“What would you say you do here?”
Management consultants have long been a go-to strategy for the C-Suite. They’re brought in to evaluate a business, recommend strategic directions, advise on product launches, encourage RIFs, and even weigh in on M&A. In theory, they act as trusted advisors, helping leaders make the “big calls.”
But the costs are typically enormous, projects take months (or even years), and quite often their recommendations lead to other expensive, lengthy future projects. And the cycle repeats itself.
Take one of our customers as an example. They were ready to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the biggest names in consulting to help them put together a product roadmap. The goal? To figure out what products to prioritize, what to tweak, and how to align their solutions with future market demand. Important work, sure, but it shouldn’t take months and cost mid 6-figures to do.
Instead, one of their new leaders asked us if we could provide an alternative. The answer was yes – they already had access to our platform and our advice is free. Within a month, using tools in our platform and our best practices, their product teams uncovered critical research from their customers and directly from the market to help them build a precise roadmap. The insights were sharper, faster, and grounded in real data, not consultant assumptions. Best of all, they didn’t have to drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on glossy PowerPoints dripping with MBA-speak.
And here’s the kicker – what do these high-priced consultants do behind the curtain? They outsource the core of their engagement, i.e. – the research. They hire firms, pull in data, dress it up in super slick looking slides, sprinkle in some “expert opinion,” and charge companies a fortune for the package.
Now, that doesn’t mean consultants never add value. Heck, I’ve been a consultant myself and still do a little advising on the side when it makes sense. Sometimes you absolutely need outside expertise for very specific challenges, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. Because more often than not, companies are paying for work they could (and should) handle internally, especially with the right tools.
The truth is, most companies don’t truly need to outsource their strategy, their decision-making, to consultants. They need to cut out the middleman and utilize platforms that give them direct access to the minds, and intentions, of their own customers and the markets they serve. When businesses take ownership of that process, consultants become the exception, not the rule, and budgets stop bleeding out on overpriced advice.
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Reaction is a growth acceleration platform that companies use to easily manage client relationships, uncover new opportunities, and grow their business. Our platform is specifically designed to run client programs, manage employee feedback, gather critical market insights, increase mindshare, generate new business, and analyze existing data sources.
