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.

When you’re heading to a meeting with a prospective buyer, it’s easy to be intimidated by all that you “don’t know.” You’re unsure of what kind of temperament and personality you’ll encounter, haven’t seen the environment before, aren’t certain what the needs may be, and so on.

So let’s redistribute the balance of power by focusing on what you should know before ever seeing the buyer. If you know these answers—and there’s no reason why you can’t—then you know more than enough to get you through any uncertainties.

1. What is the value proposition you want to focus on? How do you mainly improve your clients’ conditions, and what major areas of need should you be listening for?
2. What is the client organization’s position in its field? (Research reports, ask people who have used their products and services, shop the business, if possible.)
3. What are the major challenges for the industry? (Research trade associations and newspaper reporting.)
4. Who are the major competitors? (Research who the main players are and where your prospect ranks in sales, profit, market share, and so forth.)
5. What is your buyer’s key responsibility? (Call the company, read press reports, read the annual report.)
6. How will you use your time? If you’ve agreed upon an hour, how much time will you spend on introductions, key questions, and so on, and at what point will you start to summarize and set the next step?
7. What is your minimum and maximum objective for the meeting? What’s the least you’d like to accomplish (e.g., establish a relationship and a next meeting) and the most you can reasonably accomplish (e.g., agreement to accept a proposal in the next couple of days).
8. What references and examples will you use that are most effective for the person, company, and industry? What “war stories,” examples, metaphors, and names would be effective to include?
9. What will be your response to some of the most typical questions you’ll be asked in all likelihood ? (Example: How many people are in your firm?)

10.What appearance and demeanor do you want to portray, and how will you do it (e.g., what will you wear, what language will you use)?

You have the opportunity to know more than you think you might if you apply yourself to the proper preparation. Never worry about the “sale.” Focus on establishing a trusting relationship.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

I am an advanced stamp collector (stop snickering), and have a quite sophisticated US collection. I’m constantly looking for those rather expensive issues I’ve not yet acquired.

In a national publication, I found a stamp dealer online in my home down, specializing in the US! I send an email, asking if he had three issues in particular I was looking for. Here’s what he wrote back:

I’m totally revamping my den/office, and I’m finally off the card tables and into about 75% completed digs. On the way to dinner the other night, on a whim, I said to  my wife, “Let’s stop at Best Buy and see if they have a copier/fax/scanner gizmo that will work wirelessly.” My son-in-law urged me to look at these and get rid of the three huge pieces of equipment taking up so much room (copier/scanner/fax, color printer, laser printer) in the old setup.

The people in Best Buy are very nice and knowledgeable, and a one of the guys took 10 minutes to describe what I needed but told me, “You’re not our demographic, and that level of machine isn’t here. But if you go onto BestBuyBusiness.com you’ll find it and can order it.”

Well, I was in the mood for immediate gratification, and would prefer to see it and watch it work, so I thanked him, disappointed, and left. On the way to the restaurant, we stopped at the Staples where we usually purchase office supplies. I didn’t think they’d have a machine like this, but it was on the way. The store manager intercepted me, found out what I needed, and sent over the resident printer expert, who was about 12 years old.

He took me through a few machines that would meet my objectives, narrowed it to one and demonstrated it for me, answered every question, told me it was $50 off, and then fetched a hand truck to personally take it out to my car and shocked wife. (Good thing it was a great evening, the box fit in the back seat, barely, with the top down.) And, of course, I get Staples reward points. (And this is an HP machine, I’m a devotee of HP, they were a fabulous client for ten years and I own their stock.)

The machine took 15 minutes to set up the next day, 10 of which were devoted to getting it out of the box and removing a pound of packing protection. The only wires it has are the fax jack and power cord. It works perfectly and has given me a ton of additional room. It is smaller than any one of the three machines it replaces.

Maybe Best Buy would draw a more affluent demographic if they stocked more sophisticated machines. They sell some expensive stuff in there, and they are a quality operation. Why would you send me down the road? Next time, my first stop will be Staples. That’s how delicate the retail business can be.

Try not to send me packing.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

There are scams and spam all over the Internet, but some are so stupid that you have to wonder if people are spilling things on themselves as they type. Here’s something just received from some outfit called Blackhat SEO actually addressed to a Beagle:

Some character named “Doc” goes on to thank Buddy for helping make his firm so successful. Unless this guy is the tree where Buddy prefers to pee, I doubt he’s been of much help….

