Understanding the Unique Research Needs of Consultants

Imagine starting a job and needing to be an expert from day one, to be considered the best and brightest, impressing everyone immediately. There’s no room for mistakes. There’s no room for picking a colleague’s brain or asking for help. This tension is part of what makes consulting so challenging.

When you’re hired as a consultant, you are being hired because you offer a unique and crucial expertise. You must project confidence and, most importantly, competence, all while learning your client’s needs and helping them move toward a specific goal they might not even realize they have. Research plays an integral part in this balancing act, and fine tuning your research skills is essential if you’re going to succeed.

In this article, we’ll outline the importance of research in consulting, the challenges consultants face when doing research, and tips to make research easier and more efficient.

The importance of research in consulting

Building client trust

When you start a new project, you need to earn the trust of your client—and showcasing your knowledge about their pain points is a great way to prove that you are invested in their goals. It can be nerve-wracking to present your research to a client, but it shows that you’ll go the extra mile to provide insight and solutions to whatever problem they’re facing.

Whether consciously or not, the client is always assessing your performance, weighing your services and the value you bring against the cost. Providing consistent, high quality research can make all the difference.

Maximizing efficiency

You’re likely working on many projects for multiple clients at the same time, which means you need to find a way to keep things organized and efficient. While research can be cumbersome, it can also make accomplishing your goals easier by providing a framework and starting place.

Research provides a comprehensive view of the client’s issue, allowing you to assess the situation from all angles. You’ll want to keep track of all the information they’ve shared, as well as any information about their company that’s in the public domain, and any relevant knowledge from past assignments. Organizing all this information in one place can avoid duplicating efforts and maximize efficiency.

Supporting your recommendations

In consulting, you’re sometimes in the position of delivering difficult information or unfavorable suggestions based on your findings. Presenting your research clearly and concisely can go a long way in minimizing pushback and garnering support for your suggestions.

Ideally, you want the client to hold the data accountable—not you, the person presenting that data. The more research you present, and the better the quality, the more likely the client is to understand your recommendations and see the bigger picture. After all, it’s hard to argue with facts.

MORE: Creating a workflow prioritization system for research

Research challenges consultants face

Time constraints and deadlines

Thorough research is important, but it can prove difficult when you’re balancing multiple projects at once, all with their own demands. Additionally, you may only be on a project for several months. This makes for tight deadlines with little room for error. 

Unclear research objectives

A client might not be able to articulate what they want or need, which can make your initial goals unclear. Where do you begin if you don’t know what the problem is? In this instance, research can be a way to get a birds-eye view of the company, identify existing issues, and then find solutions.

Whatever the case may be, before you start, be sure to set clear objectives for what you’d like your research to accomplish. Do you want a broad overview of the company’s performance or do you want to home in on one specific area? Is there a specific problem the client would like you to address? Getting clear on these goals will help guide your research and lead to better analysis in the long run.

Information overload

The internet can be a vast and confusing place. You may have difficulty identifying up-to-date, reliable sources. Even when you do, you may find yourself with dozens of Chrome tabs open, trying to keep track of relevant information. So much of consulting is effectively organizing and evaluating information, prioritizing what’s important and what’s not. Only then can you successfully advise your clients.

But how do you do this with the wealth of information that’s out there, some of it outdated or incorrect? Being able to discern the good data from the bad is a key research skill for consultants.

Customization and tailoring

There’s a learning curve in consulting work, and what works for one client might not be right for another. So much of your job is adaptation. You must adapt your research approach to different industries and contexts, meet the specific requirements of a project, and pivot on a dime. Even communicating your findings to stakeholders and making recommendations can be fraught.

Every room is different, every company is different, and unfortunately missteps are common. Having to constantly anticipate a client’s needs and reactions can be draining for even the most experienced consultants, and it creates more chances for error.   

MORE: Optimize your change management with research workflow tools

The need for accurate and comprehensive data

Reliable data for informed decision-making

A consultant is only as good as their data. That’s why it’s important to be selective about which sources you use, and draw from a wide range of reputable outlets, which will help you avoid bringing bias to your research.

Additionally, you should provide the most relevant, up-to-date information to your client. While it’s always important to keep track of industry trends and developments, this is even more applicable when offering insights or recommendations, or presenting a solution to an existing problem. You may be aware of options or industry technology that they’ve never even heard of.

Leveraging technology and tools

As a consultant, every hour you spend sifting through data or staring at dozens of open Chrome tabs is an hour billed to your client. That’s why it’s crucial to use the most recent technology and tools to your advantage. For example, Nexis® Hub makes it simple to collect insights and information—along with corresponding URLs and metadata—from a variety of Nexis® products and across free and paid web resources.

You can then organize them into collections and seamlessly integrate your findings into reports within Microsoft Word. This gives you more time to analyze your research and offer recommendations, which is what you were hired to do anyway.

MORE: How to choose the right workflow technology tool

Why consultants need a strategic research approach

Consulting relies on situational knowledge, knowledge that you may not be able to obtain until you are actually in the day-to-day of the work. This means learning on the job. Consultants must rapidly assess a client’s problem, their wants and needs, all while projecting competence.

It’s not an easy task, and to succeed, you have to be strategic in your research approach. Streamlining your workflow will help maximize efficiency, providing the best and highest value to your client, which helps build your reputation and ultimately bring in new business.