Monthly Archives: February 2009

NOTE:This originally appeared in RainToday, where I am a contributing editor.

I know a great many people having the best financial year of their lives. I certainly am. None of us is an investor who guessed right on the market (I’m primitive: I buy and hold on like my dogs with a bone). None of us is in a “safe” marketplace, such as pet supplies, or health care, or pharmaceuticals. None of us has a “guaranteed” renewable large account.

And none of us is doing what we were doing five years ago, much less ten. Therein lies the key.

We love to tell the story about modern railroad tracks being based on the breadth of Roman chariot horse teams thundering through ancient Britain, but we don’t seem to do much about changing the route. That’s why I never warmed to cross-country skiing—I hated staying in those ruts formed by people ahead of me. And it was so difficult to pass the plodders and the slowpokes! Downhill skiing is much more dangerous, and so much more fun. That’s what gives you a rush. (If you’re inspired to voice your disagreement, send your letters to the editor, not me.)

Stop plodding and start racing in an increasing rapid world.

Leaving the Rut

What are you doing to adjust your products, services, and relationships to the times? Here’s a comment written by an expert: “I have often reflected that the causes of the successes or failures of men depend upon their manner of suiting their conduct to the times” – Niccoli Machiavelli.

Is your conduct embracing global prospects, remote support, all types of economic conditions, instantaneous communications, high-performance technology, relevant social media, current and future trends, demographic shifts, political realities, and so forth?

Or, are you still giving people that sheaf of papers citing your “4.85″ evaluations beginning a decade ago, or the seven-step model you’ve been using for six years, or a program or intervention you can deliver with your eyes closed, but makes you feel so good? Getting better and better at what you’re already good at produces diminishing and marginal returns. Diversifying what you’re good at produces very good returns.

But creating new approaches using your value, and even adding to that value, creates outstanding returns. It’s the difference between constantly upgrading old software and simply buying a new computer. Why are you holding on to the old stuff? You’re an adult, and shouldn’t need a security blanket.

Test Yourself

If you have the courage to face the answers, ask yourself these questions:

Am I considered a thought leader in my field? Do others refer to me? Am I asked to appear at conferences and gatherings of the top people?

Have I created new intellectual property that is not merely a recombination of others’ work? (Some blogs merely reprint articles from other people, which doesn’t strike me as particularly useful or compelling.)

Have I provided new ways for clients to purchase and apply my value?

Have I been able to increase fees even in tough economic times?

Have I expanded my customer base geographically and/or demographically?

How much of my revenue comes from products and services I was not providing five years ago?

Do I have at least 20% of my annual revenue coming from new clients, and am I intentionally dropping my “bottom” clients who no longer provide decent amounts of business and/or margins?

Is my brand sufficiently known that it gives me a competitive edge?
If you can’t respond positively to all of these questions, you have work to do. Tough economic times exacerbate strengths and weaknesses, meaning that slight competitive edges can become significant advantages, and troubling deficiencies can prove fatal.

I’ve found that many people in sales and marketing fall into an insidious “success trap.” They survive the hazards of start-up (blast off), and are able to gain speed (escape velocity), but eventually fall into the fatal mistake of assuming an orbit lasts forever, when it actually erodes (entropy).

If you want a marketing plan that works in all sorts of conditions, then develop methods to express and deliver your value in all sorts of conditions. As an entrepreneur, you should be light on your feet, and agile enough to change readily with conditions.

That’s the secret of why some people are doing so well.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

Business Week reports the results of a combination of Bureau of Labor Statistics figures and Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index, and the producer price index, in the February 16 issue. Prices for things such as gasoline have fallen 43%, homes 18%, vehicles 3%. “Management and technical consulting services” are up 1.7% from December 2007 through December 2008.

In this economy, this profession is slowly growing, and I know a great many consultants whose businesses are up by a third and more. If you have value, and know how to market, this is a great time to be in this profession. If you don’t have value, you don’t deserve to be successful, and if you have value but don’t know how to market, then shame on you, because that is eminently correctable.