This is 100% the reason that I haven't jumped on the independent contractor wagon. I know that's probably not considered very ambitious ... but I just know that I'm not the kind of person that can focus on bizdev while at the same time busy with shipping software.
How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
31–40 of 42 posts
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#32"We're booked" saved my business. I was taking on too much business and finally decided to make a waitlist. I would tell people what # they'd be on the list and about how long it would take until delivery. That way I was still adding about 50% of the prospects to the list, since they didn't mind waiting. Had I not done this, I would've risked all my clients -- and my reputation.
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#33One option which is more constructive than "We're booked, let me exit from this conversation" is "We find ourselves in very high demand at the moment. Can I interest you in an offering which isn't the partners personally delivering this entire engagement?" That could be the partners doing e.g. a design/wireframe and then the client shopping that out (or the partners doing so), a training engagement, a product offerin…
If you are at the point where you are so busy working on your backlog that you can't build up your backlog, it might be worth it to pay a 'technical sales' person to build your backlog for you, and set expectations with the clients.
This advice is backwards. If you're so busy with the backlog, you should hire someone to work on the backlog and supervise them. If you're running the business, your job is finding work, then managing the work, then executing the work, in that order. Anyone worth their salt at selling technical work for a small firm would be doing it themselves, why would they even need the job? Better to hire freelancers who you know are great workers, but aren't as good at attracting them business, and having them help work through the backlog.
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#34"We're booked until the end of the year" sounds suspiciously like "We're not charging enough money."
Charging more money doesn't create more time, especially if you're already solidly booked.
Now it's great to quote a really high rate when you're totally booked because there is almost no risk but then it can be challenge when the client then accepts it.
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#35This is the fundamental challenge of all professional services businesses. It has a name: "Feast or Famine". Raise your rates. Another thing that is true of many professional services businesses: clients hate it when you say "No", and unless they have a process in place to balance work across multiple vendors, will prefer vendors that reliably say "Yes" to all their project requests. Good luck, welcome to the big lea…
This was the biggest "oh crap, what did we do to ourselves?" moment. Effectively saying "no" took us off those people's radars permanently.
Have you tried recontacting them? A lot of people are open to a sincere mea culpa announcing a policy change. I suspect you'll win back more than 0% of those clients, on good terms.
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#36When I signed a new game developer I always asked them, how do you "mind the gap?" The gap between projects is much harder for game devs than making a game. If I look back at all the devs, the ones that are gone had no gap financing.
Don't ever stop Biz Dev even if your publisher LOVES you.
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you are at the point where you are so busy working on your backlog that you can't build up your backlog, it might be worth it to pay a 'technical sales' person to build your backlog for you, and set expectations with the clients.
Would it be a full time employee? Where would you find such a person? How does a technical person who doesn't know much about sales evaluate potential hires?
I think the first step is to sell yourself to learn about sales. Then you'll know enough to hire someone. You find that person the same way you find clients.
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#38One option which is more constructive than "We're booked, let me exit from this conversation" is "We find ourselves in very high demand at the moment. Can I interest you in an offering which isn't the partners personally delivering this entire engagement?" That could be the partners doing e.g. a design/wireframe and then the client shopping that out (or the partners doing so), a training engagement, a product offerin…
If you are at the point where you are so busy working on your backlog that you can't build up your backlog, it might be worth it to pay a 'technical sales' person to build your backlog for you, and set expectations with the clients.
I'm in a similar boat to these guys as far as biz dev goes and don't personally have a great sales track record having come from a purely technical background.
It seems like Sales as a service exists at least with Elastic. Does anyone have experience with how that works as a replacement for a full-time technical sales person?
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#39One option which is more constructive than "We're booked, let me exit from this conversation" is "We find ourselves in very high demand at the moment. Can I interest you in an offering which isn't the partners personally delivering this entire engagement?" That could be the partners doing e.g. a design/wireframe and then the client shopping that out (or the partners doing so), a training engagement, a product offerin…
What you've described there boils down to two core concepts:
1) Curves of supply and demand. If your demand outstrips your supply, increase your prices until you lose ~50% of the pitches you go for, on the basis of price alone.
2) Sell. Sell sell sell sell sell. Don't worry about your capacity today. Worry about your capacity tomorrow. Give N month lead times for commencement (people will live with this if they want you badly enough), take a deposit, and use it to hire.
It's a bit of a razor's edge to run, as if you're not careful you'll find yourself under-resourced, delivering late, and fucking your reputation in the behind with a broomhandle. If you are careful, and you model out your resource needs based on past performance, you can anticipate your resource needs to fulfil your demand, and you'll grow like a whale on steroids.
I like obtuse allegories.
Re: How “We’re booked” was ruining our business
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was the biggest "oh crap, what did we do to ourselves?" moment. Effectively saying "no" took us off those people's radars permanently.
Have you tried recontacting them? A lot of people are open to a sincere mea culpa announcing a policy change. I suspect you'll win back more than 0% of those clients, on good terms.
This is great advice, AND it dovetails nicely with the advice I've been seeing here a lot lately: send more email to prospective customers :-)