Best of the ISP-Lists

How Much Should I Pay For Advice?

Members of the ISP-Marketing list discuss management consultants. This is a controversial issue: some love them, some hate them, and some swear that nobody outside the ISP industry could understand it.

[June 11, 2001]

On the ISP-Marketing list in May, FD asked,

"Have any of you ever used a management consulting firm to come in and analyze your company? It sounds interesting: basically, they come in, analyze our operation and numbers, and come up with recommendations on improving the overall picture."

PF offered a far cheaper alternative:

"You might check to see if there's a SCORE (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) chapter in your area, which is run through the US Government's Small Business Administration. They'll help you free of charge. They may not have Internet experience, but I assume you're talking about business problems and not technical problems."

A number of respondents advised checking up on any consultant's area of expertise:

[KL advised] "I would only hire a consultant that had in the past run a business very similar to mine."

[BH agreed] "Always find out just how experienced their 'Internet Expert' is. Let's face it, this is a unique and fast-changing industry. If they aren't up on what's going on, then they aren't really going to be able to help you much. And remember, consultants don't always come in with some key to unlock hidden treasures in your company: sometimes all they do is say, 'You're already doing just about everything you can already.'"

[JS warned] "For the most part, consultants don't deliver near what they think they do or promise to. I've been through two consult processes in two different industries, and both times the final recommendations added nothing of any real value: the whole thing seemed like a monumental waste of money and time. Everything they pointed out in their final reports basically mimicked and reiterated what everyone had been saying for years."

Others took precisely the opposite view of things:

[BS recalled] "We've used two consultants since day one. Neither possesses any Internet expertise whatsoever. One is a CPA who is still humbled by AOL, and the other is a retired marketing guru. Neither has ever suggested that we do anything that wasn't more than a bit obvious. Both simply push me in the direction of doing what I knew all along needed to be done, so on a certain level they're both a total waste of our money.

Then again, we're doing very well here, and had they not kept bringing me back down to earth, I'm not sure I'd be able to say that. I'd never use a consultant that knew the ins and the outs of the hosting business, though. The primary benefit I've experienced is that their not knowing the business makes them look at what we do from an entirely different perspective, and that perspective is what we seem to need the most."

[EA added] "Sometimes, management will only act when an outsider points out the obvious. It's strange but true."

— End