This is pretty much exactly how I did prospecting back in the day, although I'd probably position that last-stage-before-contract as either a "scoping session" or "proposal" rather than "complimentary consultation." You want the client to be sufficiently onboard with paying.
Note that the flowchart does not proceed automatically!
Learn of the existence of a lead (via prospecting / cold inbound / an introduction / etc)
-> you qualify them and, if appropriate
Establish willingness to take a getting-to-know-you meeting (coffee or Skype)
Learn of the existence of a lead (via prospecting / cold inbound / an introduction / etc)
-> you qualify them and, if appropriate
Establish willingness to take a getting-to-know-you meeting (coffee or Skype)
-> you have the meeting
-> you qualify them further, checking for existence of a problem, budget, fit with regards to working style, and perceived likelihood to close
Then, if and only if qualified, you say "Would you like a formal proposal on what I'd do for you?"
-> you qualify them further, checking for existence of a problem, budget, fit with regards to working style, and perceived likelihood to close
Then, if and only if qualified, you say "Would you like a formal proposal on what I'd do for you?"
A proposal does a number of things for you operationally as a consultant. Importantly, it signals to serious counterparties that you are unambiguously pursuing a professional relationship and that they should apply all of their standard expectations to the proposal process.
Qualification is a bit of following a checklist, a bit of a science, and a bit of an art.
People sometimes asked me "How'd you avoid people blowing up at you when you quoted them $60k for a consulting gig?" and a major part of the job is never quoting anyone who'd be surprised.
People sometimes asked me "How'd you avoid people blowing up at you when you quoted them $60k for a consulting gig?" and a major part of the job is never quoting anyone who'd be surprised.
Incidentally: the lower bound for the revenues of a sustainable software company is $200k per white collar employee. 25 employees? They have $5M ARR. Or they've received investment.
So if you need to know how much revenue someone has to qualify them, that's three ways to ask it.
So if you need to know how much revenue someone has to qualify them, that's three ways to ask it.
Because I cannot shake my middle-class-kids-do-not-talk-money background I almost always phrased it as "You can feel free to answer this question in a lot of detail or a little detail, but it would help provide context for me: what's your revenue?"
Sales folks skip to end.
Sales folks skip to end.
