cold calling (during projects) for consulting

Hi there, 

Are you referring to the expert interivew as "cold calling", or the process of finding such expert and convincing them to chat as "cold calling"?

I can only speak for BCG, but hope this could give you some comparison/reference. For external expert calls we use global expert networks e.g. Alphasights, GLG etc. So we don't need to scout and onboard the experts by ourselves. But we do talk/interview those experts once they are recruited by the network agencies. I don't see such conversations as "cold calling", it is how we extract the industry insights and expertise quickly. You might not incur this for every case work, but it is a very basic consulting skill. It is in a way similar to when you interview/discuss with client key personnels at the beginning of a case work - can you effectively draw data and insights from conversation? 

Best,

Emily

Hello!

I did a lot of cold calling in McKinsey too, but only in particular projects. There were in 2 quite werid Due Diligences, in a very particular industry, where there was not a lot of firm knowledge and we interviewed dozens of experts. Some of them you pay -since you get them through an expert platform- and some you just find using your creativity. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi,

It can be the part of the project if that's required. I would not stress about it too much. Try to replace your thinking patters with: Consulting job is so interesting and has so much variability that you do all sorts of things.

Best

Hi, are you talking about the way of selling projects?