[Orcnet] Consulting sales cycle

[Tim Wescott]

In my (less extensive) experience, the sales cycle can vary all over the
map.  Longer efforts seem to end up with less effect in the end --
probably because some of the prospective customers are just tire kickers,
or they're engineers who know that I'm needed but can't get buy-in from
their management.

On Mon, April 21, 2008 9:19 am, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
>
> Gents:
>
> I am negotiating with a startup for a few months of work.  So
> far it has taken three weeks of very occasional interaction,
> almost all because of delays at their end (they are starting up,
> after all).  This is nothing unusual for me;  sometimes the dance
> can take a year to complete, though rarely more than 20 or 30 hours
> of time are involved in the setup, a fraction of the billable work.
>
> Sometimes the dance takes less than 48 hours - one negotiation
> was started on the phone Monday afternoon, completed at lunch in
> Southern California on Tuesday, and I was in Boston Wednesday
> doing the work.  But it is rarely that fast.
>
> What are other Orcnetter's experiences?  How long does a sale
> take for the rest of you -- assuming a few months of well paid
> custom design work are the result?  Do longer negotiations fail
> more often?  Do you give up and blow off the prospect after too
> much time elapses?  What is too much?
>
> Keith
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
> KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
> Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
> _______________________________________________
> Orcnet mailing list
> Orcnet at eeconsult.org
> http://eeconsult.org/mailman/listinfo/orcnet
>


-- 
Tim Wescott
Control systems and communications consulting
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Land line: 503.631.7815
Cell: 503.349.8432