

Ask HN: Tips about selling software to management consulting firms? - dirtyaura

Do any HN readers have insights about selling software to large management consulting firms like McKinsey? We realised that the tool our team is building could also be useful for management consulting firms, but we don&#x27;t really have experience in that area.<p>Do they try and buy new software regularly? It would make sense that they are a more forward-looking than their clients.<p>Can you sell to a team inside the company and expand from there, or do they have a global IT department with a strict rules?<p>Do they expected a lot of polish from the product, or are they willing to try a beta product, if it solves a real problem for them?
======
robbiea
I have worked for Accenture & Deloitte as a consultant and for many years and
have implemented software used for internal teams.

It surprisngly works very similar to any other industry company. The software
to be used internally comes from the top of the food chain and then pushed on
to projects below it.

The goal is standardization across projects, so I think it would be extremely
tough to use an "un-tested" or un-authorized tool at a project level without
it coming from the top of the chain first.

Especially McKinsey where the process & methodologies are very defined. It
would start from the top and then maybe use a "pilot" project for a small
engagement.

They are often forward looking for their clients, but not forward looking
internally if that makes sense.

Usually there is a "Tools & Methodology" team that is an internal team and
that is who you should be selling to. This is the team that defines the tools
that are used for projects.

I hope that helps.

~~~
dirtyaura
Thanks a lot, very valuable. I'm going to interview a few people that have a
background in these companies, good to have a realistic base line.

------
notahacker
In my experience (selling to management consultancies interested in
proprietary data rather more than the SaaS wrapper for it) management
consulting firms' software needs and budgets are often very driven by specific
projects, and if it solves a project-specific need they'll be very happy with
an unpolished product so long as it can be budgeted for. The way they organise
themselves also varies a lot, but if impressing partners or senior consultants
with a need to solve a specific problem is probably a better route in than
their back office IT purchasing function.

They're also perhaps less respectful of license agreements than you might
expect...

~~~
dirtyaura
Thanks a lot! any war stories to tell about those license agreements?

