Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Why is he reluctant to cold call? If you can solve that problem the issue will go away. Alternatively, what's so wrong with paying the call centre? They're delivering value, and they're part of his current business model.

It sounds to me as though this consultant doesn't properly value the initial contact as a step in the process. If he did, he'd either learn to love it himself, or offer even bigger bonuses to the call centre when their efforts get him the appointment that leads to a big project. Instead, he's looking for ways to save money on the most important function. (This is a version of the "Fire the Salesforce and Save Money" syndrome.)

Do all three of us a favor and ask your friend to get a copy of Rasputin For Hire : An inside look at management consulting between jobs or as a second career and read the requirements (or prerequisites) for becoming a successful management consultant. Or just go to the website www.rasputinforhire.com , and take the self-assessment by clicking on the link right on the homepage.

He'll find out pretty quickly that if he doesn't learn to love the prospecting and selling aspects, he's probably not going to be successful for long. Some say it's the most important part of consulting.

Sure there are ways to make cold-calling a little less "painful," but if that's what you're trying to do, it's still going to be clear that you don't love it. And that's going to ultimately turn off prospects. Your friend needs to get in touch with himself and find out WHY he's so averse to cold calling. (End of psychology lesson.)

The reasons many consultants and wanna-be consultants don't like cold calling are that they fear rejection and/or don't like being measured so strictly for performance. Even if they have a success rate of 30-35% (which is GREAT), they still get rejected most of the time, and they feel that they are performing at a sub-standard level. (In their minds, anything less than 100% is sub-standard.)

Your consultant friend needs to deal with this. If it's too much for him to handle, then he can always continue to pay the call centre. They're performing a very valuable service for him -- especially if he's unwilling or unable to do the job himself.