Bring the questions or challenges you fear the most from potential clients, and let's role play together with how to respond.
The Bay Area ODN is a safe place to stumble, so don't worry if you don't know what to say. Join us to discover what's possible!
Clients seldom walk up and simply ask to buy our services. More often, they come with questions, looking for a revealing conversation that might lead to some exploratory work together... if we handle it right. Newer consultants might be tempted to launch into an explanation of their services and the benefits the potential client should expect. But how do we demonstrate our expertise without looking as if we were pushing a canned program? And discussions of fees and costs without a clear sense of the cost of the problem or the client's price tolerance could further undermine our appeal. So what do you say after you say "Hello"? How do we navigate a delicate conversation so it leads to a possible engagement?
For example, what do you say to...
*I'm interested in some team building for my senior team. What's your approach?
*I've got one department that's really struggling. Would you be available to coach the manager?
*We're thinking of doing some strategic planning this year. What makes your approach better than all the others?
*We talked to one consulting firm who wanted $50K to do a company survey. What's your pricing like?
*Do you have a course on managing hybrid meetings? Our RTO program is running into some resistance.
This session will be structured different from our typical use of small breakout sessions. We will role play actual conversations and explore the conversational tactics that build toward an engagement using the "Fishbowl" method.
https://jltalley.com/
Jerry Talley started his 50-year career in Stanford’s Sociology department where he taught for 18 years. Leveraging his research and assessment experience, he moved out into corporate consulting. After 15 years of organizational assessment, Jerry opened a broad-spectrum OD practice. Over the years he accumulated 450 client engagements with companies in high tech, higher education, manufacturing, construction, health care, banking, the military, entertainment, hospitality, telecom, city & county government, public utilities, consulting firms, aerospace, college publishing, pharmaceuticals, numerous not-for-profits, and one organic grocery store.
His particular interests were advanced problem solving, work process design, strategic planning, and organizational assessment.
He is no longer providing client services; his practice is now focused on advising and coaching for the next generation of organizational consultants.
