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15 questions to ask before choosing an ISO 9001 consultant

1. May I ask you some questions?
If they do mind, they probably don’t want your business. And you don't want them.

But you need to ask your questions at a reasonable time, not just for price-shopping or tyre-kicking. What's 'reasonable'? It might be when you meet. And you should expect any good consultant to want to know something about your particular situation before offering either advice or an estimate.

It isn’t reasonable to phone up out of the blue and expect a busy consultant (if we're good, we're usually busy) to stop whatever they are doing and take a lot of time answering your questions. Especially if you've never even met or spoken before. That said, we'd be very happy to talk to you, especially once you've read some of the information on our site.

2. How long have you been in the field of quality management? And as a consultant?
It's important to know something about their history and experience. What's their background. What have they achieved? How much experience do they have? In what fields? You really don't want to be the first client for someone who just got made redundant (or sacked even) and decided to 'become a consultant'. Do you?

3. What do you see as the most important factors in getting ISO 9001?
Their answer will give you some clues to their approach, their values and their priorities. Do these sound compatible? Is there any fit with your ideas, or are they completely different?

4. What do you mean by ‘quality’?
This will tell you if they've even taken the time to think about this, let alone develop their own definition. Can the consultant explain to you what they mean by quality? Does what they say align with your thoughts? Do their eyes light up, or their voice fill with enthusiasm? Do they sound interesting and interested? Do you understand what they say?

Some warning bells: they spout a lot of incomprehensible ‘quality speak’ at this point, and/or quote the official ISO definition to you (rather than using their own words), or perhaps they get very vague and waffle on a lot. If so, watch out; it's often very unlikely that they'll improve on further acquaintance.

5. What would you need from us? What can we do to make this project go smoothly and minimise the cost or time?
You’re looking to see if the way you want to approach getting ISO 9001, and the way that they do, are going to be compatible. Are they?
Caution: If they say anything like 'You just get on with what you're doing; I'll do it all for you and make it all happen,' run a mile.

6. What’s been your best quality/ISO 9001 job? And why?
Some answers they could give:
* Took the shortest time
* Took the longest time (therefore paid well?)
* Was easy and involved very little effort
* Resulted in great improvement in business processes, management, etc
* Great client to work with (why?)
* Highest paying or earned the most income.

Listen for what's important to them - note the criteria they use. If they indicate the job where they earned the most or took the longest, probe further. If their main motivation appears to be fees or income, think twice if not three times! You should feel you're in partnership with a consultant, not that they're out to gouge every last possible dollar.

7. What was your most difficult one?
Any experienced consultant will have had at least one difficult job. How did they respond? Do they lay blame or accept some of the responsibility? Did they learn anything ... or was it all the fault of the client?

Recruiters love to ask this kind of question. Because the answer usually indicates how someone dealt with difficulties in the past, and thus what their approach is likely to be again in the future.

8. Are your clients mostly in manufacturing or the services field?
Partly you're just gathering information about their experience and history. But also, you're looking to see if they understand your field. Manufacturing ('making stuff') and services ('doing stuff') are relatively different.

If you are in a service field but the consultant only has experience in manufacturing or industrial businesses, I'd be cautious, and more inclined to seek one with experience in service sectors. Conversely, a consultant with experience only in service industries may lack understanding of manufacturing.

But don't be put off if they don't have exact experience in your exact field or business niche. One because it may not happen and two because with a good consultant, the skills are transferable. A good consultant without specific experience in a specific field is infinitely better than a poor consultant with specific field experience.

9. Could you show me some samples of your previous work?
Samples will give you some idea of their written style, and their skill (or lack of it) in presenting information. If they show you a manual that would double as a doorstopper, or documents that make your heart sink just to look at - let alone read - keep looking.

They probably can't show you a full set (we keep our clients' information confidential, remember), but any reputable consultant should be able to show you some samples. If they can't show you anything at all... why not?

10. Can your give me some references? eg, contact details for previous clients or written referrals or testimonials
A good consultant would provide one or both of these. If you do follow up references, contact at least a couple of people. Were they happy with the services? Also, look for ones that are relatively recent, say within the last 18 months to 2 years. Warning: if references only refer to the old version of the standard (1994), this consultant is now so far out of date that it's not even funny.

Some fine consultants may not have written referrals or testimonials. Not everyone asks for them and many organisations have definite policies about not providing them in these litigation-prone days. But if you cannot obtain any feedback at all from any past clients, I'd be very suspicious.

11. Will you provide a written proposal?
Even for a relatively small project, you should expect to receive something in writing that sets out some basics. You both need to be clear about what will be done, who is responsible for what, as well as the deliverables (ie, the services, documents, training sessions, or other artifacts that will be delivered), the timing and of course the costs and terms.

12. If we decide to use you, how will progress be tracked?
You should know how you will be kept informed. For example, does the consultant provide written reports, or are there scheduled progress meetings? If they have no plans to do this, how will you know how things are going?

Getting a quality system in place and achieving certification is a project - you need a consultant who understands at least the basic disciplines of project management. And if you don't want to know and think it's all entirely up to them (after all, that's what you pay them for), then please rethink, preferably right now! If any slippage or holdups occur, you risk not finding out that things are off the rails until too far down the track. Which is usually expensive, among other negative outcomes.

13. Are you willing to do some part of the project first, such as a gap analysis or a project plan to an agreed price?
This enables you to try them out without committing yourself further at this point. For example, the consultant might do something they call 'benchmarking', 'scoping' or a gap analysis. This is quite a common practice among professional services consultants.

Unprofessional or bad consultants won't like this suggestion. If they refuse or become agitated, politely say goodbye. Now.

14. Do you guarantee your services?
What will they do if you aren’t happy? What will you do? Trades people provide guarantees – why shouldn’t consultants?

15. If we use you and don’t get our certification first time, what will you do?
If you don't get through the external audit because you ignored the consultant’s advice to you (which should be written if it’s something important), then that’s your prerogative and the failure is yours. But if not, why? You pay for the consultant’s advice and expertise not to "fail" the audit!

PS: If you get an answer like “Eat my hat”, then engage them, because you've found a consultant who not only has the confidence and experience, but also a sense of humour. And in our opinion that's a wonderful thing to have at any time, not least in quality management.

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15 questions to ask before choosing an ISO 9001 consultant