I did exactly the same constat after years in a big advisory group in France. That is why I decide to cofound a company where we propose to our customer a large variety of competences based on freelanders. I observed that experts are pretty good in the technic but not in the customer relation. I am specialise on customer relation, specially for sme customers. So I will propose to expert (freelanders) to list their competences and after if I need their competence to contact them. It is very easy now, with all the communications tools. I scheduled to build an online cooperative plateform where customer manage than me and experts (freelanders) could meet together and communicate for the benefit of the customer. If anyone interesting by this project, contact me.

I did exactly the same constat after years in a big advisory group in France. That is why I decide to cofound a company where we propose to our customer a large variety of competences based on freelanders. I observed that experts are pretty good in the technic but not in the customer relation. I am specialise on customer relation, specially for sme customers. So I will propose to expert (freelanders) to list their competences and after if I need their competence to contact them. It is very easy now, with all the communications tools. I scheduled to build an online cooperative plateform where customer manage than me and experts (freelanders) could meet together and communicate for the benefit of the customer. If anyone interesting by this project, contact me.

To often the sales end of an organisation undersells the skills of the the consulting / dev team and forces them to leverage the wrong solution in place for the price. Does the sales team have to the problem with this in the short term. No. This is where this type of idea may come unstuck.

To often the sales end of an organisation undersells the skills of the the consulting / dev team and forces them to leverage the wrong solution in place for the price. Does the sales team have to the problem with this in the short term. No. This is where this type of idea may come unstuck.

A lot of my work comes through contract/body shops that dominate the IT industry in Australia. As such, it's more the technically-focussed IA/UX work than the social networking consulting that I get as it's the big consulting companies who largely get to do the consulting work (until you build reputation in that and begin to attract word of mouth referrals). The contract companies here usually charge the client 20 per cent on top of your hourly rate to act as broker. I'd rather pay a somewhat smaller fee and have someone who really gets my work to be that intermediary.

That said, the contracting company I deal most with are very good and make a point of understanding the people they broker for.

A lot of my work comes through contract/body shops that dominate the IT industry in Australia. As such, it’s more the technically-focussed IA/UX work than the social networking consulting that I get as it’s the big consulting companies who largely get to do the consulting work (until you build reputation in that and begin to attract word of mouth referrals). The contract companies here usually charge the client 20 per cent on top of your hourly rate to act as broker. I’d rather pay a somewhat smaller fee and have someone who really gets my work to be that intermediary.

That said, the contracting company I deal most with are very good and make a point of understanding the people they broker for.

Selling oneself is always difficult. Selling is always difficult, but in the area we work, I can't see easily delagating it to an agent. The deal we sign with a customer is quite specific, there are very precise requirements, there are the way we do things, our expertise. Discussing the price, in my experience, is still a part of building the deal and agreeing on the deliverables.

An “agent' would be useful for selling standard products, as your blog trainning session. But when you go to a specific prestation, tailored for the customer, then “if” agent, he should be part of the whole discussion, from the beginning. As do technical companies in sales force, where you usually have the “tech guy” and the “money guy”.

I remember a time when they had the “sales team”, signing the agreement, and then you started to work with someone else who was doing the job, and the evolution went to a discussion including the person who would do the job after.

But maybe, if you do't find an agent, you could get yourself a sales trainning ?

The comment from Gia raises another issue. The problem is not so much negotiating for her, it's knowing the right prices.
A friend told be once, about haggling in Morocco “the rigt price is the one that makes both parts happy”. The best way to get an idea about your price level is the number of customers you sign : none, and you're either really too high or too low (and then they don't trust you), a lot, more than you can handle, you could raise your prices a little bit, not enough but some, you should check with friends if the problem is in your prices or something else (and you could also ask a feed back from the person who refused to sign with you, clearly statting “I'm just doing that to improve, and not to try to get you in the deal another way”).

Selling oneself is always difficult. Selling is always difficult, but in the area we work, I can’t see easily delagating it to an agent. The deal we sign with a customer is quite specific, there are very precise requirements, there are the way we do things, our expertise. Discussing the price, in my experience, is still a part of building the deal and agreeing on the deliverables.

An “agent’ would be useful for selling standard products, as your blog trainning session. But when you go to a specific prestation, tailored for the customer, then “if” agent, he should be part of the whole discussion, from the beginning. As do technical companies in sales force, where you usually have the “tech guy” and the “money guy”.

I remember a time when they had the “sales team”, signing the agreement, and then you started to work with someone else who was doing the job, and the evolution went to a discussion including the person who would do the job after.

But maybe, if you do’t find an agent, you could get yourself a sales trainning ?

The comment from Gia raises another issue. The problem is not so much negotiating for her, it’s knowing the right prices. A friend told be once, about haggling in Morocco “the rigt price is the one that makes both parts happy”. The best way to get an idea about your price level is the number of customers you sign : none, and you’re either really too high or too low (and then they don’t trust you), a lot, more than you can handle, you could raise your prices a little bit, not enough but some, you should check with friends if the problem is in your prices or something else (and you could also ask a feed back from the person who refused to sign with you, clearly statting “I’m just doing that to improve, and not to try to get you in the deal another way”).