The current economic climate means there's a good deal of competition for consultancy projects of all kinds and if you keep finding clients shutting the door on you it can start to feel as though the last people you want to connect with are other consultants who may compete with you.
My experience though is that I've much more often lost business to other issues within the client than to other consultants. Reasons for not starting a project have included;
We don't have the budget
The boss doesn't want to change what we already do
We'd rather use an in-house person because otherwise they'll be made redundant
Priorities have changed - and the budget's gone with it
In fact, I've found that other consultants have been a very good source of leads as they have direct contacts with businesses that are very difficult to obtain from scratch. Of course, they're unlikely to refer business to you unless they're sure that you'll do a good job and maintain their good relationship with the client - so its well worth nurturing relationships with your peers so that they view you as a 'good person to do business with'
2 comments:
I agree with this - as well as Skillfair, we are members of another group which brings us into contact with a lot of 'competitors'. (UKita)
What happens is that, over time, you identify *compatible* partners and start to drop your barriers - and the next thing is, you find yourself cross-referring work and even working together. The more competitors there are in the group, the more of them are likely to be compatible - it's anti-intuitive but if you're open to it, it works.
Andrew Corbett - jacorbett@perfectarc.com
Gill
You're absolutely right - it's not other consultants that are the real competition.
There are two of us at Net.Mentor, the rest of the expertise comes from using trusted Associates. About 18 months ago, one of them suggested we formed a very small network of 4 of us. We have now generated significant business through working together.
There is plenty of overlap in what we do, but in taking time - real time, not just a BNI/NRG/B4B 2 minutes - to learn about what we do, our strengths and weaknesses, we can walk into pitch confident that we can deliver a comprehensive service with expertise that can't be bought from a single agency.
The secret is in the relationship and the trust you develop. If you think your fellow consultants are your competitors, you're going about business in the wrong way.
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