When One Consultant Is Better Than a Dozen

When Mark Greenstein, executive vice president for strategic initiatives at Heartland Dental, sought consulting help earlier this year, he didn’t call his former employer McKinsey. He turned instead to Business Talent Group, which matches companies with experienced but less costly independent consultants. “I needed one top person who could work side by side with my managers,” says Greenstein, whose company, based in Effingham, Ill., provides administrative services including payroll, accounting, and IT to 750 dental practices, “not a team of senior and junior consultants” that could “cost several hundred thousand dollars a week.”

Midsize companies such as Heartland, which has about $1.1 billion in annual revenue, often require consulting help—on everything from digital marketing to expanding overseas—but they don’t want the teams that big consulting firms often assign or the hefty expense of hiring them. Many are turning to companies like Los Angeles-based BTG, which allow them to choose from a range of independent consultants, typically for about one-third to one-half what a Big Three consulting firm would charge.