How to Tell a Good AI Consultant From a Bad One (One Question)

You're about to pay someone $25,000 to put AI into your business, and most of what's for sale right now is the "AI will fix everything" story with an invoice attached.

I sell AI work. So here's the one question that sorts the whole industry: what do they ask you first? A question about your tools means they're selling a system. A question about what a lead is worth to you means they're looking for a leak. Hire the second kind.

I run a door company in Dallas-Fort Worth, and I run Hivelead, where I help owners of $1M to $5M businesses figure out why they stopped growing. This is the last piece in a series on when a business should actually use AI, and it answers the question that comes after all the others. If I'm going to hire somebody to do this, how do I know I'm hiring the right one?

What you'll find if you search it

Every article says hire a consultant. Every one of them was written by a consultant.

The prices run from $10,000 to $150,000. The promised returns are 200, 300 percent. And the examples are always a law firm or a logistics company, never a door company with four trucks.

Why you'd hire help at all

Let me be fair about this first. Everything in this series, the missed-call text back, the quote follow-up, one message a season to past customers, you could set up yourself.

And in months of saying that to owners, almost nobody does, because you've got a business to run and the afternoon never comes. That's a real reason to bring somebody in. It's the same reason you don't do your own taxes. Not because you can't. Because you won't.

The problem is who you bring in. There are two completely different kinds of people selling AI to businesses your size, and they look identical on the website.

The tell: what they ask first

Here's how you tell them apart. What they ask first.

If the first question is "which tools are you using," or "what's your AI strategy," or "where do you see AI fitting into your operations," walk. That person is selling a system. They've got a thing they build, and the conversation is about fitting your business to it. You'll get a dashboard, a bunch of automations, and in six months you'll be the owner from Why Your AI Tools Aren't Saving You Time, with activity up and revenue flat.

If the first question is "what's a lead worth to you," or "where are you losing them," or "what happens to a quote after you send it," stay in the room. That person is looking for a leak. They don't know what they're going to build yet, because they don't know what's broken yet. The tool comes last, and it comes shaped like the hole.

The whole test

That's it. One question. Are they starting from the tool, or from the problem?

Want to know your leak before the first meeting? The Revenue Leak Calculator puts a dollar figure on each of the five places revenue leaks. It's free and there's nothing to sign up for.

What a good engagement looks like

Once you've found the second kind, here's what you're paying for.

1. It starts with a number

Before anybody builds anything, somebody puts a dollar figure on the problem. We lose this many quotes a month, they're worth this much, that's the leak. If there's no number, there's nothing to measure the fee against, and you'll never know if it worked.

2. The process comes out of your head before they automate it

Either you've already written it down, or the first thing they do is sit with you and get it out. If they skip that and go straight to building, they're automating a guess. You Don't Have an AI Problem. You Have a Missing-System Problem. covers the fastest way to get it out.

3. Somebody inside your business owns it after they leave

A good consultant builds something your office manager can run and change. A bad one builds something only they understand, and you've bought a dependency. Ask before you sign: who on my team runs this after you're gone? If the answer is nobody, or you, and you're already the bottleneck, that's a no.

4. They start small and prove it

One leak, one fix, a month of a person checking the output, then the next one. Anyone who wants to automate five things in the first thirty days is selling volume, not results. What to Automate First is the order a good one will follow.

If none of those describe your consultant

Do those four things describe the person you're talking to? Then the fee is probably the smallest number in the deal.

If they describe none of them, you're about to buy the shiny version of the problem you already have.

The order that works

Find the leak. Then decide whether you're going to plug it yourself or pay somebody. If you pay somebody, pay them to plug that leak, not to "do AI."

Most owners do it backwards. They hire the help first and hope the help finds the leak. That's $25,000 for a diagnosis you can get for free. Why Your Business Stopped Growing is where to start if you don't know what's broken yet.

Make sure their first question is about your leak

Don't hire anybody to find out what's wrong. Find out what's wrong. Then hire somebody to fix that one thing, and make sure the first question out of their mouth is about your leak, not their tool.

FAQ

Should a small business hire an AI consultant?

Only after you know where the money is leaking, and only to plug that specific leak. The simplest automations (missed-call text back, quote follow-up, seasonal messages to past customers) are things most owners could set up themselves and never do, which is a fair reason to hire help. The mistake is hiring someone to find the problem. Find it first, then hire for the fix.

How do I know if an AI consultant is any good?

By what they ask first. A consultant who opens with questions about your tools or your AI strategy is fitting your business into something they already build. One who opens with what a lead is worth to you and where you're losing them is looking for a leak. Then check for four things: a dollar figure on the problem before any build, your process documented first, someone inside your team who owns it after, and one fix proven before the next.

How much does an AI consultant cost?

Published ranges run from about $10,000 to $150,000, with promised returns of 200 to 300 percent, almost always illustrated with enterprise examples. For a $1M to $5M service business, the right fee is one you can measure against a specific leak with a dollar figure on it. If there's no number on the problem, there's no way to know whether the fee paid off.

What should I ask an AI consultant before hiring them?

Who on my team will run this after you're gone? What's the dollar figure on the problem you're solving? How will you document my current process before you automate it? And how many things do you plan to build in the first thirty days? The right answers are a named person, a specific number, a step that comes before any build, and one.

Related reading

• Should You Use AI in Your Business?
• Why Your AI Tools Aren't Saving You Time
• You Don't Have an AI Problem. You Have a Missing-System Problem.
• What to Automate First in a Service Business
• Why Your Leads Don't Call Back
• How to Follow Up on Estimates
• How to Get Repeat Customers
• Why Your Business Stopped Growing