting firm, I am trying to find ways to gauge their performance to help with our decision? Any ideas?

I run a small graphics business and just recently added a small sales team. I want to purchase and implement a CRM system and am looking for a consulting firm to help with that process. I want to make sure that I find the right consulting firm, so any insight would be helpful.

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Cindy Bennett

asked on July 9, 2009

Paul Hoffmann

Senior Director Cloud & Technology Solutions, Ingram Micro

Posted on July 9, 2009

Carroll, there are a few things you can do. If you don't already have a list of consultants that you are working with, here are some things to build that list. The simplest is to do a google search with consultants, "implementation" and the crm tool name as keywords. Another is to ask the CRM company for referrals (either directly or through their web site). A third is to go to any forums or blogs for the CRM tool and check for consultants that are frequent contributors.

To evaluate them, there are a few things I would suggest.

1. Check their web site. If they don't have a fair amount of detail about how they implement and support the CRM tool, then I would eliminate them.
2. Do a google search on the consultant name and the CRM tool name. You'd be surprised at how many times this yields results about complaints or issues. Sometimes though you need to take these with a grain of salt.
3. Of course ask the consultant for specific clients that you can talk to. The client should be one who went through a very similar implementation.

Once you've culled the list, I would suggest having them respond to a brief RFQ. Finally, based on these response I would interview the best candidates (as if you were going to hire them to work in your company - which they effectively are). Last, make sure to have a good agreement with them that covers deliverables, timelines and remedies for issues or missing any of these.

Deneen Willis

Posted on July 10, 2009

My company GoSmallBiz may be something that would help you. We have a team of consultants who are available to you to help with any issues that you may have with your business. They are all carefully selected and have extensive backgrounds owning and running small businesses. It is an outstanding program that helps in many different areas; not only consulting.

Let me know if you would like more information.

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deneen@everestkc.net
GoSmallBiz

Tyler Grace

Posted on July 10, 2009

Paul offers some good advice. I found a company called inside CRM that seemed to offer some pretty good advice and didn't seem to be overly loyal to one vendor over another. We have a MAC platform and our needs are a bit different. Their staff really did a nice job of reviewing solutions that were and were not web-based that would work on MAC.

From a sales person standpoint I started using Maximizer almost 20 years ago. My company didn't know what a CRM was but I felt that any CRM would allow me to work smarter than my competitors by a long shot. I'm still a huge fan of Maximizer, they are out of Vancover, BC. Downside is the cost of customer service.

I have used Salesforce, custom built solutions, some low cost internet based solutions and I am still a big fan of Maximizer. Act in my book has finally caught up to Maxmizer. I found that Salesforce is cumbersome for the sales rep to manipulate. Anything that is cumbersome will ultimately provide you with challenges with getting your staff's utilization where you all want it to be.

From an owners standpoint, I think that Salesforce has really great reporting tools and this is how they sell it and why owners and managers buy it.

I hope that you bring in your sales team and others that will utilize the solution and really get their feedback. Garbage in will give you garbage out and if they don't use what you buy, then the investments you make will truly not pay off.

Best of luck with your project

Felix P. Nater

President, Nater Associates, Ltd.

Posted on July 17, 2009

Hi Carroll,

This is a great question and one that serious consulting firms enjoy answering. Since we excite our clients with exceedingly high performance deliverable, we hold ourselves extremely accountable at our expense. Every consulting and training engagement is a mutual agreement. We do not accept a project for the fee alone. In fact, we design the fee around options that help the client select the most value for his or her investment.

Here are some bullet suggestions I would offer you to help you make an informed decision in making the best selection. Of course, you can preempt these steps if you receive a very reliable referral or if you have worked with a group in the past you are willing to give the project to.

I make these recommendations on the assumption that money is not the object but that finding the right consulting relationship is your primary objective.

- First and foremost select on high ethical and professional standards.
- Seek a referral from a happy associate or go to a consulting referral
organization.
- Come up with at least 3 - 5 consulting firms.
- Ask for a written proposal.
- Review the proposal and examine them all carefully.
- Select on demonstrated results.
- Rely heavily on the consulting firm's past client's quantifiable satisfaction.
- Form a review team and review the proposals to narrow down the search to
the top 3 firms.
- Ask if the consulting firm is willing to train your staff so they can continue
to benefit from their input
- Ask for a capability statement of your final 3 firms.
- Interview the best prospects and check their references. (Consider their
extent of expertise, listening skills, ability to adapt to the nature of your
organization, ability to work with your staff, ability to coach to ensure the organization can address the problem in the future, etc.)
- Really satisfy yourself that the firm meets your performance criteria.
- Because you are seeking technical work, select based on specialist
expertise.
- Don't pick someone based only on price.
- Satisfy yourself that you feel comfortable with the consulting firm.
- You want a consulting firm to lend credibility to the process as such decisions they make must be ethical and in your best interest.
- If you are not working with a trusted referral, do not be afraid to check out
references.