Do You Need a Coach or a Consultant?

As someone who has been a consultant and a coach in both the business and sports worlds, I’ve often been asked, as well as pondered myself, the difference between a coach and a consultant. Is it just semantics, or is does an important difference exist that we should be aware. And for our purposes here, when is one better than the other?

What is a Consultant?

Generally speaking, a consultant is hired to analyze a specific situation, and to then give recommendations for, and/or to do the work, as it relates to the issue being addressed. An example of a typical marketing consultant interaction is when a company wants to create a new marketing program and they hire a consultant to craft the strategy and create the various materials, be it copy or logos or auto-responder series or presentations. Then the company is given the program to implement, sometimes with on-going support from the consultant. But how is a coach different?