[Commando Consulting] June 2007 Issue: Who Qualifies Your Prospects? Sales Or Marketing?
We all know that every engagement starts out as a sales lead, and then it's up to us to properly qualify those leads. And at this point we're about to reach a fork on the road of converting leads top paying clients, and we have to decide how we want to qualify them. And here lies a big problem too. Most consulting firms don't have Ideal Client profiles, and try to run after each and every opportunity almost indiscriminately.
And as the saying goes, the man who chases two rabbits goes to sleep hungry. And as a former rabbit farmer, I can only confirm this statement.
And what happens when consulting firms operate on an "Any business is good business" basis? These firms often end up with lots of low-margin clients. All the associates are busy beyond imagination, but it's barely enough for the firm to stand still.
What usually happens to client acquisition at many consulting firms is that, as a part of marketing, partners define the ideal client profile, and then as the rainmakers go out to make rain, and since they want to meet and exceed financial projections, they accept any client who offers money. And it's even worse in false consulting firms where there is a dedicated commissions-based sales force. That creates an instant discrepancy between sales folks and the rest of the firm. So, the poor rainmakers often make acid rain that burns holes on the firm's purse and money starts leaking away.
Also, sales folks don't have time to fiddle around with ideal client profile and similar nonsensical minutiae. They want to make instant sales and see money in their own piggy banks... Right now.
And because of the difference between the sales folks or rainmakers and the other people involved in client acquisition, they assess opportunities drastically differently.
Sales folks usually use the broadly-used BANT system. BANT is short for Budget, Authority, Need and Time frame. The problem with this model is that it is 100% financially-focused and pretty self-centred. Qualification is set up from a rather ambiguous perspective...
And as the saying goes, the man who chases two rabbits goes to sleep hungry. And as a former rabbit farmer, I can only confirm this statement.
And what happens when consulting firms operate on an "Any business is good business" basis? These firms often end up with lots of low-margin clients. All the associates are busy beyond imagination, but it's barely enough for the firm to stand still.
What usually happens to client acquisition at many consulting firms is that, as a part of marketing, partners define the ideal client profile, and then as the rainmakers go out to make rain, and since they want to meet and exceed financial projections, they accept any client who offers money. And it's even worse in false consulting firms where there is a dedicated commissions-based sales force. That creates an instant discrepancy between sales folks and the rest of the firm. So, the poor rainmakers often make acid rain that burns holes on the firm's purse and money starts leaking away.
Also, sales folks don't have time to fiddle around with ideal client profile and similar nonsensical minutiae. They want to make instant sales and see money in their own piggy banks... Right now.
And because of the difference between the sales folks or rainmakers and the other people involved in client acquisition, they assess opportunities drastically differently.
Sales folks usually use the broadly-used BANT system. BANT is short for Budget, Authority, Need and Time frame. The problem with this model is that it is 100% financially-focused and pretty self-centred. Qualification is set up from a rather ambiguous perspective...
posted by Bald Dog @ Sunday, June 10, 2007
2 Comments:
At Tuesday, 21 August 2007 at 13:50:00 GMT-7,
Anonymous said…
Tom,
Wow what a great post and how true it is!
So I am assuming that this goes along with your recent article on 'Disqualification' correct?
At Tuesday, 21 August 2007 at 20:19:00 GMT-7,
Bald Dog said…
That's correct. It's about filtering out tyre-kickers and information gatherers. For instance most RFPs are merely gathering free information for in-house implementation.
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