6 Key Traits of Great Consultants

BY Editor

Consulting is rapidly becoming a big thing in the modern day. Why? Tastes and preferences have drastically changed. Companies are focusing more on customer experience and product value and less on logo and visual appeal. These companies are ready to employ the best consultants on the market to fuel their business growths. Happily, the consulting industry is littered with the best brains you can find. However, the cream of the crop of consultants should possess the following characteristics:

1. High degree of professionalism

Great consultants should be well aware that client relationships should at all times be at a professional level. Companies or clients are looking for something beyond better, and exhibiting ‘’employee attitude’’ traits may turn out to be a total failure in other environments and impact the progress of the project.

2. Ability to grasp the details

This is a critical characteristic of a great consultant, since one of the techniques to cultivate trust with clients is to deliver results devoid of errors. This shows that a consultant is meticulous, thorough and their recommendations are strong. A great consultant or business consulting agency must ensure there are no spelling, grammatical and computing mistakes in their submission. In short, a great consultant must always be on their A game whenever they are undertaking a client’s project.

3. Resourceful

In the consulting world, consultants sometimes stumble across problems they’ve never heard of. The problem may also be unique to the industry, yet they are required to solve it. When such a scenario occurs, a resourceful consultant will find creative ways to solve it. Clients or companies appreciate consultants who can quickly and creatively address an issue. They really don’t care whether or not a consultant is well-versed with the problem. This is why a consultant needs to assemble a strong, expert and experienced team under them to help when such scenarios arise. A consultant should also consider having external teams when the issue cannot be solved by internal teams.

4. Impeccable Time management skills

Clients hire consultants or growth agency for a specific period, within a given budget and other requirements of the project. Consultants must be ready to adjust their work schedule and manage time according to those project requirements. This is especially true when the consultant is extremely under the gun and expected to deliver top-quality work within a budget.

5. Impeccable communication skills

When a company or client wants to hire a consultant, they will certainly organize a sit down with them. The first quality a client wants to ascertain is a consultant’s oral communication skills. Consultant’s oral communication skills are substantiated by the oral sit down with the client. Because clients see consultants as experts in the field, impeccable oral and written communication skills is not an option. On top of that, a consultant must know the kind of language used in the domain, including workers of the company. In a nutshell, the consultant must be able to read and articulate the project without having to employ a translator.

6. Extensive knowledge of the area of consulting

Companies or clients usually solicit the services of external consultants for 2 broad reasons. First, they presume that consultants or business consulting agency have broader knowledge than the company’s internal resources. Second, clients hardly have the time to address their own problems or to put their own projects into play. Consultants must have extensive knowledge of the given domain to understand the right time to ask questions and where to look for the solutions. Consultants should always be in the know about current news in the industry by constantly reading informative websites, newspapers, magazines, and journals, including forming strong networks with other consultants. They should be able to implement ideas effortlessly and also know how to utilize appropriate tools such as professional journals and software to perform well in the job.