All businesses experience problems with their policies and operations. As a result, they can have trouble generating quality leads, closing deals, or optimising their processes.
Sadly, these issues are inevitable in the real world. It's impossible to avoid them and too risky to brush them under the rug.
Yet no matter how hard you look, no one person can fix a company's list of problems. You'll always need the help of experts or consultants specialised in a specific field to guide you.
That's where a business consultancy report comes in handy. Not only will it outline a company's problem, but it will also highlight the best strategies to address it in the future.
In this guide, we'll discuss everything you need to know about business consulting reports: What it is, why you need them, and how you can create and present one to your target audience.
So, if you want to master the art of business consultancy, read on.
What is a business consulting report?
To put it simply, a business consulting report is a document with detailed findings and recommendations from a consultant or expert for a particular company problem.
Let's take a closer look at this scenario: You own an established burger joint around town. But you noticed your ads aren't generating as many leads as before. Unfortunately, you don't know why this happened or how you can address it.
That's why in instances like this, it's always best to seek advice from an expert — similar to what business consultants are for. They can pinpoint why your ads aren't doing well and how you can optimise lead generation strategies for your burger joint.
Consultants create business consultancy reports for companies that aren't knowledgeable in a particular field. They summarise issues that could arise from your existing policies, operations, or processes. They then provide expert knowledge and solutions to address these technical problems.
In particular, a business consulting report is usually a long-form output that goes over one page. It's typically a written document — either in a word file or PDF — but it can also be presented through a PowerPoint presentation.
Regardless of the output, all business consulting reports provide key insights into your problem.
You can use them to keep track of your projects and monitor the progress of your hired consultants. In addition, you can also consider their findings and recommended actions valuable and reliable sources.
Because of this, you can use business consulting reports in policy-making and decision-making. They hold immense influence on the entire direction and growth of a company.
What does a business consultancy report provide?
A business consulting report is a helpful document that companies can use to address their issues, regardless of their industry. In fact, it has a great hold over a client's decisions and their company's growth.
Because of this, businesses reach out to a wide range of consultants and consulting agencies every time they have a problem. They seek the advice of these experts and get tailored solutions to their problems in return.
Below are the top benefits of creating a business consulting report:
1. A consultant report gives you a glimpse of the progress and performance of your hired consultant or consulting agency.
The primary responsibility of consultants is to create consulting reports for any business. You can use these documents to monitor what they've done for a particular project and see how far they are from completion.
2. A consultant report summarises key issues without using too technical terms.
Many people hire consultants because they want answers to problems they know nothing about. Therefore, consultant reports lay out important information and findings in a simple manner without all the unnecessary jargon and terms.
3. A consultant report offers an accurate analysis of problems.
Consultants carry out different strategies and pinpoint the best way to address an issue of their clients. They gather reliable facts and figures to help them make well-informed decisions for their company.
4. A consultant report provides actionable solutions.
Since consultants are experts in a particular field, they most likely know the best strategies to address concerns. As a result, they can work around their key findings and provide actionable, effective, and diverse steps to move forward.
5. A consultant report influences decision- and policy-making.
Consultant reports present real data and statistics. Any client can use these figures to make critical decisions and policies for their company.
6. A consultant report provides valuable information.
A business consultancy report contains key findings and recommended actions from experts. Therefore, it holds valuable and reliable information that can lead the company to success.
7. A consultant report ensures better planning for the future.
You can use consultant reports when planning for the future of a company. It helps pinpoint weak and ineffective strategies and establish more robust policies to prevent the same issues from arising again in the future.
8. A consultant report helps improve the career progression of a consultant or consulting agency.
Consultant reports don't only help a business achieve its corporate goals. They also empower consultants and consulting agencies. You'll be able to keep track of your projects, improve your performance, and nurture your relationships with other clients.
What should be included in a consulting report?
There are various ways to write a consulting report. Different consultants or consulting agencies may add or omit parts, depending on what they see is best for their clients.
Consultancy report rules
Before we dive into the specifics of each section, there are three aspects you need to master to create an effective consulting report — its content, structure, and tone.
These aspects must follow several rules to ensure that they provide their intended purpose:
1. A business consultant report must address a client's problems.
The primary purpose of a consultant report is to respond to a company's problem. Therefore, it must contain key findings about your client's concerns, as well as recommended steps to address them.
2. A business consultant report must have a logical structure.
Since diverse members of a company will read your consultant report, it must follow a logical and organised structure. It should be cohesive and flow smoothly from one section to another.
3. A business consultant report must have the appropriate language
Consultants help clients understand an issue in a field they're not knowledgeable about. Therefore, they should write their reports in a language suitable for their intended audience.
4. A business consultant report must contain recommended actions.
Consultant reports summarise key findings about an issue in a company. But it loses its purpose if it doesn't outline firm recommendations for action steps to address significant concerns.
5. A business consultant report must be neutral and unbiased.
Business consulting reports assist companies that have issues with their existing operations. Therefore, they should have a neutral and unbiased tone to sound more reliable and trustworthy.
