6 Things Everyone Should Look For In A Consultant

Before you know what to expect from any consultant, you first need to know what qualities to look for. There are at least 6 crucial qualities that should be found in the consultant you choose, without them, you may be setting yourself up for a hard time. These mostly occur when communication breaks down, but trust in your consultant, in the end is a big part of it.

This list of 6 points should always be kept in mind when shopping around for a consultant of any sort. You have to remember that they are the experts, and because of that expertise and understanding, they should without a doubt be able to explain to you, in layman’s terms, how things are supposed to be done. Don’t allow yourself to be bamboozled by technical or industry jargon. Ask questions to anything you are uncertain of, and be sure those questions are answered. If you feel the answer wasn’t specific enough, or truly answer your question, don’t let it slide. There is nothing they should not be able to explain to you in regards to their industry. It’s known that there are a lot of so called “consultants” out there who really do nothing but sell snake oil. So remain diligent, and stay wise. So without further ado, let’s get into the meat of what you should look for in a consultant.

Listens

It does not bode well if you notice that when you speak to a consultant, their eyes glaze over and it appears as though what you are saying is not being heard. One of the most important characteristics to look for is that when you speak, they are attentive and taking in all that you are saying. If they don’t, something important may go unheard, only allowing problems to develop in the future.  

Open Discussion

You should never feel as though your consultant is not telling you something. You hired them, and as such, any information that is relevant to you should be known. Every success as well as hiccup throughout the process should be known. You should also feel that you can contact them at any time without it seeming as though it’s a burden. An open discussion is paramount for developing trust, and feeling secure in your decision to use a consultant.

Includes You With The Design

Now it’s understood that you are using a consultant because you are not an expert yourself, however, that does not mean you lack any meaningful input. Again, and this cannot be stressed enough, there should be no part of the process where you feel you are left out. This includes even technical aspects of the process.

Includes You With The Purchasing Options  

If this point seems to be redundant than good, that means you’ve remembered what was said before. Because what is being purchased, and where it is being purchased from is, in the end, one of the reasons you hired a consultant. If you knew what to buy and where to get it, you probably wouldn’t need one to begin with.  

General Overall Cooperation

You should always be sure to ask in what way you are going to be included in the decision making process, and how communication is going to take place to make that easier. Even though you are not the expert, your insight into your specific business as well as what you expect to receive should be known. This will help tremendously in allowing your consultant to provide the absolute best service they can, and cooperation on their part should be expected.  

Unbiased Opinion For Systems Procurement

You wouldn’t trust a car salesmen who only sells the used cars of his close friends and family. The reason, obviously, is because they are more obliged to oversell and even sell things that are not needed. The same holds true for consultants of any sort. If you suspect your consultant to be in cahoots with a systems provider of any sort whom you may be purchasing from, proceed with caution. It may not be that they are selling snake oil per se, but that should definitely raise some concerns.

Hopefully this list will help to highlight exactly what every person should be looking for when shopping around for a consultant. Just remember, again, that you are shopping for a consultant who is an expert in their industry. As such, they should be able to explain any technical or difficult aspect of the process in a clear and concise manner. You should always be wary if after being given an answer, you’re left with nothing but more questions. If they can’t explain it, chances are they don’t know what they are talking about.

Featured images:

•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1065245

The author of this article is Damien S. Wilhelmi. If you enjoyed this piece you can follow me on Twitter @JakabokBotch. Hiring the right consultant can seem daunting, but if you are looking for the best Public Safety Consulting company available, be sure to check out Elert.com.

 

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When SEO Gets Too Convoluted

Google keeps updating its algorithms, which puts the entire world of the internet on a tailspin. Every time they update their blog or put out news across the media, website owners scramble to learn about it or ask their SEO experts. It creates a dog dash and the dust goes flying. No one knows what to do until it settles.

But, that’s why SEO experts are so useful. The thing about SEO is that the same strategies have been effective for years. Google changes certain parts of its algorithm to make sure results aren’t getting beat by black hat techniques.

