Читать книгу The Consulting Bible - Alan Weiss - Страница 47

The true buyer is that individual whom I've named the economic buyer. I've chosen this to differentiate this person from feasibility buyers, who may evaluate an approach in terms of culture, or methodology, or need, but who cannot make the decision to buy.

In other words, never be satisfied by or stop at gatekeepers.

And then there are the non‐buyers. We mentioned the ability to say “no” and the inability to say “yes.”

What this amounts to is your steadfastness to reject acceptance and accept rejection. That is, you must reject the acceptance of those who cannot help you (they can't sign a check or introduce you to someone who can sign a check) and accept the occasional rejection that is inevitable in this business as you deal with powerful, true buyers. Don't forget the illustration in Figure 3.1, which eases this dynamic by demonstrating that as you become more successful, buyers will come to you, making credibility and fees virtually moot, and reducing rejection substantially.

You can't afford to develop relationships with and be associated with low‐level non‐buyers, because that collegiality will be as tough to remove as gum on Texas asphalt in August. You can descend from buyer heights to work with virtually anyone in the organization, but you can't ascend to work with significant buyers if you're seen as a peer of human resources, or training, or lower‐level management in general.

An economic buyer can, metaphorically, sign a check. That is, he or she can cause the computer to spit out a check. You don't deal with purchasing, procurement, or accounts payable, and you don't adhere to their rather arbitrary and unilateral payment practices. They deal with the terms that you and your buyer have agreed upon. (Buyers can also require manual checks when there has been an error or undue delay. Remember, when anyone says that payment takes, say, 30 days, it means that for 29 days the request sits on someone's desk, because computers can produce checks anytime at all.)