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bazillion hit on a couple of things I totally agree with. One of the things I do is troll Craigslist off and on. We have a contract right now valued around $90

bazillion hit on a couple of things I totally agree with. One of the things I do is troll Craigslist off and on. We have a contract right now valued around $90k from a single phone call to a poorly written craigslist ad that I reached out to. Not bad for literally about 30 minutes of a phone call and 90 minutes of discussions and negotiations. No one will represent you the way you can if you are willing to learn some skills, but sometimes you need the outside help. However, a little mentoring/guidance can go a long way if you are willing. In the end work will not find you guys until you have a niche and decent reputation, and even then people who say they never look for clients I think are not being totally honest. I met with one successful and smart guy who runs a consultancy and he swears he never looks for work it "just finds him". Well, that is sort of true but not really the whole truth or being totally honest. Specifically in his case, he does a lot of tech training, writing and is involved in a specific tech scene. So in the end he is doing a ton of marketing and talking about his team and their abilities, he's just not out cold calling or using a lot of traditional marketing. Also, consulting can enter into feast or famine mode unless you designate someone to keep deal flow moving. This isn't optional and can't be something you do half hearted. It takes dedication, but it doesn't have to be sole sucking shit work, it should be fun and be a lot about pre-sales and pre-qualification of clients. It can even be something that is a shared duty but it has to be dedicated time every week.

kls 12y ago
it should be fun and be a lot about pre-sales and pre-qualification of clients. One of the things that we have been caught up in before is a continuous sales cycle where the client has no intention of actually committing to picking up our services but rather is seeing how much pre-consulting work they can get out of us. This has only happened a couple of times in our history but when it does it is costly to whoever is working the sale as it's not really a salaried deal with us. So we get a little gun shy about extensive pre-sales. As well we are trying to move away from a contracting / consulting service and into something that we have some ownership of.
davismwfl 12y ago
part of the pre-qualification is shutting down pre-sales when the client is just sucking you dry for no benefit. The key is getting from talking to action. Like I said, that can be pretty damn fast once you get some practice at it and learn which key words to look for and how to direct the conversation to decisions. Developers many (maybe most) times get to wrapped up in the details of the project and forget to close the deal first, leading the clients to "take advantage" of you. We have all done it and still do it from time to time. It is smart to use a pre-qualification interview of a few questions. You don't do it in the "interview" style, but you get some qualifying questions in so you can frame the project to see if it is even a decent match before you put too much time into it. Budget and timeframe are the two critical keys to get out in the open early, which generally prevents a huge portion of wasted time on both sides. Not only that, it has let me refer leads to other shops/developers that might be a better fit and then I will get a referral fee. Likewise, I happily pay referral fees to others who send clients my way.

kls 12y ago

it should be fun and be a lot about pre-sales and pre-qualification of clients. One of the things that we have been caught up in before is a continuous sales cycle where the client has no intention of actually committing to picking up our services but rather is seeing how much pre-consulting work they can get out of us. This has only happened a couple of times in our history but when it does it is costly to whoever is working the sale as it's not really a salaried deal with us. So we get a little gun shy about extensive pre-sales. As well we are trying to move away from a contracting / consulting service and into something that we have some ownership of.

davismwfl 12y ago

part of the pre-qualification is shutting down pre-sales when the client is just sucking you dry for no benefit. The key is getting from talking to action. Like I said, that can be pretty damn fast once you get some practice at it and learn which key words to look for and how to direct the conversation to decisions. Developers many (maybe most) times get to wrapped up in the details of the project and forget to close the deal first, leading the clients to "take advantage" of you. We have all done it and still do it from time to time. It is smart to use a pre-qualification interview of a few questions. You don't do it in the "interview" style, but you get some qualifying questions in so you can frame the project to see if it is even a decent match before you put too much time into it. Budget and timeframe are the two critical keys to get out in the open early, which generally prevents a huge portion of wasted time on both sides. Not only that, it has let me refer leads to other shops/developers that might be a better fit and then I will get a referral fee. Likewise, I happily pay referral fees to others who send clients my way.