What tools should your consulting business be using?

As more companies seek to create a leaner org table by right-sizing staff, the role of a dynamic consulting business has never been more vital and attractive across so many industry sectors.

The “toolkit” consultants used 10 or 5 (or even 2) years ago can’t fully address the needs of today’s client base.

The modern toolkit for consultants is agile, tech-facing and adaptable to sudden sea changes in market trends. Here are some of today's most respected tools.

Marketing automation

Most consulting businesses tend to be smaller shops — perhaps 5 to 10 employees. With such a limited team, marketing automation optimizes hundreds of hours of “grunt work,” allowing employees to focus on more strategic tasks. Digitization and automation of business processes and customer engagement processes launches your consulting business to the head of the pack when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining new clients.

When seeking a new marketing automation solution, look for a provider with extensive CRM agency reach. Providers using cutting-edge tools such as Adobe Campaign Manager can optimize your marketing process by 10X.

User experience design

As you build out your client base, your efforts focus externally on relational contact and solution selling. Few consultants have the time or expertise to develop a game-changing user-design experience. Deploying a vibrant UX solution requires a tool that powers usability, visual design and interaction/data architecture to guarantee a satisfying experience for your clients.

Data analytics

The quest for an optimized data-analytics platform is moving at the speed of thought. To position your consulting business as a thought leader within your sector, you must adopt an analytics strategy that maximizes the latest tech in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Your quest begins with the gathering of relevant data, followed by establishing a data-needs baseline and finally the creation of a robust, predictive analysis platform to solve problems.

Partnering with a provider that can access multiple APIs to streamline this process is essential to your success. Fueling a crystal-clear vision, strategy and tactical model for handling and maximizing data is a passion for quality providers.

Security

All the tools at your disposal as a consultant mean nothing to your client if they cannot depend on your firm to shepherd data in a secure manner.

Cybercrime — as well as cyber warfare — is a disease that’s not likely to leave the world stage any time soon. Consulting businesses are often tasked with protecting highly confidential client information, sometimes with legal or even political ramifications. Ensure your IT systems are armed with the most vigorous architectural design and integration available — solutions such as BiModal platforms that utilize effective DevOps practices.

At the end of it all, your consulting business will only survive (and ultimately thrive) based on your commitment to investigating, obtaining and deploying the best of the best in tech-facing tools.