UK-based independent consultants now have an opportunity to join Elmo Pez dispensers, Franklin Mint coins, and Elvis art on their own eBay-like auction site.
Global Consulting Group (GCG), a UK-based executive recruiting firm, launched an online auction site for independent consultants at www.ProfessionalAssociates.com.
The concept is simple: Experienced consultants register on the site in hopes of snaring work. Prospective clients troll for consultants to work on specific assignments. Consulting firms can also use the site to fill gaps in their capabilities.
Each consultant is screened in person. And like on eBay, candidates set a reserve price for their services and a premium “buy now” fee. Once an auction kicks off, it lasts for four days, and the consultant is required to accept the highest bid.
Prospective buyers pay a handsome fee for the service. A multi-user, introductory subscription starts at roughly $5,600 per month. Bidders must wade through a 7,700-word terms of use agreement before they can enter the fray.
GCG claims to have almost 200 candidates on its system and another 1,000 or so in the wings. There’s no fee to post your resume on the site, but successful candidates must cough up a license fee and a small percentage of their earnings to GCG.
GCG executives are looking to expand the service to other professional service providers, and potentially to export the service to the US. Let’s hope this idea stays in the UK. Clients should recognize that using an auction site for consultants isn’t like bidding for that rare set of Ernie Banks baseball cards.
What mystifies me, though is a design element of the auction site. On almost every page, there’s an image of a well-dressed consultant—with brief case in tow—riding on a kick scooter.
Maybe the consultant forgot to include transportation expenses in his auction posting.
'ebay for Consultants?'
Referring to the above commentary posted on 23 July 2005, we would like interested readers to note that candidates who join this ground breaking system, professionalassociates.com, not only do they not have to pay a fee to post their resume on the site, neither do they have to pay a licence fee as suggested in this commentary. There is a licence fee payable but that is paid by the organisations who wish to have access to the auction.
The Maitland Consultancy Limited www.maitland.co.uk 3 August 2005
Posted by: Angus Maitland | August 03, 2005 at 07:50 AM