5 ms·

How do you pitch consulting? What exactly do you consult? If I may ask.

by quizbiz 17y ago

thaumaturgy 17y ago
I haven't had to pitch, for the most part, and that's definitely my weakness. I really suck at it. One of the nice things about word-of-mouth growth is that people come to you, and they've already heard that you're good, so all they want to know is how much you cost and when you can come out. For business mixers and the like, I have some pretty fancy business cards that cost me about $.80 apiece, but they've really paid for themselves in helping with that whole first impression thing. I do I.T. consulting. In a nutshell, I'm one of the few guys that builds and administrates networks and computer systems, can recover data from drives (usually), clean up your nastiest viruses without formatting your drive, install and troubleshoot IP telephony, as well as do software development, reverse engineering, and all kinds of other stuff. Up until recently, I had days where I was a telephone technician for a couple of hours, a network admin for a couple of hours, and a programmer for the rest of the day. We've just started a new one-obligation-per-tech-per-day policy, so that's gotten a little easier. I'm pretty much an affordable on-call I.T. department for anyone that needs one. Hey, wait-a-minute: that's not a bad pitch! writes it down for later
- patio11 17y ago
  I think if you charge more, you'll find that people become automatically more respectful of your time. You might also find that you deal less with difficult clients who prioritize "affordable" (i.e. dirt freaking cheap) over everything else, and as a result have a million problems which they expect you to solve for $20. ("What? That's a lot of money! I could get my brother's cousin in here for $15, its a generous offer!")
  - thaumaturgy 17y ago
    You are right, and I don't disagree, and I've even had a couple of clients tell me that I should be charging more -- the usual number they offer is twice my usual rate ($35/hr for students; $39/hr for home/home office; $45/hr for businesses). However, I started doing this in part because I was extremely frustrated with the various expensive I.T. support companies and draconian vendor support contracts, and because there's a huge under-served market of people who just need help with stuff they don't understand, and can't afford to pay Geek Squad's silly rates. I wanted to be part of the solution, instead of adding to the problem. For the most part, we have a pretty good relationship with all of our clients. There are occasional frustrations, but most of that is due to our own growing pains. We just "fired" a client recently after a large project went sideways and we ended up getting a bit soaked on it; we won't hesitate to do that in most cases, and I think it helps keep our business relationships healthier.
    - patio11 17y ago
      huge under-served market of people who just need help with stuff they don't understand, and can't afford to pay Geek Squad's silly rates I know that market very well. I sell to them and, prior to moving to Japan at least, I was frequently their on-call tech support as a result of being someone's sister's bridge partner's nephew. I love my customers (and not-quite-customers since they never, you know, actually paid money for my services) as people. I don't think they're less intelligent or less worthwhile as human beings just because they don't understand that the little beige box over there is not a "CPU". They don't need to understand networking, automobile engines, or plumbing, just like I don't need to understand the HR policies of the local streets and sanitation department. What they do need to understand: you can solve some problems cheaply with products that can be produced at scale. You can teach yourself to manage some problems cheaply with educational resources that can be produced at scale. If you want an IT consultant with a range of skill broad enough to encompass almost any problem you could have available to perform arbitrary tasks, it will be affordable in the sense that it will cost you far, far less than the business value generated, but it will not be inexpensive by any stretch of the imagination.
    - jwilliams 17y ago
      I like your ethos -- But be careful not to confuse expensive and value for money. If you're doing a job that is many times better than your competitors, then double the rate is a drop in the ocean. Even stingy clients will understand this. In fact, stingy clients often understand this best of all -- they know how to see value. "Bad" clients are the ones that don't get it at all. My general rule is to set a solid price and then cut deals.

How do you pitch consulting? What exactly do you consult? If I may ask.

by quizbiz 17y ago

How do you pitch consulting? What exactly do you consult? If I may ask.

I haven't had to pitch, for the most part, and that's definitely my weakness. I really suck at it. One of the nice things about word-of-mouth growth is that people come to you, and they've already heard that you're good, so all they want to know is how much you cost and when you can come out. For business mixers and the like, I have some pretty fancy business cards that cost me about $.80 apiece, but they've really paid for themselves in helping with that whole first impression thing. I do I.T. consulting. In a nutshell, I'm one of the few guys that builds and administrates networks and computer systems, can recover data from drives (usually), clean up your nastiest viruses without formatting your drive, install and troubleshoot IP telephony, as well as do software development, reverse engineering, and all kinds of other stuff. Up until recently, I had days where I was a telephone technician for a couple of hours, a network admin for a couple of hours, and a programmer for the rest of the day. We've just started a new one-obligation-per-tech-per-day policy, so that's gotten a little easier. I'm pretty much an affordable on-call I.T. department for anyone that needs one. Hey, wait-a-minute: that's not a bad pitch! writes it down for later

patio11 17y ago
I think if you charge more, you'll find that people become automatically more respectful of your time. You might also find that you deal less with difficult clients who prioritize "affordable" (i.e. dirt freaking cheap) over everything else, and as a result have a million problems which they expect you to solve for $20. ("What? That's a lot of money! I could get my brother's cousin in here for $15, its a generous offer!")
- thaumaturgy 17y ago
  You are right, and I don't disagree, and I've even had a couple of clients tell me that I should be charging more -- the usual number they offer is twice my usual rate ($35/hr for students; $39/hr for home/home office; $45/hr for businesses). However, I started doing this in part because I was extremely frustrated with the various expensive I.T. support companies and draconian vendor support contracts, and because there's a huge under-served market of people who just need help with stuff they don't understand, and can't afford to pay Geek Squad's silly rates. I wanted to be part of the solution, instead of adding to the problem. For the most part, we have a pretty good relationship with all of our clients. There are occasional frustrations, but most of that is due to our own growing pains. We just "fired" a client recently after a large project went sideways and we ended up getting a bit soaked on it; we won't hesitate to do that in most cases, and I think it helps keep our business relationships healthier.
  - patio11 17y ago
    huge under-served market of people who just need help with stuff they don't understand, and can't afford to pay Geek Squad's silly rates I know that market very well. I sell to them and, prior to moving to Japan at least, I was frequently their on-call tech support as a result of being someone's sister's bridge partner's nephew. I love my customers (and not-quite-customers since they never, you know, actually paid money for my services) as people. I don't think they're less intelligent or less worthwhile as human beings just because they don't understand that the little beige box over there is not a "CPU". They don't need to understand networking, automobile engines, or plumbing, just like I don't need to understand the HR policies of the local streets and sanitation department. What they do need to understand: you can solve some problems cheaply with products that can be produced at scale. You can teach yourself to manage some problems cheaply with educational resources that can be produced at scale. If you want an IT consultant with a range of skill broad enough to encompass almost any problem you could have available to perform arbitrary tasks, it will be affordable in the sense that it will cost you far, far less than the business value generated, but it will not be inexpensive by any stretch of the imagination.
  - jwilliams 17y ago
    I like your ethos -- But be careful not to confuse expensive and value for money. If you're doing a job that is many times better than your competitors, then double the rate is a drop in the ocean. Even stingy clients will understand this. In fact, stingy clients often understand this best of all -- they know how to see value. "Bad" clients are the ones that don't get it at all. My general rule is to set a solid price and then cut deals.