6. A business consultant report must be concise.
Several consultant reports take up hundreds of pages. But the key to maintaining your audience's attention is to keep the document concise and friendly to read. Avoid technical jargon and terms as much as possible.
Consultancy report example
Now that you know the important rules to consider when writing business consulting reports, following a common template can help you get your information across to your audience more easily:
- Title Page
- Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Client Profile
- Objectives
- Observations
- Appendix
Let's take a closer look at the description and purpose of each section of the report:
1. Title page
The title page is the first thing you'll see on a business consulting report. Its primary purpose is to inform your clients about the topic and details included in the document.
Typically, this section should include five basic elements:
- The name of the consultant
- The name of the company
- The name of the client
- The date when the report was compiled
- The name of the report
2. Table of contents
After the title page, you'll see the table of contents. This section ensures the logical structure of the report and helps you navigate the parts within it.
The table of contents contains the list of sections with their corresponding page numbers. Looking at this section helps you get to the particular content you need more quickly.
3. Executive summary
An executive summary follows your table of contents. It can be as long as one page to two pages.
This section briefly discusses the entire purpose of the document. It conveys essential background information, the list of methodologies done, key findings, and recommended actions.
Although it summarises the report in a page or two, it must still be able to encourage your target audience to read on.
4. Introduction
Next is the introduction. This section provides some context and background information about the company or client's concerns.
Don't disregard the introduction of your consultancy report because it sets the tone for the entire document. It must be engaging to grab the attention of your readers.
As a general rule, you can add the main issues of your client here. On top of that, you can also include the methods and approaches you did to address them.
5. Client profile
The client profile usually follows the introduction of your consulting report. It outlines everything you need to know about the client:
- Their business address
- What they do
- Their industry
- Their specialisations
- Their overall size
- Their history and background
6. Objectives
You should also include a list of objectives the document aims to achieve — both short-term and long-term. These goals define the entire scope and premise of your report.
7. Observations
The next section covers a big bulk of your consulting report because it contains key observations and analyses.
Since this section is the largest, it's usually broken down into smaller subsections. This way, your target audience can read through them more easily.
On top of this, this section should also contain photos, figures, and statistics to support your observations.
You can also include a list of recommendations or action steps to move forward with the company's issue.
Besides this, you can add a clear conclusion at the end where you summarise the key aspects and findings of the report.
8. Appendix
Lastly, you can add an appendix section at the end of your report. It's optional but usually contains supporting citations, references, images, and materials.
How long should a consultancy report be?
A lot of people wonder about how long consulting reports should be. Some prefer short outputs, while others think that longer reports are better.
But in reality, that's not the case.
To put it simply, there's no set length for a business consultant report. Therefore, we can't dictate how short or long it should be to avoid sacrificing the quality of its content.
Instead, the best length for a consulting report depends on how you want to convey critical information and findings about the company while applying the key considerations and sections discussed above.
They must always cater to the needs and wants of their clients. Moreover, they should also be concise and written in a friendly yet professional manner.
However, some key report sections — particularly the observations and analysis part — can be lengthy. Some reports can have over 50 pages just for this part.
But its length will all boil down to your findings. It will also depend on the nature of the project, its execution time, and overall complexity.
Longer execution times will, of course, result in longer reports. You'll have more data to present and interpret.
Similarly, more challenging projects may have more pages. You might need them to discuss your client's issues and your action steps more thoroughly and better.
How to present a consulting report
Although we discussed the usual contents of a written consultancy report, there are other ways to present your findings. For instance, you can also use a PowerPoint presentation to show your observations and recommendations.
In fact, short presentations covering a company's key challenges and their findings typically accompany long written reports. They're concise and engaging to grab the attention of clients.
However, a proven way to present your report through a presentation prioritises these three key elements:
- Introduction
- Results
- Recommendations
1. Always start with a clear statement.
Before discussing your data and findings, you need to lay out the premise of your report. Start with a short introduction discussing who your client is and their concerns.
2. Always include supporting data.
The best way to get the trust of companies is through real data and figures. Therefore, you must always present supporting data about their challenges and your recommended action steps.
3. Always demonstrate action steps to move forward.
Make sure you assure your readers that there's something they can do to address their challenges. Then, you can provide them with actionable and effective steps to move forward.
4. Always consider mentioning various scenarios and examples.
Clients must be able to visualise different possible scenarios that can happen to their companies. By comparing these examples, they'll likely trust your recommended actionable steps.
5. Always engage with the client.
As business consultants, it's important to listen to what your clients need. So be sure to engage with them and evaluate whether they agree with your proposed solutions.
6. Always explain the reasoning behind your proposed solutions.
A proven way to get clients onboard with your proposed actions is to explain why they need to do them in the first place. Tell them why your action steps are the right way forward and how you came up with them.
7. Always project the future.
Finally, all clients want to know what will happen when they take your proposed recommendations. This shows them a glimpse of the company's future.
Business consultancy reports assist companies that want to address their challenges and problems. They summarise critical findings and action steps to move forward. And writing one becomes a lot easier with the help of third-party tools.
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