Initiating the Sales Process and Acquiring Business

Selling consulting services is about creating relationships. No one sells to GE, IBM, or Ford; rather, we sell to people within those organizations. Those potential buyers have titles such as director of development, chief operating officer, division general manager, vice president of sales, chief financial officer, and so on. Within education, the buyers are people in positions such as school superintendent, principal, director of curriculum development, and supervisor of counselling. Even in small businesses, the buyers are easily identifiable: owner, principal, managing partner, and executive director. In non-profits, the buyer is usually the executive director or chair of the board. Consultants must build relationships, not make sales calls. Think about it: Do you really enjoy listening to those people reading scripts over the phone in an attempt to persuade you to change your long-distance provider or cable source? Well, no one buys consulting services through those techniques, either.

Here are the six key principles for acquiring business right from the outset in the consulting profession: If you ignore them, you will have to be extraordinarily lucky to be successful in this business. If you heed them, you will accelerate your ability to obtain new clients. As researchers say, you'll be within the feasible range. Principle 1: Acquiring consulting clients is totally dependent on building solid relationships, not making sales. Principle 2: Relationships are always built with specific people, not with organizations or legal entities. Principle 3: The best way to build relationships is by placing yourself in the buyer’s shoes and thinking from the outside in. Principle 4: The buyer doesn’t care how good you are; the buyer only cares what’s in it for the buyer, so you must focus on business outcomes, not methodology. Principle 5: Trust is the key to strong and healthy relationships, and trust is the honest - to - goodness belief that the other person has your best interests in mind. Principle 6: Providing value early is the key to trust and engagement.