Internal consultant vs business consultant

The differences between internal consultants and business consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an internal consultant and a business consultant. Additionally, an internal consultant has an average salary of $91,097, which is higher than the $87,214 average annual salary of a business consultant.

The top three skills for an internal consultant include project management, process improvement and internal controls. The most important skills for a business consultant are data analysis, project management, and strong analytical.

Internal consultant vs business consultant overview

	Internal Consultant	Business Consultant
Yearly salary	$91,097	$87,214
Hourly rate	$43.80	$41.93
Growth rate	11%	11%
Number of jobs	70,927	128,033
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 65%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

What does an internal consultant do?

An internal consultant is responsible for providing consultation on the business process and operations to identify key areas of improvement and review its effectiveness to support the business goals and objectives. Internal consultants must have excellent organizational skills and expertise in business planning and project management to strategize and improve existing methodologies that would raise the company's performance. They also develop training and programs necessary for the employees to maximize their productivity and manage efficiency.

What does a business consultant do?

A business consultant is an individual who works directly with business owners on developing a business plan and identifying their marketing needs. Business consultants offer business owners a wide range of services, such as supplementing existing staff, provide expertise in a specific market, and influencing other people. To increase revenue in business, business consultants should have experience success with the previous business owners. Business consultants must also have a bachelor's degree in business management and received years of field training.

Internal consultant vs business consultant salary

Internal consultants and business consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Internal Consultant	Business Consultant
Average salary	$91,097	$87,214
Salary range	Between $67,000 And $122,000	Between $64,000 And $117,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	New Jersey	Alaska
Best paying company	Citi	ZS
Best paying industry	Technology	Technology

Differences between internal consultant and business consultant education

There are a few differences between an internal consultant and a business consultant in terms of educational background:

	Internal Consultant	Business Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 65%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Northwestern University	Northwestern University

Internal consultant vs business consultant demographics

Here are the differences between internal consultants' and business consultants' demographics:

	Internal Consultant	Business Consultant
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 62.8% Female, 37.2%	Male, 62.8% Female, 37.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.5% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 12.4% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 13.4% White, 65.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	12%	12%

Differences between internal consultant and business consultant duties and responsibilities

Internal consultant example responsibilities.

Manage project and perform UAT of any changes from AppStore releases that relate to sales compensation elements.
Manage a team responsible for designing service-orient application architecture, standards and best practices guidelines, security and data access frameworks.
Conduct UAT sessions to validate requirements against application.
Perform gap analysis and create needed architecture and systems overviews documentation from existing Visio drawings, program coding and PowerPoint presentations.
Analyze internal knowledge infrastructure and develop optimized information system/organization.
Identify key performance indicators (KPIs), then used it to measure and set improvement targets.

Business consultant example responsibilities.

Partner with PMO and lead testing effort to ensure completeness of test data sets and to manage risk.
Manage requirements gathering, identify KPI s, and oversee design and architecture decisions.
Manage various SOX, HIPAA and PCI compliance projects from the planning stages to completion.
Apply the specific rules for HIPAA X12, Medicaid manage care requirements and industry best practices for transaction handling.
Manage external technology suppliers to assure functional operations and system architecture meet the business needs.
Perform successful UAT - good knowledge & experience in SDLC - SQL querying and data analysis.

Internal consultant vs business consultant skills

Common internal consultant skills

Project Management, 18%
Process Improvement, 18%
Internal Controls, 9%
Sigma, 8%
Internal Clients, 7%
Business Development, 7%

Common business consultant skills

Data Analysis, 10%
Project Management, 9%
Strong Analytical, 8%
Analytics, 7%
Healthcare, 5%
Tableau, 5%

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Business and Financial Industry
Internal Consultant
Internal Consultant vs Business Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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