from SalesDog.com:
9 Strategies to Get Funded When Clients Have No Budget
by Andrew Sobel
The dreaded phrase, "We have no budget for this!" is being heard all too often these days. Variations include "Our budget has been cut"; "We have a corporate-wide freeze on all consulting and training expenditures"; or, "We really do see the value, but we just cannot afford to do it right now."
Here are nine ideas for handling this:
1. Gain sponsorship from a higher-level, more powerful economic buyer. You'll have to work closely with your existing client to make this happen, as no executive likes it when you go over his or her head.
2. Create flexible contractual terms. If it is a client you trust, and you can get the agreement in writing, you could offer to invoice and receive payments on a flexible schedule. A client, for example, may have the funds available in three or four months, and if you're willing to accommodate that, you may be in business.
3. Give discounts if the client doesn't go to an RFP. This can preempt a competitive bid, which is very costly to undertake, and allow you to reinvest the time in adding more value in the proposal process.
4. Add more value to the overall package. "It's too expensive" usually means "We don't perceive sufficient value." More value could include advice and counseling around your core program or service, personal coaching, knowledge transfer, training, follow-up assessments, or many other things.
5. Combine budgets to fund your program. To the extent your project impacts multiple functions or business units, you might be able to get budget allocations from multiple sources.
6. Restructure the project to meet their budget. This is common sense and it can lead to a very fruitful dialogue about what is most important to the client.
7. Tie your fee to results. Some services firms do this in certain markets (e.g., in investment banking, executive search, etc.) but most do not. If you're confident and choose the right metrics, this may be an option when all else fails.
8. Sell what you do as a product not a service. If you can productize your know-how and approach, then you may have access to a different budget or budget approval process. If your service can be capitalized and then amortized over time, this could make a big difference. Alternatively, you may need to add more services to a product sale to make it sufficiently attractive, which is a related but different point.
9. Deliver your services virtually. By eliminating in-person meetings you could dramatically lower the cost of your proposal. Many clients are in fact relying on webinars, teleconferences, video teleconferencing, and other means to cut down travel and meeting expenses.
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