When you cut someone's hair or clean someone's teeth, people see instant results and are able to put a dollar value on the service. Higher dollar values (usually) go towards more skilled procedures. Surgery requires more training and risk involved than plumbing.

Consulting, on the other hand, is a tricky business to be in.

Lawyers are consultants (until a day in court, when they have a specifically actionable item), creating reports and documentation, doing research and offering their expertise to help their clients understand the various legal implications of what they are doing. Mostly, their work is preventative, but quite often essential. We just got a bill for alot of money from a lawyer who was involved in a telephone conversation, giving us advice on I.P. This is, of course, stuff we could have looked up and figured out ourselves, but it was simpler and more comforting to know that someone who knows their 'stuff' in this area was assisting us.

People complain about the costs of lawyers all of the time, yet, they know they have to pay the bill.

The legal profession has been very good about establishing their rates and standards. You understand that paying $250/hr is a great deal and, for a senior partner in a firm, you would be lucky to get away with $700/hr. You value your time and don't tend to waste it.

The other consultants of the world haven't been so well organized.

Now, we all know that in order to build a reputation, we need to give away a certain amount of free advice. You establish your 'expertise' by putting your ideas out into the world. Those who like your methodologies will gravitate towards you. There are also oodles of books available to offer up advice...for a small price...that is more 'generic' in nature. I mentioned some of the pitfalls of homogenizing solutions, but there is enough advice out there that smart people could formulate a pretty good strategy that would help the growth of their company.

There are three very specific reasons to hire a consultant in these situations:

1. It takes time to do this
   
2. You often need an objective viewpoint
3. People that do this for a living will know some stuff you may not find in books and, more importantly, how to apply it to your situation
   

The consultant, be it in the area of business strategy, marketing, engineering or accounting, will come in, take a look at your current product or practices, take a look at your market, know the various methodologies available, and advise you on which one suits your company the best. The consultant should also be unafraid to tell you where you fall short and suggest how to improve. You should always expect a thorough and personalized analysis of your situation (consultants that come in and give you a strategy on day 1 should not be trusted imho), as well as a guiding hand through the execution of the strategy.

Now, if tomorrow, the entire world thought it could function without asking people for their time to help achieve this, I would agree: consultants are useless. But since every consultant I know has an inbox full of questions and people asking to hire them because they need assistance, I know that consultants are, very much, useful and necessary.

So...why do so many people de-value the role of the consultants they hire?

Surveying a crew of my friends who consult in various different areas, they say the two biggest problems in running their business is:

1. People expecting endless free advice; and
   
   
2. Paying clients haggling over 'what is valuable' and 'what is not' when it comes to paying their bills.

If a client decides to call every hour to ask a consultant questions, then the client should realize that this time is valuable, whether they got the answer they were looking for or not. And, if the answer requires research, the client should expect that this research time will be billed.

[I'm not accounting for crooked consulting here...I'm assuming these are the people I know, who care about and work hard for their clients to keep them happy and make a living at the same time]

I've dealt with this all of my consulting life. You are valuable when they have you at their disposal, but as soon as the bill comes, that value is questioned. Resentment grows from both sides and it is not positive for the relationship [we generally work on retainer, which means that a client can call anytime to ask questions and we gauge the amount of time to spend on delving into their project on the general amount of hours we estimate for...if it looks like we need more, we will re-evaluate the retainer, but this is problematic, too]. Think of it this way, whether a deal goes through or not, you still have to pay the lawyer.

Maybe there are other consultants out there that want to share their stories. Perhaps a way that both clients and consultants can win in these situations?

Personally, I've never haggled the worth of a consultant. If I can't afford to pay what someone's time is worth, I just venture out to solve an issue myself. After I've spent days of frustration and endless self-questionning without finding real answers and misusing my time in general, I know EXACTLY what that time is worth.

It's priceless.