Nice review, sent courtesy of Donna Brighton. The Consulting Bible on Amazon is at #18,000 overall, #9 in education and #13 in consulting; by comparison, Million Dollar Consulting is at 22,000 and 16 in consulting (it isn’t in the other category). I have five of the top 20 consulting books at the moment.
Consulting Community of Practice Book Review: The Consulting Bible – Everything you Need to Know to Create and Expand a Seven Figure Consulting Practice
Author: Alan Weiss Ph.D.
Reviewer: Richard Sachs, PMP, MCPM
Dr. Alan Weiss adds this recent book to his extensive publishing career of over 40 books and more than 500 articles. The CONSULTING BIBLE, has some biblical analogies as it is divided into five sections: Section 1 Genesis: Consulting as a Profession; Section II Exodus: Consulting as a business, Section III Deuteronomy: Consulting Methodology, Section IV Acts of the Apostles: Implementing Consulting Methodologies, Section V Proverbs, Consulting Success. The author adds in ‘lessons learned’ or tips under the caption of “The Gospel” throughout each chapter and section when he wants the reader to pay attention to special information. I counted over 50 of these tips and the reader could create a compendium of these for quick reference as I found them valuable: Here are just three examples: “The only time an alliance makes sense is when there is money on the table”; “Everyone can write. Writer’s block is merely a clever term for procrastination. But not everyone has something to say. That’s a key differentiator”; “You must accept rejection and reject acceptance. This is a relationship business and you will not always be successful. But do not align yourself with those who can’t say ‘yes’ but can say ‘no’ “. This last “Gospel” is one pitfall everyone should consider carefully when being asked to prepare a proposal.
The book reads easily and Weiss communicates as if he was giving a presentation. He uses many techniques to move the reader through his thesis. That thesis is that wealth is discretionary time and not money and building a practice to give one the freedom is the goal. There are Case Studies from Weiss’ personal and extensive consulting career. Truth is stranger than fiction and Weiss captures some humorous client situations stating that “you can’t make this stuff up”. Weiss creates many applied consulting terms and illustrations and shares these throughout the book. His concepts include- The Consulting Model, The Accelerant Curve; Market Gravity Wheel and The Market Value Bell Curve. These are designed to foster new thinking by the consultant in how he/she models their business to achieve growth. His experience is as a sole practitioner and his goal is to expand your capability and income as a one person consulting practice or small boutique firm. Weiss makes light of those that would criticize his approach as not scalable to the medium or large consulting firm- but that is not his market.
The Consulting Bible at 265 pages provides some strong sales tools(obtaining referrals) as well as real tactical insights into pricing services, charging retainers and finding the best clients which by the way have a mutual respect for the consultant they engage. The consultant is sometimes his own worst enemy by taking on work and services that he or she will not be paid for. “Scope Seep” which Weiss adds, is “the most invidious and potentially damaging aspect of consulting… (it is) when the consultant without impetus or request from the client, enlarges the project unilaterally without changing the proposal, agreement or fees”. Some readers may find this familiar territory and Weiss provides some clear advice on the subject of roles, responsibilities and self-management.
Disengaging is a chapter that I especially found thought provoking. You don’t necessarily have to leave the client but your project when coming to an end requires an endorsement that the improvement your client was seeking as a condition of the assignment was achieved. As a consultant, either the results were achieved or will require more time, but disengagement is necessary so that you can “maximize the chances to leverage business internally and externally”. Weiss outlines seven things a consultant should do to enable a positive disengagement. Weiss elaborates on referrals, testimonials and long term leverage. This chapter is highly valuable as any good project manager knows that lessons learned is what builds a strong foundation for organizational project performance. This same thinking, but with a business development consideration, is most illuminating and worth the price of the book.
Weiss ends the book on the subject of giving back. This especially resonates with me as I mentor project management students and put high value on the benefits we both derive in this process of returning to the community. The author goes on to talk about ‘Advancing the state of the Art’ and again I subscribe to the belief that while not everyone can add to the profession in a substantive way it is often about incremental change that when aggregated actually adds to thought leadership, innovation and service excellence.
I recommend this book to other PMI members who are interested in learning how Alan Weiss has built his multi-million dollar practice with an array of services and offerings that leave his business diversified and capable of growing during various economic cycles. He is a consummate expert on the subject of coaching consultants and has provided the reader with many tools in The Consulting Bible. Enjoy.

I’ve heard people actually state with pride that when they are on vacation they do not respond to email or phone messages. The focus only on their vacation, and put off any business until they return.

To quote my wife and the economic buyer in our home: “What are they, nuts?”

We’re leaving Puerto Rico, where every day we’d sit on the beach at the St. Regis Bahia Resort. This was a “veg” vacation, where we simply wanted to get away from winter in New England and not think about social obligations or anything other than sunning and eating. However, I had my cell phone and iPad on the beach, and made just over $40,000 during the trip.

In addition, I kept a lot of current clients happy by responding to questions and providing some feedback. All of this took less than 30 minutes a day, spread out over seven hours on the beach. Even at my rate of spending, we paid for the vacation!

I have no problem watching the breakers and responding to a call. (One client said once, “What’s that noise?” I replied, “I’m on the beach in Aruba and those are the waves.” He said, “You’re such a kidder. Where are you really?”) Almost no one has my cell phone number, so I have the prerogative of listening to messages returning calls quickly or not. The same with emails—I can be very selective if I choose to be.

But by striking fast, you get business that much faster (sometimes versus “not at all”). I process credit cards on my lap top or iPad (and could on my iPhone). I keep people happy. I strike while the iron and the sun are hot.

And when I return home, guess what, there are fewer messages to return, no pile of unreturned calls to wade through. If I can go to my pool during my “working day” at home, why can’t I take business calls or email on my vacation? If I disappeared into my room for half a day on vacation, I’d be a fool, and probably divorced. But talking on the beach, trying to keep my food away from a gull, sipping a Bahia Breeze—come on, that’s not work, that’s living!

Or as the buyer says to me around 4 as we collect our things to head back from the beach, “How’d we do today?”

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.

I was interviewed recently by someone who had really done his homework, and I think you’ll enjoy the results of this candid, unscripted session. Here are his instructions:

Alan-

Thank you for your delightful interview on our FoxNews affiliate here in Nashville, TN. If you would like to promote the show to your following of people around the world it plays live tomorrow in its entirety from Noon-1:00 CST and can be found @ www.wlac.com and live streaming anywhere in the world on www.iheartradio.com (call letters are WLAC FoxNews Radio in Nashville). If the listener goes to the WLAC site it will direct them to I-Heart Radio.

I will also be sending you the podcast via YouSendIt for you to utilize any way that you would like. I hope we asked you great questions and allowed ample time to explore the questions.

Thank you and have an excellent day!

Coach Micheal J. Burt

CEO/Founder CoachBurt.com

www.coachburt.com

www.facebook.com/maximumsuccess

www.twitter.com/michealburt

www.linkedin.com/in/coachburt

Office: 615.225.8380

Direct: 615.849.2099

“Everybody Needs a Coach in Life”

Listen to “Change Your Life Radio” @ CoachBurt.com

Bentley has just announced its best sales year ever, and the U.S. is its biggest market. They are even considering the launch of a Bentley SUV for $150,000, which I doubt anyone has been begging for, but there you have it.

Some organizations are doing quite well, and luxury goods, travel, and recreation are among them. The auto industry is doing just fine, and so are many aspects of health care, home improvement, and retail, just to name a few.

My point is this: Be like Willy Sutton, and go where the money is. Stop marketing remedial “fixes” and remedies and problem solving. Stop assuming that damaged organizations are your best prospects. (Most organizations that are poorly run don’t have bright enough leadership to recognize the need for or investment in external help.)

Offer innovation, market gain, new customers, diversified offerings, improved conditions. Help all-stars become world class. Create “killer gaps” for the front-runners between themselves and the next best in the competitive race.

Too many consultants see themselves as repairmen, doctors diagnosing illness, or investigators solving a crime. Problem solving for struggling firms is not where the rewards are these days. Innovation for highly successful firms is the current and future game in town.

So consider adjusting your web site, blog, newsletters, collateral, conversation—and, most of all, mentality—to this new reality. How can you help people with money to invest become even better?

If you can do that consistently and well, you’ll wind up driving the Bentley.

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.

I never give financial advice and I don’t pretend to be a financial expert. But I have worked with thousands of solo practitioners and firm owners, and I have learned from my own mistakes. So here are some New Year’s suggestions for a healthy financial regimen.

1. Pay yourself first. Set up a new business account separate from your regular personal and professional accounts. Transfer 10% (choose your own percentage) of EVERY dollar you collect in 2012 into that account. If you close a $150,000 project, transfer $15,000. If you sell $200 worth of products, transfer $20. Try not to touch it except in emergencies (a new car is not an emergency).

2. Fund your retirement plans during the year to their maximums through installments. Figure out what you can contribute to SEP IRAs, IRAs, 401Ks, or whatever else you’re created, and contribute as you go through the year. (Example: If you are confident your personal income will be $160,000 or greater, you can contribute a maximum of 25%, $40,000, to a SEP IRA—and more if you’re over a certain age. That means you should start contributing about $3,000 a month, and try to pay it in the 2012 calendar year, even though you have until April of the following year.)

3. Make a plan to payoff credit card balances the same way. Every month, pay ALL the new charges and then pay at least one-twelfth of the remaining balance. This will decrease interest payments, improve your credit score, and free up credit if you need it in an emergency in the future.

4. Make plans to maximize your TOP LINE revenue. No one grows through cutting expenses. Doing your own monthly financials on software programs instead of hiring a bookkeeper for $250 a month is just ridiculous. Focus on truly growing your business and start thinking BIG.

5. Create “budgets” that you fund for key, planned expenditures: school costs, vacations, house improvements, and so on. Try to fund these monthly, as well. It actually helps to keep them in different accounts.

6. Monitor your spending. There are sites such as Mint.com and apps such as Pageonce Pro than can help if you’d like an automated system that notifies you of bills due, spending deviations, bank charges, and so forth. While I don’t believe in cutting to grow, I have found that some people don’t realize where and how their money is actually being spent.

7. Pay forward. By that I mean this: When you incur a major credit card debt (e.g., you’ve run a meeting, taken in all the revenue, but the hotel balance is $20,000) start writing checks immediately. If you wrote a $10,000 check at the time to, say, Amex, and then the balance when the actual bill arrived, it’s less of a bite and less chance that you’d spend that first $10,000 elsewhere. Better still: If you can, hold revenues from future events in an escrow account and pay the hotel bill at one time from there. (These are also very important if you are forced to cancel and repay all money already received.)

8. Delegate everything you can. Stop doing your own graphics design, slides, software fixes, bookkeeping, taxes, printing, travel reservations, product fulfillment, and so forth. Have others do it, because the money you spend is paid back one-hundred-fold in free time to devote to marketing and raising your top line. (Do you want YOUR clients doing things themselves that you should be hired to do and you can do faster and better than they?)

9. Don’t “play” the market. Put your long-term investments in the care of professionals. Ask for referrals and references from people who are successful to find the financial advisors who are best for your situation and philosophy. Never accept financial advice from anyone who is also selling a product (insurance, securities, and so on), because their product will always be the “answer.” Just pay for advice or the management fee. Remember that the idea in life is not to make money, but to create value and help people. As George Merck said, “Do good and good will follow.”

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Here’s a recent blog post, I’m told from the Harvard Business Review, sent to me by Alden Ulrich:

Skip the Mr. and Mrs.

Adapted from “What’s in a (First) Name” by Jodi Glickman.

If you’re what the writer calls a “junior employee” I’d be a tad careful before calling a senior vice president “Joe” or the general counsel “Katey.” It doesn’t level the playing field, especially in hierarchically staid organizations, but it can brand you as abrasive and pretentious rather quickly.

No one ever got in trouble by showing too much respect. Someone who’s clearly a peer can use your first name. Socially, who cares? (Although I still encounter pompous doctors being introduced at a fund raiser or dinner as “Dr. Johnson,” rather than “Mary Johnson.”) If you’re calling out of the blue and want a favor from me or, heaven forfend, cold calling, once you begin with, “Alan, how are you?” and I don’t know you, you’re pretty much finished.

This is especially true with senior people at clients. They’ll usually say, “Call me Harry,” but give them that option. The problem is, apparently, we’re all forgetting too much of what our parents told us and reading too much of the Harvard Business Review blog.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

An example of the kind of return people who invest in my experiences derive:

Hi Alan

I thought you might be interested in a small recent success.

I have a improvement program that I deliver to accounting firms. I have been generally charging around $50,000 which is quite profitable and I enjoy the work.

I was meeting with the principal of a good-sized firm and I had submitted the proposal but pushed the fee up to $80,000.

You may recall that we did a role-play in Sydney and you nailed me by asking for me to take part of the fee based on success and I became unstuck at that point. Well, the prospect asked exactly the same question. As I had thought a lot about what I should have said (when you asked it), this time the answer just rolled off the tongue!

The client has signed (at $80,000) and the money is in the bank.

Thanks for the rehearsal!

Cheers

Craig Devlin

What do we know about the coming year? I don’t think it’s too much of a prognosticating leap to suggest:

• Technology omnipresence and extraordinary growth globally, which will permeate every part of our marketing, delivery, and follow-up.

• Entrepreneurial gestalt: A merging of one’s personal and professional life as opposed to compartmentalization.

• Major overseas markets provide increasing potential (no matter where you currently reside).

• The ability to instantly communicate all kinds of content—mobile, right-on-time knowledge.

• Major government changes through both free elections and continuations of popular uprisings.

• Increasing “noise” that must be navigated or dampened in order to extract useful information.

• Increasing stimuli and sources all of which demand time investments, often linked to significant normative pressure.

• The departure of Baby Boomer executives and managers and their replacement by people with often significantly different frames of reference.

• Unpredictable financial markets.

Given these likely volatile changes (especially in combinations), what do your clients need to be successful? What must you do to consult, coach, and advise clients to improve their effectiveness in such environments?

First, there will be dramatically differing skills needed. Example: The ability to develop people globally who are rarely meeting in person is far different from developing people who work down the hall or can be easily called in from the field force.

Second, behaviors will have to be shifted to reflect factors such as real time coaching, customers who demand immediate responsiveness, and a greater consideration for cultural and generational diversity than ever before. Example: How does one act with an outraged important customer who is looking you in the eye on Skype?

Third, intellectual firepower that includes an accurate world view, understanding of true trends (as opposed to fads), and the ability to learn rapidly will be required of leaders at all levels. Example: How quickly can one make decisions about competition, customers, and strategy to allocate resources most efficiently?

Fourth, superb communications skills will be a differentiator for those who excel, both within their organizations and with customers. Example: It will be impossible to lead by “proxy” or from behind a closed door.

Fifth, the ability to brand and demonstrate value will be the key marketing advantage as competition and price sensitivity grow. Customer evangelists, as we’ve seen Apple create, will be strong off-balance-sheet assets. Example: The creation of viral marketing results in huge margins and strong growth.

What are you doing to prepare for what’s likely in 2012 as opposed to trying to repeat what might (or might not) have worked in 2011?

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Here’s a request placed on the web recently, which is all too common:

“I am looking for a speaker to present an hour-long audio conference on: ‘No Pay Raise for You this Year! How to Handle This Conversation with Your Employees.’ Our audience is made up of management and HR professionals across the country. The presentation is delivered virtually, so there’s no need to travel. The speaker will be required to submit a PowerPoint presentation that will be sent to the attendees in advance. While speakers will not be compensated for their participation, these audio conferences can provide them with valuable professional exposure, and we encourage speakers to include contact information in our promotions and in their presentation materials.”

Let me ask you two questions:

1. What successful person would want to share their intellectual property for the gain of a third party in return for dubious “exposure”?

2. What kind of “expert” do you think you’ll attract who is desperately seeking the “E-word” and wants to do this?

The audience is cheated, the quality is low, and the concept is dumb. This is what happens when people want to make money without investing in proper resources and trying to do things “on the cheap.” You get what you pay for, and when you pay nothing you get nothing. Don’t enable this kind of stupidity.

If you’re desperate for “exposure,” leave your windows open.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

(The Dog Star is a symbol of power, will, and steadfastness of purpose, and exemplifies the One who has succeeded in bridging the lower and higher consciousness. – Astrological Definition)

We suspect that Koufax may be getting a bit hard of hearing in his senior years. I say “suspect” because sometimes he seems to hear us perfectly, and other times he may just be ignoring us. From the time he was a puppy, he was always aloof, and sometimes pretends not to hear us. I’ve caught him pretending to be asleep, for example, and when he thinks we’re gone, he opens one eye.

In any case, it’s tough to see him against a background of snow in the winter, and on a freezing night my wife doesn’t want to roam the back of the property trying to find him after his nightly excursion. So she’s purchased a dog whistle, and to my shock, it works. Koufax immediately turns toward the source of the sound, and Buddy Beagle does likewise.

We’ve created a keen appeal to Koufax’s sensory apparatus. He can’t ignore it, doesn’t even try to pretend he doesn’t hear it. It sparks his curiosity.

That’s exactly what we have to do in our branding and marketing efforts: Create an irresistible appeal that strikes a nerve and stands out from the surrounding noise and stimuli.

We need an appeal that only true buyers can hear, and which causes them to turn in our direction.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Here’s a simple model to methodically organize yourself to attract the best, highest potential prospects and monetize your relationships with them on a continuing bases.

First, determine who your best customers are. Who has the most money and the most motivation to invest in your value proposition? They will be in categories D and E on the Market Value Bell Curve, below: serial developers and total immersion people (“hand tens”). You are better off with a small target audience of these highly qualified buyers than a huge list of irrelevant people toward the center and left.

Second, use Market Gravity to attract these people to your offerings. There should be at least four or five gravity “spokes” that you can employ with great effectiveness. Direct  your gravity efforts toward those on the right side of the bell curve.

Third, use the gravity to draw buyers to a comprehensive Accelerant Curve, where there are low barriers to entry but also the opportunity to use your services immediately on a high fee, low labor intensity basis. Maintain “vault items” which you uniquely possess. Build the Accelerant Curve by constantly producing intellectual property and creating thought leadership.

You can find more detailed descriptions of these steps on this blog, on my website, in my workshops, and in my books and CDs. The key is to clearly identify your best prospects, attract them, and then incorporate them into an increasingly intimate set of offerings.

You might call this the “unified field theory” of successful marketing in consulting.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

I usually include in my speeches  and workshops the admonition to focus on true economic buyers and, therefore, eschew at all costs the HR department and its concerns with “deliverables” and hourly rates and the fad-of-the-month. There is an occasional exception, and I’ve run into exactly two in 25 years of consulting, not quite enough to challenge the rule.

In fact, I have an open offer to find me three HR executives who spent their careers in HR and were promoted to the CEO position of a Fortune 500 company over the past five years. I think they’re sightly rarer than unicorns. General counsels, actuaries, sales vice presidents, manufacturing general managers: yes. HR executives: no.

I was explaining this at a recent Million Dollar Consulting® College, and someone actually googled the notion and career path, and couldn’t find anyone. In fact, he turned up this reference about why HR executives can’t become CEOs!

http://www.drjohnsullivan.com/newsletter-archives/51-why-vps-of-hr-never-become-ceos

There are some wonderful people in HR, but there are also people who have been marginalized by their own organizations, who tend to apply brakes instead of acceleration, and who are in love with training programs and participants’ smile sheets instead of effective interventions and actual measurable results.

