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.https://twitter.com/sehurlburt/status/986791598175338496 …
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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)
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-> 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?"
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Replying to @patio11
Don't you get a lot of "that's proprietary information" responses? I mean, *I* would tell you Tarsnap's revenue if you asked, but only because I know you and I trust you to not blab. I wouldn't share it with just anyone...
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Replying to @cperciva
I am surprised at how many folks straight-up answer, and many will give sufficient information to answer underlying concern.
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E.g. “We’re not public with that but 8 figures.”
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Replying to @patio11
Ah, fair enough. I guess order of magnitude is good enough in most cases.
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