So often consultants will claim to have worked with 20, 50, 100 or even more Fortune 1000 companies and you will see this listed as a fact on their websites or they will tell you this when trying to sell you as a client. Of course if you ask them to name the companies, instead they send you a list of 5 contacts or references? Really, five now, personal friends or actual clients?

Beware the bragging consultant sales pitch; if they cannot name their sources then they cannot use them as a reference, tell them that point blank. If they tell you that they worked with 100 Fortune 500 or 1000 companies over the years, they ought to be able to name every one of them, you would think right? I can tell you that I can name every company our company did business with that was any size at all.

If you call them into check on this point of contention they will say something like: My Client List is Confidential? But, if these customers really like your consulting service, why keep it a secret; obviously you are not afraid of losing the account if you are any good. Oh, then they use the comment that it is confidential and they have signed a non-disclosure agreement?

Indeed, common enough by that is only with regards to the actual discussion, not the name of the company. Beware, trust no consultant who hides and cannot back up their stuff. If a consultant tries this with you, part on good terms but do not hire them. Many a fraud has been created by older master manipulator type consultants in fact we see this happening all the time in the UK. Beware of those tactics, trust comes at a cost; make them pay upfront.