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Consultant marketing | Jerry Fletcher's Secrets of Small Business Marketing
Had too many e-mails prescribing the tactics you should use next year to fill your marketing funnel/pipeline/sales telegraph.
Me, too.
What you need to do is what works for you.
There is no reason to change because some self-proclaimed expert is pitching what they believe is trendy. It is better to heed your own council and to do what serves your strategy.
State our strategy and keep track of your successes and your failures.
Write down the instruments you are using
Note the clients that came to you from each and their value.
Analyze the pattern and then delve into the specifics of the most successful.
That is part of what we compile in our Annual Consultant Marketing Survey for the industry. The study results are useful for Consultants, Coaches and Independent Professionals in all industries.
Trust is the single most important component of all Consultant Marketing.
That was true in our first survey and proven again in the 2021 survey. Greater intimacy in their business development process allowed older firms to stay in business and increase their market share in 2021.
Overall, those that have stayed in business are resilient.
About 60% of firms noted increases in business due to shifts in marketing strategy. Greater intimacy in their business development process allowed older firms to stay in business and increase their market share
Referrals Continue to be the marketing mainstay of successful consultancies. Referral marketing increased in 2021. Networking and Direct sales both more than doubled in use over 2020 while internet marketing declined by about a third.
The most successful consultants concentrated their marketing efforts in the areas that provided the most contact with clients and prospects.
It works. It is the way from Credibility to Cash TM.
And so it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.
Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two. Get the Newslog at his consulting site.
where you sit down with a prospect and learn about her/his operation and get to ask questions from which you will develop a proposal.
You need to have this conversation whether you write a simple agreement or an in-depth three tier Value-based proposal. So that we are on the same page, Here’s what I believe should be included in a Value Based Proposal:
Statement of the situation
Objectives of the engagement
Measurement–outcomes that indicate success
Value to the prospect
Methodology and Options
Option 1 Project Advisor
Option 2 Market Expansion Advisor
Option 3 Trusted Advisor
Terms and Conditions
Meeting name
Don’t call it a Discovery meeting or chat or whatever. Put yourself in the position of the prospect. To her or him, Discovery sounds like a scientific examination. It doesn’t sound friendly at all. Better words will be more neutral. For instance, consider:
Informational Get Together
Outcomes Conversation
Compatibility Chat
Get acquainted Discussion
Regardless of what you end up calling it, Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to elicit hard data in the prospect’s terms that will allow you to present three options that have higher outcomes for the prospect’s business as well as increased income for you.
For Starters
Start by determining the primary problem that has caused them to consider your services. I find that it is best to be direct. Ask questions like: What is the problem or concern that caused you to want to talk? In most cases the answer will be that some metric in the sales equation is off. Often this is a narrow view. Be sure to ascertain sufficient background information about the industry and cyclical changes to put the symptom in context. In addition it wise these days to look into disruptions by indirect competitors.
You are preparing a tripe tier Value Based Proposal. You need to have the prospect isolate the out come if this problem is solved. Ask, “What would it mean if we solved this problem?” You need an answer in terms of:
Savings
Increased Revenues or income
Outcome for individual or department or company
How it would present to those involved
Becoming unforgettable
Now that you know what would satisfy the primary concern you can probe for data that will help you move from memorable to unforgettable. That happens because you don’t stop with the symptom. You work with the prospect to determine root causes and other problems generated by the primary. You delve into comments you let slide by as they told you about the situation in general. You explore any comment that you believe is causing an unwanted outcome.
If they didn’t give you a long-term goal, get one now. If they were uncomfortable talking about any part of the operation, now is the time to ask. With many people once they have told you the big problem in their view, they will relax. Here is a string of questions that allow you to go deeper:
How did you get started?
Have things changed much since then?
How does that impact the company today?
What about in the future?
What are you doing about it?
How have the costs shifted because of that?
What would it be worth to you if we could solve that?
The information that battery of questions generates will give you what you need to write Option 2 as well as have greater clarity for the situation, objectives, Measurement and Value.
Headed for indispensable
Each of us learn in the course of an engagement. We naturally become more conditioned to the client’s business. We acquire additional expertise in the industry and markets in which the client participates. That knowledge plus the intimate knowledge gained of the client business combined with your capability to see the patterns and think outside the box make it easy to become an ongoing advisor, planner and implementer.
That, unless deeper problems or concerns surface, is the essence of the third tier proposal which makes the consultant a member of the team on an ongoing basis.
Are there other questions? Of course. This is a conversation where you are gathering information.
Do not sell.
