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4 March 2010 4 Comments

The Most Expensive Question

The most expensive question you can ask a consultant is, “What else do you recommend?”

This seems like a simple thing. At least if you’re a consultant. Potential clients approach you and they know they need something done. They may have a good idea of what that something is and they may even be able to provide a wish list of things to get done. However, for all that preparedness they ruin it all for their budget by asking, “What else do you recommend?”

Now some consultants do business this way. They are paid to help the client understand their needs and map out a solution. However, understand that this is a very expensive proposition in most cases. Hours of meetings and calls and emails exchanged back and forth can go into defining the scope, as we call it.

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4 June 2008 3 Comments

Yeah it’s cheaper, but what are you really getting?

I’ve gone round and round about what to talk about this time and, after many heated battles with Nerf balls and Twinkies, a phone call gave me the solution.  I recently spoke to a gentleman who decided that, rather than create a visually appealing website; he was going to spend as little as possible on [...]

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