Professionals exude success, and that was all the outside world saw, if it noticed Ramsey Beirne at all. Beirne would direct that a cold call open with, “Hi, we’re Ramsey Beirne, the leading retained executive search firm in high technology.”
His colleagues thought this was a bit much.
“Well, Dave, couldn’t one argue that—”
“We are. Go.”
If said to a client with sufficient force, it would not be questioned. And if a prospect laughed at the audacity of this little firm in Ossining and said, “So, let me ask you a question—how can you guys call yourself the leading firm?” Beirne and his colleagues would reply, “We brought in the COO of Central Point. We built the whole management team.” The prospect probably had never heard of Central Point Software, either, but Central Point must have been an important client for Ramsey Beirne to lay claim to it in the way that it did.