You can comment that you have worked with similar situations. You can agree to tell all about those but at a later date. You can admit if something is new but always suggest it sounds similar to something in your experience.
This interview is about getting as much information as you can from the prospect as possible. Often, the astuteness of your question will bring the client to the point they want to get started.
Resist the urge to give them a quote on the spot. Tell them that you want to really step back and look at what they have told you. Tell them they will have your proposal shortly and it will have your best thinking on how to proceed.
And so it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s new speaker demo reel.
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.
I was in the Army. I should have learned then. I didn’t.
I volunteered.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t done it before. That was years ago for the organization. A whole new set of officers had come and gone for the local chapter of a national organization. The only one I knew from before is the current chapter president. They had no one in the Marketing director slot and I could tell from the communications that the President was drowning.
I said I would build a strategic marketing plan and supervise the tactical implementation on the agreement that my Virtual assistant would be paid for the work I would ask her to do to get the organization on a scheduled basis.
A simple question
I asked in an e-mail, “Do we have a web site, an e-mail service and a way to register people for events and any social media that the chapter uses?”
Sounds simple, right? Should take a yes or no and if yes than a time to connect in a phone call to convey the username and password.
Should is the operative word. There was no website so I was asked to join the President on a Zoom call. I listened as he connected with GoDaddy to get a cheap web site that would be sufficient to the chapter’s needs. That took two hours between explaining why a personal site would not work, waiting for a connection to GoDaddy and his exploration of how to save money by using personal credits.
Stop writing in code!
He agreed to send me the connection details (User name and Password) for the new web site, Mail Chimp and EventBrite accounts as well as the social media accounts. I agreed to take part of my Sunday evening to begin work on the web site. I could not get into the site to begin the design process. The information he had sent was minus one letter in the password. Rather than call him after 10:00 PM on a Sunday I sent an e-mail stating the problem.
The following morning he sent an entirely different password. That didn’t work either. I decided to call him, request the data and try it while I had him on the phone. He insisted on sending me e-mails in a kind of code and then talking me through how to decode the information to get into the applications. Two hours later I had the basic information I needed. Then we started on the same merry go round for social media. Somehow he set up a new twitter account while we working through decoding how to get into the Linked In and Facebook accounts.
Can I hire you?
He asked me that as we were wrapping up Having spent nearly a day’s time total just getting to the point where I can begin to try to straighten things out, You can understand why I was hesitant to respond.
I queried his reasons for asking. His practice has declined and he has lost some clients and some he was assisting in succession/buyout were slowed because of the Covid.Pandemic.
He noted that his volunteer position in the chapter was eating a lot of his time.
There was a long silence when I told him my absolute minimum fee and noted that I worked only with a handful of elite consultants on a retainer basis.
Focus I said.
“You let me worry about marketing the chapter. Forget it until you get a plan from me to evaluate.
Shift your attention to assuring your paying clients are getting the service they expect and then some.
Pick up the phone and call past satisfied clients. The script you should use is:
I’m just checking in to make sure you have your plans in place as we go into 2021
If not, you know I understand your busines from our past work together. I may be able to help you get to answers more quickly.
Glad all is going well. I have some time available right now. Is there anyone you know that I could help? I’d appreciate a referral.
Sounds like an interesting situation. Why don’t you invite them to lunch on me with the two of us or a joint Zoom call if we can’t get together because of Covid regulations.
Let your former client talk about how you deal with the kind of problems the referral has.
When he or she has made it clear you can handle the situation, suggest that you meet with the referral source at his/her office to gather the information it will take for you to put together a value-based proposal
Focus
Never forget consulting is a business. No matter how much you want to help people. No matter how much you want to change the world. No matter how good volunteering makes you feel. You still have to pay the bills. You still have to get results. The outcome of your efforts needs to be a net gain in revenues as well as social capital.
If you’re time isn’t sellin’ out your practice is shellin’ out..
And so it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s new speaker demo reel.
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.
It can be the backbone of the sharing of your body of intellectual property or it can delay the release by days, weeks or months or, in some cases years.
Change
The inherent problem as well as solution with technology is that It keeps changing. Engineers and software designers keep trying to simplify things and, in my view, have achieved wonders. On the other hand as they make things like template driven websites they take away a great deal of creativity in the design. They have made it nearly impossible to intentionally misspell a word. Your spreadsheet won’t compute if your formulas are fongooled. Your presentation slides look good even if they have too many words.
The changes can be incredibly powerful like a search engine that does complex Boolean searches based on answers to questions in English. Or would you have imagined the explosion of meetings software that has occurred in the last six months? The best software has the ability to simplify complex operations and make understandable answers available speedily.
