How to check a consultant's studies have held up in reality

A feasibility study sits at the hinge of major decisions—and a sloppy one can lock you into the wrong path for months or years. The risk isn't always that a consultant is dishonest; it's that their methods, their data sources, or their track record in *your* industry may be untested. You need to know whether the frameworks they've used and the conclusions they've drawn elsewhere actually stand up when reality arrives. Skipping this check is what usually goes wrong: a business owner commissions a study, gets a polished report, and later discovers the consultant's experience was mostly in a different sector, or their client references won't return calls, or their methodology was borrowed from generic templates rather than field-tested in your market.

Check their published work and client outcomes

Asking a consultant for case studies is standard; what matters is whether you can verify the results they claim. Request permission to contact a previous client in your industry or with a comparable scale. When you call that reference, don't just ask "Were you happy?" Instead, ask whether the recommendations in the study were actually implemented, what happened in the months after, and whether the consultant's predictions about market demand, costs, or operational feasibility proved accurate once the business was live. A consultant whose studies hold up will have clients willing to talk through the specifics—and their stories will be candid, not uniformly glowing. If a consultant won't name names or if their references are vague ("a retail client in Gauteng"), that's a yellow flag. Also ask what percentage of their studied projects actually went ahead versus were shelved, and why.

Verify their credentials and ongoing professional standing

A consultant should be registered with a relevant professional body—this might be the Engineering Council of South Africa (if the study involves design or technical elements), a business school accreditation, or membership in a consulting association. Ask them directly for their registration number or professional membership ID, and take five minutes to verify it on the body's public register. This tells you they're subject to a code of conduct and complaints process, not working unaccountable. It also signals they're required to keep their knowledge current. Beyond the formal registration, ask about their recent work: have they published articles, run workshops, or presented findings in your industry within the past 18 months? A consultant still actively engaged in their field is more likely to know where their previous advice went right or wrong. Someone coasting on decade-old case studies is riskier.

Ask how they validate their own assumptions

Here's a question most consultants won't expect, and that's the point: "In your last three studies, what assumption did you make at the start that you had to revise mid-project based on real data?" A consultant who admits to course-correcting shows they're testing their work against evidence, not just confirming what they thought at the outset. Ask them to walk you through their data sources—who will they actually talk to? Will they visit competitor sites, conduct customer surveys, review municipal records or industry reports, or rely mainly on your internal numbers? The best studies triangulate: they combine desk research, interviews, and field observation. If their process sounds thin—mostly a workshop with your team and a desktop analysis—their conclusions are more at risk of drift when they meet reality.

You might also ask about their contingency approach: if a key assumption (say, a supplier's pricing or a hiring timeline) turns out wrong, how does that reshape the go/no-go recommendation? Consultants whose studies have held up usually have thought this through; they build in sensitivity analysis and flag the assumptions most likely to shift.

Before you hand over money for a study, a couple of phone calls to past clients and a quick check of their professional credentials will reveal whether their work has a track record of holding up or if they're more in the business of producing reports. Strove makes it straightforward to find consultants with verified client feedback and professional standing, so you can commission a study with confidence it will be grounded in methods that have already proven themselves in the field.