Why Would You Pay a Consultant? What Expertise is Really Worth

I was having a conversation with my adult daughter the other day. We were talking about different careers, professionals and what makes a person an expert in their field.

After some thought, it occurred to me that the experts I have met over the years seemed to share common traits. Recent studies have noted that elite performers and experts do share a similar attributes in both their ability and willingness to practice their craft, along with a natural affinity for the field in which they work.

The combination of both nature and nurture in top performers is supported by real science. In K. Ericsson’s study from the Psychological Review (Issue 100) The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance, he notes:

“We view elite performance as the product of a decade or more of maximal efforts to improve performance in a domain through an optimal distribution of deliberate practice. This view provides us with unique insights into the potential for and limits to modifying the human body and mind. Many anatomical characteristics, traditionally believed to be fixed, can adapt and change in response to intense practice sustained for years.”

What is even more exciting about these scientific studies is that it proves that as human beings, we all have the capacity to change, grow and adapt into top performers through practice and application.

I have found that another major factor in building expertise is in the ability to recognize patterns. Whether you are a teacher, a manufacturing engineer or a graphic artist, there is a finite number of patterns and paradigms within your field of study. In other words, there are only a limited number of ways to accomplish the tasks required to do your job. There are many variations to these patterns, but the main variables stay the same regardless of the work environment.

An expert acknowledges these patterns early in the process and determines whether to continue down a certain path, change directions or stop entirely and start over again. That is what makes expertise so valuable — it cuts down on wasted time and money, while raising the bar on quality.

Experts are created, they are not born. It’s only through practice and a natural desire to do what you love to do that will allow you to become an expert in your field.

There’s an old story about industrialist Henry Ford. The generator in his automobile plant shut down. None of his engineers could fix it, so Ford called his old friend Charlie Steinmetz, a gifted electrical engineer. With a few tools Steinmetz tinkered with the generator and in no time it was working again. When Ford got a bill from his friend for $10,000, he questioned the huge fee. Steinmetz sent him back a simple, itemized invoice, which stated:

· $10.00 for new part

· $9,990 for knowing where to put it.

Henry Ford paid the bill without question.

As a consultant, I’m often confronted with clients who wonder about fee structures and the cost of the services I provide. I have been asked, “Why should I pay you that much money if it only took you an hour to do it?”

What often goes missing in these conversations is the value of expertise. Many businesses pay their employees based upon the hours they work. This ends up being a quantitative model that equates value with the number of hours spent on an activity. Expertise is driven by qualitative metrics, meaning that experts are evaluated based upon their ability to solve a problem. Experts provide value by leveraging their experience to meet their client or employer needs.

Bob Ross was the landscape painter who was made famous by his TV show “The Joy of Painting”. On his show, he was able to produce beautiful watercolor paintings within the confines of his half hour show. When people asked him how this was possible, he simply responded, “It takes twenty minutes and twenty years.” Upon further questioning, he explained that the only way that he could produce those paintings in twenty minutes was because he had been practicing and refining his techniques for over twenty years.

Bob Ross passed away in 1995. If you look on eBay, you’ll find his smaller paintings start at over $5,000.00 apiece. His larger ones go for over $15,000.00.

Not bad for twenty minutes worth of work.