How to Hire an Executive Communications Consultant

A comprehensive and well-thought-out executive communications strategy is imperative for building and preserving a strong organizational reputation. Given its importance in inspiring confidence and trust among customers, clients, employees, business partners, investors, and the general public, executive communications should be a top-of-mind concern for companies today. 

But despite diligent planning, sometimes you just need additional outside help or guidance – and fast. Perhaps your firm’s most skilled and experienced executive communications expert suddenly goes out on leave. Or maybe a particularly complicated company crisis just hit and you don’t have all the skills necessary internally to quickly and effectively handle the array of issues that have surfaced. Or maybe your company’s leadership is eager to explore launching new AI initiatives and you need a communicator with robust tech knowledge to create clear and compelling messaging.

In these types of situations, it pays to tap a consultant specializing in this unique area of the marketing and communications world. Executive communications include any type of communication that comes from members of your organization’s C-Suite or senior leadership team. 

An executive communications consultant can typically help with both internal and external messaging. Internal executive communications can include town hall meetings, quarterly updates, company-wide emails, and critical intranet announcements about significant organizational changes. External examples might include developing content or strategies for speaking engagements, social media posts, press releases, ghostwritten articles, shareholder meetings, media interviews, external webinars, and industry conference talks. 

In addition, many organizations proactively turn to executive communications consultants to provide general media training or to develop or enhance a crisis communications strategy.

If you’re looking to hire an executive communications consultant, here is advice to help you streamline your search:

CONSIDER YOUR UNIQUE EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION NEEDS

The first order of business is to think through your full scope of needs. The consultant you bring aboard will depend on your company’s specific needs, goals, and pain points. For instance:

• Do you need an executive communications consultant to quickly step in and handle high-priority needs around crisis communications and media inquiries? 
• Do you need someone to craft a holistic change management communications strategy that will be handled by other members of your internal team? 
• If your organization is preparing for a big acquisition or merger, do your executives need general media training leading up to the announcement and subsequent news coverage?
• If a single aspect of your executive communications strategy isn’t moving the needle, do you want an outside perspective from an expert who can share highly targeted guidance in that one area?
• Given the rapid adoption of new tech tools within many companies, do you need a consultant adept at helping executives convey AI and machine learning insights in their communications to employees?

Once you have a full grasp on how your organization could best benefit from an executive communications consultant, it’s time to get the ball rolling on your search.

Need to hire an executive communications consultant?

LOOK FOR A CONSULTANT WITH STANDOUT EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS EXPERIENCE

When searching for potential candidates, it’s important to look for those who have specific experience with executive communications.

Communications consultants today can focus on a wide array of specialties. But executive communication is a particular niche, so you’ll want to make sure the consultants you consider have proven experience in this space.

Once you have found a pool of experienced executive communication consultant candidates, it’s time to start preparing for the interviews.

SMART EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

As you prepare to interview executive communications consultants, it’s beneficial to create a set list of questions to ask each person. The questions you pose should help you get a big-picture understanding of the candidate, their working style, experience, skills, and ability to work under pressure.

Some executive communication consultant interview questions to consider include:

• How comfortable are you working with executives and members of senior leadership teams in high-pressure situations?
• What is your experience providing general media training to new executives? 
• What steps do you take to ensure your communication guidance is in line with the company’s mission, vision, and values?
• What is your experience developing an executive communications strategy from the ground up?
• Can you tell us about your approach to crisis communications? What do you believe are the most important early steps?  
• What are some of the trickiest challenges you’ve encountered when it comes to executive communications? How have you worked around those hurdles?
• What is your process for developing executive messages, speeches, or presentations?

As you meet with candidates and make notes of how they answer your questions, it is important to also pay attention to the questions they ask of you. Are they asking thoughtful and engaged follow-up questions that show a sincere interest in your organization’s goals? This person will be directing communications on behalf of your company’s senior leadership, so it is of utmost importance that they themselves possess outstanding verbal skills and active listening abilities.

HOW SIMPLICITY CAN HELP YOU FIND THE RIGHT EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT

Simplicity has made a name for itself by matchmaking clients with highly skilled consultants specializing in the field of communications. And our team is tapped into a vast network of consultants with expertise in executive communications.

We take a multi-pronged approach to ensure you are taken care of through every step of the process. When you partner with Simplicity, we first work together to create a detailed project outline to better understand the experience and skills you need. From there we create a shortlist of executive communications candidates for you to choose from to set up a working session. We can then help you choose the best fit for your organization and leadership team.

But our partnership doesn’t stop there! Once you select an executive communications consultant, you’ll be paired with one of our dedicated client success managers to ensure satisfaction from the consulting engagement kickoff through the delivery of final products.