Op-Ed: Cast A Critical Eye On Consultants' Promises Of Savings

The next time a consultant walks into your office and tells you just how much money they can save you, ask them to write a check to you for that amount. If they write the check, hire them on the spot! If not, show them the door!

This statement may sound like arrogance (and some of my competition might think that I have gone nuts), but having been a consultant for over 15 years, I am disappointed in the number of intelligent individuals who believe some savings claims. Forty percent?! No consultant on their own can actually save you money! A consultant provides advice, methodology and recommendations based upon experience and expertise in a given discipline. What a company then does with that input is what can save them money.

When you are looking to hire a consultant, especially a travel expense management consultant, look at their list of clients. Talk to the consultant's current and former clients without giving the consultant time to prepare them.

Ask the clients:

•If they would bring the consultant back for other projects;

•About the consultant's approach to difficult situations;

•If the consultant tried to save a relationship before bidding out the entire program;

•If the consultant had a support system that could quickly step in as back-up to ensure continuous service;

•If the consultant helped with implementation, or just merely advised;

•If the consultant was over, under or within budget. What were the outcomes versus the promises?

Also, you should ask a range of suppliers, such as travel management companies, for opinions of the consultant's ethical and professional practice. They are the people with whom the consultant repeatedly deals. Their collective opinion can be valuable. To get that, you need to ask more than one. If a consultant has a "relationship" with a supplier, and you contact only one supplier, it might happen to be that one.

Ask the consultant:

•If they work for or represent any travel suppliers;

•If they have any sort of relationship, commercial or otherwise, with anybody in the travel supply chain (they shouldn't be on the cocktail circuit);

•If they have received any monetary compensation or any type of benefit (for example, free travel) from anybody in the supply chain;

•Do they specialize in travel, or are they generalists spread across various supply areas?

•What is their financial background? Travel management is largely numeric.

•Do they have recognized professional or industry accreditations?

•Are their processes travel-specific, or are they general methodologies and therefore lacking most of the necessary detail?

•Can they validate the processes they use?

•For how many corporate clients are they currently on retainer?

•Which services or products other than travel expense management consulting do they provide? If they represent any service or party in the supply chain, they are not independent. Consultants must not receive money from both ends.

The answers to each of the above questions are critical when making a well-informed decision about the selection of a consultant.

Many individuals who are out of work recently have hung up their hats and are now calling themselves "travel consultants." Many are intelligent individuals with good marketing skills, but is their expertise sufficient? Is their travel industry knowledge broad and deep, or based on recent job experience. (And check why were they let go.) Are they also skilled at consulting—listening to you, scoping a project, and working with you to deliver the outcomes on schedule.

In a competitive economy, travel buyers naturally tend not to discuss their programs openly. Many of those new to travel understandably don't have firm ideas about where they stand relative to the market, or what improvements they could achieve. A well-presented but undercooked consultant can more easily win business in this environment, but their claims can be exaggerated, and what they deliver can be less than ideal. Check with your peers. Ask around. Check that they are not "compromised." Experienced and ethical consultants will provide realistic and conservative projections, and then deliver. Experience counts!

And finally, does the consultant you are interviewing come in with a canned presentation describing the many feats he has accomplished for certain companies? Does this consultant name those clients and provide information about their affairs? If they do, beware—you could be part of their next canned presentation. Nondisclosure agreements must be respected, but not every consultant recognizes this fact.

Carol Ann Salcito, CCTE, is president of Norwalk, Conn.-based travel management consulting firm Management Alternatives Inc.