My advice to consultants hasn’t changed for years, and shows no prospects of having to change: Find the economic buyer, usually a line executive, who has need, budget, and the urgency to act.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

I don’t really care, but loyal reader Eric May does, and he asked me to post this question to see what kind or replies he’d receive. So have at it!

We are victims today of a refusal to make tough decisions, but perhaps not the decisions most people might consider.

Ever since World War II and the advent of the Baby Boomer generation, the mathematics were inexorable: Safety nets created in the 1940s which depended on about a dozen people at work for every retiree and an average lifespan at 65 of fewer than five years were obsolescent. We reached a predictable point—today—with about three people working for every retired person, the latter having a lifespan at 65 of perhaps 20 more years. (And we have the unheard of phenomena of many people retiring in their 50s or even 40s in uniformed services, and huge disability claims with lifetime payments.)

We can reduce debt until the cows come home, but that won’t help the equation. The challenge for countries, companies, and families is growth.

I’ve never seen anyone cut their way to growth. You can forestall bankruptcy, you can eke out a lower quality of life (“I’m sorry to ask you to stand, but we’ve sold our conference table in order to make a few bucks”), and you can try to last until someone else has to make the tough decisions. Those tough decisions, however, aren’t about cutting costs.

They are about how to increase the top line.

Countries, companies, and wage earners all need to improve their revenues. Countries can do this through exports, taxes, innovation, job stimulation, and so on (some have tried it through conquest). Companies can do it through expansion, new products and services, new markets, higher prices for more value, and happy customers (some have tried it through conquest—acquisition). Individuals can do it through improving their marketability, promotion, better jobs, entrepreneurialism, more education, and working harder and smarter.

All of us have to provide goods and services attractive to others with high value, so that price competition isn’t always an issue. We need to encourage prudent risk taking, innovation, and speed. Government regulation, corporate bureaucracy, and individual cynicism are the antithesis of growth. They are retardants, a brake permanently set.

My car has the largest brakes of any production car in the world. That’s because it can go so fast, it needs massive breaks to bring it to a halt. But that’s only until I step on the accelerator again. The car didn’t come with the brake set and impossible for me to release.

We need to hit the accelerator, explode the top line, and understand that the old mathematics are defunct. No one has the right to consume wealth without also creating it. And you don’t create it by reducing your spending or vision.

We need leaders who understand that and can make tough decisions about growth.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

With gorgeous weather at the fabulous Castle Hill Inn in Newport, RI, here is the latest graduating class of the Million Dollar Consulting College, left to right:

Shlomo Swidler (Israel), Steve Bleistein (Japan), Beth Hand, John Boggs, Diane Diresta, David Waits, Dan Norenburg (Germany), Jon Wallace, Jeff Cobb, Sten Vesterli (Denmark), Liz Berney, Brad Cleveland, Joe Veneto. Kneeling: Alan Weiss

We’re three days into the Consulting College, and here are some of the “keepers” from the group:

• Speed and brevity are essential for success.

• Extraordinary growth does not result from doing more of the old, but from changing the nature of how you do things.

• High buyer commitment accompanied by fees which are too low create a self-defeating sale, and leave money on the table you can never, ever recover.

• You should be diagnostic in your marketing phase but prescriptive in your delivery.

• Creating a trusting relationship MUST precede conceptual agreement and proposals.

• You are far better served with a limited list of highly qualified prospects than a massive list of random names.

• It is completely consistent to move to higher fees AND lower labor intensity concurrently (e.g., retainers, licensing, etc.).

• Audio, video, and text combinations should be used in marketing on the web, including your own site and blog, as well as platforms such as iTunes and YouTube.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Listen to this interview to learn:

• When are the best times to ask for a business referral.
• Specific language to use to get good referrals to great prospects, and why that’s important.
• What other options you can offer a buyer who is satisfied with the value you’ve added.
• How to lay the groundwork for receiving a referral.

• How Alan used referrals to personally invite Marshall Goldsmith and David Maister as presenters at his Thought Leadership conference.
• The importance of community for professional and personal growth.

Go to the interview page on billringle.com or listen here:

“Reinvention” can quickly become a bromide and buzzword. But I’ve found reinvention to be key to my career, especially when it’s ahead of the curve (or creating it’s own curve). We discussed this at the Million Dollar Club and elsewhere, and here’s a quick diagnostic to help you proactively consider it.

I’ve developed 8 areas of reinvention which are affected in varying degrees by three major dynamics. Consider radical change (“a sharp right turn”) in those areas where you can achieve the highest impact. Here’s the graph:

……………………..Societal Change       Technology       Economy

Beliefs

Expertise

Processes

Content

Market

Affiliations

Clients

Distribution

For example, if you converted part of your practice from wholesale (corporate) markets to retail (individuals) whom you reached with remote means (teleconferences), you would be reinventing your market to take advantage of the technology, volatile economy, and growing belief in being your own boss.

Another example: You begin working with non-profits as a new client base, since they are having tough times raising funds (economy), by creating new ways for them to reach prospective donors (technology), with a marketing message about the importance of communities helping themselves (social change).

Too many consultants try to guess at what “the next big thing” will be. Why not create it yourself with some discipline and analysis?

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

• Review your hiring and development processes and procedures for clarity, especially if others are routinely involved.

• Compensation must be appropriate for the firm and for performance. Most people can easily be evaluated by whether they meet, fail to meet, or exceed expectations.

• You should have clear metrics for ALL client engagements, so that progress and quality can be assessed very quickly even if you personally are not involved.

• Separate yourself from the business. You have goals, legal issues, financial issues, relationships, and so forth which may or may not coincide with those of the business.

• You need rainmakers for the acquisition of business. Very few people have the capacity and ability to be expert in both business acquisition and delivery. The former are far more valuable.

• Qualify prospects as early as possible against an ideal profile so that you waste minimum time.

• Consistently coach your team, especially your best people.

• Make your own policies (e.g., payment, cancellation, reimbursements, access, etc.) crystal clear to employees and clients.

• Attack small problems early, don’t ignore them and allow them to roll into huge snowballs or an avalanche.

• Always remember that we’re in pursuit of success, not perfection.

From out 2011 meeting notes:

How Do You Sustain A Seven-Figure Business

• Leverage your momentum. Use client stories with permission. Aggressively seek referrals.

• Build on strengths. Seek new markets, new offerings, new clients—and expanded work around current clients—based on core competencies.

• See the client as a person, not an entity or “business.” You’re dealing with a person, not merely a representative of the organization.

• Have passion about what you do, not about making money or “building numbers.”

• Reinvent yourself continually, and help your clients reinvent themselves.

• Ask, “What IS a high quality client relationship?” and then adhere to those standards.

• Help others and you’ll help yourself.

• Think of the fourth sale first. How can this become a long-term client?

• Gravitas plus relevance equals trust. Produce intellectual property, build your brand power, become a thought leader.

• Personally, improve your visibility in the marketplace with your most valuable potential buyers through gravity, publishing, speaking, the web, and brand power.

My observation is that a “talent synthesis” is going to be required by all types of businesses in the years ahead. By that I mean that executives are going to have to identify the types of talent, sources of talent, and relationships with talent that are optimal to maximize the impact of products, services, relationships, and resultant profit.

The recession and volatility of the times have created a conservatism about investment and growth. Large staffs and concomitant overhead aren’t prudent—in fact, they’re frightening. From the employees’ perspective, the daily likelihood of reduced benefits, lower salaries, and minimal job security create an intelligent demand for more personal control over one’s destiny than is currently in danger of a scary call to visit human resources first thing in the morning.

Organizations require outside talent, because the residual talent within the firm’s four walls has been vastly reduced and, truthfully, much of it is far more economical on a temporary rather than permanent basis. That’s why the future is so rich for consultants—very few organizations can justify internal consulting and organization development staffs, which were far more the norm a decade or so ago.

I think the talent synthesis looks like this:

1. Residual Talent: These are the people worth investing in on a full-time basis. Insurance companies require actuaries and underwriters, coffees shops require whatever a “barrista” is.
2. Technical Talent: These are “pairs of hands” as opposed to trusted advisors. They are stereotypically the IT people writing code or the trainers hired to deliver a seminar. They are told what to do and complete tasks.
3. External Expertise: These are consultants who are trusted advisors and most obvious to be requested. They might include local people on retainer, trusted by the buyer, or a “name” consulting firm which is expert in a field in which the buyer craves security (and justification to the board).
4. External Extraordinary Expertise: These are consultants specially sought out because of their intellectual property, body of work, public profile, and so on. These people can demand a premium fee. They are considered important and even “status” investments.
5. Client Synergy: There will be more and more occasion to embrace customers and clients in issues such as design, delivery, customization, support, and so forth. We’re seeing this daily with forums, chat rooms, and web sites supported by companies urging their customers to offer suggestions. (I design new offerings based on the participants in AlansForums.com, knowing that I have a ready audience and no risk in the development investment.)
6. Serendipity: Just as chemists frequently claim they invented the wrong thing that serves a better purpose (Post-It® Notes), organizations will find that varied combinations of the above five sources will produce innovation and improvement that can be harvested.

Someone will have to help organize and coordinate these resources. I doubt it will be an internal department. It may well be by default. But it may also be an ideal opportunity for those in category 3 above to add still more value by establishing criteria and metrics to maximize these new talent opportunities.

My own view is that those organizations that can best access and utilizes all six will race to the front of their markets.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

This is a small sample of some of the issues discussed and supported at the fourth meeting of The Million Dollar Consulting® Million Dollar Club. This session was in Stresa, Italy, on the shores of Lago Maggiore. If you feel you qualify for the club and are interested, just drop me a line or give me a call.

Keepers from the Million Dollar Club

Stesa, Italy

Sept. 15-17,2011

• Just-in-time knowledge, combining the trend for mobile information with the means to provide quick access to the particular knowledge needed for the work.

• Purchasing an ongoing, successful event which draws buyers for your services, and hosting it in the future.

• Creating teleconferences around the subject of your new book.

• Developing and retaining intellectual property—and recombining it—by tracking it within your business “universes.”

• Creating a disciplined, methodical marketing plan within current clients before the engagement ends.

• The eight areas of reinvention and the three dynamics affecting them (separate article to come).

• Synthesizing intellectual property, thought leadership, and equity in your brand.

• Ensuring all aspects of your image are those of a highly successful firm.

• Refraining from over-diversifying, to the point that nothing is moving forward boldly.

• Improving the options we offer in value and fee.

• Lateral selling within clients: internal buyer referrals to other internal buyers.

• Creating a client site project manager from the client’s management.

• Never second-guess yourself. Save the time, the energy, and the stress. Just do it, make any correction later.

• You are not your firm. Don’t take personally comments about the firm, and use the firm as an entity to borrow money, provide a legal firewall, and so forth. Your firm may fail, but it doesn’t mean you fail.

• Technology is highly scalable, and you can leverage it without adding overhead.

• Everyone is the room has published commercially or is in the process of doing so, or both. Seize opportunities to use the book to promote your major business initiatives.

• Exploit referrals, and build a plan to solicit them constantly.

• Create high value in your firm today, because the equity is important now and as an eventual exit strategy should you want one.

• Chad has developed a prototype App for Alan which will be launched in the near future, and the likelihood is that all of our firms can benefit from either personal Apps or pass-through Apps from others.

• Keep personal time sacrosanct. Work around it to achieve your musts each day, and if there is time work on priority “wants.” If there is still time, work on lower priority “wants.”

• Whether in wholesale (corporations) or retail (consumers) business, there is still an individual buyer with whom a relationship is key in non-commodity sales.

• Passion is about the nature of the value you provide, not revenue or numbers. Find out what your passions are, then make money providing that value.

• Focus often requires help. The time we spend doing this is usually not done elsewhere at all. That includes our business time and social time together during these events.

• There is no substitute for self-discipline, self-accountability, and self-reliance.

© The Million Dollar Club 2011. All rights reserved.

My book, Getting Started in Consulting, is the most popular “Getting Started” offering in Wiley’s entire series. It’s now in its third edition.

Here is some advice, expanded, that I recently posted in response to a question on AlansForums.com. While aimed at people entering the profession, it’s probably useful for those changing their practice or trying to reinvigorate it.

1. When you launch a solo practice, have 6 months of normal living expenses tucked away, minimum.
2. Try to acquire the complete support of those around you: family and close friends. You’ll need a support system.
3. Find a key trusted advisor WHO HAS BEEN THERE AND DONE IT to help you avoid 468 mistakes.
4. Call everyone you know. Explain your value and ask for business AND referrals.
5. Understand that you are in the marketing business every day of your life for the next six months.
6. Never generalize from a specific and ignore ALL unsolicited advice. (And be careful whom you ask.)
7. Focus on your value and improvement of others, not your income.

8. Minimize and even ignore any short-term metrics.
9. Hang with positive people.
10. Get a divorce from your methodology. It’s not your lover, it’s your tool kit.

11. Speed is as important as competence. Get back to people immediately, send proposals quickly, delay nothing that’s oriented toward creating business.

12. This is a relationship business among peers. Learn to dress, speak, and comport yourself as a peer of your buyers. Ignore everyone who tells you to “dumb down” anything.

13. Never  be afraid of losing business. It’s the quickest way to lose business. Instead, focus on boldly acquiring business.

14. Invest in marketing and in your own development. You cannot cut your way to growth or reduce you path to success.

15. Generalize to the maximum extent you can. This broadens your buying base. Specialists are far too vulnerable to competition, technological change, and superior brands.

16. Avoid conceptual and theoretical partnerships and alliances. “Show me the money” is your mantra. Most “collaborators” want your money or your talent for their own benefit.

17. Educate yourself. Read the Wall Street Journal (or equivalent), daily newspapers, business journals, and so on. Learn what issues are most affecting your prospects.

18. Obtain the correct insurance (E&O and liability) and incorporation (usually a subchapter S or LLC in the US). Run from anyone, including attorneys, who tell you that you don’t have to incorporate.

19. Create and broadcast your own intellectual property. You can’t thrive being derivative of others. “Turkey Soup for the Aura” or “Good to Much Better Than Great” aren’t going to distinguish you.

20. Always try to talk in person, which is three-dimensional. Phone is two-dimensional, and email one-dimensional. If you think spending six hours a day on email and social media platforms represents marketing, you will fail as a consultant to corporations.

21. ALWAYS price based on value, never on time units. Don’t be as dumb as the lawyers.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights. reserved.

There is no predicting the markets or investments of other types these days. There are no “experts.” The gurus will tell you the market went up because of European fears and the market went down because of European fears. They have no idea, and certainly no capacity to predict it.

If they did, they wouldn’t all be soliciting our money for their advice, they’d be leading the good life with no cares whatsoever. But if you have to beg me for my money, then my inference is that your own investments aren’t exactly catching fire.

My advice to solo practitioners and boutique firm owners in the professional services business is to never cease increasing your value and seeking out prospects, while solidifying current client relationships. So long as you are in demand, have a highly respected brand, produce intellectual property and new offerings, you’re going to have a thriving business. The markets will do what they will, but you can’t control that. You can control your own business growth.

Keep expenses low. Don’t over-hire. Use contracted help on a part-time basis. Transfer work to the client. Use technology and viral marketing to inexpensively promote your business. Be shameless in the pursuit of people who can benefit from your value (note I didn’t say “sales” or “quotas” or “revenue”).

Beware of advice. (Oscar Wilde: Don’t believe everything you hear even if I tell you.) People have agendas. Gold is at 1700 as I write this, and was at 800 in the mid-80s. But the market in the mid-80s was at about 1800 and today is near 11,500. You’re not an investment expert, so don’t try to manage the market. You’re a consulting expert, so try to manage the growth of your own business.

Too many people are running around in circles, including government leaders. Those streaks you see through the circles are others who are running with a sense of direction, purpose, and confidence. If you want to run the straight and narrow and not bounce off the walls:

1. Understand your value (how are people better off after using your assistance).
2. Identify your highest potential buyers (who can write a check for your value).
3. Create expressways for them to reach you and you to reach them (marketing).
4. Focus on the growth and expansion of your business (don’t be scared).
5. Charge for your value (reduce labor intensity and maximize profit).

Volatility is the new norm. Don’t worry about it. There are hundreds of thousands of people who can benefit from your help.

Stop hiding.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

1. Do you have a passion to improve others’ personal performance and businesses?
2. Do you have a strong command of the language in both writing and speaking?
3. Do you have, and can you acquire rapidly, competencies, methodologies, and technologies to assist in client improvement?
4. Are you free from arbitrary fads, jargon, and models, so that you don’t tend to see every issue as a nail to be hit with your single hammer?
5. Do you have a support system of family and/or colleagues who can provide honest feedback and reinforcement?
6. Are you comfortable proactively reaching out to others to provide your value, rather than believing you are imposing and asking for money?
7. Is your self-esteem strong enough to accept rejection and setback, learn from them, and move on?
8. Do you have the ability to ignore unsolicited feedback and not make changes based on random comments from uninformed sources?
9. Are you able to organize your work and your life so that you can move quickly and readily set accurate priorities?

10. Are you content with success and don’t insist on perfection?

11. Can you produce your own intellectual property and new ideas on a regular basis?

12. Have you the resources to support yourself over six months comfortably if you have zero revenue during that time?

13. Are you able to request and stimulate referrals from everyone relevant in your life?

14. Can you accept not working during daily periods because there is simply nothing valuable to do at the moment?

15. Can you jettison and continually resist guilt and the baggage of others?

16. Are you happy with who you are without making excuses for yourself or your life?

Scoring Key:

Yes to 16: You have a strong chance of being successful long-term.

Yes to less than 16: Consider another line of work.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Over the past couple of weeks I had the opportunity to chat socially with an attorney and an accountant, at two different events. One knew me, the other did not. We wound up discussing hourly billing practices, and after a great deal of wine, here is a summary of what they told me about the practices of their firms which are enforced by senior partners.

• Never charge a “round hour.” Instead of charging for an hour, charge for 1.2 hours. No one will ever question two-tenths, and they add up considerably over the course of a year.

• If a client calls to question a bill or statement, that is billable time.

• If you are researching anything that can pertain to several clients, charge each client separately for the entire time. It is never to be pro-rated or apportioned.

• At any kind of social event, whether a planned lunch or a common political fund-raiser, ask some work-related questions and charge part of the time you were there to the client’s account. The client being charged need not even be present.

• If you take colleagues to lunch, discuss several clients, and charge the lunch and the time separately to each client.

• Bring a colleague into the discussions whenever possible to build additional hours.

• Even when work is done by lower level people, it should always be reviewed by you at your higher hourly rate.

I could go on, but you get the point. I’m not claiming that every professional services firm charging hourly rates is this unethical, but some are. It’s a shame that this kind of creativity couldn’t be invested in better service for the client or quicker results, but then, there wouldn’t be as many hours to bill. This is the lunacy of hourly billing.

Please feel free to make a comment reporting the abuses you’ve found or experienced. Here’s my favorite: When I was chair of the Newport International Film Festival, our bank mistakenly sent statements to an accounting firm with which we had no connection. The firm forwarded them to us, with an invoice for $125 representing the time it took to “handle, review, and take appropriate action” to get the papers to us.

I told them to sue us, and find a good attorney who charges by the hour.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Every day I receive Google Alerts about my name, trademarks, and so forth. It’s nice to see where I’m quoted or where something I’ve written or recorded has spread.

