How do I structure a legal agreement to send leads to a consultancy that advises on market entry?

Without more information it's not easy to answer your question, but I'll give it a fighting try :) The health insurance industry is a commodity industry, they sell the same things at around the same prices and every little competitive edge is something they hang on to dearly. It's not surprising or even unusual for them to wish for exclusive access to your product (whatever it might be) during the pilot period which I assume would then roll into exclusivity if they roll out into a full implementation too. That said, for your business this is a huge risk, it's the proverbial basket in which you put all your eggs and that's a significant risk to a young business, because if that pilot fails, you're 6 months behind in your goals and that's a big set back for a small company. You can do a few things to try to minimize the risk, or maximize the reward from agreeing to their terms (because if they are a major health insurer, you'll eventually capitulate either way). 1. Limit the scope of the exclusivity - If they are concerned about exclusivity in your state, be very clear that it is limited to your state and in other states you're allowed to pursue other clients. 2. Ask them to pay for the privilege - It's not unusual for a company to offer exclusivity in exchange for recompense. You basically tell them, listen that's fine but you're asking me to limit the profitability of my company, I'm happy to give you exclusive rights to the product but the pricing model for that is different. 3. Use exclusivity as a negotiating tool - You can add a condition to the exclusivity that states that if after 3 months they haven't declared their intent to proceed to a full implementation the exclusivity is revoked. 4. Get something in exchange - You may be able to give them exclusivity on the condition that they become a referral customer and give you a case study. They'll be happy to say nice things about you whenever anyone asks if that's all it costs for them to get exclusivity, and for you having someone important at a major health insurer say your product is great might be just what you need to get 2 or 3 more pilots in different states or industries If you're a start up and this is your first big enterprise client, they are going to try to bully you and push you around in the negotiation, they're the big kid in the school yard and you're the runt of the litter and they know it. So look for the way that you can give them what they want, but leverage it to make them more sympathetic to your situation and to invest them in your goals. Most importantly though, make sure that you don't give up your company's ability to grow in the future by signing away something that sounds so innocent. If giving this client exclusivity is going to lock you into a position where you have to pass on other opportunities as a result, maybe they're just not worth it.

I think as others have said, that idea itself may not be quite right and you are looking to us to brainstorm. However, I do know someone who does exactly this, for free. He makes his money by facilitating the ability of others to think outside their proverbial boxes, using what at the core, is basically workshop facilitation. That's an easier sell than 'professional ear' as the market is kind of there already. You don't have to know much about the business to facilitate a workshop or coach per se, as you need to concentrate on the facilitation. Many people like me can't think and facilitate at the same time. :-D Especially if you're too close to the problem. So effectively you get called in ad hoc to facilitate workshops to allow all the firepower in the room to concentrate on the problem at hand. It doesn't mean you can't structure a session where you give advice at certain points or when asked. However, that risks exposure. You can always help by researching after the fact, where the team has found key questions they want answering. Write them on a post it and take them with you. If you become a millionaire off these ideas. I'll take 10% ;)

Hi, Great question to post. I've been in your situation a number of times so understand where you are coming from. Both from startup's i've had through to working on Go To Market strategies in large businesses. The first place i would look to is defining geographically where i wish to cover e.g a local area or national or do i wish to span several countries? Next, look at the new business "birth" rate and "death" rate within that region. This will give you an idea of a high level gross add's and net businesses you could work with assuming you wish to be helping them in their "early life startup phase". Depending on how specific your new product is, you should look to segment further. However I am a big fan of looking at my customers or potential customers based on how they behave and "Buy" - too often we get focused on how to "sell" to new customers but not understand the former. Also, think about this. Are they motivated to participate in your coaching program, or are you looking for people that require motivation to make their business successful, in turn they are looking for coaching? Again this will then help you to further drill down into "who" the clients are and "Why" they buy. It will also define where you should be networking etc or finding new business. Happy to talk further over Skype or Google Hangouts if you wish to. I'm based in New Zealand, currently working for a global SaaS provider. NZ is +12 GMT. Cheers Guy

Staff augmentation vs. project work in A&D are really two different companies. Another key segmentation is work that requires certification (NATO Clearance, secret clearance, Airbus/Boeing training, etc). On staff augmentation, a lot of young firms start off bringing in good ex-employees of the majors and and targeting the supply chain. Often the majors Boeing, Dassault, etc like it when subs use talent that already know the primes practices. If you are targeting project work, you need to define if you are selling skill or price. If your the best team for converting major assemblies into a stream line lean process, you need to clearly define that and sell it into the targets. In all cases, you are likely to get your first customers in the supply base. The supply base is likely trying to win a bid or execute a current contract. They want to mitigate risk using temporary labor, especially if you are in a EU labor market. If your model is to sell outside of the Primes, for example selling aerospace talent to boat manufacturing, I would stick more to project work with a few key initial clients. Create an iconic success. I would also look at the UAV market. There is a lot going on there. Often the people creating UAV's are more controls focused, they might like having someone else be there air frame team. I was heavily involved in the lean manufacturing movement at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing. Mostly on F/A-18, but also C17, 787, UAVs, etc.

Your business model seems to be a SAAS model (software as a service). The best way to make them forget about your company size is to provide them with a working free trial offer of your software and to get them to input as much of their own data into it so they will think twice before switching to another provider. I wish you success and prosperity. François B.