ESTABLISHING A DIALOGUE WITH A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT

In establishing a dialogue with a prospective client, there are three steps:

1. Identify the prospect organization to which you wish to sell.

2. Find out which person you should contact.

3. Approach the prospect with the aim of winning a meeting at which you can present your services.

Identifying Prospects

If clients are not forming a queue at your door to do business with you (and if they are, why not put up your fees?) then you have to find new clients. Let us assume that you have to find these by hunting. Some criteria for identifying prospects are suggested in Chapter 3. In any case, you should draw up a prospect profile, that is, the key characteristics of an organization likely to buy your services.

You then have to identify the organizations and individuals within them where you have a good chance of being able to sell your services. You might start by referring to a business directory. Often, however, a directory will not give sufficient information about a business for you to qualify them sufficiently, so some further research needs to be done to find out more. Annual reports and advertising material will provide additional useful data. Other sources include newspaper cuttings and other information services that can be accessed via business libraries or computer databases. Indeed, some computer databases allow you to sort companies according to selected criteria (for example, size, location, industry), which greatly reduces the effort required to do this manually. Happily, there is now a lot of information available on the Internet and so much can be achieved through desk research without moving from your office. The next stage is to approach the prospect.

Who to Sell To

Whereas organizations may have sophisticated systems for specifying and purchasing hardware, these are rarely matched by the processes for buying consultancy. In selling assignments, you may find yourself in the position of having to guide the prospect through the buying process. The consultancy sales process is directed towards this, involving, as it does, clarifying exactly what the prospect wants. (It is worth noting, however, that as consultancy has become a major item of expense for organizations, the purchasing process has come under greater scrutiny. There is a trend towards 'rules-based purchasing', led by the public sector, which is intended to provide better value for money and fairer treatment of suppliers. Purchasing departments have yet, however, to develop appropriate methods for buying consultancy in a way that allows for the fact that it is not a commodity.)

The old adage in selling is 'sell to the MAN' - the person who has the Money, Authority and Need. In an organization of any size, these may be different individuals or a variety of committees. Miller and Heiman (1989) have identified the following key prospect roles in the buying process:

• the user(s) of the service;

• the technical buyer, whose approval is needed, acting as a gatekeeper;

• the economic buyer, whose authority is needed to release the funds.

It is difficult if not impossible to identify these from outside, and so the fourth role of coach is important. The coach is the member of the prospect organization who is committed to your consultancy's offering and who can provide guidance to (and perhaps influence over) those filling the other key roles.

If you have immediate access to a powerful chief executive as your buyer then this distinction of role is less relevant. In other cases you need to recognize the roles, and the buying process that will be engaged. For example, the situation where a client has been commissioned by his or her board to carry out a study of IT requirements for his or her business, needs a quite different selling process from trying to sell a study on IT to a client who is satisfied with his or her present arrangements.

An important objective early in the sales process is therefore to obtain intelligence about the buying process and the roles of the interested parties. This will enable you to focus your selling effort to best effect.

Approaching the Prospect

It is an unusual prospect who would engage management consultants without first meeting them - and an unusual firm of consultants who would agree to work with a client under these conditions. So, meetings are an essential part of the selling process. The purpose of the approach is therefore to secure a selling meeting, preferably with the MAN (who, of course, could be a woman!). You may need to do some preliminary research on who might be the MAN, and telephonists and secretaries can be helpful in guiding you to the right person. In situations of any complexity, it may be necessary to identify a coach (see above) as a first step.