I read an article about consultants written by a consultant. This was at a time when there was a bunch of AA guys running around where I worked. Of course no one I new could tell me what the AA guys were actually doing besides billing my company a hugh amount of money every month.

The gist of the article was that a lot of the big consulting firms make the same presentation to several companies at once. The presentation, in many cases is based on work done by 1 person. If several companies accept the bid, only 1 of those companies is actually going to see the guy who did the original work. The other companies will see rookies who have never performed the necessary work before.

There's no reason why folks at our level couldn't do the same thing. Subcontract with someone for a week who has worked on many projects of the type you are going to bid on. Then you can talk about how much experience your firm has. Never mind that the subcontractor won't be around too long. You just need to be able to say you have 15 yrs experience in creating XYZ system. It seems to be a hot spot with decision makers.

PF

>>John,
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>>This brings up a question that's been floating around in my head for a number of years. I have not been privy to any meetings where folks from unnamed companies such as PW, AA, DT, to unname a few, present their spiel.
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>>What the heck do they say to the decision makers that would influence them to go with them. I would think that there are enough horror stories out there, such as yours, that would cause concern.
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>>But nooooooo. Just make a pretty presentation and say it will only cost a couple mil. And you are in like Flint.
>>
>>I just don't understand.
>>
>
> Yeah, I think they should offer a training course in that. I really need to learn how to talk a client into spending $3 million on a $50k project. Heck, I'd only need one or two of those projects and I'd be set for life ;-)