Business Consultants in deals

There are no silver bullets here. These people are hired for one purpose...to lower costs. Not to improve productivity. Not to improve emplyee moral. Not to improve customer satisfaction. Certainly not to improve equipment reliability or service response time.

Some lines I use that seldom work but I use them anyway:

If we aren't the most expensive, we should be.

If we wanted to charge less for service we could. All we would have to do is fire half our service techs, (the most experienced half since they are the most expensive), end all on-going tech training, inventory half as many parts, install used parts. These are the kind of things that companies do to provide the cheapest service. That just isn't the business model we have decided to run with. We think we made the right decision, don't you?

I like those and you are correct no matter what they say they are there to lower costs. It's funny because I heard the exact line about how she was there to streamline procedures, improve moral, and a bunch of other items. I'd prefer if she just said she was there to lower costs. At least I wouldn't have to listen to the bull **** and I can do what I do.

I'm a believer in what I call the ******* tax.  This might be a time to charge the tax.

I haven't ran across a business consultant in years. 

A few years back we received an RFP that was put together by a "Consultant". It's terms were so egregious, so one sided, that we simply told the customer that we were not interested in bidding. It was a decent size law firm and I think they wanted us (We have a real good reputation taking care of law firms). They said that we could negotiate the terms. We replied that if they want to get rid of their "Consultant" we would be happy to work with them. They declined, and we spent our time pursuing more reasonable business.

VinceMcHugh posted:

A few years back we received an RFP that was put together by a "Consultant". It's terms were so egregious, so one sided, that we simply told the customer that we were not interested in bidding. It was a decent size law firm and I think they wanted us (We have a real good reputation taking care of law firms). They said that we could negotiate the terms. We replied that if they want to get rid of their "Consultant" we would be happy to work with them. They declined, and we spent our time pursuing more reasonable business.

Kudos!!

I tend to treat them like I would a gatekeeper...  they are an ally if we can get them to like us better.  One of my better clients came as a result of one of these people...  rather than having them against me, I say things a bit differently...  

"Oh thank goodness you are involved, I know Bill has been swamped so it is good someone is able to address all their concerns and help get the right copier.  By the way, how many companies do you help?  Oh wow, that's cool.  Hopefully we can work together and then maybe I can work with them too"  

Then I still charge what I planned to, but the other copier guys treated them like an enemy, so I got a call back that was like, "I like you, can you beat this guys price?"  I said I couldn't, because we don't try and be the cheapest, but we would make sure the consultant looked good to the client.

It actually all worked out fine, thankfully, because They put a girl in charge of setting up print drivers and she has completely screwed it up multiple times and then complains to the consultant and the president that the machine isn't working but I got a call from the consultant saying they were ready to move forward with it. I tried to make her an ally and I guess we are good with each other. I got the order without and BS objections or asking for price reductions etc. 

@copier-seo-guy that is good advice. My father always taught me in the business that the most important person in the deal is the one you are dealing with regardless of what you think of them.