An OBJECTIVE is a business outcome that improves the buyer’s condition. It is never a deliverable.

A METRIC is a measure or indicator of progress and success. It must be identifiable by the buyer and you. There should be at least one metric and preferably more for each objective.

VALUE is the various impact of the objectives. An objective of “increased profit” can yield value including higher margins, more money to reinvest in the business, ability to attract more investors, ability to attract more talent, and so on. Ideally, each objectives should generate several value statements.

With this framework, fees can be viewed in the context of ROI based on the value. If you achieve conceptual agreement with a true buyer prior to your proposal on objectives, measures, and value, you will close at least 60% of your proposals at high fees; and if you provide options with escalating value and fees, you will close at least 80% at very high fees.

You can read about this framework in detail in almost any of my books, or hear about them on many of my downloads, and practice them in most of my workshops.

© 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.

I love science fiction, so I’m giving the TV show “Falling Skies” a tryout. It’s on its third episode, and I’m liking it.

Some time ago, someone introduced me to Klout, a free service that evaluates popularity on Twitter. I signed in to experiment, since I often critique social media and I need to know what’s happening.

Apparently, Klout thinks my Twitter popularity is sufficient to enlist me, so I was offered a free Falling Skies package: backpack, canteen, compass, a neat  hat that says “2nd Massachusetts (a resistance regiment), and other stuff. I think it’s a fabulous way to market something like a TV show, using people deemed to be influential on the social media platforms. Here I am mentioning it!

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Thought Leader characteristics from my Thought Leader Workshop this week at The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL.

• Sought by other professionals.

• Sought by the media.

• Multiple commercially published books.

• Expertise appreciated globally.

• Public appearances.

• Continually ad intellectual property to the field.

• Admit errors and changes/grows.

• Cited by others to prove their points.

• Controversial/provocative.

• Usually have taught at undergraduate and/or graduate levels.

• Star client list.

• Know other thought leaders.

• Plethora of protected intellectual property.

• Totally comfortable with top people in any field.

• Longevity over diverse conditions.

• Communities surround them.

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.

A fascinating woman approached me in Vancouver prior to my keynote to ask if she could micro-blog. I said “Of course,” as if I knew what the heck she was talking about. I asked her to write a guest column about what she was doing and why. In my role as King of Social Media, I’m happy to present it here, and I thank Terry for writing it.

The Value in Live Tweeting A Keynote Address of Alan Weiss
By Terry Rachwalski, World of Consulting

For me, micro-blogging is just another communication medium. The difference is that unlike an article, blog or book, it forces the communicator to be concise—140 characters to send a thought demands a paucity of in-depth analysis. Micro-blog posts are more like a stream of consciousness, unfiltered and without the careful wariness of re-writes and editing. The communication is “in the moment.”

Is micro-blogging for everything we need or want to say? No. Some concepts need more substance for thorough communication, but micro-blogging has its place in the spectrum of options available to us.

When I started my micro-blogging account, I asked myself what I wanted to communicate. The form and structure of my consulting assignments are not based on the cult of “me.” The brand is not me personally, yet every assignment I have had came from a word-of-mouth referral. So what could I add to conversation and still be authentically who I am: kind of serious, kind of quirky, but definite about courses of action?

I decided to add value. I decided I didn’t want to spam with a link in every communication I send and I didn’t want to natter on about what a cute dog I have (though that is undoubtedly, true).

To add value, I decided to give snippets of information on consulting, the consulting life and how to consult, with the occasion personal, consumer rant built in—because that’s me.

The theme of Consulting Conference 2010 in Vancouver, BC was about charting a course to value. So I decided that what better value could I offer my followers than to tweet during the keynote speech by Alan Weiss? I asked Alan for permission which he graciously gave, informed my followers, and started tweeting.

Are the tweets anything special? Well, it depends on your point of view. but there are some nuggets of wisdom that are exactly what micro-blogging is all about—concise and pointed statements. The trending favourite was:

“Stop being a jellyfish who floats with the tide, be a shark + control your own destiny #cconf #yvr”

with the follow up pos:

“OK, Alan says be a tuna if you don’t want to be a shark #consultant. You get the picture #cconf #yvr”
Apparently, my followers agreed that there was value there. I added about 100 followers over the course of the conference and keep building my posse of consultants.