This last week, I got caught on the bad side of the cusp of change multiple times.
Logging in
Cristy, my VA found a piece of software to solve a problem we had been working on to incorporate audios into my Newslog on a regular basis. She suggested I fire it up and get conversant with it. I tried. Oh how I tried. Instead of the usual Username and password approach the site sent me a special key to use to open up my personal part of the site. When I tried it I was advised that my browser software was unacceptable and that I must use one of two which I try never to use. In order to use the key I would have to make one of those browsers my standard. 45 minutes later I figured out how to hook up using a username and password.
Yes, they were trying to make their product better than all the others out there. But they didn’t consider the customer’s viewpoint. I don’t care about having a new way to register. I don’t have time to switch browsers and learn a new system just because it is new.
Software is a tool. It needs to accomplish the task it was designed to do. It needs to be as easy to start and stop as picking up a wrench and putting it down to select a screw driver instead. A more complex tool needs to plug into the electrical power outlet and use the power generally available. Don’t tell me I need to put a special new power converter into my basic system. I’m not buying that idea or using that other browser for one piece of software.
Buying in
Most of us are aware of new standards in acceptable e-mail practices. But the companies that supply e-mail services have significant differences in how they respond to those regulations.
Recently, I moved a client to Active Campaign in order to take advantage of their field leading implementation of automated marketing. Having used their services before I knew that even though they would assist in uploading the client’s list that they would insist, at some point, on proof of double opt-in for all subscribers. More importantly, I knew they would not allow use of their system for those verifications.
So we sent out a notification to all 360 subscribers using a double opt-in sign up form from Active Campaign. That request got us 36 subscribers on Active Campaign pushed through their system. I dropped the subscription notice 5 more times to those who had not signed up and we achieved a 15% sign up overall or 48 people. Then my client offered a book in a webinar he was doing with 2 other experts. Six people provided their e-mails. He sent them an Active Campaign form to get their mailing address noting that they would also receive his Executive Letter via e-mail weekly. Five of them signed up. The count is now 53 double opted in using Active Campaigns forms and automations.
In the following week he added six names manually for a final count of 59.
We designed new templates, prepared appropriate content and scheduled a mailing. The mailing was stopped without prior notification and when asked why Active Campaign responded that it did not meet their compliance standards. When queried multiple times the respondents kept changing and all responses were couched in lookups from their manuals. Because my client requested escalation, our inquiry supposedly was handled by a senior compliance officer. At no time did any one in Customer service or compliance deign to pick up a phone.
Opting out
As of yesterday My client elected to accept their money back offer. I followed close behind and have advised two other clients not to use a service I once proudly recommended.
Let me be perfectly clear. Active Campaign though technically superior is not a good option for Automated Marketing as their promotion does not make it clear that there is no guarantee that your mailings will go out even if the criteria they state is met using their own systems!Their staff is not trained to help you accomplish your tasks as they claim but rather to enforce rules and regulations that fail to meet basic tests of reason.
I recommend that you opt out of using Active Campaign and tell everyone you know to do so as well.
Integrating
So I had to find another solution to my need to handle the back end of a Quiz funnel built in Budket IO 2.0. The one piece missing is the integration to an e-mail provider to provide the capability of sending out the reports. I elected to use Kartra for that and so began the adventure of using Zapier to put the two pieces of software together to transfer the necessary data.
I used the directions provided by Bucket and got thorough 4 steps even though nothing looked the same as described. At step 5 things went in the toilet.
I did what has worked for me in the past. I asked for help. Haven’t heard from Bucket yet but Zapier responded immediately via a straight talking bot promising contact with a human. Then this morning I received an e-mail from a human.
Wonder of wonders, a software company/service that understands customer service.
And so it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc.
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.
Like it or not, if you are an independent professional you
will, at some point, have to do it.
Times change.
Clients change.
Technology changes.
Your
mission, should you choose to accept it is:
Adapt your approach and processes to today’s
requirements
Find a way to get in sync with your kind of
customers
Step up to the new technologies and learn how
to use them.
I thought November and December were going to be quiet,
just the regular client work, minimal new business meetings and just some
seasonal cocktail dos. So I signed up for two on-line courses that help with
that whole reinvention thing.
The
best laid plans…
Two new clients, bless them, sent my laid-back, study at leisure, pipe dream up in smoke. I figured the year end change over would be cake walk. I got behind on the classwork. So I ensconced myself in the office over the holiday and did several ten hour days to get to the point where I’m only two days behind on each course.
An
open mind.
