INTERLUDE I
The Yin and Yang of Clients and Prospects
We tend to use client generically. When I ask people who their ideal buyer is, they tell me “General Electric” or “the utilities” or “the defense contractors.” Those aren’t buyers. They are buildings.
An economic buyer is a person who has the ability to write a check (have a check issued) for your value without the approval of anyone else. When a prospective buyer says to you, “I think we can go forward once I run this by my boss,” you’re not talking to an economic buyer, just a person lower in the food chain. Almost everyone in human resources or training and development is a feasibility person—they have no budgets of their own. They are merely the middlemen* and the gatekeepers.
Thus, ...
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