You can find the live micro-blog on Alan Weiss’s speech by searching the hashmarks #cconf #yvr #CeMC on twitter under my account @consultingmania

© Terry Rachwalski 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”

Ronnie, who owns the high-end spa where I get “done” and The Lovely Maria works once a week, was in Paris on a clothes buying trip for her store. She is having breakfast at Angelique, a well-known, “in” cafe, enjoying her “dessert” of Mont Blanc. The woman next to her, well dressed and well spoken, comments on the place and the Mont Blanc. She is just returning from an assignment in Moscow.

“What do you do?” asks Ronnie.

“I’m a consultant and speaker,” she says.

“Do you know Alan Weiss?” asks Ronnie.

“YOU know Alan Weiss?!” she says, “Of course I do. Who doesn’t in this profession? How do YOU know him?”

“Every Thursday afternoon, manicure and pedicure with Dawn.”

© 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.

Here’s a link (www.forbes.com/2009/12/09/employee-retention-compensation-leadership-managing-ceo.html) to a Forbes.com op ed piece written by my two co-authors of The Power of Strategic Commitment, Josh Leibner and Gershon Mader. They’ve undertaken a very sophisticated and comprehensive approach toward using the new book (from AMACON) to leverage their business. I’ve also co-published over the past year with Omar Kahn (The Global Consultant—Wiley) and, as a business venture, with Nancy MacKay (The Talent Advantage—Wiley), and am currently writing books with Chad Barr and Phil Symchych. Two other people are in negotiations at the moment.

Josh and Gershon are using events, video, publishing, and attendant publicity to extend and highlight their expertise and commensurate strategic projects. You can find their book site, with videos of New York (I’m in that one) and Toronto client events here: http://www.strategiccommitment.com.

These are good examples of two strategists executing an excellent strategy!

From Mickie Kennedy at e-releases. I haven’t used these and can’t vouch for them, but I thought they might be helpful.

Free Press Release 
http://free-press-release.com
PR-inside.com 
http://www.pr-inside.com
i-Newswire 
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PR LOG 
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BigNews.biz
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PressReleasePoint 
http://www.pressreleasepoint.com
ClickPress 
http://www.clickpress.com
OpenPR 
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IdeaMarketerss 
http://www.ideamarketers.com
1888PressRelease.com 
http://www.1888pressrelease.com

Additional Free Press Release Services
UpVery.com 
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Pressbox
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24-7 Press Release
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PressMethod 
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SanePR.com http://www.sanepr.com
PR9.NET 
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PressExposure 
http://pressexposure.com
Post a Free Press Release
 http://www.postafreepressrelease.com
Free Press Release Center
 http://www.free-press-release-center.info
PressAbout http://www.pressabout.com
Businessportal24.com
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prFocus
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Exact Release 
http://www.exactrelease.com
Press-Network.com
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PR Friend 
http://www.prfriend.com
Live-PR 
http://www.live-pr.com/en/
Newswire Today 
http://www.newswiretoday.com
MediaSyndicate http://www.mediasyndicate.com
PublicityWires
 http://www.publicitywires.com
AddPR.com 
http://www.addpr.com
NetForce Press
 http://www.netforcepress.com
PR Kiosk
 http://www.prkiosk.com
Press Release 001
 http://www.pressrelease001.com
PR Urgent News 
http://www.prurgent.com
LocalNews.biz
 http://www.localnews.biz
Prbd.net
 http://www.prbd.net
USPRwire
 http://www.usprwire.com
PitchEngine – Credit card required.
 http://www.pitchengine.com

I developed this list with managing partners from accounting practices in a half-dozen countries while working with them in Atlanta this week. I think it applies to all professional services firms’ principles, and to all entrepreneurs who seek to be a “trusted advisor.” (My thanks to Norman Same of Sydney for setting up this work, which was a result of Rob Nixon asking me to speak for over 500 accounting professionals in that city, my thanks to him, as well. That’s how marketing gravity works!)

