The next research question I'm focused on is this: How do those who have spent more than $20,000 on a consulting project that did not involve an RFP find the consultant they hired?

Ultimately I'd like to interview 30 people who made the decision to buy >$20k of consulting services without using an RFP process. My overall intent is to better understand how indie consulting services are bought. How is the consultant discovered? What marketing approach(es) did that consultant use? How did the client interact with that marketing, and how did it play into the client's decision-making? And what other contextual factors seem to matter?

My plan for recruiting those 30 interviewees is to find far more than 30 people who will complete a medium-length survey. One of the survey questions asks if they'd be open to providing more information, and I'll seek that information through an interview.

If you've got some time, I'd love for you to look at my proposed survey questions and provide feedback. Any feedback at all could be useful, but here's what I know I'm looking for:

• Are any questions worded in a way that excessively steers the response, or makes it more likely I'll get responses that distort reality?
• Which questions are most likely to cause respondents to give up on completing the survey?
• Do any questions strike you as low-value and therefore ones that should be removed?
• Are any high-value questions not being asked by this survey?

Here's a GDoc where you can see the questions and leave feedback: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xp243VavJjKM5XadnMhaJIpUDdXpevNFzQ12T1zrSwI/

I'm really grateful for those of you who might take a few minutes to review and offer feedback. There will always be something I can't see from my perspective but you can from yours.

Thanks!
-P

Ongoing notes on this research question: https://researchnotes.philipmorganconsulting.com/philip-morgan-research-notes/active-research/rfp-less-indie-consulting-dynamics/