However, once a week or more, I receive notice that some of my intellectual property is being offered by one of the rip-off sites. They operate under names (I’ll make them up) such as Windfall or Crypt or Access. They post the kind of notices that are supposed to make you wink and say “Joe sent me”: “We are not endorsing the breaking of the law, and you are downloading what is posted here by your own decision. If you find any material here improperly offered just notify us and we’ll remove it.”

Yes, and if you complain to the division of motor vehicles, they’ll move the lines more quickly.

Basically, people take a book or recording and upload it to the site where it’s offered for free and widely advertised (hence, my Google Alerts) to attract people to the paid advertising on the site. All types of proprietary, copyrighted, trademarked, intellectual property is, hence, ripped off and provided for free, from a wide assortment of authors and originators.

The truly astounding aspect (just spell my name correctly) is that the denizens who post and download boast about it, like kids hiding behind a garage dashing out to rob parking meters. A typical comment: “I was finally able to obtain this combination printed and audio work which I’m proud to contribute here to my colleagues in The Gutter.”

Here’s my quandary: If you want to make it in the consulting, coaching, or related professional services areas—offering services of value to corporations and individuals—how do you justify learning how to do that by stealing others’ works? How do you base your business of service on unethical and illegal acts? Behaviors don’t change. Aren’t you going to rip off the client (or the restaurant or the hotel) as well?

I even have a good idea about who some of the thieves are—apparently some folks who are angry with me and are retaliating in the only way they know how. They’re angry because they’re non-successful. So they steal things. Could there be a connection there?

I guess I’m innocently surprised that the major publishers don’t crack down on these sites (occasionally an attorney’s letter removes some of the material for a while) and/or that there’s no greater outrage on the web. But then I realized that these are very minor people engaged in very trivial work.

If they get their kicks out of stealing others’ material and bragging about it in order to save the $20 the original work cost at retail, there’s not much to do but feel sorry for them.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Very few good ideas are ever monetized. They either drown amongst a lot of other, mostly bad, ideas, or they emerge not fully metamorphosed—crystalline, fragile constructions that blow apart in a light breeze.

Here’s how to can turn a good idea into very good money (or at least know that it’s not such a good idea):

• Assess the size of the audience. Do you have sufficient mass so that even 1 percent of the total constitute significant business? The “world” is never your audience. Who really might have pragmatic applicability for your product?

• Assess the quality of your reach. Do you have a highly popular web site, lists of people who know you and trust you (or, better, who have purchased before), a blog, a newsletter, speaking appearance, alliance partners and so on so that your product can be projected?

• Assess the medium. Are you considering a form and format that is ideal for learning and use? Does the medium add or detract from your value? (Example: “Talking heads” on video rarely constitute popular products.)

• Assess your brand. Are you sufficiently well known that many people will purchase merely on the strength of your name and renown? (Too many unknown people think the easy way to money is with a product. Even good products languish when people don’t trust you and/or have never heard of you.)

• Assess your price point. People believe they get what the pay for. Are you maximizing your price based on perceived value? It’s as much work to make a $10,000 sale as a $1,000 sale, so why not make the former?  The key is profit, not numbers of sales.

• Assess whether this is long-term business potential. I believe that any new venture should reach six figures in a maximum of two years. Selling $25,000 the first year probably means much less than that in profit in terms of amortizing development and other costs, and the second year will probably bring even less.

• Assess your ego and motives. Are you doing this because others have done it, or because you want a “book” or a “CD” or just passive income, or are you really providing value to others in varying ways that extends their effectiveness?

• Assess the market. Is this fresh and new, or derivative? Do you really have new intellectual property, or is this the “Seventeen Habits of Teams Pursing Black Swans that Moved Cheese for the Soul”?

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

If you are having trouble with objections, watch your language. An objection is always a sign of interest, so it’s best to get them out in the open and deal with them effectively.

But never become defensive. “Reverse” the objection (as you’ll see below), provide a response you’ve prepared and practiced, and/or use some humor. Some examples of objection (O) and response (R):

O: You have no experience in our industry.

R: That’s exactly why you need me. You need an expert in process and structure, not content.

O: You’re a one-person operation.

R: That’s exactly why I’m good for you. You have my complete attention and priority, and you’re dealing with the principal at all times. I’ve very responsive and my fees don’t have to support a dozen offices and overhead.

O: We have a long-time, highly popular consultant.

R: When consultants work for clients for a long time they become quasi-employees with the same politics, biases, and self-interests. Wouldn’t an occasional fresh look help to validate your beliefs about the business?

O: Your approach seems like common sense.

R: I’ve found that most clients know what to do, why it’s important, and even how to do it. Yet things still don’t get done. If it’s common sense to improve that, then that’s what I’m about.

O: You don’t deal with organizations such as ours.

R: That’s right, I have best practices from diverse clients all over the map, and I can bring these to you for the first time. Who else from your own business can do that?

O: We want a strong discount and very lenient payment terms if we are to work with you.

R: Do you accept those demands from your customers? If not, why should I? If so, then you need me more than you think!

O: We don’t pay much because we offer you exposure within our business and with our membership and audiences.

R: Thanks, but I don’t need the practice! I would think you’d want to provide your constituency with the highest value.

O: I think we have things well in hand. We really don’t need any help.

R: Then why are you even talking  to me?

O: The timing isn’t right.

R: It’s not about being “right,” it’s about being effective to make the changes. It seems to me that when things are busiest here you need the changes the most.

O: That’s a higher price than I anticipated.

R: Forget the price, look at the return on your investment—it’s over 10:1! Where else can you invest that money and get that kind of return?

O: I understand what you’re proposing. When do we discuss how you’ll do it?

R: As soon as you hand me a check!

O: We’ve never hired consultants here, let  me warn you now.

R: You’d be surprised how many of my best clients today began our first meeting the same way!

Note: You’ll find The Language of the Sale on my website on the following page. Scroll down to the 11^th CD: http://summitconsulting.com/store/teleconference-2003-2004-info.php

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Socrates observed that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Perhaps the unexamined practice is not worth working.

How often are you willing and able to take a critical look at your own professional services practice (or most kinds of business)? Here are some suggestions to be your own best consultant:

• Are your revenues increasing by at least 10 percent a year? Why or why not?

• Is profit increasing by at least 10 or more percent per year? Why or why not?

• Are you ensuring that no single client represents more than 15 percent of your business?

• Is your name and/or brands better known by more prospects than a year ago?

• Have you created new intellectual property in the prior year?

• Have you published in magazines, newsletters, or newspapers—hard copy or electronic—in the past year?

• Have you received at least a dozen unsolicited, spontaneous referrals in the prior year?

• Are you being asked to speak and address groups at least monthly?

• Have you been able to increase your vacation time and discretionary time over the past year?

• Do you have contracted business that will pay fees over the next six months, and contacts going beyond that?

• Do you have no outstanding receivables older than 30 days?

• Are you submitting all invoices for fees and expense reimbursement as soon as possible?

• Do you create and analyze ideas for new products and/or services on a monthly basis? Do you implement at least one a quarter?

• Do you feel in charge of your life and organized, or disorganized and overwhelmed?

• Do you have a financial, liquid reserve equal to a year’s expenses?

• In all candor, would most people in your field and most of your clients and prospect see you as a current or emerging leader in the field?

Food for thought. Tough questions. If you don’t ask them and act on them, who will?

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

I’ve written for 25 years that you must be willing to abandon business at least every two years, because you can’t reach out unless you let go. Too many consultants lug around long-time clients like street people unwilling to jettison anything in the shopping cart that contains their life’s possessions.

A great many clients are dysfunctional: not profitable enough, too difficult, not interesting, too labor intense. You have to let them go in order to reach out to new, better, more profitable ones. Yet we cling with ferocity, holding on with our fingernails, as if all business is good business.

It isn’t.

The corollary  is that we must say “No” to some new business that comes our way because, well, all business is not good business. Troublesome prospects make terrible clients—they don’t magically improve. Why take on low profit, high labor clients? It’s usually because the consultant believes that it’s immoral, unethical, and illegal to turn down any paying business, no matter how frightening the warning signs and tocsins.

I’ve seen this trait in otherwise successful people, who are making well into seven figures. They’ve never lost the fear of being hungry, never achieved the stature in their own eyes of someone who is in demand and can afford to select ideal partners. These are the people who don’t enjoy their riches, because they’re seldom off  planes unless they’re in hotels.

The prospect should evaluate you, and you should evaluate the prospect. What are your decision criteria? Are you comfortable with the buyer? Do you see each other as peers? Is the work interesting? Can you accomplish a great deal without traveling? Will you have a significant impact?

Is the fee high and the labor low?

You have to say “No” on the way to “Yes.” Otherwise, you’ll be caught in the undergrowth of minor work and major worries. The sign of someone with high self-esteem and confidence in their abilities is the wherewithal to reject certain business.

Counterintuitive? Perhaps. But highly productive.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

I frequently  critique book ideas of people whom I mentor, and sometimes co-write books, in addition to my personal publishing. The early conversations often go like this:

Them: “I want to write a book about the importance of execution.”

Me: “The prospective readers already know the importance.”

Them: “Well, I’ll write about how to execute better.”

Me: “They know that, too.”

Them: “Then what should I write about?”
Me: “The discipline and accountability of execution.”

I’ve found that most senior managers (and, for that matter, most people), know why something is important. If they don’t, then some awareness heightening is needed.  They also know what to do about it. If not, they need to be exposed to options. They additionally know how to do it, in most circumstances. If they don’t or they can’t, then some skills training or coaching or experiences will take care of it.

But what people lack these days in the impetus, urgency, and rigor to actually put what they know into action. They claim combatting priorities, lack of time, disorganization, and so forth. But the reality is that the difference between getting something changed and not getting something changed is focus and discipline. These two traits seem to require exequies these days.

People have the tools to paint the garage or to find a painter to do it, but the job goes undone until the home owners’ association threatens to condemn the property. Why? Because we just “never get around to it.”

The company needs to change its brand, or enter a new market, or revamp the compensation system. There are enough smart people around, either internally or externally, to make those changes. But there is no champion, no special incentive or reward, and no real pressure to make it happen. Habitually, executives assign tasks but not accountability.

The last time I looked, over $62 billion was spend annually in the U.S. on training programs by corporate America (source: American Society for Training & Development). Yet virtually none of it was measured for effectiveness or return on investment. That’s because no one wants to know. Not the firms which don’t have the rigor to turn the training event into behavior change on the job. Not the training firms, selling boxes and software and workshops that are highly profitable and without any metrics at all in most cases. Not the participants, who are merely getting their “ticket stamped” on the way to being promoted or at least left alone by management.

Discipline requires these elements:

• Clarity of purpose and results intended.

• Metrics for success.

• Accountability to others who frequently review your progress.

• Tools and authority to overcome obstacles and resistance.

• Reward and recognition, even if self-imposed.

My dog, Koufax, apparently holds himself accountable to clear the yard of squirrels when he’s out there. He’s clear on what needs to be done; considers himself successful when the yard is rodent-free; possesses the requisite speed and ferocity; and is quite pleased with himself after a few minutes of work, after which he lies in the shade.

Whether yourself or your clients, it’s surprising how frequently the value isn’t in “how” but rather in “Here’s the deadline, don’t let us down.”

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

At the Castle Hill Inn in Newport, Rhode Island:

Left to right: Rurik MacKaiser (South Africa), Vera MacKaiser (South Africa), Constance Dierckx, Michelle Randall, Christina Dyer, Alex Goldfayn, Linda Walstencroft (Canada), Shawn Casemore (Canada), Dan Markovitz, David Fields; front: Alan Weiss

How do you know when you’ve developed a trusting relationship with a buyer?

• The buyer asks your advice on professional and/or personal issues.

• Your “pushback” is accepted in good grace and responded to.

• You both laugh genuinely at shared humor.

• Private and confidential concerns are shared (e.g., “I’m not convinced my call center manager is the best choice for the job”).

• You are asked probing and follow-up questions which help the buyer learn more about your approaches and values.

Once you’ve established a trusting relationship, you can pursue conceptual agreement about a project (objectives, metrics, value) which is the basis for a proposal. Without trust, the buyer won’t share objectives and any request for a  proposal is probably just subterfuge to get you out of the office.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

If you’re having difficulties in your consulting business, or want to grow considerably, there are six areas to examine that can immediately focus you IF you’re honest about the responses.

1. Defining yourself: Can you quickly, clearly, and articulately explain how others are better off after having done business with you? That should take about 15 seconds. (“Elevator speeches” are among the dumbest advice you’ll ever receive.)
2. Finding/attracting buyers: Are you regularly reaching the people who can write a check for your value, and are they regularly finding you? Is your marketing directed at the right people to begin with, and do you have sufficient appeal and visibility to attract them?
3. Creating relationships: Can you form trusting relationships with buyers relatively quickly (in one or two in-person meetings)? Will they share their objectives, concerns, and personal views with you, and actively seek out your advice and reactions? Do you have the business acumen and interpersonal skills to accomplish this?
4. Creating proposals: Do you have a template for a brief, highly focused proposal based on a large ROI for the buyer and equitable compensation for you? Can you readily provide options to escalate the scope of the project and fees? Are you using value-based fees?
5. Proposal acceptance: Are at least 80 percent of your proposals accepted without compromise or negotiation? Are they accepted within one week of submission? Are two-thirds accepted with higher options (option 2 or 3, not 1)?
6. Repeat/referral business: Are you receiving both solicited and unsolicited referrals from your buyer, and are you able to create additional business with the same buyer at least half the time?

Choose those that are causing you a problem and improve your skills or modify your behaviors. Find someone to help you if you don’t know what to do next. You have to be adept at ALL of these steps to dramatically grow a business.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

(The Dog Star is a symbol of power, will, and steadfastness of purpose, and exemplifies the One who has succeeded in bridging the lower and higher consciousness. – Astrological Definition)

Buddy Beagle makes it a point to mooch biscuits from any UPS drivers who happen to be carrying them. So I was surprised to see him run past the latest guy down to the truck. (Buddy matches the color scheme quite well, by the way.) He was desperately trying to make the leap up the steps and I corralled him before Koufax got into the act and actually went into the vehicle.

Then I realized that Buddy knows the guy carries dog treats, he delivers boxes to us, and the house always has dog treats. Ergo, this must be the dog treat truck! Why not go after the mother lode?

I like his reasoning and managed to save him from the disappointment of what was inside once he sniffed around. But it’s a good lesson. And there may have been some dog treats in there, who knows?

Why play around with low level people when you know there’s a buyer who can make quick decisions and can be dealt with directly and on a more strategic basis?

Why would you go to someone at your own level for advice when you can access people who are already doing what you aspire to do? (Marshall Goldsmith: “If you want to be a thought leader, hang out with thought leaders.”)

Why would you argue with a hotel desk clerk when there are managers you can access in very a brief time?

Why would you buy a knock-off when, if you work hard and have the courage to treat yourself well, you can have the real thing?

Why do you charge so little, when you can probably charge much more but have never even tried to do so?

Why do you let others control your life when you can just start saying, “No”?

We know that the truck isn’t full of dog biscuits, but it often has some boxes of them, because that is how we order them. All you have to do is get in and start sniffing around.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

1. Billing by the hour, day or other time unit.

2. Failing to find and establish a relationship with an economic buyer (someone who can sign a check).

3. Leading with methodology and techniques rather than results and value.

4. Being prescriptive in marketing and diagnostic in delivery, instead of the reverse.

5. Failure to make definitive next steps with specific dates and times.

6. Over-specializing and focusing on narrow markets.

7. Increasing labor intensity as business increases, instead of decreasing labor intensity.

How many of these plague you? The good news is that they are all remedial. The bad news is that they create a cul-de-sac for your practice and you often need someone to point to the exit.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

If you want to succeed, “show up”:

Don’t ask for directions that are clearly stated in the literature or notice you’ve received. Pay attention.

Get to the meeting early and get your materials and support prepared. Find a good seat to listen and to influence.

Don’t get up to get coffee when the organizer says, “We’re ready to begin.” Stop talking to the person next to you while others are talking. And don’t think no one notices you’re texting. Is there another reason to be staring at your lap?

No one is impressed that you’re talking and laughing with others as the meeting or event is beginning. Sit down and don’t have to be asked three times.

Stop being a prima donna. Don’t ask for the temperature to be changed if you’re the only one uncomfortable. Put something on or take something off. Unless you have a true allergy problem, stop asking for a special meal to be prepared for you. And never take the meal that everyone else had at lunch and ask for it to be delivered to you after the program reconvenes.

You have no right to order Internet service in a conference room at a cost to the organizer, nor to ask for additional power strips.

Don’t ask for private time when there are 50 people in the room who would like the same benefit.

Arrange your calls and email during lunch or after the meeting. Stop taking longer breaks to reply to calls that are less than urgent.

If there was preparatory work, do it. Turn it in on time.

Bring business cards, extra batteries, writing implements. Dress appropriately. Act as if the event wasn’t a last-minute surprise to you.

Ask questions, don’t merely answer them. Stop trying to be a faculty member or the second smartest person in the room.

Make your travel arrangements so that you get there before it starts and leave after it ends.

If you’re on a teleconference, either don’t use a speaker phone or mute it. Spoiling it for everyone else with ambient noise and irrelevant conversations should be a criminal offense.

Show some tolerance. Don’t lash out at the hotel or the organizer because an elevator is out of service or the restaurant doesn’t stock Muesli.

Follow up. Send a thank you. Acknowledge the experience. Be someone who people are eager to see again, not someone whose presence discourages others from coming back.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

I was asked by someone I’m mentoring whether or not to include a certain element in a workshop she is preparing.

“Why will participants need that?” I asked.

“I’ve been doing this for years,” she said.

“Yes, but why?” I persisted. “What does it provide for anyone?

The answer, of course, is “nothing.” It’s simply another “good idea,” or favored option, or comfortable activity. This is the alternative in search of an objective, the solution  in search of a problem.

Individuals and corporations do this all the time. It’s like the old Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland MGM musicals, where “Let’s put on a show!” was the answer to every challenge, from bankruptcy to poison ivy.

Why are you upgrading your software every two weeks? Why are you attending meetings? Why are you providing reports? Because all of that is truly needed by you and the client, or because you think it represents some kind of forward movement satisfying some need?

Why does your client schedule meetings, run customer surveys, require ten years of experience for certain positions? Because they represent qualitative improvements or because someone things they “make sense”? How many of those survey really tell you anything, or are actually used in terms of their feedback? How many of those meetings are really needed? How many of those ten years were qualitatively worthwhile?

If you want to streamline your life and work and improve your life balance, stop implementing alternatives when you don’t know why you’re doing it, when they don’t provide obvious improvement for you and/or others, and when you’ve never asked yourself if you may be better off not doing it.

Do you want to gain a day a week, a week a month, a month a year? Examine your activities and ask if you’re performing them to improve your or someone else’s condition, of if you’ve simply “always done it that way.” I can guarantee you that you’re doing a lot the client doesn’t even feel or sense, almost as atonement or out of guilt.

Let me give you my best therapeutic analysis: Stop it!

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

When I was touring the extraordinarily emotional Normandy beaches, I saw the evidence for the noncoms urging men forward, to keep moving, into the guns, and not to stop. Despite the withering fire, the soldiers were safer if they moved toward the obstacles and tried to engage. If they stayed where they were, they would eventually be killed by the unceasing havoc directed at them.

To paraphrase Will Rogers, if you’re simply content to be on the right track and sit there, a train will eventually come along and hit you.