How to be perceived as a Trusted Advisor:

• Do pro bono work in the community.
• Publish with third-party endorsement (e.g., business publications).
• Speak at every opportunity when there are influence leaders in the audience.
• Create and maintain an interactive web site.
• Blog, with frequent (e.g. three times+ weekly) provocative issues.
• Conduct breakfast and lunch meetings for networking and discussion.
• Provide free diagnostic products.
• Elicit and publicize testimonials.
• Seek community leadership positions (e.g., planning board).
• Create the proper office environment (privacy, dignity, success).
• Create the proper employee attitudes (courtesy, responsiveness, proaction).
• Create a regular newsletter, hardcopy or electronic.
• Create and promote your brands, and trademark you property.
• Convert intellectual capital (intangible) into intellectual property (tangible).
• Teach locally at a college or university as a guest lecturer.
• Seek professional and trade association leadership positions.
• Create “best practices” from you wealth of experience in your profession.
• Constantly ask happy clients for referrals.
• “Paint others into the picture,” by demonstrating how they can benefit.

If you want to be seen as someone whom important clients can trust and rely on to the degree that fees are not an issue, then you have to walk the talk and talk the walk. How many of these pragmatic actions are you engaged in?

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

In my portfolio, Apple, HP, Fedex, and others are nearly at their pre-recession levels, and J&J and Medco have exceeded those levels.

“More than half the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list were launched during economic downturns.”— “The Right Stuff,” by Alexander Stein, Fortune Small Business, September 2009, page 27.

My neighborhood gang grew up together in a highly urban environment. We were all poor, so no one noticed. (Later, out teachers would describe us as “lower middle class,” which was charitable, at the very least.)

Store owners treated us like the dirt we tracked into the stores. Even though we had some spending money, we were always suspect and never invited to stay. And these places weren’t outlets of Bergdorf’s or Nordstrom’s. One was nicknamed, “Filthy Phil’s,” just to give you the mis-en-scene.

But then a retired man named Bud took over one of the soda shops. He installed pin ball machines in the back, which we could play for a nickel. Large glasses of Coke were ten cents, and a chocolate-covered donut the size of my head was a quarter.

(Digression: We had chocolate, drank sweet drinks, played in the street, ate candy that was pure sugar, some of kids smoked, there were roaches and rats around, and very few vaccinations. Somehow we all grew up, most of us are alive, and just a couple still in jail. Sometimes, listening to the “experts” in the media, I would think that any kind of empirical validity test of their theories would demonstrate that no child ever grew to adulthood prior to 1980 or so.)

In most places, the soda was likely to be warm, out of the fountain. But Bud provided ice. “Wait,” we cautioned at first, “what’s the price of the ice?” After all, cold wasn’t worth the loss of a pinball game or donut.

“The ice is free,” he said, and we looked at each other as if we had found the biggest patsy in the world. Only about a year ago did I realize that the ice filled up (with frozen water) a large part of the glass which would otherwise hold product. We were ecstatic at the time. In retrospect, it seems so was Bud.

He would encourage us to stay, so long as we purchased something if we sat at the counter or tables. He didn’t put a strict time limit on us, but would remind us. Occasionally, we’d get something “on the house.” (One of the three pinball machines was relatively easy to win on, and we were surprised Bud didn’t replace it. I have since realized this was another stratagem.)

None of us wanted to be thrown out of Bud’s, and banishment was unthinkable. The gang hung out there. So we were careful, especially with Bud’s adult clientele, and managed a fine symbiosis.

Bud knew a great deal that people today don’t seem to fathom. The customers want to perceive they are getting a good deal. They’ll conform to reasonable requests in order to perpetuate their good deal (e.g., timely payments, no returns). Above all, they want to be treated like assets and valuables, not like expenses and distasteful interruptions. We always gave Bud the benefit of the doubt when he had to close early or was out of stock of some cavity-inducing candy.

I’m sure Bud has passed on to greater rewards. It’s a shame. I think he would have done wonders running GM, or my soon-to-be-former dry cleaner, or United Airlines. I’m suspecting that Filthy Phil may have had something to do with those.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

Here is an excerpt from a letter being sent out by the attorney who handles my litigation (this is used with his permission). I think you’ll find it fascinating and, let us say, ahead of the profession’s curve. While it’s not purely value based, it’s a huge step in that direction. (Tony is a great attorney, if any of you need such services.)

