Distinguishing your business from competition is essential for growing your customer base. Here are three techniques that will give your business crucial marketing sparkle:

A good consultant provides specialist abilities and experience, innovative ideas, second opinions (reality checks), unbiased appraisals, and new approaches.

A good consultant will leave you with tools, plans, and materials, and will transfer knowledge and resources to help you use them.

Avoid making mistakes and wasting time and resources. A small investment and timely, professional advice can mean savings and increased revenues in future.

Adding services of a consultant can make a difference when time or human resource constraints would otherwise mean a lost revenue, market, promotion, or funding opportunity.

Know your limitations and expect a consultant to know theirs. You may have someone on staff who will volunteer to create advertisements, a website, or a marketing plan—but if they aren't truly qualified, you could be paying later to undo damage or make up for missed opportunities. A good consultant will also refer you to other specialists or obtain services of subcontractors when they need to complement their own expertise.

You are uniquely qualified to handle many aspects of your own business. Hiring a specialist, when necessary, can free you to do what you do best and make most of your resources. How to Work with a Consultant

Find a specialist with experience in your industry!

Get to know consultant(s) and work together informally to help them prepare a proposal that addresses your objectives. You can often get some good, free assistance in clarifying these objectives.

Don't waste consultant's time if you aren't serious about evaluating their proposal, and don't seek so many proposals that none of consultants who respond have a good chance to be hired (You should generally keep number of applicants in running to four or fewer). Do expect consultants to ask good questions and learn about your business. Avoid consultants who say they have immediate solutions or feel ready to talk about details, design, technology, or implementation before they have begun to understand your business and objectives—look for a careful approach!

Clarify your specific goals and larger objectives, and state these in writing to consultant when you request their proposal. Remain flexible about these goals, since you are paying for advice of consultant about these matters—perhaps some of your goals could be refined or modified!

Prepare a rough budget range for consultant. A good consultant will not simply bid maximum amount, but should give you a few price options depending on scope of their services. They will tell you if budget is truly unrealistic and can help you re-evaluate your objectives or propose dividing project over multiple phases. Maintaining an open dialogue about budgets and prices is preferable to developing an adversarial relationship during bidding phase, which can lead to misunderstandings, wasted resources, and poor outcomes for project.

Remember to include your own monetary and human resource costs in your internal budget estimate. Also allow for any costs associated with materials, transportation, or other expenses that a consultant may need to pass on to you. Clarify how expenses will be handled.