How Clients Buy

Chapter 1A Curious Problem

Was that you we saw last Friday night at the Seattle airport?

We would've said “Hi,” but you were on the phone.

We were the guys in blue blazers dragging our roller boards over to Ivar's for a plate of oysters and a Pyramid IPA. You might have seen us pounding out thank-you notes on our phones before the late flight home.

Allow us to introduce ourselves.

Doug leads a business development consulting firm and sits on the board of a midsized consulting firm. Before that, he cofounded a technology-enabled consulting firm that specialized in global web survey projects. He got his start as a management consultant at A. T. Kearney, and before that was trained on GE's leadership development program.

Tom also runs a consulting firm that helps the biggest names in professional services grow their businesses—a kind of consultant to consultants. He was in private equity before that, and in his first big gig served as the chief operating officer of Great Harvest Bread Co.

This is all to say we've spent two lifetimes offering clients consulting and professional services. We've scoped projects, delivered outcomes, wined and dined clients, written white papers, presented at conferences, and relentlessly followed up.

The proof? When people ask our kids what we do, the kids don't know.

“They travel a lot,” they say.

We've written this book to describe how clients buy consulting and professional services because we think if more people in our industry could get smarter ...