How the Service Works: Information for Users/Clients

Process

If you are an organization seeking a consultant, you will follow the following three steps:

Step 1: Enter your information. The first step is to enter contact information about your organization. You will also be required to agree to a Statement of Ethics and Agreement.

Step 2: Search for a consultant. The second step is to enter information about your search. Here, you will describe what subject matter expertise you seek (areas such as Six Sigma, organizational measurement, leadership development, ISO, and so forth). You will also describe what type of assistance you desire (consulting, training, coaching, facilitating, and/or speaking). Finally, you will enter other requirements and criteria that you have, such as the consultant firm’s size (whether you prefer a sole proprietor, a large firm, or something in between), the firm’s sector and industry expertise, the firm’s location (whether you prefer them close to your location or not), and the firm year’s of experience. It takes about 5-10 minutes to complete three pages of information for these first two steps (but you can save and return to the form, as desired).

Step 3: Interview and select a consultant. The tool will consider the area of expertise you desire, the type of assistance you are requesting, and the importance of your other search criteria/requirements (such as location, size, sector expertise, and years of experience), and respond with up to five consultants that best match your needs (in alphabetical order). The output will include the consultants’ contact information, firm description (submitted by the consultant), mission and values (submitted by the consultant), testimonials (submitted by the consultant), and self-declared ratings.

From here, we recommend that you contact the consultants on the list to explore their capabilities, expertise, methodologies, availability, rates, and any other criteria that are important to your organization before making a hiring decision. If you would like some tips on interviewing and contracting with these consultants, please click here.

Once you hire a consultant, we ask that you report the terms of the contract to the Council.

Step 4: Provide feedback on this service. At the end of your search, we will solicit your feedback on this service. We will also solicit your feedback annually, as well as ask you to corroborate any contracts you enter into as a result of searches from this service.

 

Benefits

This service offers a unique way for you to locate organizational improvement experts. Specifically, it:

 

• Is a quick, easy way to search for consultants that specialize in different organizational improvement areas. It can save you a great deal of time and effort in “pre-screening” consultants that match your needs.
• It is neutral, independent, and unbiased. Each search produces a list of up to 5 consultants (depending on how many match your requirements), upon which you can interview and make a final decision.
• It is absolutely free for members of the Minnesota Council for Quality and therefore represents one of the largest benefits of membership.

 

Fees

For a limited time, searching for consultants through this service is currently free. We hope you enjoy this valuable service.

To get started using this service to find consultants, click here.

To return to the main Consultant Referral Network page, click here.