Mark Richman

Here’s a quandary – we, as value-based IT consultants, aspire to charge value-based fees for our services (how obvious!). We know that doing so requires tight scope control. As such, this often requires a detailed specification. However, this is the very waterfall model that the agile movement shuns. How do you reconcile scope control, customer [...]

Situation A: Is Faster Service Worth More?
Your computer is not working properly. You have tried to understand the problem and find a solution that you can implement yourself. Yet, after trying, you are no closer to a solution, you find the situation aggravating, and you decide that there’s no point in continuing to attempt fixing [...]

By Alan Weiss
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.contrarianconsulting.com/101-questions-for-any-sales-situation/
Reprinted with permission
I. Qualifying the Prospect
This is the process of determining whether the inquiry is appropriate for your business in terms of size, relevance, seriousness, and related factors. In other words, you don’t want to pursue a lead which can’t result in legitimate—and worthwhile—business.
Questions:
1. Why do you think [...]

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that I’m an advocate of Value-Based Fees. In a nutshell, here is the value proposition to the prospective client:

There is a cap on your investment. You know exactly what is to be spent and there are no surprises.
There is never a “meter [...]

I followed up on David Winch’s last points with some more of my own:
“Now, all I need is a few prospects on whom to practice! But I’m sure ‘how do I find clients?’ is a huge component of your workshop, so I do not presume to receive such a detailed response to that one.
“It is [...]