What is a Solutions Consultant?

Consultants are essential to businesses that want to improve their performance. Typically, consultants advise these businesses in many areas such as operations, profitability, management, and even structure.

Consultants have their work cut out for them because their advice can stretch over so many different areas. You may need some expertise in management, strategy, human resources, finance, and IT (just to name a few fields).

In addition to having all of this knowledge, consultants typically work long hours, we're talking an average of 56 hours a week, but many work even beyond that, to around 70-80 hours. Spending that many hours at the office, you'll probably end up with some good friends, at least.

Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. LinkedIn. The common thread running through these social media platforms is marketing. Gone are the days of billboards and traditional poster advertisements. Big companies, such as General Motors, Johnson Johnson, and Nestle, are approaching new marketing companies to help run their digital ads on these social media platforms. In fact, small and medium enterprises today are relying on social media to increase sales and brand reach.

In the world of marketing consultancy, we can definitely take a page from the book of Gary Vaynerchuk. An entrepreneur who took his/her dad's wine retail business from 3 million to 60 million a year and founded one of the most influential ad agency, VaynerMedia. According to Gary, the number one principle driving a business is attention. If a company cannot garner attention, then customer value cannot be transferred. On a day-to-day basis, Gary spends his/her time having sit-downs to educate clients, interacting with his/her team in strategizing social media campaigns, directing social media posts, contributing to the content on his/her YouTube channel and helping young entrepreneurs in their business marketing initiatives.

To be a successful marketing consultant, you need to have a vast knowledge of how the social media platform works for marketing a business. Employers generally require a degree in business or marketing for entry-level roles and employees can move up to more senior roles with time and experience. The salary of a marketing consultant is an average of $27 per hour.

A management consultant, also sometimes called a management analyst, helps a company or government entity layout and execute projects with the coveted outcome of becoming more productive or competitive. To achieve this goal, they may recommend various strategies to modify the organization's structure or operation methods in ways that result in increased profits, better practices, and improved efficiency.

Management consultants may specialize in a particular industry, such as healthcare, manufacturing, or education. Alternatively, their focus may be on a function, such as human resources, information technology, financial restructuring, or inventory control.

The reported annual salary for a management consultant in the U.S is approximately $83,610, or $40.2 per hour. However, this figure can vary significantly depending upon academic qualification, having previous experience, and possession of the aforementioned skills.