Consultants seem to get stuck on the beach and not move toward clients. The “enemy fire” in this case doesn’t come from the prospect, but from their own poor perceptions. They hesitate if there is an objection, instead of seizing it as an opportunity. They focus on ultra-protection and 26 technology backups instead of common sense and having one good one. (If the world explodes, it really doesn’t matter if backups of your files are circling Alpha Centauri awaiting you.)

No one told the troops on the beach to get ready. They told them to point their guns forward and start firing as they headed in that direction—over obstacles, up hills, and into close combat.

You don’t engage prospects by email, nor close business on the phone. You can’t spend hours on social media platforms, digging foxholes, and actually claim you’re marketing to corporate buyers. You can talk forever about theoretical “alliances” and “collaborations,” make lists, and attend every trade association conference in the world to exchange techniques with your peers, and you’d still be on the beach.

Get off the beach. Follow me. Ask for referrals daily. Get in touch with your past clients. Put proposals in front of buyers within 24 hours of your meeting. Don’t deal with non-buyers (who live on the beach offering sand dunes for protection and who are scared out of their minds themselves). Aggressively write, speak, and network. Broaden your appeal (get more weapons) and abandon the ridiculous mentality that you should specialize in an age of diverse needs.

The soldiers didn’t get ready on the beach, and they weren’t really ready for what they faced. They could have stopped to check their gear or clean their guns or rearrange their equipment. They didn’t. They charged.

Get off the beach. Those are prospects up there on the heights, and the tide is rising behind you.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

I’m in London running the Million Dollar Consulting® College. One of the participants, Mark Donovan, whom I’ve known for years, coined the phrase “the reluctant consultant,” referring to people who consult because others ask them and refer clients to them.

I love the phrase, because it’s how I started my career, with major contracts from people who knew me or knew of me and asked if I’d help them out. Once I discovered that this was the career for me, I became very aggressive about finding new and better ways to market and deliver with maximum benefit to the client, large margins, and minimum labor intensity.

Too many people remain “reluctant consultants,” in that they wait for the phone to ring or the next email to arrive. But if this is to be an occupation and not an avocation, you must reach out assertively. That means that your mental set must not be, “I hate to bother people trying to sell them something,” but rather, “I have tremendous value and it’s incumbent upon me to provide it for as many people as I can.”

I’m intrigued by the coy politicians who claim they aren’t interested in running for an office but wait to be cajoled, persuaded, and drafted. They usually aren’t the ultimate winner. They pose as reluctant canddiates. People prefer to seek firm leadership and a desire to serve. Similarly, a consultant who sees this as a professional calling will assertively reach out and establish a brand, thought leadership, and become an object of interest.

There are reluctant consultants who are somewhat successful and paying the bills. But eventually they run out of people who are willing to beseech them to help. And they not so reluctantly leave the profession when business disappears and they have no means to stimulate new business.

Be forceful and assertive. I don’t want a reluctant doctor, or a reluctant lawyer, or a reluctant chef. I want people who are passionate about their work to the extent they are eager to approach me with their value.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Language to Use When the Buyer Asks About Fees

• I have no idea, but I can give you some options and ranges as soon as tomorrow if I can ask you a few questions now.

• It would be unfair to you for me to cite any fee without understanding your needs and the scope of your expectations. I want to consider what I can do to most effectively minimize your investment while maximizing your return on it.

• Let’s look at value and impact, to see if the project makes sense to you. If so, we can talk about fees in that context.

• I don’t have fee schedules or time-based rates, because they’re unethical. After all, you’re best served by a quick solution, but a time-based consultant is best served by a slow solution. We should be partners, not competitors.

• I realize that past consultants have probably charged you by the hour or day, and that’s why you need me at this point.

• My fees are based on my contribution to the results you agree will be generated by this project, with a dramatic return on investment for you and equitable compensation for me.

• You’re not going to make a decision this afternoon, and I’ll have the complete proposal in front of you by tomorrow. You’ll be able to see your options in the context of the entire project that quickly.

• I don’t provide discounts for “exposure” or to “get in the door.” Do you do that with your customers? If you don’t, why would I? If you do, then you need me more than you can imagine!

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

When you enter a buyer’s office for the first time, here are some useful behaviors to discipline yourself to follow. They’ll help you understand the person, the environment, and your own actions, as well as calm you down if needed.

1. Look around.

What is the office like? Large or small? Is there comfortable seating or merely a desk and chairs? Are there mementoes, photos, and awards, or is the place institutional and sterile? Is it neat or does it look like the aftermath of a shipwreck? This will tell you a lot about the person with whom you’re meeting (assuming it’s the buyer’s personal office!).

2. Shake hands firmly and smile.

Press the hand you’re offered with equal pressure back, whether male or female. Smile when you repeat the other person’s name and your own. If the other person says, “I’m Jane Anderson,” it’s fine to say, “Nice to meet you, Jane.” But if she says, “I’m Dr. Anderson,” then your reply is, “Nice to meet you, Dr. Anderson.” If she says, “Dr. Joan Anderson,” reply with “Dr. Anderson” and see if she says, “Please call me Joan” or not. I always ask people to call me “Alan.”

3. Be seated quickly.

Don’t unpack as if you’re checking into a Ritz-Carlton. You should have left any coats, baggage, computer cases, and mining equipment with the secretary or the receptionist (or in your car or limo). Sit where indicated by your host, take out something with which to take notes, and start listening carefully. (Note: Don’t accept the offer of refreshments, unless you’ve just arrived from the Gobi Desert. Trying to balance coffee, or figure out where to place a tea bag, or wait for the assistant’s interruption, and so forth, just get in the way. You don’t go to a coffee shop to build business, and you don’t go to a business meeting for coffee.)

4. Follow the buyer’s lead.

There’s a huge difference among, “How can I help you today?” and “What can you do for me?” and “Tell me something about yourself and how you’ve come to me.” Answer what you’re asked, but briefly. Tell the buyer what the buyer needs to know, not everything that you know (“I was born in Madagascar….”) You’ve now been able to observe the office, your seating arrangements, body language, and opening conversation, all in about 60 seconds.

5. Take the initiative.

Once pleasantries are briefly exchanged (which could be 30 seconds or five minutes), say something like this: “Both of us appreciate the need to make the best use of our time, so why don’t we set a brief agenda? I have three items I’d like to discuss, and I’d like to hear what your expectations are, and then we can utilize our time accordingly. I think you said we have 45 minutes, is that still the case?” This exchange immediately establishes you as a peer and allows you to actually lead the discussion and avoid becoming a performing seal. Make sure you know what your minimum and maximum objectives are (min/max) for that meeting.

6. Take notes.

Don’t trust your memory, but be judicious. I’ve seen people write everything down as if they’re auditioning for a court reporter’s position. Just note the salient points for your purposes of exploring a potential partnership. I find this easiest to do with a pen and paper, not electronic pecking. Ask for clarification when needed, and paraphrase and summarize regularly.

7. Watch for changes in behavior or language.

The buyer is going to do one of only three things: Stay the same as when you arrived; become less cordial and communicative; become more cordial and communicative. You want the last. Make mid-course corrections by observing what, if any, changes are transpiring. “You seem more enthusiastic about this last point. Should I infer this is your top priority?”

8. Create definitive next steps.

Building trusting relationships takes time. But the time can be shortened if there are clear and agreed upon actions and dates. Never accept “Let me get back to you,” or “Call me in a couple of weeks,” or “I’ll need to get some more information for our next conversation.” Make definite times and dates while you’re sitting there.

Never overstay your time unless explicitly invited to do so and it’s necessary for your purposes. It’s always fine to leave early once the mission (min/max) has been accomplished.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Some consultants I coach and mentor (and many I observe) become “overwhelmed.” The are figuratively (or literally?) overcome by being overcome. The don’t know where to start to begin the journey out.

Here are some tips:

• Stop putting things off and procrastinating. Choose two or three times a day to clear your email, and get rid of it. Respond or file  or delete. But get it off your system. Don’t plan to “get to it later.”

• Stop helping people for free. Help people who pay you to help them. If you want to do pro bono work, do it for a charity you believe in once a month. If you don’t value your help, no one else will, and more people will keep asking you for free advice.

• Minimize social media time. It’s not marketing to the corporate market, and it’s not important for your personal development. If it’s recreationally important, allot  30 minutes a day for it.

• Reconcile your financial needs. Money concerns completely undermine the ability to be confident, make decisions, and take risks. Get a loan, reduce expenses, pursue more business. But stop worrying about money or nothing will work for you. Use credit, that’s what it’s for. Who’s a better risk than you?

• Drop leeches and energy suckers, and focus on positive family, friends, and colleagues. Don’t allow others to add to your sense of overwhelm. There are people who do nothing but, and they are inferiors crying in the night rather than trying to get better during the day.

• Organize yourself. Clean up your office and your calendar. Find a device (I recommend physical aids such as Filofax) to order your universe and control your time. Plan what you have to do and work backwards in small chunks, e.g., from a workshop to its design and its materials, or an article to three periods of writing.

• Ask for help. Talk to people you trust, tell them honestly where you are and listen to their advice.

You don’t want to be hurled away by the gale. You want to lean into the wind.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

There is a trend of incredible temerity and lack of ethics gripping seemingly desperate speakers and consultants. They want their moment in the sun, their Warholian 15 minutes, no matter what. Talent doesn’t matter, value isn’t a consideration. It’s a Kardashian moment.

Recently, a trainer I hadn’t spoken with in over a decade wrote me and asked if she could send me a copy of her new book. I said she could, and I received an uninteresting, uninspiring, self-published book that I tossed out. A month later, she sent another note around, obviously to a large group of which I was a part. She requested the following: “You’ve received my book, and now I’d like you to go to Amazon and write a five-star, positive review. Please do this even if you didn’t like the book. I greatly appreciate your help in trying to make this launch a great success.”

I am not making this up. I should lie about her product so that she can dupe more people while she has a nanosecond in the limelight. Really?

Every day I get requests from people who want me to vote for them in some Internet contest about being a great author, or having a great web site, or being great at asking for votes about being great. When I wrote back to one woman that I had no idea who she was, she told me that she had been in a session I ran seven years ago, in a group of 50. Well, I’m clearly qualified to comment on her new cartoon book about working mothers, right?

Have you seen the book solicitations where you’ll receive “thousands of dollars” of bonus material if you buy the $24 book? Most of the bonus stuff is from people I’ve never heard of offering “tip sheets” of a few worthless ideas which they “value” at $300! (Disclaimer: I know this because I recently agreed to do this for a respected author, and I provided one of my teleconference downloads which sells on my site for $100. When I was offered a view of the total package, I found scores of people, only a few of whom were of the author’s caliber, some offering “invaluable” manuals and $1,000 worth of ideas. It was painful, and I thought unnecessary for this person’s very good book. These others wanted to have their names involved. I learned my lesson.)

Have we come to an age where we need these kind of faux inducements to attract people, where value and repute alone are not enough? Is a better ranking on Amazon worth conspiracy and deception?

I have a book coming out next month from John Wiley & Sons, The Consulting Bible. For $25 you just get the book, nothing else. Well, maybe something else: You get the ideas, models, techniques, and practical application to vastly improve your business. How’s that for a return on investment?

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Counterintuitively, you often get things done with less labor and faster when you do them yourself.

Case in point: I’ve talked to legions of “virtual assistants” who are neither virtual nor of assistance. Here’s the latest one: “Maureen has asked me to call you to get copies of invoices from 2008. They should be in the amounts of $6,000 and $100.”

“Who’s Maureen, and what were they for and why does she need them?”

“She worked with you back then, apparently, Maureen Smith, and that’s all the information I have.”

I told her to have Maureen pick up the phone and call me herself and, what do you know, when she did we cleared things up in one minute and I sent what she needed. Too many consultants believe that the trappings of the profession are more important than the outcomes, so a staff is required, and formal offices, and complex phone systems with lengthy messages, and software that tells you they are going to call you for your scheduled meeting in six days, four hours, thirty-six seconds, and a quark.

I don’t like to deal with “middlemen,” and I don’t like the implication that someone else’s time is just so valuable compared to mine that they can assign their end of the accountability to someone else to deal with me. If you want something rapidly, pick up the phone and call. (I wrote a guy off, for whom I had done countless favors out of generosity and good will, when he stopped talking to me—having called me over in a hotel lobby—to take a call without even looking at who was on the other end. He held his finger up in the “one minute” gesture, and I turned and walked away in the  “sayonara” gesture.)

If your time is really so valuable, why are you wasting so much of it on Facebook?!

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

There was a group of ducks under our birdfeeder today. The ground and the lake are covered with snow, and a bunch of more courageous ducks walked or flew into the rear of our property and joined the birds and squirrels around the feeders. No one seemed to care, and the ducks ate their fill, looking pretty funny with their beaks covered in snow, but also quite content.

The instigation for this is that my morning feeding had been consumed, and the ducks had run out of food. So they left where they were and went to where the food is. Some had the wisdom to do this, and others had the common sense to follow. The preponderance (we draw about 300 ducks in the winter) sat around on the pond looking at where the food used to be.

Consultants have to go where the food is. Willy Sutton robbed banks because “that’s where the money was.” We have to go where the business is.

Where is that likely to be?

• Strong, successful organizations which can invest in their own growth and are confident enough to bring in outsiders who may possess more knowledge than they have in given areas.

• High growth organizations, where there is a high tolerance for risk and rapid growth demands new ideas and courage.

• Organizations where you’ve worked before with sterling results and continuing relationships.

• Wider and wider geographic ranges, where technology and common needs can offset the obstacles of distance, and a “one-world” economic outlook is prevalent.

What you can’t do is zealously adhere to your current methodology, geography, or contacts. You must be willing to change with the times. You may be the finest Radio Shack Color Computer expert extant, but I wouldn’t be putting in additional phone lines to handle the crowds if I were you.

Go where the food is. The conditions might be different, the environment novel, the clients surprising. But the money will be accepted by the bank. You’ll still be a duck, but you’ll be leading the flock.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

(The Dog Star is a symbol of power, will, and steadfastness of purpose, and exemplifies the One who has succeeded in bridging the lower and higher consciousness. – Astrological Definition)

I’m writing in my den on Saturday and gaze out the window to find an example, and to my shock see our eagle below me in the back yard on the ground. He’s looking around as if he belongs on a gold piece. Beneath him I see something. When I pick up my binoculars, I can see he’s caught a squirrel. In the next minute he flies off. I’m stunned.

I immediately issue orders (I fancy myself in command of a battleship) that Buddy Beagle is not to be allowed out without Koufax, our German shepherd. This would rarely happen in any rate in pack behavior, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

With that, my daughter, who was visiting for the weekend, picks up a lap top computer and finds that an eagle’s lifting power is only about 3-4 pounds. That’s safely (to be kind) below Buddy’s fighting weight, since he’s a rather substantial beagle, coming in at about 24 pounds.

None of this should have surprised me since, watching Koufax race after a squirrel himself one day, I immediately found out on my computer that his top speed was about 32 MPH for limited durations.

If we can find these things out within a minute with the right access, why can’t consultants find out about their prospects, clients, referrals, competition, and so forth with equal ease and immediacy? I’ll tell you why—because they often don’t bother to identify who those people are. And that’s really not hard, if you just discipline yourself to do it.

In fact, it’s a lot harder trying to lift Buddy Beagle.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

I tell every consultant whom I mentor to assume the client is “healthy.” That is, the client isn’t “damaged” until and unless you see evidence that the client is the problem: screaming at subordinates, lying to colleagues, cheating on expenses. In my experience, the client being the problem occurs in a small minority of cases, yet too many consultants assume the person smart enough to bring them in to help is also dumb enough to be setting his own pants on fire.

Having established that, this column is for all of you who feel you are subordinate to your client; that common sense pales against complex models; and that a large organization’s sophistication dwarfs your own.

My case: Captain Owen Honors of the United States Navy, former commander of the U.S.S. Enterprise, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, independently capable of destroying a major part of the world.

We only have about a dozen of these behemoths, so only a dozen people are commanding them at any one time. Quite a rare club. It makes the Senate seem like an open house, and the House look like a Boston bar.

Captain Honors is a product of a great education (the Naval Academy), strict military discipline (the Navy is perhaps the most rigid and doctrinaire of all the services), and extreme competition (there are fewer and fewer capital chips to command). He served as executive officer of the Enterprise, and was promoted to command in May, about to set sail on deployment, until his unfortunate, bigoted, and sophomoric videos were inevitably leaked.

There are many saying he’s been sacrificed on the alter of political correctness. But another and prevailing view is that officers of any rank simply shouldn’t act that way. (It almost seems like the residue of an age of YouTube and Facebook, when there are no restrictions on what anyone chooses to say at any time to anyone.) It’s hard to imagine the legendary Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, whose name is given to an entire class of these huge carriers, conducting himself in this manner or tolerating such conduct from his officers.

Captain Honors is one in twelve, perhaps. What I’m telling you is that just because someone has a large office, a huge paycheck, and hordes of subordinates doesn’t mean that the individual is any smarter or more sophisticated than you. In small businesses, we’ve seen inventive and risk taking people build firms which they were atrocious at managing. In large businesses, we’ve seen people ascend the hierarchical ladder through connections, politics, and luck. It happens.

Don’t be intimidated by your client’s background or wealth. Simply treat the client as an  equal—a peer—unless you see evidence that proves otherwise. Maintain command of your own ship, and earn the respect that you’re due from clients and colleagues.

That will keep you safe and strong even when you have to sail into harm’s way.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

My first Alan’s Friday Wrap™ podcast in on Friday of this week. These are weekly, with a monthly video, and a free, full-day conference on May 9 in Las Vegas. You can register at any time, and you’ll always have full access to the archives. Get a weekly boost in what’s going to be a great year, and why not be here from the very beginning? You can find it here:

http://summitconsulting.com/seminars/friday%20wrap.php

I am offering a new, FREE, monthly newsletter for those interested in building their professional consulting, speaking, and related professional services careers. There is no obligation of any kind, and your name and email address will never be used for any other purpose, sold, rented, or shared in any manner.

This is one of my gestures to repay the professions that have been so good to me. You’ll find new intellectual property, a case study, and some frequently asked questions answered. (You’re welcome to submit your own.)

I’ve written more books on solo and small firm consulting than anyone else. I invite you to receive this brief newsletter every month to examine ideas that can further improve our profession and your business.

You can subscribe and read the first edition here:

http://summitconsulting.com/million-dollar-consulting-mindset/

Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2011,

Alan Weiss

My library is supposed to be for quiet contemplation. But the girls like to share Koufax’s library dog bed. He seems to enjoy the company.

For decades, politicians have used a slick trick to try to support their positions. They’ll say, “Just yesterday, a druggist in Charlotte, North Carolina asked me when we’ll change health care reimbursement, because he’s going to have to close his business this year if things don’t change.”

Even if the story is true (always questionable), it’s a single incident, not representing “the American people,” and could be the result of the pharmacist’s poor business practices or the big pharmacy chain opening down the block.

Consultants come to me with bizarre plans, justifying them with this same practice: generalizing from a specific. “I want to offer a dancing class for chief executives which will combine strategy work with physical fitness,” I’ll be told. And then: “I was talking to a retired small business owner on an airplane, and she told me after a few drinks that it was a great idea, so I think I’m on to something.”

Conversely, someone will complete a highly successful workshop delivery and be depressed because one person in 20 said on a feedback form, “I didn’t like your sense of humor,” or, “What are you thinking, wearing those shoes?”

