Which Sales Model is Best for Your Consulting Practice?

by Robert Kelly

Revised from the original article of the same name published by Client Dimensions in 2003.

In Brief

A sales metaphor is helpful in understanding your strengths as a business developer and as an intellectual framework for developing your consulting practice’s business development approach. Many professional service firm managers and practice leaders use the classic Hunter-Farmer model when thinking about what types of business developers the firm needs to recruit in order to grow. Should we just have farmers, or do we need to bring in more hunters. The hunter-farmer model, stem from traditional industrial sales approaches, but is it really that useful for management consultants, technical consultants and other professional service firms? Frankly, the hunter farmer model does not adequately describe the business development approach of most successful practicing consultants. Well what does? This article adds a third element to the Hunter-Farmer Model -- the Fisherman and explains why the Fisherman’s best attributes are descriptive of successful consulting practice leaders.

Introduction

The U.S. is known as a service economy and there are a large number of professional services and technical consulting firms competing in the market. Consultants are plentiful and profitable for good reason – they help solve complex problems and create value that is much greater than their fee. Sure, there are consultants who don’t deliver value, but they don’t survive too long. Genuine consultants who dispense great advice and solve problems command big fees because they are worth it. There are tens of thousands of consultants who generate fees of $1,000 to $3,000 per day, and others who command $15,000 or more per day. And they do this year in and year out because clients believe they are worth the fees, year in and year out.

Why the Need to Sell!

You would think that with all the value that consultants create, they would never have to market or sell their expertise, but this is not the case. Clients don’t always go out of their way to seek new consultants. Therefore, it’s incumbent on good consultants to market to prospective clients. One of the most important functions of the consulting practice leader is business development, and you will rarely find a successful Practice Leader who isn’t also a terrific business developer.

Curiously, I never met a consultant who initially set out to become a “marketer” or “seller” of anything. Most started out by developing an expertise and applying it to varied problems in ever changing situations, so the consulting field was perfect for them. After being a consultant for a few years grinding out lots of deliverables and billable hours, things change. To move up the career ladder or receive higher compensation, consultants must learn how to develop business. But do firms provide training for this or must consultants develop this skill on their own? Some firms provide training, but many consultants simply find that they just seem to have a knack for developing business. Many others face the choice of either sink or swim.

As my own career evolved, I found that managers increasingly expected me to generate more and more business, apparently because they felt I had a knack for it. Frankly, I felt I was thrown in the water and was expected to swim - too often gulping many mouthfuls of water while I learned.

Hunter-Farmer

To survive, I began studying the subject of consulting practice business development and noticed that some consultants excelled at bringing in new clients, while others were more adept at nurturing existing clients into long-term relationships. As my interest in this subject intensified, I began reviewing literature about traditional sales processes and as much as I could find about professional services and consulting sales, which frankly was meager in the 1980s. Much of the literature described a model of sales that seemed to make a lot of sense at first blush - the Hunter-Farmer model. In brief, the Hunter (or sometimes paradoxically referred to as a Tiger) was the stereotypical aggressive sales rep who was best at bringing in new clients. The Farmer was perceived as being laid back when it came to developing new clients, but did a great job of cultivating relationships and new business with current clients. The table below contrasts the attributes of the hunter and farmer. As with most stereotypes, these generalities are not universally applicable or without exception.

Which Sales Model is Best

Many professional service firm managers look at their practice leaders as either one or the other. They try to figure out which is better, or if there is an appropriate balance between them. Firm managers continue to struggle with which approach makes most sense for them. David Maister, author of the seminal book, “Managing the Professional Service Firm,” suggests that the Farmer model is ideal for the true professional service firm (those that are trusted advisers with no particular technology or solution in mind before they thoroughly understand the client’s problem, and then devise appropriate solutions). On the other hand, many technology firms who have necessarily developed a professional services arm to increase sales believe that a firm’s business development arm must consist of both hunters and farmers to balance things out.

I respect and understand both arguments, but believe they may be appropriate only for large firms or already well established firms. Nearly 45% of all consultants are independents, and many more are autonomous practice leaders in small to medium-sized firms, responsible for developing their own practice

I believe neither approach is appropriate for this great number of consultants who are still growing, building their practice, and becoming established. In fact, I think the hunter-farmer analogy doesn't explain the qualities of the vast majority of successful consulting practice leaders.

In Part 2, to be published in tomorrow’s blog, we will discuss the alternative Fisherman Model.