I’ve learned a great deal because the coaching calls for the courses are recorded on video and available for viewing at your convenience. You can learn a lot by simply listening to other folk’s questions about how things work. One course has a Friday coaching call that deals with the technologies necessary to develop, sell and deliver products in person and on line. The nice thing is that technologies are reviewed from free to paid, cheap to expensive. The coach is straightforward about his preferences and gives his reasons why.
Because I have had numerous clients in the technology sphere
I am regularly assaulted in my inbox with pitches for new products and I’ve
been known to try them out. That’s why I recommend products that originate
around the world. This experience convinced me that I had made the right
decision in going to Office 365 instead of opting for the free Google suite.
Having to generate responses in Google docs and monitor activities in Facebook
verified that neither is the best business approach.
It is
really all about the experience
I’ve sold information products as a speaker since the 1990’s but had stopped when a combination of ill health and technology shift put that on hold for a couple years. So I dove into learning about how the dopamine injected addiction of gamification can assure that the expertise you offer for a business or personal problem gets put to use.
That is the big win in this shift. The
research shows that by moving to an experiential model the number of people
that actually use the advice offered, that complete the programs, goes from 1
to 5% up to 30 to 50% on average and as high as 70 to 90% in some cases!
Winning
on the platform and after
Most people that step on to a stage and speak in public do
it to because they firmly believe they have a message of value to deliver.
Whether you are looking to get paid for the speech or to build your business by
getting in front of prospects or simply intent on helping people you can learn
to do it better.
I’ve been speaking professionally since 1993. The greatest
compliment I’ve ever received was from someone that had gifted one of my double
tape cassette tapes (before CDs and streaming). Her friend had overcome a fear
of networking and was now building her business through membership in multiple
chambers of commerce.
An
involved audience
Zoom, an easy-to-use webinar/screen sharing/meeting
software makes it possible to host workshops for up to hundreds of people to
share your insights. No, it is never going to be the same as a face-to-face
encounter in a room somewhere but for me it is a way to extend my offering and
help people build a business, a brand and a life of joy by sticking with them
for longer than that hour on stage.
Selling from the stage has never been my forte. Most
meeting planners frown on it. I like to give full value so that the audience
goes home with something the can put to work today. I’ve found a way to extend
the relationship and take them deeper into the secrets I’ve discovered so more
of them win and win bigger.
Free
is a very good price.
These days I offer a FREE 3-Day Memorable Hook Challenge. (Regular
Price: $197) It is a combination of short videos, worksheets and live coaching
to go from Who? to Memorable spending no more than a few minutes a day for 3
days. Anyone that accepts the challenge learns three ways to figure out a
trust-based hook that is unique to them. This is practical knowhow based on my
experience in 1-on-1 consulting that has been tested, verified and well worth
the price of admission.
Those that try the challenge are always the first told
about new products, findings and ways to sync new technologies with new methods
and new customer mindsets.
And so
it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International
Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc.
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is
known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing and Brand
development advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.
That’s the promise. All those digital advertising outfits
promise to give you leads well beyond what your current marketing delivers.
Usually, that promise is made without knowledge of what constitutes a good lead
for you and with no advice about what to do with it once you have it.
Real leads
Too often the perception of a lead is someone ready to buy.
Our fondest desire is to be served up an ideal client that is ready to sign a
contract. I wouldn’t spend a lot of time in that waiting room if I were you. The
way I define a lead is:
The
contact has a problem I can solve
The
contact has the authority to hire me
The
contact can authorize payment to me
If the contact doesn’t meet those criteria they are not a
prospect. But if they do then you need to nurture the budding relationship.
Your
mission
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go from memorable to unforgettable to
that prospect.
It ain’t easy.
Memorability is a matter of seconds.
It can be done. Your hook in 30 Second Marketing TM can
deliver it. The right words can crack through all the messages out there and
brand you in the first 3 seconds. That makes you memorable.
In person, folks will give you 30 seconds to tell them what
you do. On your website you’ll have about 7 seconds more while they look at the
first panel of your home page to either pull them in or lose them
In person
In person, you do it with words. Here’s what I say when
someone asks “What do you do?”
“I’m jerry Fletcher, I’m a
master of Consultant Marketing.
You know how everyone tells
you that you have to be memorable but nobody tells you how to do it?
What I do is help consultants
craft a unique trust-based marketing strategy to build a business a brand and a
life of joy.”
That takes less than 30 seconds. It is unusual. It is
arresting. It gets me to memorable in a face to face situation.
Here’s how it will look on the first panel of my home page on my new website:
.
