By Jess Lorimer

Making the choice to bring external suppliers into your organisation can be a tricky one. Normally organisations make hiring decisions based on a range of factors with personality fit, current skill set, performance at interview and future potential all being top of mind.

But hiring an external coach / consultant is different. 

They’re not going to be part of the organisation on a permanent basis – and so whilst it’s important that they’re a good fit, the focus (and decision making around who to hire) is more strongly rooted in their ability to help the organisation achieve the commercial transformations promised.

So what should organisations be looking for in external suppliers to ensure that they make the best choice and engage the right provider?

At The Expert Services Directory, we believe that there are five key elements to engaging the right external provider for your organisation – and if you want to see the range of coaches and consultants that we recommend? Click here and you’ll be able to see the variety of experts working successfully with organisations around the UK.

Five key elements to ensure you engage the right coaches / consultants in your organisation

1. Specialist skills: When engaging an external coach / consultant, organisations are often looking for specific skills so that commercial goals can be achieved. When searching for the right external supplier, it’s important to stay focused on the critical specialist skills required rather than looking at their broader skills. With permanent employees, considering wider skills is key to understanding the long-term value that hire could bring… but with external suppliers who are working on specialist programmes / projects of work, it’s more important to ensure that they meet critical skill criteria and that they are using those skills regularly so that your company is able to get faster outcomes.
2. Stakeholder engagement skills: External suppliers don’t require the same ‘ramp up’ period as permanent employees when it comes to performing within their specialist area of expertise… but engaging a great external provider means ensuring that they’ve got key stakeholder engagement skills so that they’re able to work easily and effectively within the organisation. During the sales process, watch how they engage, track whether they do what they promise (when they promise it!) and assess their soft skills to see whether they’ll be a good fit working with your stakeholders.
3. Commercial acumen: External providers are often brought in to support organisations to achieve commercially critical goals… and this means that the best providers understand why these goals are critical for the organisation and the wider business case. External providers often have key conversations with senior leadership and you’ll want a provider who is able to demonstrate professional skill alongside commercial awareness to help your organisation hit key milestones and deliverables that matter.
4. Being invested: The sales process that an external supplier takes you through – matters. When you’re searching for the right external provider to work with your organisation and move into a sales process with a provider? That’s your opportunity to see how they manage expectations, work to timelines and assess their keenness to work with your organisation/ understanding of your brand.
5. Credentials: Permanent employees are often asked to provide references – in a way that is not expected or the norm for external providers who often work under non-disclosure agreements. During the search / selection process to find the right external provider for your organisation, it’s a good opportunity to ask about their credentials. This doesn’t solely refer to qualifications… Instead, ask about recent projects / programmes of work, challenges other clients have faced before working with them and case studies (if they’re able to share.)
   

You might notice that we haven’t written about budget being a major factor when hiring an external supplier. Most organisations have a defined idea of what they want to spend when working with an external provider… and sometimes that can need to change when they start the selection / sales process and understand the skills / experience / credentials needed to source the supplier that is going to work best for the organisation and critical commercial goals.

The reality around hiring external suppliers is that organisations will pay a premium to source specialist skills, competencies and create a competitive advantage that they wouldn’t achieve without hiring that external supplier and their expertise. This doesn’t mean that organisations should waste time sourcing suppliers that are outside of budget requirements – but it does mean that any external provider should be managing budget expectations early and communicating transparently so that you’re able to understand available solutions that meet all commercial requirements. 

And if your organisation is looking for coaches / consultants / trainers / speakers or done-for- you service providers? Make sure you take a look at our Directory where we list qualified suppliers who are successfully working with organisations around the UK to achieve commercially critical outcomes.

We know the skills and competencies we want… but how do we make sure the provider really has them?

Hiring an external provider can feel tricky because traditional interview processes and references don’t apply. Instead, having sales calls with them is generally the way to assess their true competencies and skills. 

When hiring an external provider, it’s important to use their sales process to assess:

• Questioning: What types of questions do they ask you / other decision makers? Do their questions demonstrate the level of critical thinking and commercial awareness that you’re looking to use in your project / programme of work?
• Credible examples: Are they able to talk competently about their area of expertise and proactively share credible insights or examples that demonstrate their knowledge and skills?
• Communication: Are they a clear, confident communicator who you would feel comfortable presenting to senior leadership within the organisation? And do they communicate professionally, proactively and productively at all times?
• Challenge: Are they able to challenge thoughts and perceptions in a courteous and constructive way? Would you be happy for them to hold or lead challenging conversations within the organisation?
• Expectation Management: Are they able to clearly manage expectations around project scope, pricing and key deliverables? More importantly, do they do what they say they’ll do – when they say they’ll do it during the sales process? Because that gives key indicators as to how they’ll show up during the delivery process.

If you want to bring qualified, credible experts into your organisation to work on projects / programmes of work that matter? Check out our Directory here and search for specialists who are successfully working with organisations in the UK to achieve critical commercial goals.