Never take action or change your behavior based on a single scrap of feedback. (Most unsolicited feedback is meant to benefit the sender, not the recipient.) Never scrap or implement an idea based on a lonely, single sample. And by all means, elicit feedback from people who know how to do what you want to do and have done it successfully and repeatedly.

I’m very confident about this advice, because I ran it by a wrong number on the phone this morning, and he said it made a lot of sense just before he hung up.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Here’s the opening of the lead story in today’s Wall Street Journal:

“Surging global demand for American soybeans, cars, diesel engines and even artwork and antiques has pushed U.S. exports to a level not seen since before the financial crisis, boosting prospects for domestic economic growth.

“A 3.2% surge in exports in October, together with a 0.5% drop in imports, sent the U.S. trade deficit to a nine-month low of $38.7 billion, the Commerce Department said Friday. The export gains were broad-based, reflecting stronger sales abroad in industrial materials, food, autos and a host of other categories.”

2011 can be a great year for professional services providers, if:

• We focus on the positive, good news that is occurring.

• We avoid economic pessimism and pessimists.

• We adopt an abundance mentality, not a poverty mentality.

• We recognize we’re in control of our own fate, not “victims” of someone or something else.

Here’s your 2011 mindset: “I have tremendous value which improves people’s performance and lives. I am remiss if I don’t assertively attempt to bring that value to everyone who might benefit from it.”

It’s that simple.

Some of my observations:

• Technology will move from implementation alternative to strategic factor. That is, technological potential will determine products, services, and relationships, and not merely serve as after-the-fact routes for them.

• Work will bifurcate into the blazingly simple (basic services, such as serving coffee, driving a bus, cooking basic meals) and the increasingly complex. Most jobs will require higher and higher cognitive abilities as options increase and responses have considerably different qualities of result.

• Globalization and it’s attendant multiculturalism will continue to affect more and more organizations, down to the “mom and pop” small business. Serious societal problems will occur in Europe, where birth rates aren’t replacing deaths and imported labor is mandatory, yet assimilation has never been a strong point.

• Insourcing will grow, as organizations are no longer willing to trade the lower costs of overseas call centers, for example, for the increasing customer dissatisfaction and abandonment due to the largely terrible service provided offshore. The “return on customer service” will be a priority.

• Volunteerism will grow in response to financial cutbacks from organizations and government sources. This will include both individual efforts and organizations “loaning” talent to certain causes and groups.

• The stock market will go up substantially over the year (as will profits) as people accept the fact that we have successfully weathered some of the worst conditions imaginable over the past couple of years, and the recovery is simply awaiting more belief.

• Human resources and training functions will continue to attenuate, with their transactional work given to external specialists and the transformational work vested either in line operations or external consultants.

• The “value proposition” of organizations will become more important in consumers’ decisions about spending. Branding will evolve to embrace both business and social values.

• Value will be a factor of customer loyalty and tangible programs to retain customers and gain referral business. Social media platforms will continue to be tangential to “high touch” tactics, especially by retailers. (According to Consultants News from Kennedy Consulting, Peterborough, NH, “Customers enrolled in traditional loyalty programs outspend social media users by a factor of 10 or more.”)

• The growing gap in society will be a knowledge gap, which will impact work acquisition and accumulation of wealth. There will be a focused, new emphasis on education being high quality and affordable for all.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

I’m presenting in Key West and a very common question is, “How do I create credibility when I don’t have a commercially published book?”

While I use book publishing as a key marketing tool, it’s not the sole route to credibility. Here are some techniques to consider to create credibility with any true buyer:

• Position papers (“white papers”) on subjects related to your value proposition which are provocative, innovative, and stimulating.

• Client testimonials, especially on video, with “name, rank, and serial number,” and specifics of your help. These can be 60 seconds or less and needn’t be professionally shot.

• Client lists. (You can generally use a client name without permission, so long as the client hasn’t prohibited it. You can’t use a client logo without permission, however. See your attorney if you’re unsure. I’m obviously not an attorney, though I did attend law school for two days.)

• Typical client results. You don’t have to be specific about the client, but what types of results can a prospect expect, e.g., reduced attrition, market share growth, reduced stress. Do NOT use your methodology here, but your results.

• Case studies. Three paragraphs, in this order: Situation (What were the circumstances that demanded your assistance?) Intervention (What methodology did you use to resolve the issue?) Resolution (What was the degree of improved client condition that resulted?)

• Mixed media. Brief videos of you explaining your approaches, products, and services help to personalize the site and create credibility in your passion and explanations. Downloadable audio which people can listen to in other venues and with the ease they prefer.

• Blogging regularly (at least three times a week) using mixed media. Focus on your value proposition and demonstrate that you’re a thought leader.

• Newsletters that are brief and pithy, targeted at your highest potential audience and offering value in every issue. These must be regular and consistent.

• Appearing regularly in public at conferences and events, with your name and photo in the brochure and agenda.

• Press releases on new ideas, accolades, and experiences that you disseminate electronically (today you don’t need the traditional medial to print your releases).

• Metaphors and analogies which you create about your intellectual property to make it memorable (“achieve escape velocity”).

You get the idea. Your credibility will be enhanced with value, frequency, consistency, memorablity, and originality.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All right reserved.

There is not a thing wrong with selling products in conjunction with a speaking engagement. Here are some tips I’ve found effective:

•        Give one of your products away while on the platform. I ask for a volunteer, reward them with “any book on my table over there,” and move on. You can also hold the book or tape up and present it at the moment.

•        Have the introducer mention your products and how to acquire them while at the conference. It’s a good idea to include that “Ms. Jones has kindly provided a 15-percent discount to conference participants while she is here.”

•        If there is a convention bookstore, arrange to have your products displayed with you advertised as a featured speaker.

•        Have someone staff your table. Never do this yourself. I try never to exchange products for money personally. If you need someone from the association, facility, or client, make arrangements to provide them with a commission or a flat fee.

•         Accept all major credit cards. This can be arranged easily through your local bank or American Express.

•         Create a “package” price, for which someone can purchase every product on the table at a discount. If it’s not there, no one can take advantage of it. If it is there, someone will almost always do it, and you get a several-hundred-dollar sale from one person.

•        Give every visitor to the table a catalog of your products, whether they purchase or not. You may want to stamp the conference or client name on them and indicate that there is an XX-percent discount in effect for 30 days.

•         Present one set of your products as a gift to the trade association library, client library, or a charity supported by the client.

•        Offer to stay and sign books.

Excerpted from Million Dollar Speaking (McGraw-Hill, 2010).

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Language to generate referrals in various stages of client interaction (From my new book, Million Dollar Referrals from McGraw-Hill, which will be released in mid-2011.)

New Clients, Project Launching

• “As we move forward, it’s common for me to request referrals from my client partners, since that is the source of most of my business. I hope you’ll consider agreeing to do that when the time is right.”

• “Referrals are the ‘coinage of my realm’ in this business, and I’m going to work very hard to maximize your project’s outcomes so that you’ll be very comfortable is providing these at the right point.”

• “It’s very early, but my experience is that it’s not uncommon for my clients to want to share their results with others. I want to assure you that when you provide referrals, and if I accept their business, you will always have my highest priority and I would never endanger that.”

• “Since you and I actually met through a referral, you know how effective that is for others who for whom we both believe I may be a good ‘fit.’ I’m happy to discuss that with you if you are ever questioned about our work together.”

• If you encounter people inside or outside of the organization whom you believe could benefit from my help, I’d be happy to be of further service to you and to them.”

Existing Clients, Project Underway

• “As we’ve progressed, I’ve received some indirect inquiries from some of your colleagues. Would you be comfortable introducing me?”

• “Would it make sense to approach the other units which have relationships to our project to see if they are amenable to becoming part of it?”

• “When the project began, I mentioned the potential of referrals from you to people who might also benefit from this value. While it may be premature to approach them, it’s probably a good time to understand who they may be.”

• “Are there people outside of the organization with whom you’d like me to share some of these approaches?”

• “Who else within the organization do you think I should be talking to as this project approaches completion?”

Existing Clients, Project Concluding

• “As I mentioned at the outset and along the way, referrals are the lifeblood of my business. To whom would you be willing to introduce me at this point?”

• “While we’re still together but before this project concludes soon, can you suggest who else I should be talking to here for similar benefits?”

• “If you had to choose three names of people who might be interested in this type of value, which would they be?”

• “It seems to me there are three logical continuation points for me, do you agree, and would you introduce me to your counterparts?”

• “You had mentioned several people whom I should meet when the time is right. Are you prepared to introduce me at this point?”

Past Clients, Projects Concluded

• “I thought I’d contact you to provide some things which might be of interest, up date you on my work, and ask if you have anyone whom you would recommend I contact.”

• “Looking back to our project’s results, and forward to what’s likely in the future, whom would you recommend I be contacting in your organization to provide similar value?”

• “Have you met or considered anyone in your professional circles outside the organization for whom an introduction would be a win/win/win dynamic?”

• “I’m making one of my quarterly calls to see how you’re doing and inquire as to whether you might have some people to recommend to me.”

• “I’ve thought of some people with whom it might make sense to work, and I was wondering if you had a relationship with any of them and might agree to introduce me.”

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

When you’re with a client, before you depart, try to:

• Summarize progress and current status.

• Have client agree with positive results to date.

• Commit to his or her accountabilities in near-term.

• Agree on time and date for next discussion between you.

• Secure follow-up on any internal issues that need action/correction.

• Acquire referrals (if you’re more than half-way through the project).

• Provide value about non-project and peripheral issues.

• Personally see all key stakeholders who are present.

• Find out if anyone is waiting for anything from you.

• Seek feedback on any new initiatives you’re considering (e.g., new product or teleconference).

• Thank any assistants or secretaries who have been of help.

• Observe the environment for any changes.

• Raise status on any overdue fee or expense reimbursement payments.

• Learn of any key changes in the company’s condition (e.g., earnings, attrition, technology, etc.).

• Be seen by as many people as possible, including potential buyers.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

I tried my best when there was still time (http://www.contrarianconsulting.com/my-report-to-the-president/) right on this site, but you just wouldn’t take my advice. Now look at what’s happened.

It’s never too late. Meet people in the aisle (in the middle), as President Clinton did after mid-term elections. Don’t put your back to the wall and say things like “health care legislation will not be reversed.” Demonstrate that you’re willing to reach out, that you’ve listened, that you’re emotionally involved, not detached. This isn’t a classroom exercise.

For most of us, it’s a life exercise.

You didn’t act well in Providence (http://www.contrarianconsulting.com/a-man-of-which-people/) and you managed to get the non-Democratic governor you wanted in Rhode Island, the smallest state, while losing most of the country. You don’t tell people who spent $15,000 to have dinner with you that you’re leaving them after 20 minutes to go “walk the dog.” I don’t even tell people that about Koufax, and he puts your dog to shame. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)

If you are humbled, as you claim, don’t say it, manifest it. You can do a lot in two more years. Just don’t waste them running for office. Run to make things right given what you’re hearing, and you’ll find yourself back in office.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

I’ve heard from too many consultants that they “immediately” realize that the buyer is the problem.

“How can I deal with the fact that the person who wants the problem fixed is the cause of it?” I’m asked with frighteningly little time elapsed after an initial meeting. “I could see she was not up to the job,” the consultant will lament, or “I saw him as a High D4 suppressive blue in a Low I dominant red world.”

On top of that, the social media platforms seem to place a premium on armchair psychologists who tell you exactly what’s wrong with you for committing the grave sin of not conforming to their private view of the world. “You’re not a team player,” “You’re obsessed with wealth,” “You’re out of touch.”

Well, show me the evidence, other than your own self-doubts and internal anger.

Your buyer was smart enough to want to talk to you, and even hire you. How damaged can he or she be?

NEVER proceed out of the starting blocks with the belief (or even likely cause) that someone else is damaged. And never equate “damage” with holding differing views from your own. That’s a difference of opinion, not a DNA deficit.

Focus on observed behavior and evidence in the environment. Does someone cut off others before they can finish a sentence? Do they scoff and make jokes at others’ expense? Or do they merely provide candid feedback, factually, which others with thin skins and fragile egos find intimidating or hostile?

I’ve found my share of buyers who WERE, indeed, the problem, such as the small business owner who constantly ignored his own managers and gave contradictory directions to front line workers which no one else knew about at the time. I’ve seen senior people smoking in front of “no smoking” signs, and others openly abusing people in meetings.

But most of the time, the buyer isn’t damaged. He or she may be unaware, or unskilled, or unpopular, but those are different conditions. When you jump to a cause, you’ve eliminated all other possibilities, and when you do that in the first four minutes, you’ve pretty much undermined your own abilities and potential value.

So, hold up. Wait and see. Observe behavior. Talk to people. If the buyer is part of the problem you’ll have plenty of time to deal with it because the buyer probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon. But if you prematurely reach that conclusion and you’re wrong, you’ll be going somewhere more rapidly than you expected.

Out the door.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

These are some observations that influence our marketing approaches which I presented at our 12^th Mentor Summit at Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island this week.

1. Volatility reigns. For the foreseeable future, volatility with be the new “normal.” Use it to create market advantage. Convince clients that “this, too, will pass” is no longer relevant, and that their best bet is to exploit the volatility. Picture yourself in a storm, helping your clients to safely navigate. That means you need the courage and navigational skills yourself, and you’d better get accustomed to high degrees of ambiguity.

2. Perceptions are malleable. We create others’ perceptions of us in three ways: Our behaviors are far more influential than anything we write or say; the content of our communication creates powerful impressions; and the process of how we communicate creates beliefs and expectations about us. This is happening by default in any case, so we might as well become adept at creating the perceptions most favorable for us.

3. Generational demographics are less important than the quality and affluence of your target market. I’m not a big believer in big labels, like Gen X, “the greatest generation,” “boomers,” and so on. I cling to the humble notion that people are individuals nor herd animals. Find the target market which has the most volition and ability to purchase your services, and penetrate it. I suspect that in most cases it will be a generational cross-section.

4. Increasingly narcissistic individuals. In an age when everyone believes their latest hair cut, meal, and lint removal belong on twelve social media platforms, they expect an almost nihilistic freedom to gain attention: talking back to motion picture screens, screaming on cell phones in public, demanding attention and instant gratification. There is increasing “noise” and commensurate lowered attention in the environment. You need to create differentiation in order to be heard.

5. Wholesale and retail markets are overlapping. The individual (retail) market includes the owners of small businesses who need personal help, and individuals in large organizations who require individualized approaches. The organizational (wholesale) market includes large groups of individuals who gather together in communities, professional associations and other entities representing common interests. Unlike past times, both can rise or fall concurrently. It is no longer a hydraulic system.

6. Intellectual property is now instantly transportable globally. Your appeal through ideas and innovation can find acceptance quickly in highly diverse markets. You need to be fearless about spreading it—protect it intelligently, but don’t allow the risk of unethical people stealing a portion of it to dissuade you from pursuing huge markets.

7. Not investing in self-development is like not changing the oil in your car. Just as you should schedule vacations far ahead of time and schedule work around them, so too should you schedule vital self-development and make it sacrosanct. Otherwise, the tendency is to sacrifice your personal development when business and personal priorities conflict.

8. Learning integration is key, not “information hoarding.” Just as collecting business cards (instead of initiating relationships) is a dumb way to network, simply gathering and storing information is generally useless. Computer files filled with saved emails, references, “research,” and articles are not helpful unless the information can be readily accessed at the right time for the proper purpose. In that case, it becomes knowledge.

9. What is your “fresh air” source? What devices are you using to inject new ideas, opinions, techniques, and alternatives into your life? If you never change (or at least add to) your acquaintances, friends, and colleagues, you’re going to find yourself in a stuffy, poorly ventilated room, with a lot of cigar smoke. I like cigars, but they’re best out in the fresh air.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Download Graph: Accelerant Curve as PDF (2.99MB)

My recent Writing on the Wall video about the accelerant curve for consultants (you can find it here on the blog) was so well received, that I thought I’d put some of it in writing here. The concept will appear in three of my new books: Million Dollar Speaking, Million Dollar Coaching, and The Consultant’s Bible.

I call this version the Million Dollar Consulting® Accelerant Curve. The basic concept of decreasing barrier to entry coupled with increasing fees on the two axes was introduced to me first by Mark Smith at a Million Dollar Club meeting two years ago. Since then, I’ve developed the concept specifically for consultants and related professional services providers into the graphic you see here.

The vertical axis represents decreasing barrier to entry, from bottom to top. The horizontal axis represents increasing fee and intimacy (and decreasing labor intensity) from left to right. This blog post, for example would be at the top left: it’s free and there is no intimacy involved—it’s available to anyone who stops by.

The verticals (12 is an arbitrary number simply for my illustration) represent your products and services. The left third, with easy entry and low price (or free) is competitive with others. There is little differentiation. The middle third, however, is distinct: There are distinguishing features which create more personal contact with you and commensurately higher fees. This might comprise personal coaching, workshops, team building, and so forth.

The right third I term “breakthrough” and places you at the leading edge. These are high intimacy and high fee. They might include strategy work, small and very elite workshops, CEO coaching, and so forth.

Finally, the “vault” is composed of value that is uniquely yours with a client. No one else can work that combination. These might include retainers, retreats, licensing of your intellectual property, and so forth. Note that these actually represent less labor intensity for higher fees!

The idea of the accelerant curve is to encourage clients to move down the curve to higher value and higher profit offerings. The curve’s ability to move people along relies on the trust and credibility established toward the left. It’s vitally important not to have any “chasms” so that people don’t fall off the chart as they slide forward! Whatever your number of offerings, you need them spread across the three categories.

Having said that, once you build brand and repute, you attract “parachute business.” That is business which travels immediately to your higher-end offerings, because trust has been established by referral, word-of-mouth, and market gravity. This business lands on the right side of the curve, or even in your vault.

Finally, you can create “bounce factors” along the curve, so progress is exponential and not sequential. For example, many people read my book Million Dollar Consulting and immediately “bounce” to participation in my Mentor Program, or my Million Dollar Consulting® College. Many companies, for which I simply keynoted, moved to place me on retainer immediately thereafter.

Can you fill in the 12 spaces I’ve provided plus the three for the vault? If not, this is a great marketing device to help you attract and propel prospects and clients toward higher value, more profitable, and less labor intensive relationships.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

I’ll be conducting a full-day workshop called “Alan 101″ at the Ritz-Carlton in Denver on October 7, then doing a half-day for the combined forces of the ASTD, IMC, NSA, and RMC on October 8 at the Westin. The first day is the least investment for any of my workshops in years, and it’s intended to enable new people to the profession and those still affected by the recent downturn to “jump start” their practices at a cost that can be gained back in less than a week. The second morning is to provide the parameters that will build an exceptional business for professional services providers through 2011. You can attend either or both, and we encourage you to attend both.

Links:

Link for Oct. 8 Master Class:

http://www.imcusa.org/events/event_details.asp?id=109835

Link for Oct. 7 full day course (links to Summit Consulting site):

http://www.imcusa.org/events/event_details.asp?id=116023

http://summitconsulting.com/seminars/alan-weiss-101.php

Mentor Program member David Gammel sent me a fascinating url—it is a “modern” technique to calculate hourly fees (http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/)!!

I’m now off to create an electric buggy whip, larger vacuum tube, and stronger struts for biplanes.