Unforgettable
takes longer
Memorable is not enough to get the contract. Memorable puts
you in the spotlight but what you do from here out will make the difference
between a vaguely recalled contact and the consultant that gets the contract.
Here are suggestions on how to stay front of mind with the
prospect and link your special skills to the problem they are trying to solve.
Send a hand-written note to thank them for
talking to you. (It is just not done these days and will make you stand out
from the crowd.)
If you promised them any information during
your conversation, e-mail it to them. (Use the words, “As promised” as our
subject line. That will get the e-mail opened and increase the likelihood of
the information being downloaded)
Schedule regular follow-up touches in your
Contact Relationship Management software and when it comes up on the calendar,
just do it. (The follow-up can be a phone call, an e-mail or a check in before
an event. I recommend mixing it up but do not put off using a phone call. That
is considered a more person l touch by the recipient.)
Monitor information sources for something that
may prove to be of value to the prospect and send it to her/him as it presents
itself. (Try to find examples from industries other than the prospect’s as this
will show your capability to understand the depth of the problem and how you
can bring added perspective to their concerns.)
Wait for them to indicate more interest and
then suggest a breakfast or lunch meeting. (An e-mail response or indication in
a phone call may be the entrée your need. You want to orient the conversation
toward determining where they are in their search for a solution and begin
understanding what the value of the solution would be for their business—the
first step in building a value-based proposal.)
Get the
contract plus
By understanding the value of your solution in customer
terms you can increase the base value of the Contract and extend it well beyond
the initial engagement. How to gather the information you need (the value
interview) and how to present it (the value- based proposal) is coming up. Stay
tuned to multiply your revenues.
And
so it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International
Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc.
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is
known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing and Brand
development advice that builds businesses, careers and lives of joy.
I had breakfast with an old friend the other day. He’s
about to embark on consulting full time having been a CFO who found software so
good he bought the North American rights. In that situation he had a safety net. He was
supported by his previous firm and the software developer. Now, he’s about to step
out onto the high wire with no net.
A walk
on the high wire
It takes courage, expertise and some luck to go from zero
to full engagement in the consulting business. I’ve been privy to this journey
for more young men and women than I care to count. Those that made it for the
long term put a check in the box next to these things:
Savings to last at least 6 months in the style to which they have grown accustomed.
An initial engagement for their previous company or a client of that company.
Corporate filing in the state they are setting up their business
Defined Product/Service that is desired by identified prospects
A name for the company.A Vision, Mission and Position
A Persona that establishes a brand based on a real value proposition.
Courage to network your way to new business
A door on their office.
Step by step
Savings are
the crunch element for folks that are married and/or have family. All the zeal
you feel for this new adventure may seem to have been accepted by your spouse
and the kids but I guarantee you that going backwards in terms of their socio-economic
status is not going to play out well. You need to, as quickly as possible regenerate
the “grouch bag funds” so that a set back occur in your business you can stick
to it.
Initial Engagement is
what keeps just about every successful consultant above water in year one
according to our annual Consultant Marketing Survey. It gives you a safety margin
where you are providing a service that is familiar but now performed at arm’s
length. Often, this connection with a previous employer is extended as it is
beneficial to both parties. But because you have control of when the work is done
you can engage in the activities necessary to develop your consulting business.
Corporate Filing is
essential if you are going to operate legally. It is a good idea to find your
corporate attorney now before you open the doors. I recommend looking for a
business attorney that operates from a small or home office nearby. I went to
an attorney in one of those downtown towers and realized what those paneled offices
cost me after few years. My current attorney has a home office but makes house
calls! Every person I’ve referred to him tells me he has kept all his high-end
litigator capability but shifted his personality from downtown to down home.
The primary options are C-Corporation,
S-Corporation or LLC. Your lawyer can help you select which is best for you. The
key is that you have a corporate shield to minimize the possibility of any suit
filed against you personally.
Defined Product/Service is
essential. Some of you may think that is obvious. It is and it isn’t. Some
people try to start a consulting business without having the expertise to solve
a problem that their prospects have. If you don’t know what your prospects want
or need, how can you present yourself? You need to define the problem you can
help solve in customer terms. More importantly you need to state the solution
in way they can understand it and see as advantageous to them.
That phrase “identified prospects”
was not just filler. Never assume that because your old company has a problem
that all other companies have the same problem. Never assume that the
same solution will work in every company. Never assume that this one
problem will last as long as you want to maintain your practice. Before you
step out on the wire make sure there is a market for what you have to sell.
