Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants

The Information Advantage

Consultants often define their practices by the services they offer to the market. Some might describe themselves as problem solvers, change managers, business strategists, or technology specialists, to name a few.

Thinking about what you do in those terms may cause you to overlook the fact that every professional practice, no matter its size, is largely an information business. Of course, you have to master the skills of service delivery, marketing, sales, communication, and many others.

But you'll struggle to get the work you want if you don't excel at creating compelling, market-ready perspectives on the issues your clients face. To do that, you need a systematic way to stay on top of what's happening in the market.

And that's the subject of this month's issue of The Guerrilla Consultant.

When Sales Questions Fail You

Even powerful ideas can lose their potency when we lose sight of how to use them effectively. For example, you may understand the potential power of the questions you ask in sales situations. But are you really asking questions that help you?

In this month's issue of The Guerrilla Consultant, we take a look at sales questions to make sure that yours are serving your clients, not a sales methodology.

Read the full article

The R&D Priority

Research and development efforts remain a strategic priority for many executives, even these days, according to a recent McKinsey & Company survey. McKinsey's researchers asked survey respondents about the relative importance of R&D in their companies, the changes those companies have made to R&D spending and strategy in 2009, and the expected results of the changes.

Forty percent of respondents report that their companies are actively seeking to reduce R&D costs. About 34 percent of the executives say that R&D budgets are lower in 2009 than they were in 2008.

Furthermore, in response to the uncertain times, a majority indicate that their companies are changing their approach to R&D. Many are taking on shorter-term, lower-risk projects, or focusing on minor changes to existing products.

This cautious behavior is understandable, but it may lead your clients to overlook longer-term opportunities to innovate--and to emerge from the downturn in a stronger position.

Naturally, clients will look to protect shareholder value, and R&D costs can be an obvious target in any attempt to shore up the bottom line. But it may be worth helping clients figure out if the short-term gain from R&D cuts is a reasonable trade-off for potential long-term value.

Chasing Clients?

In a recent poll by Miller Heiman, almost half of sales professionals reported that they never abandon a sales prospect. You read that right--never. That means that many sellers are chasing leads and using scarce resources on opportunities that are unlikely to result in sales.

In professional services, it pays to stay in contact with prospective clients over the longer term. But sometimes you have to realize there's not going to be a sale, no matter how much you want it and think it would be right for the client. Granted, most of us can tell at least one story of a seemingly hopeless situation that turned into a successful sale, but that's the exception, not the rule.

Too often, service providers cling to unlikely opportunities because they don't have a reliable process for qualifying leads. Every sales situation you face is different, but it pays to answer three questions about every opportunity as objectively as you can:

First, what is the likelihood that the project in question will ever be awarded to anyone? Second, does the client's business case offer a compelling reason to undertake the project? Finally, do you have reasonable access to the decision makers?

Your answers to these questions can help guide your thinking about how to invest your resources in any sales opportunity. There is a time to stick with it and a time to move on. Successful consultants know when to do both.

When Meetings Are a Waste of Time

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say, "I can't wait to have another meeting!" That's because so many meetings drag on too long, have no real focus, and accomplish little of substance. Part of the problem is that many groups don't work together efficiently.

A recent study shows that teams tend to spend most of their time in meetings rehashing information that the group already knows, instead of bringing new points forward. Teams that meet more often aren't always sharing much of value, which leads to longer and less productive meetings. Of course, you have to bring everyone to a common level of understanding; but for many teams, that process takes too much time.

The study also found that meetings are more productive when participants engage in so-called "intellective tasks," meaning they attempt to solve a problem for which a correct answer exists--as opposed to seeking a consensus opinion or judgment.

Meetings are a fact of business life. To boost the success of your next meeting, resolve to do three things: Use a structured method for imparting shared information quickly; focus the group's energy on solving specific problems; and remember that more talking rarely means better results.

This study is reported in "Information Sharing and Team Performance: A Meta-Analysis," by Jessica Mesmer-Magnus and Leslie DeChurch, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol 94(2), March 2009, pgs. 535-546.

Where Does Your Thought Leadership Lead?

Look at most consulting firms' marketing strategies and you'll find that thought leadership is often integral to the program. Firms crank out books, articles, white papers, podcasts, and the like to create a space for themselves and their offerings in the minds of busy clients.

To say the least, generating original content for the market is labor-intensive, so firms must be certain that their work is high quality and of substantial interest to clients. If it's not, why bother creating it?

Marketing consultants at The Bloom Group have a practical guide for generating compelling intellectual capital. In their article, "Competing on Thought Leadership: The Seven Hallmarks of Compelling Intellectual Capital," the authors suggest seven criteria for evaluating your thought leadership pieces:

• Focus--Have a single message

• Novelty--Come up with a unique take on the issue
• Relevance--Meet a critical and specific market need
• Validity--Prove your solution is effective
• Practicality--Demonstrate your solution can be implemented
• Rigor--Use consistent, air-tight logic 
• Clarity--Make a clear, easy-to-understand argument.

Use the link above to read the full article by The Bloom Group. The insights can help you develop new content or to evaluate your existing work.

 

A special offer for Guerrilla Consultant readers

No matter how effective your marketing program is, eventually you'll have to sell your services and yourself to a prospective client.

In my first book, Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants, Jay Levinson and I laid out a market-proven lead generation strategy for professional service providers.   

Now, my new book, Winning the Professional Services Sale, shows you how to convert a qualified sales opportunity into a paying client without losing your sanity, or profit, in the bargain.

This isn't another sales book that promises to teach you how to sell just anything to anyone.

