General Consultant Discussion

Oh brother some of these orphans. These people had emailed twice ""quick question"". Then I advised on cost. So the boss calls. Naturally there's always some oddity. Pays people by payroll up to the minute. No naturally not on maintenance. People who pay maintenance generally don't also troll the web.. (observation 1) Now folks I've been down this road 100x over with orphans. They're willing to accept your help all the way up to whatever point they're required to write a check. (observation 2) Gave them Sage's 800 # and advised that since they're not on maintenance they should reinstate before even thinking about using Sage 100 Payroll due to W2 changes (etc) and tax table not being issued for older versions.

I got an email from another reseller's customer requesting that I call to schedule time to demonstrate our capabilities and could I be prepared to cover MAPADOC, Frx, Custom Office, and Crystal Reports. I called and politely declined after learning that they've gone through two resellers already and wanted me to give them a few hours to ""show my stuff"".

The best way I've found to qualify orphans: 1. Require an annual support/access agreement with YOUR firm - This weeds 85% of casual web shoppers who will leave/not reply because all they are looking for is someone $10 /hr cheaper than their last consultant. 2. Require an initial assessment (paid) / do NOT under any circumstances give free quotes for upgrades or other project work without an assessment unless you enjoy educating another consultant's customer. There is a very high likelihood an orphan is without a partner for a reason. Usually (a) no budget (b) unreasonable management or (c) mis-matched needs where the ERP system is not a great fit (d) hidden system problems that they don't want to pay to fix and are hoping another consultant can be roped into fixng for a low price. 3. Have all of your information prepared ahead of time so you can email links and then place the burden on the orphan to review and reply. - Support/Access agreement - FAQ - Orphans who don't want consultant fees or maintenance have no problem talking your ear off for an hour so long as the call is free. This is not terrible if you encounter one a month but after a while I was seeing the same pattern - the interest level was only high until the meter came on and then the prospect disappeared. 4. If you can - get rid of all hourly rates. Then when they ask ""can you give me an idea of your rates"" you can reply ""we don't have any way to bill hourly"". When you hear the ""what are your rates"" you can be sure that there's an 85% chance (unless you play the rate game) that the orphan won't be heard from again. 5. If the orphan is local - only allot up to an hour handshake meeting where you discuss your company and learn about the existing issues. Do not provide any consulting advise. This is THE single hardest thing to pull off. It's also VERY difficult to get out of some meetings - especially the ones where you show up and there are 18 people in the room who ask ""so what should we do"" before you've even had a chance to take your coat off. The only true way to determine if an orphan is serious is to turn on the meter as quickly as possible and BEFORE you've provided any services.

Also if the orphan is not on maintenance I won't go through the increasingly enormous hassle of contacting Sage for them. Unless we're in a consulting capacity - the customer needs to contact Sage and go through the myriad of pricing options available to reinstate. There are just WAY too many ""can you quote it without this module"" , ""what about if we go subscription"", ""we forgot we have this enhancement"", ""why do we have to pay a penalty will they waive it"". Believe me these reinstatements are a time sucking rabbit hole. Don't get pulled into them for non-customers. And then because in 90%++ of cases the orphan really didn't know the cost ahead of time - they stop replying to you at all once they've gotten the final quote.