Why large companies hire consultants -- even when they have staff

Ever wondered why big corporations would hire a consultant when they have staff

In this episode, you'll get a comprehensive understanding from your business mentor, Laura Khalil, who unpacks this notion, providing 13 illuminating reasons. Laura goes beyond the obvious, exploring the complex factors that often make consultants a more cost-effective and valuable proposition than full-time employees.

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Solo service providers can be just as profitable as million dollar businesses. You don't need more staff, more products, or a bigger audience. Join 1000+ email subscribers who are learning how to sign bigger contracts every week --> https://laurakhalil.ck.page/

Transcript

Benefits of Hiring Consultants for Organizations

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey everyone , it is your business bestie , laura Khalil , and I want to do a follow-up episode to what I talked about last week , which was all about why I like to work with bigger clients . Specifically , I was discussing working with Fortune 500 , but any client that's larger than what you currently work with . Why I like doing that ? Why I think it helps you earn more revenue , it's easier to work with , and I got one question over and over and over from y'all and I want to address it in this episode , and that question was okay , laura , it's all well and good that you want to work with large companies , but don't they have staff to do this stuff ? Why would they actually hire a consultant ? So in this episode , I'm going to share 13 reasons , 13 reasons why you could be hired by a larger organization , because they do hire consultants all the time .

Speaker 1 1:10

In fact , I heard a statistic that I think it's by 2025 or 2030 , half the labor force is going to be in a contract or consulting basis . So consulting is definitely growing . In fact , it has been growing since the last financial crisis of 2008 . There's a lot of reasons why that is . In general , it's a lot cheaper to hire consultants than to pay for full time employees . But having said that , even though it's cheaper for the company , it can be way more lucrative for you , but only if you know how to structure those contracts and structure your timing . If you don't know how to do that , it can be erased to the bottom in terms of pricing and in terms of your time . I find it to be more lucrative to consult than to work full time , because I'm in full control of my time and I don't trade time for money .

Speaker 1 2:10

So let's dive into the reasons why a company would prefer hiring a consultant and why companies who even have thousands and tens of thousands of staff will continue to hire consultants . So if this has been a block for you , keep listening . So the first reason is they don't have budget to increase headcount for full time employees . So sometimes money is coming from different buckets right Within an organization , especially a larger organization , and they may have discretionary amounts of money to put towards hiring a consultant or just it's sort of like can be used for anything , but they won't have that to put towards headcount . So that's a great reason why you could get hired . The second reason actually is that they have discretionary budget that needs to be spent . So if you've ever worked or are familiar with what it's like in a larger organization , you may have heard of the phrase use it or lose it , meaning that if there is discretionary budget and they don't use it within that fiscal year or within that quarter , they will lose that money . So there are actually organizations , believe it or not , that are trying to spend money and they want to spend it with you .

Speaker 1 3:40

The third reason is they may need outside eyes on a project and a fresh perspective . For example , we're a full time employee and I really wanted to get a raise and I knew that the person who was going to give me the raise was really happy with a certain project direction . So I wasn't going to rock the boat , because if I rock the boat with this individual , it may affect my raise . You're not going to get fresh perspective , you're not going to look at it with fresh set of eyes , because you are more incentivized to get your raise than to innovate , and I hate to say that , but that's just a reality of what it's like to be a full-time employee in many of these organizations . Having said that , without innovation , all we have is stagnation , and so organizations will look for outside eyes . They will look for a fresh perspective because they can't get it inside . It's also not uncommon , especially in larger organizations , that there are people who have been there for a long time , who are just really used to the way things are done , and so that again is going to cut off any sense of innovation .

Speaker 1 4:56

The fourth is that they don't have in-house experience in your niche . So if you are the type of consultant and I'm going to talk about content marketing for a second , because that's the world that I came from If you work in the world of content meaning you write different things for businesses and you can write everything from a resume to an obituary , to a speech , to a website you do not have a niche and you are probably struggling to get clients . So when you have a niche , when you have a very specific thing that you do , a very limited menu of services from which you offer the best of the best , that experience is at a premium , and a lot of companies may not have experience in that niche . They may not have somebody on the team who is really really good with that . As a direct example , within my business , within my consulting business , I was really focused on developer marketing .

Speaker 1 6:06

Now you don't need to know what that is , but what it I'll to give you the the brief 10,000 foot overview . It's how do you market to software engineers or hardware engineers ? And that is a very specific niche that I had , because I worked in the startup world for several years and honed in on that niche , and so I would go to work with companies who would say , well , you know , we're a software company , but we need this specific experience . We don't need someone who can write anything , we don't need someone who does consumer packaged goods , we need someone who knows this specific niche , because that's where we need help . And that's a different type of understanding than what we need and that's a different type of understanding than what most marketers who do , you know , just write anything would have . Okay , it's a specific audience , it's a specific way of talking to them . So niches can be all different types of things , but if they don't , if they don't have in-house experience in your niche , they may want to hire you and pay a premium Number five , let's say they do have in-house experience in your niche , but that individual is on a different project .