Everyone talks about “going global” which is easier said than done. But it’s also done a lot by independent consultants. Here are a dozen overlapping issues—many of which you may already do quite well—that will get you on a jet rather than the slow boat to China.

1. Ensure your intellectual property is phrased in a culturally acceptable manner.
Remove jargon and references to national sporting events. Don’t use phrases that are confusing or worse in other languages. “Napkin,” for example, means significantly different things in American English and England English.

2. Internationalize your materials.
When I consulted with State Street Bank and visited global sites, I found local management seething because the promotional materials suggested that the reader call a local Boston phone number for more information! Change photos, reference points, and contact options as appropriate.

3. Don’t be modest in your planning.
Think big. Don’t act like a stranger in a strange land. Focus on the great value you bring to clients. Don’t be afraid to state when you’ll be present (see point #6) and set up advance meetings and events. The farther you travel, the less timid you can be.

4. Begin with low hanging fruit.
Americans would be best off seeking other English-speaking countries, or those with which they share language capabilities. Spanish is spoken in large parts of the world. Look for these easier entry points. Also (see point #10) seek extensions of businesses with which you currently consult.

5. Investigate logical multilingual opportunities.
You may be able to expand on point #4 if you can create an alliance with a partner who can help with local translation and acculturation of materials. You may be able to teach multilingual local professionals your approaches, which they can then use in the vernacular.

6. Visit.
The Internet is fine, but it’s a black and white film compared to the high definition color of being present. If you’re serious about a given locale, due it the justice of making a visit. This is very important for future references in conversations and remote dealings. When I visited Kuala Lumpur I found that the heat and humidity were going to affect the way I dressed, traveled, and even worked with clients. That was important to know in advance.

7. Begin with the most logical products and services.
You need an effective ski trail not an avalanche. What are the greatest local needs that you can address, create, or anticipate? Not all domestic products and services are readily exportable.

8. Seek local alliances.
As in point #5, you may be able to accelerate your penetration of new markets with synergistic partnerships. You needn’t make these legal, though in some countries local representation greatly enhances your ability to operate. Start slowly. This is a great reason to engage in early visits (point #6).

9. Maximize technology.
Everyone has a cell phone these days, and a computer, and a host of other gizmos. Technology is becoming smaller, cheaper, and ubiquitous. Use it to offset time zone changes, hold virtual meetings, provide support, and be accessible despite the actual distances.

10. Use domestic leads and connections.
Find your current client contacts who can help introduce you to counterparts overseas. I always encourage visiting managers to spend time with me on client sites because I can suggest to them aspects of current projects which may make sense in their own operations.

11. Consider local production sources.
Utilize local printing, video, audio, travel, and whatever else makes sense to create a local presence (and, ethically, to reinvest in your market). I’ve always found it appalling to ship in vast materials from outside a country that could just as easily have been created locally.

12. Conform with local regulation and financial rationale.
Make sure you understand taxes, exchange rates, export and import limits, and so forth. Have your bank’s “SWIFT” numbers for wire transfers memorized! I once saw a company principal forced to take a $50,000 payment in the form of local baskets from a Philippine island, since he could not legally export the currency at the time. Unfortunately, his plan to resell the baskets in the U.S. failed, since he lived in Arizona, adjacent to a huge Native American tribe whose baskets were well known and quite popular, and undersold his!

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

My long-time, high-selling book, How to Write A Proposal That’s Accepted Every Timeis being offered by “resellers” on Amazon for $400, $600, even $800! It’s available, new, from my book store on my site (summitconsulting.com) for $149, plus shipping, or from the publisher at the same price (Kennedy Information, Peterborough, NH). That includes a CD with proposal templates.

I have nothing to do with these ridiculous, inflated prices, and you’d be foolish to pay them. Just buy the book on my site, and it will pay for itself in no time (people experience tens of thousands of dollars in increased proposal acceptances at higher fees almost immediately).

You can purchase the book and have me read it to you for $20,575, plus first class travel. Let me know.

Last night my wife and I were in a skybox owned by the Boston NBC affiliate watching the Red Sox play Tampa Bay. These boxes are stocked with food throughout the game, air conditioned with a wide-screen TV and leather furniture inside, and have 20 tiered seats outside, where you can take your food and watch things al fresco. We had a great view on the third base line midway to home plate.

The stadium was packed, as was the suite, and my wife’s comments (example: she found the players looked sloppy and unprofessional with their pants hanging over their shoes, and that David Ortiz looked out of shape and fat) drew astonished stares from the suite’s usual habitués.

In any case, the game was a scoreless tie in the fifth, when Boston managed to get runners on second and third with two out, and who walks to the plate but Ortiz, who’s the designated hitter (my wife is not inaccurate) and batting about .250. The crowd goes wild and Tampa Bay does what opposing teams do in trouble—they call time out, at which point the manager and every infielder converge on the mound. There are seven people there, which are six more than it takes to write Hamlet, compose music for The Lady Is A Tramp, or fly a billion dollar jet fighter.

Everyone in the ballpark knows the strategy being discussed: First base is open with two out. Throw Ortiz four awful pitches. If he swings, which he’s been known to do, fine. If he walks, who cares, because then you have a force at any base and Ortiz isn’t going to hurt you hunched over first base.

The umpire finally breaks up the convention, everyone returns to their places, and the pitcher winds up and throws the baseball. Ortiz promptly hits it 400 feet into the right field stands. The right fielder is lucky he wasn’t able to catch it, because it probably would have killed him, it was hit that hard. Red Sox 3, Tampa Bay 0 (the Sox would go on to win 8-5).

Strategy is useless without proper implementation. You can talk all day, draw fancy charts, create color-coded, 3-ring binders, invent funny acronyms, cite “vision” and “mission” and “goals” and “objectives” until the cows come home.

Nothing helps unless the people who didn’t set the strategy are able and willing to implement what the strategy requires.

That’s why consultants are even MORE valuable in assisting with implementation post-strategy, why so many strategies fail, and why anything looking out more than two years might as well be a horoscope. Make sure you include these arguments—and value—in your options and your fees.

Because no matter how good the right fielder is, he can’t catch anything screaming ten feet over his head at 100 miles an hour.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

I was sitting in the truck whiling away my time as my wife shopped for flowers to plant. We have six acres, and we’re running out of planting room. But that’s another story.

It was too hot for the dogs to be with us, so I was taking in the surroundings, and became fascinated, as usual by the strange equipment and vehicles the nursery had on hand. (My son and I once laid plans to steal an asphalt reclamation machine at night and drive it for a hundred feet, and I’m constantly offering the fire chief here a chance to drive the Bentley if I can drive the pumper or aerial truck, so far to no avail.)

One of the nursery’s gorgeously gorgonesque machines was ingenious. It was a loader (technically a New Holland skid steer loader, which my technical genius team should be reproducing here somewhere) designed to operate in tiny spaces. The only way to get the front shovel to lift high enough was to put the other end of the mechanism all the way in the rear, and place the driver up front just behind the shovel! The action was right in front of the driver, but the power was way behind, with the driver in the midst of the action.

This innovative design struck me as wondrous, and I began to think of how it could be applied to my work, and what I teach, and how I coach. And then it hit me.

Many of you have trouble coordinating projects. Some of you actually tell me that you have too much work (no discretionary time, hence, no real wealth). Others have (GASP!!) turned down business.

So here’s the remedy for your healthy work loads: Work from the front. Have the client do a lot of the heavy lifting from the rear, before you even lift the shovel. In other words, set up your projects so that they are officially underway while the client sets the stage and the culture, and you don’t have to show up until much later, when your schedule permits. Examples of what the client can do early while paying you:

• Create schedules for interventions such as focus groups.
• Assemble a steering committee or stakeholder team.
• Develop documentation and historical information.
• Perform an internal survey.
• Request client’s customers’ approval of their involvement.
• Choose a pilot or starting area.
• Inform and involve key employees, management, board.
• Create liaison and involvement with unions.
• Have your subcontractors visit and observe.

After this work has begun and produced results, you can begin your direct involvement, site visits, or whatever. There’s no reason why you have to be available and on site from the time the proposal is signed.

Keep the power behind you. You do the steering.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

IBM’s recent Global Chief Executive Officer Study, a biennial survey claimed to be of more than 1,500 CEOs (cited in Consultants News, Kennedy Information, Peterborough, NH: subscribe@kennedyinfo.com) reveals that these people have three primary “imperatives” on their minds:

1. Embody creative leadership (take prudent risk, invite disruptive innovation)
2. Reinvent customer relationships (set priority of customer intimacy)
3. Operating dexterity (flexible cost structures and opportunistic capabilities)

I once had to yell at 20 very powerful newspaper publishers in a strategy retreat organized by the American Press Institute that the Holy Grail of the First Amendment did NOT forgive them for sloppy and stupid management. Defending and representing freedom of speech does not, concomitantly, give you leave to abuse your employees or take advantage of your advertisers.

Similarly, I’ve seen irrelevant defenses among professionals akin to the non sequitur of “If the economy is rebounding, why didn’t the Cleveland Cavaliers make the finals?”

One person told me that his extraordinarily annoying propensity to turn a simple question into a verbose and prolix hour’s debate was “who he was,” and represented his uniqueness in life. No, not really, it represents a self-absorbed aberration. These statements are often accompanied by the pseudo-relativism of, “It’s all in the eye of the beholder.” Not quite true, because the habit of picking up your steak with your fingers is an abomination, in anyone’s eyes in any restaurant, unless you have only four fingers and you bark. There are empirical slobs.

“There is more than one way to do this” is another rubric, which is true about getting cross-town in New York, but not about extracting a tooth or wearing a seat belt. “There is often not more than one correct or effective way to do this” might be a more accurate statement. You can say “form’ id a ble,” or you can say “for mid’ a ble.” Of course, you can say the second if you prefer to be incorrect, so there is more than one way, just not the right way. (You imply when you speak, infer when you listen; prone is on your stomach, supine is on you back. You can interchange them, but you wouldn’t be correct.)

“There is more than one way to bill a client,” said a pompous consultant at a pretentious meeting, “and I can earn more billing by the hour than by charging for value.” Well, yes you can, IF you extend the hours way beyond what the client actually needs and/or you simply don’t understand value based billing and do it incorrectly. But, hey, I’m not responsible for your retirement fund, so keep those six-minute billing increments coming.

In a social media age, we can often live under the delusion that anything anyone says is a valid point. But the art and science of educating yourself involves judiciously deciding to whom to listen, and not pompously proclaiming that you’re as smart as the next person, despite the other’s higher levels of expertise, experience, and education.

To be a thought leader, you need more than thoughts.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

I received this email earlier today:

Hi Alan,

Thought you would like to know that you have been quoted in a response by
Michael Wyland on an ASAE list serve (posted below if you are interested).
Michael did an excellent job about why comparing proposals based on hourly
rates isn’t the right way to evaluate a proposal.

Cheryl L. Wild, Ph.D.
Wild & Associates, Inc.
218 Garfield Ave.
Avon-by-the-Sea, NJ 07717

Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 12:00 AM
To: consultantmembers digest recipients
Subject: consultantmembers digest: June 09, 2010

CONSULTANTMEMBERS Digest for Wednesday, June 09, 2010.

1. Consulting thread on ASAE’s EXECSEC
2. Re: Consulting thread on ASAE’s EXECSEC

———————————————————————-

Subject: Consulting thread on ASAE’s EXECSEC
From: “Michael L. Wyland”
Date: Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:39:15 -0500
X-Message-Number: 1

To all:

The following thread appeared on EXECSEC today. Thought it might be
of interest here. I have reproduced it in chronological order,
beginning with the initial post.

Michael

===============================

Would any of you be willing to share thoughts on how you evaluate
fixed-price cost proposals from consultants? One approach I take is to
estimate the hours I think a project will take and apply what I think is
a reasonable hourly rate, but this is very subjective and has not worked
well for us. I’d welcome any thoughts on how you approach negotiating a
fair price.

Thanks

Bob Thomson, CAE
AUVSI Director of Operations

=================================

Hi Bob -

One good way to create the transparency you need is to ask the
consultant themselves to provide the basis for the amount they are
proposing. In short, imagine a short chart or spreadsheet, driven
either by the names of the participating individuals at the consultancy,
or the project phases. There should be an estimated time amount in
hours or days for each, along with a charge out rate. In this fashion
you are not shooting in the dark trying to presume resource allocations.

This is good for the sake of comparisons – gives you an apples-to-apples
basis for evaluation in terms of pricing, which in and of itself is
valuable, as well as the time commitment, which is useful to see more
deeply into expectations.

While you may have some consultants resist this, that would also tell
you something.

Good luck,

Bill Murray, CAE
President and Chief Operating Officer
Public Relations Society of America
33 Maiden Lane, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10038-5150

======================================

Bob, Bill, and all:

I am an association ED as well as a consultant. My “take” on this is
probably not what you want to hear, but here goes!

I understand the desire to spend as little as possible for any
contracted services, including consulting services. However, trying
to reduce a fixed-price quote to an hourly fee does little to guide
the decision-making process. That may be why such efforts in your
past have not been very successful.

With a nod to Alan Weiss (“Million Dollar Consulting,” et. al.),
let’s assume that we’re talking about consulting – adding value to a
client’s organization, rather than contracting – providing alternate
labor resources to a client’s organization. Contracting for labor is
much more quantifiable and measurable in terms of “deliverables,”
hours, and other inputs. It’s a commodity that can be selected,
generally, based on price with little effect on quality and,
therefore, client mission.

Let’s also assume that the client’s goal is to maximize value – get
the most “bang for the buck” from engaging a consultant. If the
client’s interest is in minimizing expense without significant regard
to outcomes, then quality becomes irrelevant and we’re back to a
contracting/commodity scenario. [BTW, many consultants, including my
firm, have walked away from prospective clients *willing to engage
us* when this inattention to outcomes becomes apparent. More on this
in a moment.]

A consultant’s “stock in trade” is their expertise, their experience,
and, often, their ability to extrapolate and see connections (leading
to solutions) where others do not. Their value in the marketplace is
their ability to use these gifts, among others, to add value to their
clients’ organizations.

Since the barrier to entry for consulting is very low, there are
consultants of all quality and effectiveness levels in
practice. Some work for large firms, some work alone; some have been
in practice a long time as a full-time occupation, while others
“moonlight” from full-time paid employment or as “fill-in work”
between employment opportunities.

There’s a John Ruskin quote that used to hang in every Baskin-Robbins
ice cream parlor: “There is hardly anything in the world that some
man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the
people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.”

Unit price is a very poor indicator of quality or effectiveness,
especially in a largely unregulated, difficult to measure
(qualitative, not quantitative) market. So how does one assess
successful negotiation?

Focus on value rather than on price. Select consultants based on
their reputation and body of work. Assess their willingness to work
*with* you rather than either for you or above you – neither high
priests nor sycophants make effective partners. Do they understand
and identify with your organization, its challenges and
opportunities? Do they seem able to deal with the people – not just
the issues – involved in the process and solution? Do they represent
fair value for the money, time, and personnel you can afford to
devote to the project? Do you have a sufficiently high comfort level
to believe the consultant can deliver value to your organization —
in other words, is there a good “fit” between you?

As I said earlier, a consultant’s “stock in trade” is intimately
involved in their “body of work” and resulting reputation in the
marketplace. Successful consultants know better than to risk their
reputation for quality work in order to secure a fee from a client
who does not share that priority.

In my firm, we seek to be neither the low-price resource now the
high-price resource. We seek to be the high-value resource for our
clients, and we seek only clients who share that goal. After twenty
years, we have almost never had a client engagement where cost was as
major concern, either to the client or to our firm. Where cost was a
concern, we either worked on the value proposition or adjusted the
scope of work to meet the client’s limitations. In a very few cases,
we recommended they seek help elsewhere and wished them the best of success.

Michael L. Wyland
Sumption & Wyland
818 South Hawthorne Avenue
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-4537

(The Dog Star is a symbol of power, will, and steadfastness of purpose, and exemplifies the One who has succeeded in bridging the lower and higher consciousness. – Astrological Definition)

Buddy Beagle was barking (that nutty howl/bark that only Beagles do) at the base of a huge tree in the backyard, staring up into the branches. A few yards away, Koufax was silently staring at a low branch in an adjoining tree, where the squirrel Buddy had originally seen had scampered over for refuge. Apparently, Koufax was hoping for a strong wind, or a misstep, or simply trying to stare the rodent into cardiac arrest.

Buddy was barking up the wrong tree.

I watch a great many consultants bark up the wrong trees:
• They listen to people at professional meetings who either have no track record of success themselves, or have some self-serving reason for pontificating.
• They deal with low level, non-threatening, non-helpful functionaries within prospect organizations..
• They continue to try to perfect their methodologies while their marketing relegates them to the “unknown” category, off all radar screens. They seem blind to the fact that this is a marketing and relationship business.
• They avoid real buyers because they fear rejection (or, worse, don’t know how to act as a peer).
• They think time is important and bill by the hour or day. They actually listen to unsuccessful people who claim that time-based billing is the only way to conduct business.
• They think in terms of “deliverables” and not outcomes.
• They don’t read, don’t develop themselves, and have a single “solution” to every prospect’s problems. They aren’t objects of interest or centers of expertise. In fact, they are dull.

There are significant risks in the entrepreneurial world, and if you choose to accept them, then you should be entitled to the potential of the exceptional rewards. But too many people would rather play it safe than play the game. They would rather listen to people who rationalize their own lack of success than listen to those who can help change behaviors to create success.

Buddy eventually looked over at Koufax, looked up, sniffed, and joined the German Shepherd in sentry duty under the right tree, until the squirrel left. The dogs seemed satisfied, because the yard was rid of the squirrel, and they knew that dinner would be available as always in the kitchen later on.

If Beagles can learn from bigger and smarter dogs, so can you.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Courtesy of Australian consultant Gary McMahon, one of my avid followers in one of my favorite places in the world, here is a short clip of the Austrian Supreme Court Chief Justice telling what appears to be a stunned legal audience that hourly billing is completely inappropriate and ought to be thrown out in favor of focusing on value.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/05/17/2902081.htm?site=southwestwa

When I was speaking in Sydney during one trip, I keynoted for the Australian Legal Management Association on this very topic. After accountants and consultants in Melbourne and Sydney had been extraordinarily responsive, the legal people sat there virtually deaf to the same ideas. I kept hitting the mike to see if it were working. (This is why I’m always paid in advance.) Tell me again why some of you entrepreneurs have lawyers on your advisory boards?

Remember John Denver’s song? I have a modern version.

A colleague who was coaching in a large, complex organization, found out that the president required coaching, but that he needed someone accustomed to top level executives, and not someone working with subordinates. My colleague recommended me.

The president and I spoke by phone, hit it off well, and he made a big show of flying to see me on the corporation’s jet. I picked him up at the private air terminal in Providence in my Bentley, and he told me he also had one. While I had ordered mine custom-built and waited four months, he had chosen an early model off the showroom floor and paid a “premium” of $15,000 over the sticker price.

Off we go to my home, and I discover that he has problems with the organization’s founder—still his boss—and with a subordinate who covets his job and is openly hostile in public venues. We talked about what was needed, got along well, and then I had to rush him back to his jet, because he had a dinner meeting from whence he came. He had come for two hours, but said he was satisfied and looked forward to my proposal, which I sent the next day via Fedex.

The highest option in my proposal was $45,000 per month for an estimated three-month minimum. That was completely consistent with analogous work I had been doing for over a decade at top levels.

