The 2 most important and the 2 irrelevant questions you should ask Consultants and Trainers before you hire them

Relevant Questions

1. Will you be able to show me How can I apply this in my own business/ workplace?

2. Will you be willing to take the responsibility for the on the job implementation based on expected results we can agree?

Irrelevant Questions

1. Can you tell me What to do?

2. How much will it cost?

You see, most Consultants and Trainers work like academics. They know theory but they lack the experience to apply it. Their working experience is very limited to none and therefore their track record of working with other even similar in industry businesses, is dangerously non-existent.

Therefore, at best, you will get a book. And if you are lucky, an updated edition of it.

But you see, what is at stake here, is your business and your people skills. That is, performance. What you really want is real , specific and measurable performance results. You certainly don’t want reports, handouts delivered at your office. Moreover and most importantly you don’t want the investment of yours and your people’s time, sitting in a training room or listening to a consultant for hours, even days to tell you What to do and leave you with the real issue of How to apply it.

Besides, what delivers results is not the What to do but the How to under certain constraints, limitations, resistance. Here, you need an expert not just a trainer or consultant. You want someone who has applied the What in numerous other businesses and has the expertise to guide you to customize and apply it in your business, leading your people and aligning your resources to real results and specific performance.

After all, the main cost of consulting and training is the time you and your people spent with the Consultant and Trainer.

For example, if you have 10 Executive Managers in a training room costing your Company €20/hour attending a 14 hour training program , you have already invested €2800 plus of course the opportunity cost!

Often people ask me What to do to deal with a particular problem or opportunity. Then,they come back and tell me, I did What you told me but it didn’t work. So then I ask the critical question: Let’s go and show me How you did it. You see, what drives results is not Knowledge (How to do it) but the skill (How + What to do). And for that you need an expert not a Consultant or Trainer.

To conclude, before hiring a Consultant or Trainer you need to ensure that the Consultant has the experience and track record in diversified business industries to cope for the work and deliver the results you expect, not just the report or the training handout.

Yiannakis Mouzouris
B.Sc. Mech. Eng., M.Sc. Mgt
Business Consultant / Trainer