7.5. Adding Adjunct Team Members (Consultants and Contractors)

Let's talk about consultants and contractors. These are workers who provide you with specific services but are not employees of your company. The general rule for distinguishing them is that consultants get paid to provide a specific, predefined service. Contractors are hired on an hourly basis to fill in wherever you need them. Many people are confused because companies want to hire a consultant to help them figure out what they need to do—they need expertise and guidance to get a quick start. But no one can tell what it will take to get the company to that point, so consultants are also paid on open-ended contracts. In fact, the real difference is that consultants get paid more, always!

I've been employing consultants for more than 20 years; at this writing, I have been a consultant for less than one year. With that background, I have some pretty strong ideas about what consultants can and can't contribute and how they should be used. There are two reasons to hire a consultant:

• You need the consultant's knowledge and experience to help you identify what your organization needs in a specific area of expertise, and you want the consultant to pass that knowledge and experience on to you so you can learn to take care of things yourself.

• You need the consultant's resources to help you actually do the work that you have already decided you need to do.

Do not hire a consulting firm to tell you what to do, or I guarantee you'll end up feeling like the guys in Figure 7-6. Hire consultants who will ask you the questions that will help you refine, articulate, and deliver what you know your company needs.

An hourly (daily, weekly) agreement is fine for consultants and contractors who are acting advisors, coaches, facilitators, guides, or additional trained resources. As long as you're making progress and getting what you need, this is a great source of additional expertise and resources. When there's no longer any value, you end the relationship. Beware, though, of consultants who take your money to figure out why you need to hire them to do more work. Look for those who want to help you learn to do it yourself.

Along the same lines, don't hire consultants to deliver an unspecified solution. Unless you have a specific objective (and “Make us CRM-capable” is not specific enough), they can't give you a plan with a fixed schedule, estimated cost, and clear penalties. This leaves you with the hourly time and materials agreement, which means you are taking all the risk. Whether you or the consultant makes a mistake in the requirements, design, or construction, you have to pay for it to get fixed.

One last reason to hire a consultant is that you just want to have them tell your top management exactly what you've been saying for years, but management will listen more closely to the consultant because they're paying the him or her so much more than they're paying you. This is a perfectly valid reason; I've used it often and very successfully!