When I followed up, he told me that the highest option was, indeed, the only one that made sense for him, but that he could never justify it. Employees would talk, his rival would use it against him, and his boss might question it. I asked how anyone else would know what he was paying me, and he said, “Accounting people talk.” I then told him that he could pay me out of his own pocket, which was not unheard of. He told me he couldn’t afford that.

I don’t know what that airplane round trip cost with him as the sole passenger, or what his travails with his subordinate and boss were costing the operation, or how he can pay for a quarter million dollar car out of his own pocket but not invest in his own future. I do know that we often run into this type of cognitive dissonance: The top person, the avatar, the leader, is afraid of what others will say and do.

Let this be the lesson: I’ve been in hundreds of executive suites, and the politics, emotions, assumptions, internecine strife, and bad decisions are no different from the sales force or the factor floor. They’re just playing with larger amounts of money.

You can fly high without riding high.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

There are three basic areas in which you can improve your practice’s performance immediately:

1. Top-line growth. The more business you bring in, the more profit should ensue (see #2 and #3 below). The most dynamic tactic for top-line growth: Thought Leadership. The more you are an object of interest and center of expertise, the more people will flock to you. No one grows through cutting costs. You grow through increasing revenues.

2. Improved margins. The key here is to mercilessly cut overhead. Too many solo consultants and small firms have excessive full-time and part-time help. If I can run a multi-million dollar top-line business, and have no ongoing staff, why do you need an assistant or office manager or receptionist or general factotum for a $200,000 business?

3. Reduced cost of acquisition. The royal road here is Market Gravity™. You must create multiple avenues for people to travel to reach you, and a siren’s call for your value to them. When people come to you, there is zero cost of acquisition and fees become academic.

For veteran consultants especially (or any professional services providers), if you’re incorporating methods to address these three factors on a regular basis, you’ll have a thriving, profitable, self-perpetuating practice.

How do you stack up?

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

From the April 26 issue of Consultants News from Kennedy Information (www.kennedyinfo.com/consulting):

Additionally, in order to curb the healthcare and retirement costs that often form a large portion of the total, many firms altered their workforce mix to a contractor-heavy model…..This model also enables firms to select contractors with the precise level of skills and experience required for their projects.

© 2010 BNA Subsidiaries, LLC.

Here are some survey findings released by the CMC-Canada Industry Study 2009 in an executive summary. There is no date on the copy that I have. Nor is there a number of how many consultants were asked to reply and how many did reply. So this could be a very, very small sample.

• Total Canadian management consulting revenues were estimated at $9.1 billion.
• Two-thirds of respondents reported greater fee sensitivity.
• Fixed fees and hourly rates prevailed. “Profit leaders” were more prone to use value pricing.
• Hourly fees ranged from $800 to $100 per hour.
• Discounting is widespread, with 61% offering discounts “very often.”
• Some smaller firms reported “no plans to grow,” since the firm was at a desirable size.
• Challenges facing the profession were listed as aging populations and talent shortages; offshoring; professonalization of procurement; and preserving public confidence and demonstrating value.

I’m speaking to the Canadian Institute of Management Consultants in Vancouver on May 29. I think they need me!

My wife and I are veterans of a dozen arts and charity boards, and herein some free advice from a world-class consultant:

1. Do not allow people to serve on the board who simply want the position on their résumé. Members need to meet three conditions: a) they have the expertise and intellectual capital (e.g., marketing or strategy) needed; b) they bring the capacity to donate and/or raise funds from others personally; c) they are capable and willing to attend all meetings and appropriate events.
2. Boards should stick to strategy and funding and evaluation of staff, but must leave daily operations to the executive director, managing director, artistic director, and so on. Most board time is wasted on how much to charge for a poster or what meal to serve at a fund raiser.
3. It is unethical for board members to do business with and to profit from their position on the board and relationship with the organization. (And when executive directors receive $400,000 to run blood banks, for example, there is something desperately wrong.)
4. Boards should be relatively small, have elected officers, and run according to Robert’s Rules of Order. Minutes should be maintained and distributed within 48 hours.
5. Board members should be evaluated annually and term limits should be in place. (You’re a board member, not a potted plant.)
6. Boards should meet quarterly, not monthly. Executive committees and subcommittees should meet more often.
7. Understand that the future funding potential is in individual contributions, not corporate and not government. Consequently, professional development people are invaluable.
8. Unless the recipients of the art or charity or service are improved, the effort isn’t effective. Merely perpetuating the organization is insufficient.
9. There should not be a cozy relationship among the chair and staff. The relationship should be cordial, but it’s the chair’s job to provide guidance and critique and evaluation, which is tough to do for a good friend.
10. It’s better for board members to argue and debate than to mindlessly listen to reports and rubberstamp what’s placed in front of them.

Non-profits have been failing at an alarming rate. That’s not the economy’s fault, it’s the board’s fault.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

If you’re new to consulting, don’t worry, just read on. If you’re a veteran, don’t worry, just read on.

1. Never assume the client is damaged unless you receive evidence—observed behavior—to the contrary.
2. Be diagnostic in your marketing and early discussions, but prescriptive in your implementation and execution.
3. The quicker the client is improved, the more valuable you are and the better the client is served. Just because there’s a tool in your kit doesn’t mean you have to use it.
4. People change most readily when you focus on how their self-interest will be improved, not why it’s good for you or others.
5. People become engaged in change when you offer them options for moving forward, not a “take it or leave it.”
6. There is seldom only one good way to do things. However, the easiest and most direct approaches (Occam’s Razor) are generally the best.
7. Never drift away from the buyer. While you will probably develop other relationships, always maintain the engagement relationship with the buyer and debrief regularly.
8. Use technology, client resources, and subcontractors to reduce your labor intensity.
9. When you hit inevitable obstacles, don’t hesitate to use the buyer’s clout to blast them out of the way.
10. You are neither there to be liked nor to make friends. You are there to improve the client’s condition.
11. Raising the bar and elevating standards are far more valuable than simply fixing problems and restoring prior performance levels.
12. Remember that success trumps perfection in every hand of every game.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Of all my books, Million Dollar Consulting is by far my best seller, having something over 400,000 readers, in its fourth edition, and on the shelves for 18 consecutive years. That is relatively rare. Its name has created perhaps the most powerful brand in solo consulting, and its use is a registered trademark, as in Million Dollar Consulting® College. I can trace probably 90 percent of current revenues directly or indirectly to it.

So how did this come about?

I wrote my first book in 1988, when a colleague asked if I’d be interested in co-authoring a work on innovation (we would both conceptualize, I would write). The resultant The Innovation Formula went from hard cover to soft cover, became part of a HarperCollins strategy series, was picked up by Wharton, Villanova, and Temple, and was translated into German and Italian.

Based on its success, I pitched and wrote my first solo book for HarperCollins, Managing for Peak Performance. That went from hard cover to soft cover, and was translated into German. Based on that success, I pitched and wrote a strategy book, Making It Work, which never made it out of hardcover for the same publisher. And that was my last book with HarperCollins to this day, having placed my first three with them. (I now own Making It Work, and have re-released it as Best Laid Plans, a far better title.)

I then set out to write Confessions of A Consultant, which would inform executives about good and poor practices, how to choose consulting help, what to reasonably expect and pay for, and so forth. I had read in a National Speakers Association magazine that an agent named Jeff Herman liked to represent speakers and consultants. I sent him my first thee books and my latest idea, and he immediately signed me. (He is today responsible for placing my three best-selling books, and is still my agent.)

Confessions was rejected 15 or 18 times. Then one day Jeff called me in my car while I was returning from speaking in Hartford. I had one of the first car phones in New England in 1991, and it was a regular phone handset hard-wired into the dash of my Mercedes 450 SLC.

“I’m at McGraw-Hill,” said Jeff.

“McGraw-Hill!” I shouted. “They like the book?!” I considered McGraw then and I do now, to be one of the great business publishers.

“No, they hate the premise, but they are interested in publishing a book on how you can make a million dollars a year in solo consulting. That part of your credentials impressed them. Can you write a book like that?”

“In six minutes,” I whispered.

“I’ll tell them six months,” he said, putting his hand obviously over the phone, and then responded, “We have a deal, I’ll work it out.”

Four months later I had finished the manuscript and had offered to meet once again the senior business editor at McGraw, Betsy Brown, in her Manhattan office. This was our third meeting.

“We’re going into production tomorrow,” she said, “and we can’t call this Confessions of a Consultant any more. What do you want to call it?”

Standing, I said, “I’ll give it some thought.”

“Sit,” she said (you tended to do what Betsy Brown ordered, a strikingly beautiful woman who took no prisoners and whom I was always chasing after in the halls despite her stilettos). “I want the title right now.”

“Betsy, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s a book about how to make a million dollars consulting.”

“Ah, and there it is!” she said.

The rest is not just history, but my present and future.

What happened during this crazy journey?
• I agreed to write a co-authored book, though I had never done a book.
• I pitched a second and third book to the publisher.
• I joined a professional association and searched it for resources.
• I found an agent, having three books to bolster my credibility.
• I did not get depressed over all the rejections.
• I readily agreed to change the premise of the book.
• I visited my editor.
• I used a spur-of-the-moment title.
• I recognized a brand when I saw one.
• I was willing to transform my business.

I’m not smart enough to tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I’m agile and quick enough to jump on what’s happening today. My story is not unique. You can find these combinations of luck, accident, resilience, and talent all over.

My reaction is to always push the throttle forward. I’ll slow down only if I begin to lose control. In the meantime, I intend to take a fabulous ride.

What about you? Are you racing into the turns or riding the brake?

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Summary from the last SAC® meeting

April 6, 2010

New York City

• Let the market know you’re improving, doing well, doing more.

• Serve on boards and committees and contribute assertively.

• Stay in contact with everyone you can, even if merely to check in.

• Demonstrate common courtesy and appreciations, selflessness.

• Don’t “blink” or react when you cite a fee.

• Refuse to hold or guarantee a date without a signed contract.

• Eliminate distractions that undermine your priorities.

• Research local chambers of commerce.

• Provide a  book with a “plate” indicating it’s a gift from you.

• Engage in consistent, regular blogging.

• Maximize the rapidity and quality of your responsiveness.

• Incorporate anticipated obstacles into project objectives to be met.

• Publish/present results.

• Form strategic alliances.

• ”Repurpose” your articles and intellectual property.

• Collaborate even with competitors to get media coverage.

• Create “gravity” even within client organizations.

• Conduct informal interviews with buyers.

• Identify relevant trade association executive conferences.

We identified that the typical Marketing Gravity™ chart can be use for priorities to fill the Million Dollar Consulting® Accelerant Curve.

Accelerators

• Series and serialization

• “Graduate” experiences

• Membership (has its privileges)

• Program levels (gold, platinum)

• Collaboration and alliances.

• Access (to you) scope

• Differentiate common offerings with “special” offerings’

• Work backwards from your personal “vault”

• Utilize multi-media

• Provide discounts, special dinners, and so forth

• Create communities and “in groups”

From 36,000 feet, posted from a Delta jet with wifi:

I’ve counseled hundreds of people who have involuntarily lost their jobs. And I’ve found a fundamental difference among those who are resilient and those who are desperate.

I had been asked by a mutual friend to give advice and counsel on how to become a high-level consultant to the former vice chair of a major bank whose division was merged into another, and who was given both a large severance and his walking papers. He had been making well over a million a year. I despise doing things like this for free (Would a banker give me free investment advice?), but I capitulated and agreed to a breakfast.

While I listened to him, he sounded exactly like a vice chairman still, which is not good, so as the omelets arrived I unleashed one of my prime questions. (Prime questions are those so basic and direct that they require an honest answer which will inform you immediately about the likely need or outcome. There are 13 such prime questions. No, I will not reveal the other 12, because I really do get paid for such things.)

“If you were offered the presidency of a major division at Bank of America, or one of their vice chairmanships, at about the same money as you were making before, would you accept?” (The prime question: “Would you return to the status quo antebellum?”)

“In a Brooklyn minute,” he hissed at me.

“Then let’s enjoy breakfast,” I said, “because we have zero to talk about in terms of you becoming a consultant.”

The fundamental difference between resilience and depression is in your choice of identity. If you choose to identify with your job title—whether plumber, branch manager, or vice chair—you will tend to lose your identify when you lose your business card or your wrench. But if you identify yourself—define yourself—in terms of your contribution, then your identify is intrinsically yours, transportable, and self-worth-maintaining. (“I create sustainable and efficient home environments”; “I provide for maximum service to create loyal customers in highly competitive business environments”; “I create and implement strategies that propel organizations beyond competitive challenges.”

The vice chair wanted to be a vice chair, period. That was his programming. I wasn’t being paid enough—hell, I wasn’t being PAID—to deprogram him.

I’m not a consultant. I’m someone who improves my client’s conditions, increasing both individual and organizational performance. HR people call me a consultant, and accounts payable people call me a “vendor.” That’s why I don’t deal with them, nor bother to try to educate them. My clients (buyers) call me a “partner.”

Don’t identify with your inputs, tasks, job description, deliverables, or business card title. They are ephemeral and are commodities. Identify with your outputs, results, and the degree to which you improve others. Those are permanent and highly valuable.

When Bjorn Borg won five Wimbledons in a row, six French Opens, and 90 percent of all of his grand slam singles matches (modern era records), a star competitor said, “The rest of us are playing tennis. He’s doing something else.”

Define what you do in terms of contributions and no one can ever take that away from you, no matter what. And you’ll be far more enthusiastic and aggressive in finding a new home for it. I was fired once by someone very wealthy and absolutely clueless. I swore that would never happen again because I knew what I could create for clients.

Control your own identity and you’ll control your own destiny.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Wherein one of the world’s finest consultants provides free help to those in desperate need of it:

• When I call you I don’t want to speak to someone in the Philippines who doesn’t understand American idiom and keeps reading to me from a script.
• You should LOWER your prices as the flight time gets closer, not make last-minute reservations more expensive. Do you want to fill inventory or not?
• I’ve never seen unhappy employees and happy customers. Get along with your unions and encourage your people. If Southwest and Continental can do this at times, so can you.
• Stop nickel-and-diming us with charges for pillows, rest rooms, drinks, and oxygen when these charges are only being levied to compensate for idiotic decisions made in the executive suite.
• Competition is going to increase, the economy is going to recover, and people will have the opportunity to fly true world class airlines, such as Singapore Air and Emirites. You need to increase service and loyalty before that happens or you’re through.
• Merging two bad operations does not magically create one good one, but does result in one atrocious one.
• With advanced technology (boarding passes on cell phone screens) when will you end the antediluvian practice of boarding hundreds of people through one bottleneck access?
• Advise us of what we need for our safety, but don’t treat us as if we’re the village idiot in a concentration camp. We need education, not admonishment.
• Get wifi and cell phone use moving along, there is no evidence that this stuff impedes the airplane’s operation and it’s needed.
• If you leave passengers on a plane on a runway without relief for more than two hours, you should be publicly humiliated and forced into exile.
• When you create a hundred elites, no one is elite. You have first class, and coach, sometimes business. All the nonsense about 1K, Chairman’s brown-nosers, Global alliances, and people who once made the honor roll is dumber than dirt. Whomever pays the most for their ticket deserves the special treatment.
• Enforce a grooming code. I know it will never return to nice outfits, trim people, and coiffed hair, but fight attendants shouldn’t barely fit in the aisles, have unwashed hair, be devoid of makeup, and wear wrinkled clothing. It’s to the point where I’m loath to accept food from some of them.
• Painting your planes does not improve service, loyalty, brand, or image. Spend the money more wisely.
• In the airline lounges, arm the hostesses with Tasers and allow them to blast anyone in bare feet, torn tee-shirts, or who is obviously intoxicated.
• If you want to keep charging for baggage and/or encouraged checked bags over carry-on, then do something serious about lost bags and employee theft.
• Learn to treat animals traveling with more decency and humanity.
• Clean the darned planes. I’m tired of finding crap in every crevice because you think this expense can be scaled back. You’re responsible for a healthy environment. Or do you intend to charge us for clean seats?
• Fuel prices change, often abruptly. Deal with it.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

As part of my ongoing commitment to public service, here is some free consulting help, from one of the finest consultants in the world, for those senior managers and executives responsible for daily operations in hotels. I’m someone who readily spends thousands of dollars a night for penthouses and tens of thousands on meetings. I expect to be treated at least decently and the same as someone spending $150 per night, because we’re all your customers.

• Don’t have servers or desk clerks with facial piercings. These can be removed (I’m told) during working hours. It’s unappealing to deal with someone who has something punched through their chin, tongue, or eyebrow, sorry.
• “There you go” and “no problem” do not mean “you’re welcome.”
• Equip your housekeeping department with the information they need to avoid banging on doors when the guest room has already been serviced or a late checkout has been granted.
• Ensure that any diner in your restaurant is greeted and asked if they’d like a drink within two minutes of being seated.
• See to it that your hosts and hostesses do not appear to be dressed as if they’ve just changed a tire on an 18-wheeler.
• Clear the trays out of the halls before the food remnants turn into other life forms.
• Throw out the mini-bars that charge you automatically if you so much as read a label. If you don’t trust me, tell me that when I make my reservation and I can go elsewhere.
• Provide Internet access for free. Stop nickel-and-diming us.
• Do not employ people who can’t speak at least rudimentary English (or whatever the native tongue is in your country). It’s very dangerous in case of emergency, and it’s annoying when you simply need some help.
• Every employee you encounter in the halls should establish eye contact, smile, and say “hello,” “good morning,” or whatever is appropriate.
• If your operators can’t pick up the phone within 7 rings, you’re understaffed or mismanaged.
• Don’t use outsourced concierges. They don’t care as much as your own people and they show it.
• Stop installing television/movie/game combinations that require a Cal Tech degree to turn on and off, let alone find American Idol. (The same goes for the alarm clocks.)
• Tell your housekeeping staff that after a guest checks out the radio/clock alarm should be turned off on the assumption that the next guest does not have to get up at 4 am to catch an early plane to Peoria.
• Your staff should call me “Mr.” or “Doctor” (or, “Your Grace”), but not “Alan,” because I don’t like forced familiarity and we’re not peers.
• If your personal phone and/or email are off limits and you are screened by underlings, you are a failure as a leader and a fool as a manager.
• When I request a group breakfast or break at a certain time, I don’t mean that your staff should leave the kitchen at that time, I meant they should have set up and been leaving my conference room by that time.
• Why is it, in 25 years of delivering keynotes and workshops to the best of the best, NOT ONE person in hotel management has ever requested that they or their staff attend such topics as leadership, innovation, customer service, and so forth? (I find that the staff in charge of the room often stays around discreetly to listen.)
• If I have to escalate a request that, if finally granted, overturns a subordinate’s decision or a “policy,” I’ll bet dollars to donuts that you haven’t granted sufficient discretion to your front-line people, and you’re therefore wasting your time and mine.
• Assuming people change their clothing daily, have a week’s worth of hangers in the closets.
• Knock off the hidden charges. When you charge $2 to call a toll-free number, I don’t like it. But if you charged an extra $2 for drinks or $5 for entrees, I wouldn’t care.
• First and last impressions are critical. Your doormen are fundamental, therefore, to your success, no matter what shift they are on. Make sure they know it and appreciate it, and that you show them you appreciate it.

© Alan Weis 2010. All rights reserved.

Here is an advance notice for my blog community. You can register for this brand new workshop directly with me or wait until it is on my site next week. (Immediately: Fax to 401/884-5068, secure voice message to 800/766-7935 [401/884-2778] but do NOT ask for a call back, leave your information, or email to bentleygtc@summitconsulting.com.)

