financial, or technical, or mystical powers that you don't possess.
You are bored. You can do it, but you may fall asleep during the interviews.FIGURE 3.1 Reach Out Versus Gravity
You have other priorities. It makes more sense for you to be marketing in a manner only you can do than to be delivering in a manner almost anyone can do. (Key: Just because you can do something faster or better doesn't mean that someone else can't do it just fine for the circumstances. You don't use a howitzer to swat a fly. At least I don't.)
You anticipate needing subcontracting in the future, and this is a good opportunity to acclimate and train your potential help.
Finally, as you build Market Gravity® (which we'll discuss later), you'll be doing “reach out” and benefit from more attraction. The more buyers are drawn to you because of your brand and reputation, the less time you need to invest in finding them and educating them about your value.
You can see from the graphic shown in Figure 3.1 that as your career progresses, you should require less and less time to find clients, because they are finding you. If you veterans who are reading this aren't experiencing that great benefit, then read on.
Case Study: The Manufacturing Star
A decade or more ago I was coaching a client who was brilliant in the manufacturing arena. He was making about $600,000 but was completely booked all year. I explained the principles above, but he said that “no one else can do what I do.”
That was true in its entirely, but not in part. When I finally convinced him to try subcontractors, his revenues grew and his labor declined.
Today, he has three full‐time employees, a half‐dozen part‐time, he takes six major vacations globally, and he's making about $10 million annually.
Identifying True Buyers
The true buyer is that individual whom I've named the economic buyer. I've chosen this to differentiate this person from feasibility buyers, who may evaluate an approach in terms of culture, or methodology, or need, but who cannot make the decision to buy.
In other words, never be satisfied by or stop at gatekeepers.
And then there are the non‐buyers. We mentioned the ability to say “no” and the inability to say “yes.”
What this amounts to is your steadfastness to reject acceptance and accept rejection. That is, you must reject the acceptance of those who cannot help you (they can't sign a check or introduce you to someone who can sign a check) and accept the occasional rejection that is inevitable in this business as you deal with powerful, true buyers. Don't forget the illustration in Figure 3.1, which eases this dynamic by demonstrating that as you become more successful, buyers will come to you, making credibility and fees virtually moot, and reducing rejection substantially.
You can't afford to develop relationships with and be associated with low‐level non‐buyers, because that collegiality will be as tough to remove as gum on Texas asphalt in August. You can descend from buyer heights to work with virtually anyone in the organization, but you can't ascend to work with significant buyers if you're seen as a peer of human resources, or training, or lower‐level management in general.
An economic buyer can, metaphorically, sign a check. That is, he or she can cause the computer to spit out a check. You don't deal with purchasing, procurement, or accounts payable, and you don't adhere to their rather arbitrary and unilateral payment practices. They deal with the terms that you and your buyer have agreed upon. (Buyers can also require manual checks when there has been an error or undue delay. Remember, when anyone says that payment takes, say, 30 days, it means that for 29 days the request sits on someone's desk, because computers can produce checks anytime at all.)
Case Study: The Pathetic Payment Policy
Some technology companies have instituted at times 120‐day payment to all venders. Aside from the unethical and despicable policy of penalizing small businesses in order to achieve a four‐month “float” on their money, it's simply unacceptable from a cash flow standpoint.
This is where the buyer comes in. You ensure that your payment terms supercede the policy in place through the buyer's clout. Of course, someone will say, “It's company policy.” Sure it is. But you're allowed to have policies, too, such as more favorable payment terms for you.
If the company “policy” were to loot and pillage, would that be acceptable also?
So how do you tell who the economic buyers are? I say “buyers” because in larger organizations there are scores or even hundreds. I dealt with a dozen different buyers in Merck alone over 12 years. You can't always tell them by title. One of my most significant buyers—he spent $250,000 per year for several years—had the title “International Director of Management Development.” Conversely, some vice presidents can't buy a toothbrush in some organizations (find someone in a bank who is not a vice president).
In smaller organizations, the owner, or CEO, or president will be the buyer. In nonprofits, usually the executive director or managing director is the buyer. However, in most cases, most of the time, you can find the true buyer by asking these 10 questions of the person with whom you're dealing at the moment:
Questions to Determine the Economic Buyer
1 Whose budget will support this initiative?
2 Who can immediately approve this project?
3 To whom will people look for support, approval, and credibility?
4 Who controls the resources required to make this happen?
5 Who has initiated this request?
6 Who will claim responsibility for the results?
7 Who will be seen as the main sponsor and/or champion?
8 Do you have to seek anyone else's approval?
9 Who will accept or reject proposals?
10 If you and I were to shake hands, could I begin tomorrow?
There are often, among the non‐buyers, key recommenders who can speed your efforts to find the economic buyer. It's worth developing brief relationships with such people in order to have someone lower the drawbridge over the moat.
The Gospel
It's easy to develop long‐term relationships with nonthreatening non‐buyers, but this results in nonpayment of your mortgage.
FIGURE 3.2 Consulting Model
It's worth revisiting our consulting model chart (see Figure 3.2).
We begin with shared values—not spiritual or religious values, but business values. For example, I won't participate in downsizing work, because I believe it's unethical and the result of errors (and sometimes stupidity) in the executive suite. That's me; others may disagree. But I turn that work down based on differing values.
If values are simpatico, then we forge a relationship with the economic buyer. And that requires finding the economic buyer, which is why we've taken the time to examine that process here.
The next step