A number of years ago a friend of mine, who was a logistics consultant, was trying out methods for selling consulting projects. He decided that one thing he would try would be to hold a free one day seminar in a local hotel and to offer a sort of training class/sales pitch to local transportation companies. Sure enough, lots of people showed up, the presentation was good, and it looked like a big success. The only problem was that out of all this work he only received one inquiry about doing a project and that never turned into a paying job. Not only had he spent a lot of money and time but it was a big downer for him personally. As a result we spent a good bit of time discussing what had gone wrong and why this hadn’t worked as well as he had hoped.
My only thought on the subject was this – the decision makers weren’t there. He had invited them but they, in turn, had sent their managers and supervisors – those that could benefit from the information but couldn’t make the actual decision to initiate and buy a project. As a result there was little real follow-up response.
I thought his idea was a good one and maybe there were other reasons it didn’t produce as he expected, but as a rule, when you are talking about consulting projects, you need to talk directly with the decision maker. If you are looking to sell a consulting project to an organization, sooner or later you have to reach the person who can make it happen. Others may be interested but won’t be able to give you the go-ahead.
And this is true of any consulting effort, big or small – at some point find a way to reach that person that can say, ‘Yes, let’s do it, and can we get started Monday?’
Do great work. More later
RW
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