Contrarian Consulting

Billy Joel sings a song called, “Tell Her About It,” meaning that if you don’t, she’ll never know. If you don’t do the same for prospects, how do they know you’re there and valuable? Here are my suggestions:

1. Don’t be bashful about telling influential people how you help others (not how you do it but what results you accomplish). I mentioned this to the general manager of the Baglioni Hotel in London, one of my very favorite places, and on my last trip he asked me to run a strategy session for his top team.

2. Be bold in disagreeing with conventional wisdom. I think that human resource departments are largely disempowered and don’t have the money or initiative to purchase consulting services. I think attempting to market to senior corporate buyers on social media platforms is a waste of time. A lot of people don’t like those positions. All I care about is if they spell my name right and mention me in their outrage.

3. Have a thick skin. Most people reviewing on Amazon.com for example, have never written a book and a lot of them don’t even read the books they review. Don’t allow “smile sheets” or poor reviews from unsolicited sources to bother you. Find people whom you trust and listen to them carefully.

4. Associate yourself with the best of the best. I talk about “three Bs” as symbols of high-end success in any economy: Baume & Mercier, Brioni, and Bentley. As it happens, I’m often using all three products at the same time.

5. Accessibility and privacy are two different things. It is easy to contact me and get a response. I’m a private person, but as a public figure I believe that people have the right to a fast and accurate reply, so long as the inquiry or request is polite and reasonable. I’m probably easier to access than most people in my position. While I run some very expensive experiences, you can also hear me speak for only $100 in an upcoming LA event, and I have hundreds of free audios and videos.

6. Gracious hosting. Share the spotlight in terms of good ideas and new approaches, but not the tab. Always pick up the bill.

7. Get out of the house. I try to replicate all of  my successful experiences in the states in both Sydney and London, and occasionally elsewhere. You don’t become a global name by hiding in the house.

8. Expect others to make it work for them. I treat everyone as an adult. It’s up to them to make things work. I provide education, information, techniques, feedback, and so on. But if someone else doesn’t have the volition, that’s not my problem.

9. Attack multi-media. My app should be out shortly. Take advantage of all the diverse media outlets that exist and come into being.

10. Change your mind. If someone is successful doing something that doesn’t make sense to me, I acknowledge it and try to incorporate it into my thinking.

11. Change THEIR minds. Use clients as evangelists to “sell” prospects. Arrange and host events where they can interact.

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.

There are crooks all over the world whose firm belief is that you and I are stupid and they are smart. Of course, if they were smarter than the rest of us, they wouldn’t have to be crooks.

The stereotypical letter from some idiot in Nigeria which begins, “Dear blessed one…” and proceeds to tell you that they can provide millions if you’ll only help them has become the purse snatcher of the digital age. More recently, however, you’ll find that you receive strange “official” notices advising you that your trademarks will not be renewed or need protection or are being sought in foreign countries. The disclaimers about not being government notices are so small you’d need an electron microscope the read them.

I’m just returned from London, and on just one of my many trademarks, Alan’s Friday Wrap®, I have notices from:

Register of International Patents in the Slovak Republic

Patent Trademark Register in Vienna

Registration of International Trademars in the Czech Republic

These are all complete with bank transfer information! Some are for thousands of dollars.

This is why I advise to always use a trademark attorney and not merely an Internet filing. When in doubt, ship the forms over to your attorney. There are US scammers who do the exact same thing, advising you that you need “added protection.”

It’s one thing to be dumb enough to be a criminal. But when you think that makes you smarter than those earning an honest living, well, that’s simply delusional.

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.

This was my first Mentor Summit in Europe. (I conduct these every 9 months of so, free, for all members of my Mentor Community.) We had representation from Germany, U.S., U.K., Ireland, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, and Switzerland.

Some conversations that may be of help to you:

• Value is key to gaining the interest of prospective buyers, provided quickly at the first meeting.

• Being an object of interest to others leads to easier appointments.

• There is significant opportunity to work across Europe and in the U.S. for European consultants.

• We have to become accustomed to providing options with higher fees. If no one every resists even our highest fees, then they are probably consistently too low.

• Start-ups are very difficult for consultants since the money is scarce and oriented toward marketing and R&D, so you must demonstrate how your help with be relevant for these areas.

• Smaller business has owners who will make more emotional than logical decisions, and both husband and wife should be seen and convinced.

• Don’t worry about being liked by everyone, worry about pleasing the buyer.

• Turn coaching business into consulting business by providing the buyer with insights into what you’ve seen that is non-confidential about systems, procedures, communications, product mix, and the like.

• When you are with a buyer, do everything you can to reach agreement on the key business issues to be improved, and what the key objectives are. Don’t allow the conversation to stray or get out of your control.

• For every objective, have at least one measure of success and three statements of value (impact) created by achieving it.

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.