For businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses that are looking for short-term expertise in a specific area but do not wish to commit to hiring a full-time staff member, consultancy is often the most popular solution.
With all the benefits of senior-level expertise, but without the commitment and at competitive prices, consultancy works great for businesses across industries. It is highly flexible and versatile and can have a significant impact on the growth of their business.
Two of the most opted consultancy services are marketing consultancy and business consultancy. But which one should businesses that are looking to scale go for?
Both a marketing consultant and a business consultant bring plenty to the table, each having their own unique skill sets and industry experience. Here, we take a closer look at what the difference between a marketing consultant and a business consultant is, what their roles and responsibilities entail, and how they can contribute to the growth of businesses.
Marketing consultant
A marketing consultant is a professional who has an in-depth understanding of the market and what motivates consumers, and they use this knowledge to develop effective marketing strategies that can help improve the business of their clients.
A common misconception is that a marketing consultant does the same thing that an advertising agency does, just that they work independently. This is not true. Unlike an ad agency that helps you deliver the message you want to communicate to their audience creatively, a marketing consultant helps you decide what this message is.
Using their market expertise and broad knowledge on marketing strategies, processes and trends, they help clients decide the best ways to engage with their audience. They provide an objective analysis of the current business model, consider its market potential and then develop a comprehensive marketing strategy to help them achieve their business goals.
When do you need a marketing consultant?
If an organisation is falling behind in its marketing efforts and is struggling to engage their audience, it would be the perfect time to hire a marketing consultant. A start-up that needs help with gaining a better understanding of their market potential may also consider hiring the services of a marketing consultant.
A marketing consultant provides an informed and unbiased perspective, and this can help in mobilising a company’s marketing strategy and its efforts to achieve larger business goals.
Benefits of a marketing consultant
Here are the benefits of hiring a marketing consultant:
- Identifies new market opportunities
They help businesses in identifying new opportunities when it comes to engaging with their audience, both existing clients and prospects.
- Evaluate how effective their current marketing efforts are
A marketing consultant carefully evaluates the current marketing model of clients. They identify strategies that are not working and suggest improvements or new strategies and approaches that can help grow the company.
- Makes sure resources are not wasted
When you have a marketing consultant working with you, you can be confident that no resources are wasted and that their time and money are well worth the expertise.
Business consultant
A business consultant is a professional who is an expert in business processes and operations. They have a deep understanding of their industry, and they help their company adopt industry best practices to optimise their business processes, including problem-solving, planning and strategy.
Both technical knowledge and operational-level expertise are important skills that a business consultant must have. This allows them to gain an in-depth understanding of how each unique business works and provide solutions that are tailored to the specific needs of their clients.
Often, business consultants work with business owners, as opposed to the senior managers in the organisation. They come with a well-informed and objective view of the market as well as external variables, and this enables them to provide excellent advice on which direction brings about the biggest profits.
When do you need a business consultant?
A business consultant is mostly hired by start-ups during their early phases to provide them with a sense of guidance and direction, or when a company, including a well-established business, may be planning for a period of growth.
Companies may also hire a business consultant from outside their company when they have a very specific business problem that they would like to solve or are looking for expert advice on how to best handle certain business processes and operations.
Thus, a business consultant helps identifies problems, comes up with solutions and helps initiate changes to make sure that the right processes are in place in a company. They ensure that all processes are legal and compliant with industry rules and regulations.
For example, if an organisation wants to make sure that they are in full compliance of health and safety standards, or that their systems can effectively handle data protection the right way, a business consultant can help.
Benefits of a business consultant
Here are a few ways organisations can benefit from hiring a business consultant:
- Objective, outside perspective
It may be difficult for company leaders to identify existing problems within their organisation when they are right in the middle of it all. However, a business consultant can help because when they on the outside looking in, it is much easier to gain an objective, unbiased perspective. After objectively analysing their current systems, they come up with new ideas and strategies for improvement.
- Optimised business processes through short and long-term solutions
A business consultant, with their expertise in business processes, strategies, methodologies and trends, is a wealth of resource that is just waiting to be tapped into. While the company leaders may have years of industry experience, it is not possible for a single individual to know everything. Thus, a business consultant can help optimise business processes and come up with both short-term and long-term solutions.
- Saves you time and money
Having a business consultant means that a company has an expert that can save them from unnecessary stress and expense, while also ensuring that solutions are delivered on time.
For a marketing consultant as well as a business consultant, it is important to equip themselves with all the protections that their career needs. BizInsure can provide you with all the insurance protection needed to keep your career intact in cases of unforeseen circumstances.