[patio11]

One option which is more constructive than "We're booked, let me exit from this conversation" is "We find ourselves in very high demand at the moment. Can I interest you in an offering which isn't the partners personally delivering this entire engagement?" That could be the partners doing e.g. a design/wireframe and then the client shopping that out (or the partners doing so), a training engagement, a product offering ("I have no availability in December to write an email campaign for you for $20k, but you can have me tell your team all about the campaign they could write for you, it will only cost you $2k, and you can keep the video"), or (at the waaaaaay low end of engagement) just sign them up for an email list to have you stay as their top-of-mind team on your problem space.

There's a few other options, too. There is no zeronary Consultancy#are_we_booked? method. It's ternary: Consultancy#are_we_booked?(price, schedule, scope). For a price you can virtually always take on a new client starting tomorrow. (I mean, you can't physically be on two continents at once, but if you're scheduled in New York one week and a client in Germany wants the same week, if they're willing to pay 5X what New York is, then you call New York and say "Hey guys, have I got a proposition for you: how about we delay this engagement N weeks and in return I'll discount 20% off the invoice.")

You probably retain scheduling flexibility with clients unless they pay extra to get scheduling predictability (p.s. ask Thomas about this in more detail, it's a great hack), so if you're scheduled above 80% and a lucrative gig comes in, you might be able bump everything back N weeks without blowing any windows even without having to renegotiate things, especially if you are capable of hiring and ramping someone in that time. That is, of course, the ultimate consultancy scaling mechanism.

P.S. In parallel with any, all, or none of the above advice, if you find yourself above 80% utilization, raise rates.

[edanm]

Great advice. I'd be interested in hearing more about Thomas's hack re: flexibility. tptacek - any chance you can weigh in here?

[RickDT]

Awesome suggestions all around. We're definitely going to be trying out all of the above to see what fits.

[nobodysfool]

If you are at the point where you are so busy working on your backlog that you can't build up your backlog, it might be worth it to pay a 'technical sales' person to build your backlog for you, and set expectations with the clients.

[dworin]

This advice is backwards. If you're so busy with the backlog, you should hire someone to work on the backlog and supervise them. If you're running the business, your job is finding work, then managing the work, then executing the work, in that order. Anyone worth their salt at selling technical work for a small firm would be doing it themselves, why would they even need the job? Better to hire freelancers who you know are great workers, but aren't as good at attracting them business, and having them help work through the backlog.

[tocomment]

Would it be a full time employee? Where would you find such a person? How does a technical person who doesn't know much about sales evaluate potential hires?

[msellout]

I think the first step is to sell yourself to learn about sales. Then you'll know enough to hire someone. You find that person the same way you find clients.

[alexmarcy]

I'm in a similar boat to these guys as far as biz dev goes and don't personally have a great sales track record having come from a purely technical background.

It seems like Sales as a service exists at least with Elastic. Does anyone have experience with how that works as a replacement for a full-time technical sales person?

[RickDT]

If you have any recommendation on finding/using a part-time sales person, I'm all ears! Dedicated sales would be awesome, but it'll be a while before we can hire this as a F/T position.

[madaxe]

What you've described there boils down to two core concepts:

1) Curves of supply and demand. If your demand outstrips your supply, increase your prices until you lose ~50% of the pitches you go for, on the basis of price alone.

2) Sell. Sell sell sell sell sell. Don't worry about your capacity today. Worry about your capacity tomorrow. Give N month lead times for commencement (people will live with this if they want you badly enough), take a deposit, and use it to hire.

It's a bit of a razor's edge to run, as if you're not careful you'll find yourself under-resourced, delivering late, and fucking your reputation in the behind with a broomhandle. If you are careful, and you model out your resource needs based on past performance, you can anticipate your resource needs to fulfil your demand, and you'll grow like a whale on steroids.

I like obtuse allegories.