Do you want to dance?

Those of you following Seth Godin, know exactly what I am referring to, but he made a really good point about how to pitch and build up a future engagement between a consultant and a business. I think from now on, whenever I speak with a new business or client, to start out by asking “Do you want to dance?”. I expect their initial response to be “What?”– but then I will clarify…

“Do you want to dance, or do you just want to see me dance? Is this going to be a collaboration, two people working together trying to solve a problem, or do you already have the ‘choreography’ in place and just want to see me perform? If you already know what you want and aren’t willing to join in on the dancing, then I believe you can find a person a lot cheaper to dance for you.”

Okay I dragged it a bit, but I hope you see the point here. I am interested in working together with businesses who plan to create or solve something. I am not looking for paid performances where I am told what to do and then just work. Let’s acknowledge that you are a business, I am a consultant, and together we can create mighty things.

So my questions to you is “Do you want to dance?”