A name is where a misstep
occurs most often. I made this mistake. We get so full of what we know everyone
needs and our different approach that we overlook the obvious:
People will identify
your name with your practice more than any made-up name. Lawyers know this. So
do CPAs. Plus a slew of consultants. You can tell the one’ that have learned
this lesson over time by the way they begin to incorporate their name into
their logotype.
Unless the name you
choose is based on something well-known in the industry you are working in the
probability of anyone understanding it is between slim and none.
If you base your
company name on your process or part of it or a numeric outcome you are asking
the prospect to make a leap which only you have made in understanding.
Vision, Mission and Position Your Vision is where you want the company to go in the future.Vision
statements often include superlatives and competitiveviewpoints. Generally
it is for those that work for the company.
Mission
is not your vision for the future of your company.
Mission
is not your goals or objectives.
Mission
is not something you are going toward or even something you are trying to
become.
Mission is what your company is. It is why your company exists.
A vision
statement is for the company and stake holders.
A mission
statement is for the company and general public.
A
positioning statement is for the targeted general public.
A brand is
the sum of perceptions about the company in the general public.
Persona Everything you
do has an impact on the people that become your clients. Don’t overlook the
basics as you go to market.
Your
Persona is a Core of Trust wrapped round by Product, Price and Passage encased
in your Name.
Initially,
the Core of Trust is you. If you operate solo it will always be. With a partner
or multiple partners (an ensemble) you all have to ascribe to the same central beliefs
about your business.
Because
you can’t fool customers for long.
Customers
see your company from the outside in. They rely on how your decisions impact
them to make judgements about you
Courage Stepping out on
your own is not easy. You are, in all likelihood, going to have to get out of
your comfort zone if you want your business to grow and prosper. Every business
is built on Networking. Every business. It will be up to you to go wherever
prospects gather to get to know them and how you can serve them. You will need
to find away to say something that makes you memorable. Weak statements don’t
work. You’ll need to understand 30-Second Marketing TM at a minimum. And buckle
up Bunkie stepping into the limelight and speaking about your expertise could
get you more leads in less time than all the social media campaigns.
A door on your office is needed because if you work from home you’ll find yourself working
well into the evening and on weekends. That is not good whether you are single
or married with or without children. Learn to close the door and get a life.
Isn’t that part of why you decided to do this?
And so it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International
Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc.
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for crafting on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.
I decided to journey to the Institute of Management Consultants
Conference held over last weekend in Dallas, Texas.
The
Crucible
At the airport I bought a paper back to read on the flight.
The title was “The Crucible” which sucked me in with, in part, this jacket
copy:
“…a frantic quest for answers that are
connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition … What they
uncover hidden deep in the past will reveal a frightening truth in the present
and a future on the brink of annihilation, and force them to confront the
ultimate question: What does it mean to have a soul?”
Within the book, James Rollins connects witch hunts to the wonders of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and where it is headed. Little did I know that I was getting an in-depth preview of one of the keynotes!
Late Arrival
I missed the opening keynote delivered by Alan Weiss as I
decided not to go to the airport at early dark thirty. I chose a 9:45 departure
which got me in town about the time Alan started speaking. Apparently, he said some of the things I’ve
heard before so it wasn’t a great loss for me.
Why
did I go?
To
renew some old acquaintances and make some new ones.
To
learn what’s new
To gather
new contacts for my annual Consultant Marketing Survey
Old Acquaintances
That piece of art at the top of this missive came from Mark Haas. Years ago when the IMC web site was in development, I was the Marketing chair in Portland. Mark was volunteering to get the site up and working from his home office near Washington DC. Many a night we would be on the phone, me at Midnight and he at 3:00 AM. The only time we see each other in person is at these gatherings.
Ken Lizotte was speaking at this conference. We tried to figure out how we know each other and gave up after about ten minutes. Ken is the conference chair for next year. We chatted about me speaking next year and he asked me to be his sidekick in putting together the 2020 Conference in Boston. I think I dodged that bullet!
AI,
AGI and ASI
AI is, of course, Artificial Intelligence. The Saturday morning keynote was delivered by David Copps, a futurist, technologist and visionary as well as a member of the Aspen Roundtable on AI among other things you might expect. He spoke of where AI is today noting things I’d read about in The Crucible including how AI will morph to AGI or Artificial General Intelligence (like Asimov’s Robots) and then to ASI, Artificial Sentient Intelligence when the AI takes on a life of its own. Mr. Copps made it clear, with specific examples that it is happening a lot faster than you think!
Serendipity is a strange thing.
