Are you using the b (udget) word early and often enough?

Transcript

Hi it’s Peter Winick. I’m the Founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage. And here’s the thought I’d like to share with you today and that’s this; How early on in your interactions and conversations with your clients and prospects are you bringing up the ‘b’ word? And by the ‘b’ word I mean budget.

Let me tell you what I’m, what I’m observing, and what I mean, and why I bring this up. Far too often as an author, as a thought leader, as an expert in your field, someone will reach out to you and immediately you’re going to engage in the models, in the methods, in the frameworks, in the history of your work, and the stories behind your work.

All those, all those amazing amazing amazing things. And that’s your comfort zone. And that’s amazing. That’s great. Oftentimes though, in those conversations with prospects, they tend to go on and on and on, weeks, months even. You know I’ve seen multiple years.

And part of the reason is that you’re not doing a great job of qualifying. You’re not bringing up the budget piece. Right. So there’s nothing wrong. And it’s actually, you know, advocate for sharing your knowledge, sharing your domain expertise, etc. But you need to figure out how to integrate into those conversations. Things like, okay so, how is budget allocated at your organization? How much budget is there? Right.

If this is as important as you’re saying it is, is there a budget to back up that level of importance? Or is it important to you but the organization, the powers that be, whoever, whoever that might be haven’t allocated the budget for it? My advice is as early as is appropriate to bring up the budget word. So, that you know how to shape a solution. So, that you know where to invest your time. So, that you know if this is someone that could be a client or someone that, you know, is really just fascinated or engaged or, you know, a fan of your work but couldn’t evolve into a client. Anyway, love to hear your thoughts on when and how to use the ‘b’ word.

Thank you.