A client selects a consultancy from a capability page listing eleven disciplines. It looks comprehensive and reassuring.
Three of those disciplines are held in house. The rest are subcontracted, which is entirely normal and was never mentioned. The person who attends the meetings is not the person doing the analysis.
The project proceeds and the work is competent. The client's difficulty is that they never knew what they were buying, which becomes a problem the first time something needs resolving quickly.
Ask 1: which disciplines are genuinely in house
A capability page lists what a firm can arrange. The useful distinction is what sits internally, because that determines responsiveness, coordination and who actually holds the knowledge.
Ask 2: what will be subcontracted and to whom
Normal, acceptable and worth knowing. A firm that discloses this openly is easier to work with than one that obscures it, and the specialists are frequently the reason to choose them.
Ask 3: who specifically will work on this
Named individuals, not a team. The gap between the people who attend a pitch and the people who produce the work is the single most common disappointment in professional services.
Ask 4: what comparable projects have those people done
Not the firm. The individuals. A firm with thirty years of experience may be putting somebody on your project who has done two of these.
Ask 5: what is their current workload
A firm winning work faster than it can staff it is a real risk, and the honest answer to this question tells you a great deal about how the project will run.
Ask 6: how the project is coordinated
Who holds it together across disciplines, how often things are reviewed and who the client speaks to. Coordination failures cause more delay than technical ones.
Ask 7: what their turnaround is when something is urgent
Projects generate urgent questions and the honest answer matters, which is the ground in turnaround questions clients ask under pressure.
Ask 8: what indemnity they hold
Level, whether it is claims made, and whether it is adequate for this project, which is the ground in insurance and indemnity questions from clients.
Ask 9: what professional registrations apply
Individual and corporate, and whether the person signing off the work holds the relevant standing. This matters for approvals as well as for competence.
Ask 10: how changes are handled
Scope, fee and programme when something changes, which happens on every project and is best agreed while everybody is still optimistic.
Ask 11: what software and formats they work in
Compatibility with other consultants, the contractor and the client's own systems. A mismatch here creates weeks of avoidable friction.
Ask 12: what happens if the named people leave
Continuity, handover and whether the knowledge is documented. Small consultancies carry real key person risk and it is a fair question.
Ask 13: what they would need from the client
Information, decisions and access, with dates. A consultancy that answers this well is one that has run projects rather than won them.
Publish the honest answers and save everybody the pitch
An assistant that sets out which disciplines are in house, what is subcontracted, what comparable work has been done and what the firm needs from a client answers the buyer's guide before anybody arranges a meeting. Draft the starting set with the ai faq generator, and apply the same scrutiny to your own suppliers using ai chatbot security questions to ask a vendor and what clients ask before choosing a solicitor. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under b2b.