New
Acquaintances
Saturday, after that serendipitous keynote I joined an experiment where conference attendees could suggest topics for a series of breakouts on subjects of interest to them and then see if other also wanted to discuss. I suggested “How is Consultant Marketing Changing?”
Six people signed up and we did a roundtable on the
subject. The participants ranged from a start-up to a couple of us with 20+
years of experience. I heard a lot of current and future possibilities but only
one current approach I had not heard put so simply before:
“Don’t
try to build a huge list. Keep track of folks that provide referrals, no more
than 100 if you get that many and touch them at least once a month personally
with a phone call or in person meeting. Let them know the kinds of engagements
you are currently working on. Send them a monthly newsletter. Do something special
just for them at least quarterly. Things like lunch or dinner, tickets to an
event or sending them a book or article especially selected for them.”
I will, of course be sending all of the round table members along with a score of others that agreed the Annual Consultant Marketing Survey.
The
attention span of a gold fish
Yoram Solomon, another of the keynoters cited Microsoft research that said that the human attention span had dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013. The study noted that the attention span of a goldfish was 9 seconds. So if you’ve read this far, you have the attention span of at least a school of goldfish!
Yoram spoke on trust. Here are his 7 Laws of Trust:
Trust
is not binary. It is continuous.
Trust
is contextual
Trust
develops between every two people independently.
Trust
is asymmetrical.
Trust
is transferable.
Trust
is reciprocal.
Trust
needs two sides.
Yoram has done the research, that is why he has a PhD. I’ll leave you with this fact from his investigations:
“A
trustworthy salesperson
can sell the same product or service for 29.6% higher price.”
And so it goes. _____________________________________________________________________________
Jerry Fletcher is
a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of
Z-axis Marketing, Inc.
His consulting
practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant
Marketing and Brand development advice that builds businesses, brands and lives
of joy.
The e-mail from someone I’d never met pushed for the sale
with the first words.
Fresh
Meat
If you’re further up the food chain that e-mail was an open
invitation to line up a new client. Cold calling with a hard over sales
approach does not work if you are selling consulting, particularly high-end.
On line or in person any time you use direct communication
you need to already have a connection or be in the process of activating one.
That hard sell e-mail is, for me, a cry for help.
Let
‘em buy
The most successful sales people and consultants I have
ever met gave me the same advice:
“You
can’t sell anything if they don’t want to buy.”
“Stop
closing! The less you close, the more successful you’ll be.”
“People
buy when they’re ready not when you tell ‘em to”
“Your
job is to stay connected while giving them all the info they need including the
purchase agreement when they’re ready.”
“They
come to your website looking for information. Give ‘em the content they’re
looking for but help them buy into you as well as your approach.
Time
and energy
In most cases a prospect must meet three conditions:
They have a problem you can solve
They can pay for your services
They are willing to talk to you
Being
upfront about your rates after you’ve heard about their problem will pay
you dividends both short and long term. I offer a one-hour meeting at no charge
so that we can “See if we are comfortable with each other and I can get a
better idea what problem they are confronting.” I usually tell them that if I
can’t help I’ll recommend someone that might be of help.
Generally,
the higher your fee the more you will be expected to meet at no cost. Some
organizations will expect you to provide a proposal at no charge as well. Elite
consultants are willing to do that if they can have at least an hour of the
senior officer’s time and agreement to candidly discuss the perceived problem
and the value of a solution to the company
Going retail
Smaller
problems, ones that can be solved in a telephone or Zoom session or two need a
slightly different approach. It is more retail oriented. Your offering can be
presented in a website that is filled with information that is infused with
your viewpoint. Including video of you delivering some of your advice is a
positive approach.
You
may want to have them pay for a session with an established hourly fee paid in
advance. But you must make it as easy as possible for them to set an
appointment and pay online. There are apps available that easily integrate with
your web site.
If the web site visitor is interested in your services they
will find your pricing page. Linking pricing and appointment apps on the same
page will pay dividends.
Price
Points
The price for the service offered is where consultants
often go astray. It is not unusual, even in B2B negotiations for the consultant
to be asked for his/her hourly rates. Consider this increasing price/value/meeting
scale:
Price Value Meeting description
$200/hr Instant answers Meeting via appointment, phone or Zoom
$200-500/hr Report issued In person or zoom based on geography
$1000/hr Strategic Planning Reports & Timelines agreed to in advance
Fixed Fee Plan & Implement Time required to reach solution agreed to.
