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That's definitely understood. I suppose I'm wondering at what rate people encounter behaviour like this. For me, this early on, it seems rather common, but my s

by kohanz 12y ago

That's definitely understood. I suppose I'm wondering at what rate people encounter behaviour like this. For me, this early on, it seems rather common, but my sample size is extremely small. How often (e.g. what % of leads) does this happen to the average, experienced consultant?

patio11 12y ago
Lead qualification is a learned skill, but my quick sense is that a cold inbound from HN doesn't strike me as being supremely well qualified. I'd estimate that a cold inbound from HN would pass lead qualification and then successfully have an actual sales conversation maybe 25% of the time, if that. A portion of the 75% would fail to have the conversation due to... mutually insufficient interest in making the conversation happen. (Flakiness suggests the prospect is at fault. I would suggest that the prospect is, like you, a busy businessman, and that failure to follow up is most likely not intended to communicate "We are pursuing other options" but rather "Oh, crikey, I forgot about that among the 100 things I had to do this week." The successful consultant will learn to follow up with prospects and get them to say Yes or No explicitly rather than having that introverted fear of bothering somebody make one convince oneself that they've been rejected. And, oh boy, have I had that scuttle perfectly doable gigs before, let me tell you.) (For the peanut gallery: "Lead qualification" means figuring out whether someone is worth your time to sell to. For example, most startups are not in a great position to require my services or, to be blunt, in a position to pay for them. If one hypothetically sent me a cold email out of the blue, and I had consulting availability, I'd research/ask to figure out whether they were at a certain level of success/sophistication, whether the person contacting had decisionmaking authority, and whether they had high five figures in the budget prior to having a sales talk. If they didn't, I'd probably still offer to have a chat, but it would be a "I like talking to startups and would love to give you a few pointers" flavor of chat rather than a "I am intrigued by your company and would like to discuss a few ways by which we could work together" flavor of chat.)
- kasey_junk 12y ago
  Completely off topic, but please please please, keep banging the drum on the whole "theirs no such thing as a sales vs tech. battle". The most recent podcast and your comments are so spot on.
  - patio11 12y ago
    Thanks. I'll try my best.
- petercooper 12y ago
  failure to follow up is most likely not intended to communicate "We are pursuing other options" but rather "Oh, crikey, I forgot about that among the 100 things I had to do this week." This is absolutely worth repeating, or even printing and sticking on the wall. Developing a nose for these sorts of good-but-busy clients takes time, but they can often turn out to be the best clients as they're the least likely to meddle and the most likely to schedule tight, productive calls with you. You don't need this advice, but for anyone struggling to deal with busy leads, you need to ratchet down the complexity of your communications each time you get in touch. There are absolutely busy clients who won't/can't respond to complex e-mails that are wisely trying to assess a situation, ask questions, etc... but who will instantly approve a $10k order on the back of a very simple "Would you like us to do X? It'll cost Y" style of question. It's happened to me! :-)

by kohanz 12y ago

patio11 12y ago

Lead qualification is a learned skill, but my quick sense is that a cold inbound from HN doesn't strike me as being supremely well qualified. I'd estimate that a cold inbound from HN would pass lead qualification and then successfully have an actual sales conversation maybe 25% of the time, if that. A portion of the 75% would fail to have the conversation due to... mutually insufficient interest in making the conversation happen. (Flakiness suggests the prospect is at fault. I would suggest that the prospect is, like you, a busy businessman, and that failure to follow up is most likely not intended to communicate "We are pursuing other options" but rather "Oh, crikey, I forgot about that among the 100 things I had to do this week." The successful consultant will learn to follow up with prospects and get them to say Yes or No explicitly rather than having that introverted fear of bothering somebody make one convince oneself that they've been rejected. And, oh boy, have I had that scuttle perfectly doable gigs before, let me tell you.) (For the peanut gallery: "Lead qualification" means figuring out whether someone is worth your time to sell to. For example, most startups are not in a great position to require my services or, to be blunt, in a position to pay for them. If one hypothetically sent me a cold email out of the blue, and I had consulting availability, I'd research/ask to figure out whether they were at a certain level of success/sophistication, whether the person contacting had decisionmaking authority, and whether they had high five figures in the budget prior to having a sales talk. If they didn't, I'd probably still offer to have a chat, but it would be a "I like talking to startups and would love to give you a few pointers" flavor of chat rather than a "I am intrigued by your company and would like to discuss a few ways by which we could work together" flavor of chat.)

kasey_junk 12y ago
Completely off topic, but please please please, keep banging the drum on the whole "theirs no such thing as a sales vs tech. battle". The most recent podcast and your comments are so spot on.
- patio11 12y ago
  Thanks. I'll try my best.
petercooper 12y ago
failure to follow up is most likely not intended to communicate "We are pursuing other options" but rather "Oh, crikey, I forgot about that among the 100 things I had to do this week." This is absolutely worth repeating, or even printing and sticking on the wall. Developing a nose for these sorts of good-but-busy clients takes time, but they can often turn out to be the best clients as they're the least likely to meddle and the most likely to schedule tight, productive calls with you. You don't need this advice, but for anyone struggling to deal with busy leads, you need to ratchet down the complexity of your communications each time you get in touch. There are absolutely busy clients who won't/can't respond to complex e-mails that are wisely trying to assess a situation, ask questions, etc... but who will instantly approve a $10k order on the back of a very simple "Would you like us to do X? It'll cost Y" style of question. It's happened to me! :-)