Having trouble getting quality consulting resources on board quickly? You’re not alone! This is what the real estate industry calls a “sellers’ market”, but these days it’s more like “The AMAZING Race!”
A major symptom of the broad market talent shortage that the US is experiencing, particularly in specialized fields like FinTech, Wealth Management, Regulatory Compliance, Digital Marketing and Digital Transformation, is that opportunities for experienced consultants are vast and the talent pool is increasingly out of reach unless clients move quickly and decisively. But fear not! There are concrete actions you can take that will help you get the consulting talent you need, when you need it.
Here are some fundamental steps you can take to ensure your projects have the resources they need:
- Make sure you’re ready to engage a consultant before meeting with them – Your funding is approved, you have decision authority to pull the trigger and your project is ready to onboard them.
- Be aware of the tight market conditions and find out if consultants are actively evaluating other opportunities – All of the best resources have options. If the firm you’re working with can’t answer this question it’s a red flag!
- Don’t allow large time gaps in the assessment process (vacations, business trips, etc.). If you can’t efficiently move through the decision process, then you might as well wait until you and your colleagues’ schedules can accommodate the process quickly and efficiently.
- Keep the decision-making process short and be prepared to make decisions based on phone meetings, video conferencing and web-based presentation methods.
- Remember this is “The AMAZING Race”, and putting consultants through a multi-step, lengthy and formal assessment process can be a real turnoff when other technology-based methods would suffice like Skype, Gotomeeting, Zoom, etc. can provide the visual verification you need to make a decision.
- Don’t be shy about spending your budget! Be ready to pay market rates for top quality consultants. Not having the consultant onboard, executing against your goals and initiatives will be more expensive in the long run than saving 5-10% on consulting rates.
- Give your consulting partners more exclusive opportunities – they will prioritize with exclusivity, and produce the top talent with the right motivations more quickly so you can execute against your initiatives with the right team of consultants at your side.
- Finally, work with the delivery partners that have earned your trust and give them more latitude in moving consultants through the evaluation process and save your time for decision making!
The whole point here is that to successfully engage the best consultants in this market, there has to be a sense of urgency. This should be communicated throughout the whole process and backed up with action. Whether you’re a decision maker or a prospective consultant, this is a clear indication of motivation on either side and will enhance the likelihood of a deal being made and getting things done!
Granite Solutions Groupe has been helping our clients find and engage high caliber consulting talent, quickly, since 1998. We place highly skilled consultants with financial services industry expertise at leading financial services companies to complete projects in areas ranging from blockchain to data analytics to product development. To find out more about how we can help your successfully team complete its next project, reach out to engage@granitesolutionsgroupe.com.