Fee +Comm Plan/Implement Agreed solution plus additional impacts
Variables
Your kind of consulting practice will impact how you
approach the market. You may tend to maintain a client relationship for months
or years. In those situations, a retainer may be the better option. Or, you may
be available at a specific rate just to assist in defining the problems that
come up over time. Of course, engagement rates would be set separately. Top
notch consultants have all kinds of inventive pricing schemes. The most
inventive are lined to long-term client relationships.
And so
it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is
a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and Grand
Poobah of www.BrandBrainTrust.com
His consulting
practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant
Marketing and Brand development advice that builds businesses, careers and
lives of joy.
My daughter and I (she works for the Federal Government)
were talking about why the best senior managers regardless of sector are extremely
valuable. I was telling her about a 3-minute video I just completed that
explains why successful elite consultants set the gold standard. See the video
at: https://vimeo.com/356539908
Worth
their weight in gold
Managers and consultants are all carefully taught to think,
feel and believe that if we can define the problem we can find a solution. The rule
of thumb is that solutions reduce costs and increase profits regardless of
the kind of resources being considered.
That’s true as far as it goes. It’s a nice comfortable
little box.
The
best think outside the box
Manager or consultant they demand a sit down with the woman
or man in charge, a discovery meeting. They start with an open mind, candidly discuss
the visible problem identified by the CEO and ask questions to establish the
value of the solution. Elite consultants take it one step further. They add recommendations
above and beyond the requested solution to add value to their engagement.
The
value-based proposal
Top notch consultants take their time in that discovery
meeting. They have the CEO estimate the value of a solution to the visible
problem and probe for additional concerns and valuations during the discussion.
They get concise agreement on the objectives, how they will be measured as well
as quantitative and qualitative impacts of the results. The elite consultant’s
intent is to be able to base their fee on the outcome of the engagement in the
CEO’s terms.
Their proposal will include three options:
Option 1 must satisfy the objectives.
Option 2 is more comprehensive (and includes
option 1)
Option 3 incorporates partnering with the firm
to include hands on implementation or overseeing the implementation.
Perception,
not a problem
A CEOs job is to keep the company ahead of the curve, see
into the future and sense the possible disruptions out there. What if she or he
just has a niggling feeling about a potential future problem, or better still an
opportunity that is on the horizon? That represents a challenge for most managers
not to mention consultants. The CEO wants to get a resolution on the uncertainty.
She or he wants to quantify it and then look at the actions required to achieve
it or defend from it.
The
quantification proposal
Once again you must begin with a discovery meeting.
Together, you and the CEO must assess the perceived discontinuity. Two concerns
drive the selection of the consultant to handle this kind of engagement:
A successful track record with this client (to include a couple flashes of brilliance and out of the box thinking).
Experience in an industry or a credential in science or engineering that is perceived to have knowledge to bring to this research.
If you are in the room you need to verify which reason
brought you there. More importantly, you need to let that reason drive how you
build your proposal. Your proposal must identify the objectives, how they will
be satisfied and a specific time frame to do so. If you believe that expertise you
don’t have is required you must explain how you will find it and how you will engage
it. To the degree possible, you must provide a statement of how the information
obtained will be evaluated. You may also want to consider how to implement or
oversee implementation.
A
solution, no problem
Working with elite consultants can prove educational. Recently
a client challenged my definition of a Prospect:
“A prospect is someone with a
problem you can solve, who has the funds to pay you and is willing to talk to
you.”
He said, Every CEO or President or business owner wants
more profits, right?” I agreed. He went on, “I’ve stumbled onto something in my
consulting over the last few years. It is a solution without a problem. I need
a way to describe it and a way to convince CEOs to just have a conversation about
it.”
Hidden
in plain sight
Yes, for me this idea was outside my comfort zone. For
starters the urgency of the problem is not inherent in this situation. You don’t
even have a niggling possibility causing concern for the CEO. But, as we strove
to build a product description more meaningful and to apply the techniques of
30-Second Marketing TM , I reflected on the testimonials
I had videotaped from clients where this process was put in place and realized
it was proven thinking outside the box that could only be developed by someone with
business acumen and experience that had psychological training.
The
Shared Passion Proposal
The key to greater profits, even in a down economy, is hidden
in plain sight in every company that has employees. Employees, approached
properly can in a relatively short time develop a passion for the business that
builds profits long term. The essence of that proposal is, for the moment, a
trade secret but I’ve interviewed the men and women that have applied the
process in their organizations. Greater dollar profits are the tip of the
iceberg in the world of the Millenials.
And
so it goes.
Jerry Fletcher is
a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and Grand
Poobah of www.BrandBrainTrust.com
His consulting
practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant
Marketing and Brand development advice that builds businesses, careers and
lives of joy.