Speaker 1 7:20

They still need the help on this project and they cannot split that individual into they're going to hire you . Number six they want someone unaffected by office politics to give perspective . So this goes back , similar to number three . They need outside eyes on a project . It happens in smaller organizations , it happens in larger organizations . There are kind of , in many ways , sort of fiefdoms that are formed and war rooms , so to speak , where you know teams are discussing how they are going to push through their initiative , even though it may not be what it , what would work best with another team . These are dysfunctional things . I mean , let's be real , this is dysfunction . Office politicking is largely dysfunctional . However , as a consultant , honestly one of my favorite things about consulting is I don't care , I'm just coming in to do a really good job and share my expertise with you . I am unaffected by your politics . They do not affect my contract , they do not affect my work . That's like a real power position .

Speaker 1 8:32

The seventh reason is you're cheaper than a full time employee in terms of total compensation . So very often not always , very often you will be less in terms of total compensation than a full time employee Because remember , they have to pay their salary plus all their benefits and typically benefits between 50 to 100 percent of the salary If we have an HR person who's listening , they can actually inform me on that . So you're gonna be cheaper than that . Even if you're being paid more cash than a full-time employee , which frequently you will be , you're still gonna be cheaper in many , many cases . Okay , the eighth reason this may be a special project and they cannot find an internal resource to work on it . I have gotten many , many gigs because I've been put on a special project and they can't find anyone internally to work on it . This can happen if there is an internal resource , and by resource I mean a human , a person who doesn't wanna take the risk of working on a special project because that might be risky to their career . They may be just more comfortable with the status quo , so they won't accept a special project . So that's where you can come in Number nine .

Speaker 1 9:55

They aren't sure where the market is headed and they don't wanna spend money on a full-time employee . I feel that full-time employees feel that they have more job security and every time we go through rounds of layoffs I'm like y'all , you have no more job security than a consultant . You really don't . At least in consulting . I know when a contract is going to stop and start , but the additional benefit of consulting is I can always expand my services and offerings for a client and grow my revenue within an organization that a full-time employee can never do . So if I'm consulting and they wanna add on another project or they wanna add on some type of work that I'm gonna be doing for them , if you're a full-time employee , you just gotta take it . If you're a consultant , that is an additional fee . So there is this wonderful sense with consulting that you can really seriously grow your revenue and start at a company and expand with them All right .

Speaker 1 10:58

Number 10 , the company or the leadership team or the business unit you're working with needs a consultant to break them out of a status quo . This is again going back , similar to a fresh perspective . But if you're working with leadership teams or the heads of business units and they kind of need someone to bring an outside perspective , this is super important . Number 11 , the company has committed resources to a project and discovered midway that their full-time talent doesn't have the right blend of experience to successfully complete the project on time . Number 12 , the company has lost a leader of a critical functional area and they need someone to close the year out . So it may be that they are going to hire for that role . This happens frequently with fractional C-suite . They often may want to actually fill that role with a full-time employee , but executive search can take a long time it can take between six months and a year in many cases to find the right fit . So they need someone as a stop gap . So that's a pretty nice and lucrative stop gap for you .

Speaker 1 12:13

And the 13th and final reason is that consultants are just easier to manage . Yes , y'all , they are just easier to manage , especially if you are a professional . Okay , you do your work on time . You show up when you say you're gonna show up . You are a good listener , you understand the projects , you know how to ask for help . If you are a professional , you're gonna be a lot easier to manage . They don't need to worry about promoting you . They don't need to worry about any of the office politics with you . They know you're hired to get the work done and if you don't get the work done , you're out the door .

Why Companies Hire Consultants

Speaker 1 12:51

In fact , it's not very different for full-time employees , as I just said earlier , but consultants are typically , in my experience , they work at a very high level and the best ones are paid the best for a reason . So I hope this was helpful for you . If you've been wondering how could I ever work with a larger company , why would they hire me ? These are 13 great reasons they absolutely would hire you . Now , if you actually want to learn how to go after those bigger contracts , you can either sign up for a VIP day with me or you can join my program , my mastermind , called Elevate , which is for women who are already in business , who are growing their businesses and want to 10x their revenue . I'm gonna share all the information on how to get in touch if you're interested in learning more in the show notes , and you can always find me over at bravebydesignnet with all details . Until next time , giddy up .