The consultant pitch looked sharp. The problem feels real. The work is about to start. Four checks come first.
This page is for the owner about to sign a consulting engagement and wondering why the previous one did not produce what was promised.
Before hiring a consultant: define the deliverable, the success measure, the decision-right transfer at handoff, and the escalation path if the work stalls. Three of the four are usually missing from a typical SOW. Without all four, the engagement produces beautiful artifacts that nobody implements and a relationship that ends in mutual frustration.
Each answer is a single direct read. The full read is in the body.
Four things at minimum: the specific deliverable, the success measure (how you and the consultant both know it worked), the decision-right transfer at handoff (who decides what once the work lands), and the escalation path if the work stalls or scope changes.
Three patterns: the brief was wrong (the consultant solved the wrong problem), the founder will not release authority (the work cannot be executed), or the methodology does not fit (big-company process transplanted into small-company reality).
A good consultant narrows your problem before widening their scope. References survive being asked the awkward questions. They say no when scope expands without integrity. They produce decisions, not just decks.
Yes, three minimum. If two consultants pitch different problems from the same brief, the brief itself is unclear and a different kind of help is needed before consulting starts.
Consulting fee, internal time supporting the consultant, leadership-team attention during the engagement, data preparation, executive interviews.
Consulting engagements that produce decks nobody implements. The fee is paid, the artifacts exist, the business does not change. Average cost: the entire fee plus the opportunity cost of the next six months.
The pitch is the visible negotiation. The success measure, the handoff plan, and the escalation path are usually agreed by handshake or not at all.
The proposal, the firm, the partner you met. These are the visible objects. The dangerous part is the unstated assumption that the consultant's recommendation will be executed regardless of who is internally ready to receive it.
Routes into the structural pattern beneath this decision.
The pain when the engagement is already going wrong.
Advisor Sounds Good But Nothing MovesThe pattern that often follows a misaligned consultant or advisor.
Decision Architecture vs ConsultingWhen the problem may not be a consulting problem yet.
Outside HelpThe Atlas room for choosing among coach, consultant, advisor, fractional.
Ways To WorkUse this if a structural read is needed before the consultant starts.
Apply for Tier 01Single read on whether consulting is the right help for this problem.
If you want Stan to read this live decision, use the application route below.
When the decision is one commitment with real cost, Tier 01 is the commercial route.