Some of these black hat techniques are still lingering because some self-proclaimed SEO “experts” are effective at pushing them on legitimate online business owners. There used to be a time when stuffing keywords in the background the same color as the page would work. It didn’t matter what was on the page as long as the meta tags and those stuffed keywords were in sync.

Google’s spiders would grade a website quite high when it utilized this strategy. Now, it goes down to the bottom of the list in half a second. Can you believe some black hat strategists still utilize this technique?

There was also a time when link exchanges worked rather well.  Everyone wanted their link on your site to go to their homepage. But, they would shove your link to the back of their website where all the other links were. Google found a way to penalize for this as well.

What is still being utilized today is article spinning. Plenty of so-called SEO “expert” will push article spinning as if it’s fresh content. An article is written, there are ten different variations of that article that are rewritten and they get distributed to every content farm across the net. Google has found a way to penalize for this too!

But when an SEO Expert knows what they are doing, they know how to find high traffic keywords that have low competition. They know how to get you to rank for those keywords, which produces quality traffic at low cost. In fact, the traffic itself should be free.  It should come organically from the search engine. What you are paying for is the expertise of the SEO expert!

Fresh content is always key! No more article spinning. But, think of it as adding to the discussion on the internet. Provide quality content that identifies a problem and provides a solution. That’s why DIY Project articles are so hot these days. Even if the project is how to jump a car, how to make stained glass windows, or how to build a bookshelf, interested internet surfers will eat it alive. Other fresh content that works great is new information, new ways of doing things in your field, opinions about trends that can affect the future and other such articles.

Just remember that your page source and your on-page content should be of one message. Meta tags like keywords and descriptions should match with the words you use to describe your product or services on the page itself. Then, there are methods to decreasing your websites load time. That’s pretty important if you want people to stay.

If you have done your job right, your traffic will come to your site with credit card in hand ready to buy what you’re selling.  That should be your SEO Experts bottom line. If they know what they’re doing, they will lead you in the right direction no matter how many changes Google makes!

 

How to Secure Your Business While in a Recession

Times are difficult. We are in the midst of a recession. People are losing jobs and businesses are twice more difficult to run. The struggling economy coupled with the emergence of new technology has been the cause of so many businesses’ downfall.

But there are three things that remain constant even under such dismal conditions. Businesses which have established themselves to be authorities in their niche will still manage to survive and even thrive. The contribution of low cost yet quality leads will lead to revenue. Finally, professionals—including business owners—which have managed to become experts in their field, will always be sought after.

A business owner should know these realities in order to be effective in running a successful business even with the recession on full swing. In order to respond to these realities, a wise business owner has to make use of social media. The beauty of social media is that everyone and anyone can use it. At the same time, social media is available to everyone because participation in it is free. If there are any costs, they are expected to be minimal. The only barriers which hinder the effective use of social media are the lack of passion and education.

To be indispensible in this changing world means learning to adapt to change. This can be difficult especially when it comes to business owners who were accustomed to the traditional marketing methods which included direct mail and what not, but it is definitely necessary. One does not have to suddenly become a social media expert though. Just doing a simple few things may be all it takes to ensure that your business thrives.

Start blogging. The hardest part when it comes to blogging is getting started. This is ironic since anyone can set up a blog in under 15 minutes. Put your free time to good use by sharing knowledge that you have accumulated through years of experience. By sharing your expertise, you can set yourself as an authority in your field and earn the trust and confidence of consumers who follow your blog. Don’t forget to comment on other blogs too so that you can connect with other “experts” online.

Write for article directories. Article directories like ezine articles are great places to publish your written works. People who are looking for content to post on their site can pick up your article and the anchor text link you are allowed to have per article will help drive traffic to your website or blog.

Chris is an expert marketer who likes to write about what he has learned in over 25 successful years in business and currently specializes in local search engine marketing in his company SureFire Social.