Why Peter Couldn’t Bag an Elephant
It is shameless to refer to our clients as game animals that we hunt down and eat, but sometimes we are weak. And I bet our clients sometimes give in to the temptation when talking about their customers.
So, I don’t worry about the occasional lapse and wasn’t surprised when Peter told me he needed to bag an elephant if he wanted to make partner. In recent years he had sold enough work to keep himself and two others busy. But in a meeting with his boss he had been told that he needed to bring in bigger assignments from bigger clients if he wanted to make partner.
“I have a habit of shooting at rabbits. Bagging a gnu would probably do,” he said, “But if I want to be sure, it better be an elephant.”
So, we talked through the problem, one that I see at least a couple of times a year. It might be called The Quick Kill problem, if that weren’t so shameless. Peter was good, extremely good, at identifying a small need, convincing the client that he could resolve it, and getting agreement to get started. These assignments averaged about $50,000, which meant that he had to sell about two of them a month. That he would periodically land matters with associated fees of $150,000 to $200,000, made reaching his targeted annual origination credits easier.
But the firm’s management wasn’t interested in assignments returning less than $250,000 in fees and was trying actively to increase the size of its engagements and the quality of its clientele. They wanted more elephants. At this firm that meant assignments worth $500,000 or more. Peter’s small sales dragged down averages for the whole firm. And the longer he went after small assignments, the tougher it would be to win any big ones. Here’s why:
You are mentally in the wrong place. The whole rhythm of the sales effort, including number of calls and meetings per sale, the number of people both in the client’s organization and in your own that you must work with to make the sale, the amount of competition and the frequency with which you win a new assignment are dramatically different when selling many small projects than when you are pursuing a few large ones. The large ones require you to make a sale only once or twice a year, compared to the small ones that must be sold once or twice a month.
Behaviorally and psychologically that requires you to be in different places when trying to win small projects frequently and a big one every once in a while. It’s hard to ask prospective clients for $50,000 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then ask for $1,000,000 on Thursday.
You get labeled: Clients come to see you as the small projects person, and so don’t think of you for larger ones, or worse, think of you briefly and then rule you out. Once pigeon-holed that way, getting them to see you as right for the big assignments is hard work.
You know the wrong people at the account, those who work on small projects rather than those who work on big ones. Getting past these contacts can be tricky. The small project people may feel possessive about you and the big project people may see no reason to spend time with you.
You devote precious time on the wrong companies: You’re selling small things to small clients who will never have the resources to retain you for big assignments. Time you spend on these clients is time you could otherwise spend on developing relationships at big companies.
To get big projects you often need to turn down small ones: Winning a big assignment often requires convincing a client that the small problem is only a symptom of a large one. You have to risk coming away empty handed to have a chance of getting work on something bigger and more important. If you are good at selling big ones, small ones aren’t worth your time.
Peter agreed with all these points and promised to turn away small opportunities in the future. Two months later he was back to his old habits. For the first month he had turned away all the small opportunities, resulting in his sales for the month dropping to zero. When the first two weeks of the second month also produced nothing, he buckled and sold three small projects during the remaining weeks. “I’ve had my fill of selling nil,” he quipped.
We talked again about the different rhythms of small sales and large ones, and that several months of no sales is expected by people selling large assignments, He has again sworn off small sales, and we will see what happens.
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In the interests of transparency and honesty, I am obliged to inform you that Peter is a composite of several professionals I have worked with. The issues that he had to deal with will be recognized by anyone who has sold professional services for a long time.
