The prospect wavers on your price, mentions another consultant they're weighing you against, and says they need to think about it before they follow up.

Every sales training you've absorbed knows what to do here: handle the objection, cast a little doubt on the alternative, and stay in pursuit until they sign.

But you're not a salesperson who hands the deal off once it closes. You have to deliver what you sold, and some part of you suspects that a client you push across the line is a client you'll be re-closing for the length of the engagement.

This episode makes the case that the way you sell a consulting engagement is already the first act of delivering it, and that most of what passes for good sales technique quietly works against you. It's about what qualifying actually looks like when disqualifying the wrong client is the point, not the risk.

For consultants who've felt the pull between closing the deal and protecting the relationship, and suspected the two were at odds.