The Change Management Workshop

This is a methodology workshop analogous to The Strategist and The Coach. I only touched on change management in my Best Practices Workshop, due to the volume of material I was covering.

This workshop is intended for consultants who are (or who seek to be) engaged in change management efforts in large and small businesses, non-profits, government, and/or educational institutions.

You will, as a result of this session, be able to:
• Quickly frame and diagnose change needs.
• Utilize the little-appreciated role of changes in distinctions.
• Identify and galvanize stakeholders.
• Synergistically involve structural, systemic, and social changes.
• Create and perpetuate internal change agents.
• Adapt a rational change leadership sequence.
• Prevent and/or overcome the six key resistors.
• Apply your learning to case studies.
• Apply your learning to actual material you bring with you.
• Drastically reduce your labor intensity in accomplishing change.

In one day we’ll help you to become a laser beam of highly focused change management techniques. There will be preparation reading and performance aids provided during our time together.

I am a contributing author to the highly regarded 2010 Practicing Organizational Change (Wiley), along with colleagues such as Warner Burke and Edgar Schein, and the author of The Unofficial Guide to Power Management.

Join me for an intensive day of mastering change that will change your career.

Public: $1250
SAC® Members: $950
Mentor Members: $750

October 28, 9 am to 4 pm.
Breakfast, lunch, and refreshments included
Crowne Plaza Hotel
Warwick, RI

He or she:

• Clearly has both the budget and authority to use it (or to find it).
• Is genuinely interested in improvement and has used external help before.
• Answers honestly and directly, without obviously withholding information or being coy.
• Smiles, laughs, is confident, and seems to be having a good day.
• Asks questions about you, your business, and your experiences.
• Is ego-free, and focuses on company improvement, not personal aggrandizement.
• Doesn’t require validation from others and doesn’t request that you meet with others.
• Responds to phone calls and emails promptly, and keeps appointments on time.
• Doesn’t ask about costs, fees, prices, days and so on, but focuses on results.
• Is willing to take prudent risk and understands there are no guarantees.
• Readily accepts the role of partner in the project, not merely as “payer” for the project.
• Uses time well, accepts “pushback,” and readily debates.
• Doesn’t ask inane and banal questions, such as, “What if you die during the project?”
• Appears to honestly care for the company, the people, the customers, and the relationships.

In general, the higher up the hierarchy you climb, the MORE likely it is you will find people with these traits. By definition, you will not find them in training or HR. Hint: Once someone says they’ve been “tasked” with a project or they begin quoting the latest book or mantra, get out of the office, even if it means aimlessly wandering the streets (which, ultimately, will be more fulfilling).

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

According to a study done by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and reported in Bottom Line, half of retirees in the future will not have enough money to sustain their current lifestyle when they stop working. That’s an increase from 44% just three years ago. Large drops in investment and home value are obviously part of the cause.

Make sure you pay yourself. You should be using revenues to fund your life style, pay your business expenses, fund retirement options to the maximum allowed by law, build a vacation fund, build future expense needs (e.g., college educations, weddings), and maintain an emergency fund to cover anything from natural disaster to prolonged illness. (And, of course, obtain intelligent insurance coverage such as disability and comprehensive medical, along with umbrella liability and errors and omissions.)

The younger you are, the better your opportunity, but the more probably you’re putting this off. Create separate bank accounts if you must, but make sure that you’re not living the good life now and creating a rough life later.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

The latest group of international graduates of the Million Dollar Consulting® College at the Castle Hill Inn in Newport, RI.

Left to right: Todd Ordal, Richard Citrin, David Martin, Scott Beilke, Garry Beavis (Australia), Pat Lefler,  Dr. Sally Wright, Andrew Hollo (Australia); front row, Mark Donovan (Ireland), Alan Weiss

This list compiled mid-course by Sally Wright and Andrew Hollo:

* A day of group work with Alan is worth weeks or months of struggle by yourself.
* Laughter increases learning.
* Everyone else has self esteem issues, too.
* Practice, practice, practice talking to EBs with your mirror, your dog, your spouse, your friends.
* Speak anytime and anywhere on your value proposition–it gives you practice, publicity, and experience.
* A group of motivated consultants facilitated by Alan creates an incredibly powerful synergy.
* If you are seen as a peer of human resources, you will never be seen as a peer of CEOs.
* If you haven’t gotten a hit on your last 4 proposals, don’t say “I’m not cut out for this business.” Say “I must be doing
something wrong.” And get help.
* You truly do create your own perceptions. Get the baggage off the train.
* Know where the conversation is going before you start it.
* People in the Mentor Program who are the most successful share four commonalities:
a) they are non-defensive
B) they have highly developed senses of humor (laughter increases endorphins)
c) they participate in many of Alan’s activities and have a commitment to lifelong learning.
d) they have no fear of failure—and they’ve LEARNED to be that way.
*Value is ‘how the client is improved’; Brand is ‘what I offer’
* Practice talking about what I do, at the drop of a hat, in a dramatic fashion
* Redefine every corporate objective as a personal objective
* Deliberately abandon old business
* “Be diagnostic in my marketing; prescriptive in my delivery” – in other words, use models / concepts to help clients diagnose their problems BEFORE I make the sale, then prescribe solutions, don’t let them tell me what they need.
* “Build on success; don’t correct weaknesses” – basically, this is Alan’s unwavering philosophy, asking “What just worked? I gotta do more of that!” in a 100% rigorous way. Coupled with this is, “I’m totally unafraid of failure; I don’t experience doubt. Ever. It doesn’t mean I don’t get things wrong; I just do them differently next time”. It’s the purest manifestation of the philosophy of abundance.
* “Unbundle” – rather than offer ‘strategic planning’ I can split what I do into at least 12 different products which I can combine into different options. This means that Option A is affordable but not labour intensive; while Option C may be more labour intensive but very lucrative.
* “Spend 50% of your time marketing” – this means transfer work to the client, subcontract anything that’s not relationship bound, and streamline delivery by only telling clients what they need to know, not what I think they need to know.
* Language controls the discussion. The discussion controls the relationship.
* Be flexible enough to match your social style with the style of the buyer
* Models add enormous value because they engage the buyer in the prescription. You can draw a quick model and then ask the buyer where he thinks his organization is.
* The first sale is to yourself. Get this in your bones.

Reprinted from the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers:

Ask the Expert : What “Golden Rules” Can Be Broken?
by Alan Weiss

The speaking business has changed significantly in the past decade, but the people in it often seem not to have noticed, as if watching jet aircraft from the insular comfort of their stagecoaches and thinking there’s nothing odd about that. I’ve seldom seen so many antiquated ideas bandied about as if still contemporary. I’m sure it was useful at one time to know the best way to kill a Tyrannosaurus, but even if the approach still made sense, the great beasts were last seen tens of millions of years ago.

I’ve been asked to report on what “golden rules” can be broken. I assume we’re talking about speaking and not Commandments, so here are my nominations:

1. Working through intermediaries.
It is ethically and pragmatically necessary to establish a relationship with the person who is making the investment in the speaker. That is never a bureau, a meeting planner, or an event manager. We must find the individual whose objectives and evaluation are critical, because it is their investment. The better bureaus and meeting planners readily facilitate a meeting with the true “buyer.”

2. Acting like a “hired hand” and ecstatic to have the business.
I actually heard an NSA convention speaker say that he was a “hired hand” who would help a client move tables or set up recording equipment. I’m not a hired hand, I’m a highly skilled professional, and I’d no more help with non-speaking activities than my doctor would help find an oil leak in my car during my visit, even if he knew about cars. We must stop undermining our value.

3. Thinking that stage mechanics and movement outrank words and meaning.
There have been bogus citations of “research” purporting to show that non-verbal behavior has more impact than words. This has been perpetuated by those who either never looked at the “research” or don’t know how to use words. Words are the tools of our craft. I’ve listened, rapt, to people who speak well even if they choose not to—or can’t—move at all.

4. Believing that audience evaluations are important.
“Smile sheets” are just dumb. The audience members are the last people you want to ask about success. We’re often called upon to make them uncomfortable, to shake them out of lethargy, to accept radical change. We don’t need for them to like us, we need for the buyer’s objectives to be met (see #1 above). You’re not in this business to be loved. If you need love, get a dog. (And within the profession, I’m bored to tears of undeserved standing ovations.)

5. Maintaining a fee schedule.
You should stop looking at a speech or training program as an “event.” Think about what you can do prior (e.g., interviews, surveys) and what you can do at the session (e.g., handouts, coaching), and what you can do after the event (e.g., newsletters, email access), and you now have a project instead of an event, that is worth ten times your “speaking fee.” The problem is that you probably “throw in” most of those extras for free to prove your value! (And bureaus demand “fee schedules” because they treat speakers like an ongoing cattle call.)

6. Thinking you have a “message” and this is an avocation.
This is an occupation, and unless you are meeting a market need (or creating one) no one cares about your “message.” It’s great if you overcame some challenge or learned some cosmic lesson, but unless you can interpret that into practical improvement for others, it’s just a nice story over cocktails and nothing others want to pay to hear. (No one will pay to see your vacation slides.) This is a business, not a hobby.

7. Listening to “experts.”
Unless the ski instructor is six yards ahead of you on the hill doing exactly what you want to do, the instructor is a fraud. Drinking brandy in the chalet is insufficient. Only listen to those who have done what you want to do repeatedly and successfully. Most people at conventions lie to each other about how well they’re doing, and too many people giving advice are solely “advice-givers,” with no real credentials of success.

Feel free to break all of these rules. I have. So do the people I coach. Now, follow me down the slope….

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

I’ve just conducted a follow-up here in London for some of my Shameless Promotion Workshop grads, and here is a consensus list of what they’ve been doing to successfully increase their visibility and dramatically gain business:
• Improved web sites, as credibility statements, to state-of-the-art
• Created book proposals, sought and obtained agents and book contracts
• Obtained board positions with trade associations and non-profits
• Issued monthly or more frequent press releases
• Begun teleconference series
• Contacted trade association executive directors for speaking engagements
• Published manuals and booklets
• Created and/or increased usage of blogs, podcasts, and videos
• Put video testimonials on their sites and blogs
• Set up meeting with prospects while traveling for clients
• Analyzed and approved strategy as appropriate (the all HAVE a strategy)
• Become more assertive is seeking referrals from diverse sources
• Created lunch seminars to attract prospects
• Became objects of interest by hosting symposia
• Given up long-time business that was unprofitable or distracting
• Creating new brands or sub-brands

(Shameless Promotion Workshops admit only four people at a time, create monthly accountability phone calls afterwards, and are scheduled by mutual convenience. The fourth group will meet at the end of March. Participants have come from four countries thus far. You can find it at: http://tinyurl.com/ydcku8p.)

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Let’s take a look at recent events and see what they teach us as consultants.

1. Toyota
Ultimately, leadership relies on judgment. Judgment should always be in the customers’ favor. The first reaction to adverse feedback or conditions can’t be to adjourn to the bunker or begin to “spin” the facts. You can’t blame floor mats and driver incompetence for engineering errors that represent a frightening expense to correct, because sooner or later the truth “outs.” Get off the floor and hold your head high, where you can truly see the landscape. As of this morning, Toyota released a statement claiming the problems “aren’t as bad as the media report.”

2. The Olympics
In short-track speed skating, as the Koreans were headed for a sweep, the second and third-place skiers took each other out on the final turn. The fourth skater finished second. In the prior Olympics, the American woman far ahead in the snowboard competition fell on the final small jump when she mindlessly tried an unnecessary move, and the woman in second by 50 yards won the gold. The downhill ski competition and luge competition were decided by hundredths of a second. You need to play hard through the finish line and stay focused all the while. And even then, you only need to win by an inch.

3. Sarah Palin
No matter what your politics, this woman is a lightening rod of attention. I’m convinced that a great deal of the attention is actually generated by her detractors and the opposition, which in turn fuels media attention, and re-stimulates the cycle. The opposition keeps asking what is it about her that can possibly attract such interest and publicity. Maybe they should stop asking that question, stop attacking, and stop talking about her, and see what happens. One of the best ways to deal with your competition is to ignore them.

4. Late Night NBC
The decision to move Jay Leno to prime time and the ensuing mess has to rank as one of the worst programming decisions in the history of prime time television, and will wind up costing NBC hundreds of millions. Jay Leno will be back where he started, where he’ll try to regain that time slot’s old lead over David Letterman. Conan O’Brien is gone, with $30 million in his pocket but a questionable future in the medium. And Jeff Zucker, the executive who did it all, is still in place, still making decisions, and will probably be “promoted” and given more money when Comcast completes its acquisition of NBC. Bad decisions are not the fault of the implementers, and the higher the position you hold, the more you should be accountable. How do you improve with this guy still in a key position of any kind? Who’s accountable for THAT decision?

5. Steve Jobs
My understanding is that Steve Jobs is cooperating with Walter Isaacson to write an authorized biography. Isaacson’s credentials are impeccable—CEO of the Aspen Institute, former CEO of CNN, award-winning author and biographer—and the resultant work should be fascinating and, I suspect, overall, quite laudatory. Organizations and individuals should establish and control their “story” and image, and not leave them to others by default.

It’s not difficult for consultants to develop material, approaches, and examples. They are in the headlines every morning.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

Today, the fourth section of the Wall Street Journal carried a lead article by Richard Greenwald, a professor and dean at Drew University in New Jersey, about how to make it as a solo consultant. At the risk of driving still more people to the article, I have to tell you that I began laughing out loud when he suggested that it’s a great idea to teach at a community college since it will enhance your consulting résumé! I can just see an executive at Boeing or JPMorgan Chase gaining confidence because you’ve taught at the community college level and you’ve got a résumé, as if you’re applying for a job!

One interviewee’s acquisition of new business cards, a “basic web site,” and a new cellphone has allowed him to reach 80% of his old salary (which was presumably somewhere in the four figures)!

If you wanted to commission an article on the pressures of working in an emergency room, wouldn’t you talk to a doctor or nurse? If you want an article on successful independent consulting, why not have one write the story, or interview a dozen? There is no mention of how to market, how to establish fees, how to build on past relationships, or how to use the Internet.

He does remind us that clients do not want an important phone conference interrupted by a nagging two-year-old. Ah, I wouldn’t have realized that.

Honest to goodness….

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

In my experience, about 85% of organizations attempting change of any sort are largely unsuccessful. Reasons:

• Fad
• HR sponsored or implemented
• Some manager’s pet project
• No long-term reinforcement
• No adjustments made for culture or beliefs
• No flexibility as conditions change
• No commitment (just compliance) from participants
• No results, just tasks

As consultants, we need to overcome those obstacles, and not fall victim to them. That means we should avoid:

• Non-buyers, unless they can introduce you to true buyers, and fairly quickly.
• Middlemen, such as brokers and agents, who claim they have contacts but you would work at their discretion.
• Trawler fishermen—those people who are issuing RFPs, inviting you to “meat market” auditions and casting calls, requesting you apply for inclusion in their conference (“We can waive your registration”).
• Meeting planners, who haven’t any clue about the buyer’s needs or any control over the budget.
• Human resource types who have no credibility, and pride themselves on extracting good deals from “vendors.”
• Purchasing people—the new “heavy hitters” after the economic chaos, with their sharpened pencils, eye shades, and myopic vision—who only see dollars and not results.

This is the marketing business. Hence, you must continually be:
• Attracting buyers via gravity
• Meeting with them
• Establishing trusting relationships
• Creating conceptual agreement
• Sending them proposals with options and definitive next steps
• Maintaining and nurturing the relationship once they are clients

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

I receive Google Alerts each day, which inform me of where my name, “million dollar consulting,” “value based fees,” and other aspects of my intellectual property appear. Overwhelmingly, these are favorable notices, and I always try to say “thank you.” (On occasion, I find someone stealing my work. A favorite tactic of the plagiarists is to “excerpt” tens of pages and place them in their newsletters, which they sell, as a “review” of my work. I ask them to stop, then my lawyer asks them to stop. All have.)

The other day, I found a pretty amateur consulting blog with an exchange between two readers One had said, “Don’t read ‘Million Dollar Consulting,’ it’s not very good.” And the other said, “Thanks, you just saved me the money.”

There are dozens of things wrong with this transaction, but here are the salient points:

• MDC has sold 450,000 copies or something like that since 1992, globally. That doesn’t happen to bad books.
• Even if it isn’t a great book in someone’s opinion, it’s one of the fundamental books on solo consulting, and you need to read it if you’re going to be knowledgeable in a profession that refers to it. It’s like a strategist refusing to read Peter Drucker.
• Consider the source. The guy who didn’t like it is hanging out on an amateur site, with no credentials and no one has ever heard of him. Why would he be your muse?
• The book, in used copies, costs just few bucks, and maybe $20 new (or less on Amazon). Why wouldn’t you make the small investment to find out for yourself?

There is something worse than stupid professionalism (“I forgot to set the next date for the review of the proposal!”), and that’s stupid amateurism.

In any profession, listen only to those who are successful at what you want to be successful doing. Make sure you are familiar with the major issues and intellectual property. And don’t blindly take advice or make assumptions. (I had heard that Malcolm Gladwell’s new book wasn’t that good. It’s terrific. I wanted to see for myself.)

You may be new, you may be struggling, but you can still be a professional. If you are, you won’t be struggling for long.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

I’ve often spoken of the “martial arts” of language, which means taking the other person’s momentum and turning it back at them. For example, when you’re asked, “What is your fee?” you respond, “I don’t know, what are your goals?” (“What can you do for me?” “I have no idea, yet. Tell me about your priorities.”)

Lately, I’ve had more questions than ever about people trying to be tough negotiators in the preliminary stages. Once you establish a relationship WITH A TRUE ECONOMIC BUYER, then there should be no problem, since partners don’t try to take advantage of each other.

But if you are confronted with an obnoxious (and often, just stupid, objection) use what I call “stiletto questions.” Read on and I think you’ll understand the reason for the sobriquet.

Buyer: I’m not going to pay for anything before I see results. So you’ll have to create a payment schedule that reflects my paying once I see those results.

You: What business are you in?

Buyer: You know our business, it’s consumer electronics.

You: And do you allow customers to tell you that they’ll pay once they’re happy with the device, or do you charge them when they’ve made the purchasing decision?

Always turn the question around to the buyer’s business, and 99.9 percent of the time, you’ll find that you’re being asked to do something that the buyer wouldn’t condone in his or her own business.

Also, always be prepared for either answer. Example:

Buyer: I want you to give me a better fee. Reduce your fee by 25 percent and we have a deal.

You: Do you reduce your fees for clients by 25 percent just because they ask you to?

Buyer: Of course not.

You: Then why would you expect me to do that?

If buyer says: As a matter of fact, we do!

You: Then that’s why you need me, and fast!

Wittgenstein said that the limits of his language were the limits of his world. That’s certainly true of your business world. Mastering language requires no capital investment and can be quite rapid. But you have to have the tools (never “dumb down” your speech, that’s for amateurs) and the self-esteem (you’re not “selling,” you’re providing value).

One final example, against a very powerful rebuttal, one that sends most consultants scurrying for the exits:

Buyer: Please don’t waste your time, we have a policy against hiring consultants here.

You: You’d be shocked at how many of my best clients said that during our first meeting!

Speak powerfully and confidently, with expression and influence. The alternative is poverty.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.