Winning the Professional Services Sale was written specifically for those who are involved in selling professional services. And, if you sell services, you know how complex the selling process can be. That's why I want to bring this book to your attention.

The book offers dozens of innovative strategies for managing every aspect of the services sale process, from initial client meetings, to writing and presenting your proposal, to negotiating the closing details.

Here's my special offer. For the next two weeks, if you purchase a copy of Winning the Professional Services Sale, we’ll also give you complimentary access to download and replay one of our most popular webcasts, Creating a Killer Web Site, which is a $79 value. This offer also includes the 50+ page companion workbook for the webcast.

This 60-minute webcast is based on our extensive study of the effectiveness of professional service providers’ web sites and covers:

The six essential elements of a client-centered site

• A step-by-step framework for evaluating the strengths and improvement areas for your site
• How to launch, or re-launch, a site without investing a small fortune
• Three quick changes to the home page that can draw clients to your practice
• When and how to use a newsletter or blog
• Three common web design mistakes you can avoid.

At the end of the webcast, you’ll have an approach for reviewing your web site’s effectiveness, and new ideas for boosting the ROI of your web investment.

How to Qualify?

It's simple.

Step 1. Buy at least one copy of Winning the Professional Services Sale from your favorite bookseller. Here are links to top booksellers for your convenience:

Amazon.com
Barnes&Noble.com
BooksAMillion.com   
Borders.com   

Step 2. After your order is processed, you will receive an order number.

Send an email to: Sally@MindShareConsulting.com that includes your name, email address, where you purchased the book, and your order number.

We will evaluate that information and send you a link that will allow you to access and download the webcast, Creating a Killer Web Site. We will also send you the 50+ page workbook (pdf).

If you've already purchased the book—Thanks! Just send along the same information and we'll send you the webcast link.

Attention Mac users: This webcast must be viewed on a PC.

Why am I doing this?

Quite simply, to draw your attention to this: you can more easily build a profitable practice and maintain a balance in your life by mastering the strategies in this book. So I want to bring Winning the Professional Services Sale to as many people as possible.

This book has been called a "must read" and "immensely practical" by leaders in the industry. It's organized to help you master any services selling situation. Read it from start to finish, or use it as a reference. Either way, the book will make you a better seller.

All this for about $20, plus you'll have access to a high-value webcast.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this offer. And let me know what you think of the book.

Teamwork

Sometimes things don't go exactly the way you'd like.

Maybe a colleague misses a deadline, or a client team member forgets to mention an important detail in a crucial meeting. How do you react?

Most of us recognize bumps in the road as an inevitable part of any project. And we make adjustments, even though it can mean extra work for us.

But there are also people who take a more selfish point of view and focus mainly on the impact the unexpected event has on them.

One certainty in our line of work is that surprises always pop up. I think that how we handle these moments of stress defines our ability to function in a team environment and to call ourselves professionals. Our responses also say a lot about who we are as people.

A colleague, who knows far more than I do, once summed up his perspective on being a team player by saying:

In a consultant's professional life, you have projects, clients, and colleagues. Treat them all the same way, with a spirit of collegiality and a predisposition to trust, and make every transaction a positive one.

I agree.

Getting the Most out of Employee Assessments

When it comes to hiring decisions, managers often use standard assessment tests to add clarity to an applicant's profile and suitability for the job. In fact, according to a study of 400 organizations conducted by researchers at Aberdeen Group, nine out of ten employers that use assessment tests rely on them for the candidate selection process.

However, Aberdeen's researchers found that top-performing organizations make a wider use of assessment testing and extend the practice to their post-hiring programs, especially for learning, development, competency management, and succession planning. The study points out that employee performance, retention, and productivity can be significantly improved with the effective implementation of a post-hiring assessment strategy.

The biggest obstacle to success in such an undertaking is the need to clearly identify the competencies, behaviors, and performance attributes an organization seeks to measure. Because every organization has a slightly different way of looking at human resource management, many of the vendor-supplied assessment templates need substantial revision to be most effective.

That tailoring effort requires managers to re-examine the organization's roles, performance standards, and career paths. Managers can do that more quickly and achieve better results when an experienced outside consultant helps facilitate the process.

The study found that organizations can achieve an 18 percent improvement in employee performance and a 10 percent boost in retention with the use of assessment tests. Given that potential value, this is a discussion worth having with clients.

Listen

When researchers asked prospective buyers about their biggest problem with service providers who are trying to sell to them, the answer came back that the seller "did not listen to me."

Yes, you read that right. According to the RainToday report, How Clients Buy, prospective buyers say professional service providers aren't listening to them.

I can see two plausible explanations for this finding. First, some people really aren't listening to their clients. And second, others are listening, but the clients can't tell. I'm going to skip the people in the first group. If they're not listening to their clients, it's pretty unlikely that they're reading this.

For those in the second group, here are some quick thoughts. If clients doubt you are listening, it should be easy to fix that. Maybe you're not active or responsive enough in your client interviews. It's not uncommon for people to think they're not being heard, even when they are.

Think about how you acknowledged what someone just said to you. You don't have to be a head-bobber to confirm your understanding with clients as they talk. Summarize what you know. Ask clarifying questions. Take notes on significant points. Any of these techniques will signal that you're keeping up.

It's also possible that a client feels unheard because your sales proposal or report doesn't reflect the issues the way the client wanted. In that case, the client could conclude that you didn't listen.

For some sellers, lack of appropriate detail can result from ineffective tools for gathering data during the sales process. If you don't have a systematic way to capture clients' information as they talk, it's easy to lose track of the details. You may want to consider how you prepare for client interviews so you do retain those details in the future.

There are lots of reasons why you might lose a sale. But to be called out for not listening is inexcusable.