There is a fundamental difference between being listened to and being heard. In this modern age there is a lot of noise in all aspects of our lives. For many, it’s a struggle to stand out from the crowd. This is even more complex for decision makers within service providers. The number of stakeholders that you need to listen to is growing increasingly. You have your internal politics, to external influence such as vendors and the most important stakeholder, the customer.

An interesting stat I came across recently from a survey produced by CCgroup was that purchasing decisions now involve more people. The average across the survey was 38 people with some service providers up to 100. So that’s just a purchasing decision, never mind fundamental strategy, customer experience decisions to name but a few.

So how are service providers overcoming this? A lot of service providers are looking at the OTT’s and headhunting staff to come from these organisations. The plan is that they are going to bring a new way of thinking and revolutionise their business. This is great in theory until they get into the nuts and bolts and complexity that comes with the fundamentals of service providers.

There is an alternative approach. Why get bogged down in the hiring process, waiting for somebody to serve their notice with their existing organisation, get trained up and bedded into your organisation. This can be a lengthy process. Telecom consultation is on the rise. Service providers who go with consultants can gain industry expertise and hit the ground running. This is especially prevalent if you have very short term goals or a project you need to close off. What you need to consider when choosing a consultant:

·        Agnostic. You need a consultant that will give you honest feedback, advice and guidance. You don’t want somebody who is going to try and flog you a dead horse.

·        Industry experience. You need a consultancy that has worked in the industry and in similar organisations to understand how things work/get delivered. 

·        Flexibility. The benefit of going with a consultancy is to not get tied into a long term contract that will cripple your organisation. You need to be able to scale up and scale down depending on your KPIs.

·        Proven track record. The ultimate benefit of choosing a consultancy is that they can deliver what you need. You want to see where, how and what they delivered to similar organisations to your own. You want a results focused consultancy that will stop at nothing to deliver this to help you achieve your KPI’s in the agreed timeframe.

So when you are thinking about your next big strategic hire/decision, have a think about trying a consultant. When you need to get the quickest return on investment, this is a step towards helping that. 

 

Check out Openet’s consulting practice – click here