What is the role of a Business Strategy Consultant?

Some entrepreneurs don’t have a clear strategy for their business. They may be running off instinct or trying to do everything themselves, but it’s not sustainable and they will eventually hit a wall. 

If you’ve accomplished creating a business but are now struggling to continue making it successful, then this blog post is for you. It can become difficult to keep up with all of your responsibilities as an entrepreneur. That’s why many entrepreneurs rely on consultants for help in running their businesses more smoothly (or hiring someone who knows what they’re doing).

Consultants work closely with an organization’s management team while giving unbiased advice from the outside looking in. When it comes down to it if you want your business goals and objectives met – hiring a strategy consultant is key!

This blog post is about how to find and hire one so you are sure that you’re dealing with the top brass and not adding another headache to the table.

What is a Business Strategy Consultant?

First, let’s define what a business strategy consultant is.

In the simplest form, they are experts in the business world and can help your company through all phases of growth and success.

They can help you develop plans, define goals, and build processes on how your company can achieve the goals in a given timeline. Basically, they will be the other brain that will assist businesses with strategic decision-making.

Strategy consultants offer a wide range of services including advising you how to develop new products and services that will be profitable, helping you grow your customer base, or even aiding with mergers and acquisitions. 

What is Strategy Consulting?

As the name implies, strategy consulting is a process by which business owners or entrepreneurs can work with an outside consultant to help develop and implement their strategic plans.

An outside perspective coupled with deep industry knowledge can be invaluable for someone who has been in a particular industry for an extended period.

It’s hard to run a successful business without making decisions that are smart and strategically aligned. You can hire strategy consultants to help you identify the best strategies for your company, whether it’s a marketing strategy, differentiation strategy, IT strategy, or something else entirely.

Whatever your needs may be, there’s likely a consultant out there who can help you achieve success. The main ingredient here is knowing how and where to find one. 

What Does a Strategy Consultant Do?

Business strategy consultants help companies grow by analyzing and understanding their current state, identifying opportunities for improvement, and developing a plan to implement those improvements.

They are responsible for researching your competitive landscape and designing an action plan to help you succeed. Research and development of a business may also be part of their concerns.

This includes determining new strategies that will increase revenue, discovering where opportunities lie within your industry and pinpointing which segments would benefit most from those strategies, developing detailed investment proposals, overseeing the implementation of the business roadmap plans and providing ongoing analysis as well as managing projects with the goal of improving efficiency. 

These include:

Strategy consultants will help develop new products and services to be profitable

Strategy consultants will come up with innovative ideas, find the funding for those ideas, and then sell them at a profit. They can help determine what innovations would best serve your customers and how to implement those changes in a way that works well with the rest of your team.

This is an important step when it comes to growing an established business into something bigger, but it’s also important for startups who need a good plan upfront in order to succeed.

Strategy consultants will help grow your customer base

A consultant might look at a company’s customer base to see what needs they are not currently meeting or identify how resources can be used more efficiently. They could also work with the marketing team to find ways to bring in new customers so that there is more revenue coming into the company than going out.

Strategy consultants can aid with mergers and acquisitions

Many business owners don’t know how to navigate merger and acquisition decisions on their own so it’s best to seek an expert to provide some guidance on how to plan for the transitions in advance.

Strategy consultants can help improve company structure

Consulting services come in many different shapes and sizes – some focus on specific areas like finance or HR while others provide an overall strategic view of the business as a whole. 

The consultant will work with the management team to evaluate company strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in order to develop a strategic plan of action. 

For some, the idea of a strategy consultant is partnered with images of overpriced men and women in suits sitting around a boardroom table discussing their plans to dominate the market. But if you’re running a business, think of consulting as one of the most important investments you can make.

If you’re on the fence about hiring a consultant, let’s talk about the benefits to help you make your decision.

Why do you need strategy consulting?

As a business owner or entrepreneur, it’s not always easy to know what the next steps are. And a single wrong decision can set your company back years of growth.

The idea of taking the time to work with an expert in your field can be intimidating or overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be!

We’ve listed down the reasons why you should hire one:

• They will execute an overall plan of action for the future
• Provide expertise from outside your industry so they can see things that may be hindering growth or helping you progress further than before
• Be able to identify opportunities for improvement and make suggestions based on data analysis
• Understand your competitors to see what strategies they are using to help you gain market share
• They will analyze data in order to create reports or presentations about key performance indicators such as profitability; growth rate; cash flow; etc.
• Craft a data-filled marketing strategy to boost your profit
• Help scale your business for international expansion
• Lead you down the right path without having all the same headaches or risks associated with not knowing what works best for your industry

There is no right time to hire a strategy consultant so it really depends on what stage of development your company is at. But, if you’re at a stage where you are unsure of what to do next, then we highly recommend that you find a consultant that fits your needs.

Questions you need to ask when interviewing potential candidates 

What are some questions you should ask before reaching out and interviewing consultants to make sure they’re the right person for you and your company?

• How long have you been in this industry?
• What’s your experience in my field and what results have you seen there? 
• What would be the first steps I need to take as soon as we start working together?
• Who else has hired you for consulting work like mine and what were their results afterward?
• Can I see some examples of previous work that show your specialty area?
• Do you offer a free consultation session or demo of your work to help me decide if we would be a good fit for each other?  
• Will I have an opportunity to talk with you about my company and what’s been going on before any commitment is made?  
• Is it possible for you to do more than one thing like IT strategy, marketing strategy, finance, human resources, etc.?

These are just some of the questions to help you narrow down your search. Surely, you will find something that can help you identify if they are the right fit. But what’s more important is the communication part of it. 

Make sure that both you and your business consultant understand what’s on the table and you are comfortable working with the person and their team.

Conclusion

You’ve gone through the steps of getting funding and starting your company, but now you’re not sure how to take it to the next level. This is where Frontier Consulting comes in.

We help businesses and entrepreneurs understand how they can use strategic thinking to achieve their goals with less risk and more success. If you’re ready for your company or start-up venture to level up, feel free to contact us today.