To: Our Clients
Re: Alternative Billing Program

Beginning on September 1, 2009, we will offer our clients an alternative billing program based on fixed charges for designated services, projects and cases within our areas of professional competence. At the same time, we will continue to offer conventional hourly billing where it may be preferable. The purpose of this memorandum is to discuss the new program.

While there are many criticisms of the widespread practice of hourly billing by lawyers, perhaps the most troubling one suggests that the practice tends to reward inefficiency. Lawyers, this criticism contends, are encouraged by the hourly billing system to take more time than is required to complete a task and to extend the duration of a case or project longer than circumstances warrant. Even in those instances where the client is confident that his or her lawyer is using time prudently and efficiently, there is nevertheless the concern that hourly billing places the cost of legal services beyond the client’s control and prediction.

Hourly billing can be unsatisfactory from the lawyer’s perspective as well. To the extent that it provides early, favorable resolution to the client’s problem, hourly billing offers no financial reward for doing so.

Of course, no billing method is perfect. Alternative billing, for example, is likely to engage both client and lawyer in more frequent discussion of fees—indeed, in the uncomfortable and time-consuming business of negotiating fees. In addition, since alternative billing is based on a prediction about the fair charge for the work yet to be undertaken, it will sometimes miss the mark and charge more or less than it should. Despite these and other shortcomings, however, we think it best to make non-hourly billing available to those of our clients who wish to use it for some or all of their work. In the end, we believe that alternative billing will find its way to its most appropriate uses.

Anthony F. Muri
MURI ASSOCIATES LLC
10 Weybosset Street
Providence, RI 02903
401-421-7300 (Voice)
401-421-7352 (Fax)

I love people who tell me they are hosting a radio show or a TV show. That almost always means they’ve allowed their ego to be captured by some wise guys who are charging them to “host their own show”!

In an electronic age, why not spend nothing and be more effective than poorly appealing to an irrelevant audience that really isn’t there? Here are nine steps to killer email:

1. Use your own list of people who know something about you. Don’t purchase “stranger lists” if you are trying to sell consulting services, which is what I’m talking about here. A small, quality list is always better than mere quantity.

2. Create a great subject line. “Special offer” is not as good as “Unique opportunity” or “Five ways to attract talent that most people are missing.”

3. Personalize the opening and make it immediately enticing: “Jane, you’re a respected professional and valued client (friend, professional colleague, etc.), and I’ve thought of something that makes great sense for your career (profession, company, plans, etc.).

4. Offer real value, but simply. Provide a quick list, explanation, idea—something to show value in the early going.

5. Don’t send them away or make them work. People are not going to follow links, and may not even open attachments. Stick to a brief email.

6. But have a call to action on your part or theirs. I prefer that you follow up with them. Tell them you’ll be calling at a specific time on a set date (and invite them to respond if they prefer another time). When you call, say that “I’m calling as promised.”

7. Spread it out. If you have a list of, say, 50 people, send out ten every other day. Don’t make it onerous on yourself, and give yourself time to make the follow up calls. This also allows for personalization and will greatly increase the tendency to read the message.

8. Include a brief testimonial. “Jim Smith at Sigma Engineers said that he was overjoyed that I contacted him about this, and has already found two new people with no fees. You can reach him at….”

9. Keep tinkering. As people respond, eventually ask what was key in the email to make them amenable, and constantly improve the content and format as you hear patterns.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

Here I go again, trying to bring some optimism and positive techniques to the economy and consulting services. By the way, it was recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journalthat Europe will recover much more slowly than the U.S., which should be better days as early as the start of next year.

Consultants Newsreports in its June 5 edition (Kennedy Information, Peterborough, NH) that “…a large number (of consulting) firms said they have stepped up marketing and sales efforts to support top-line growth.”

In the June/July Business Week SmazzbizMichael Porter is cited (page 47) saying, “Those companies that ramp up capacity will be able to gain market share. Much larger organizations won’t be able to meet the demand because they’ve downsized and outsourced.”

Tell your clients as well as yourself that these are the times to invest in themselves and their near-term future.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

I know it’s unfashionable to report good news, but someone has to do it.

The stock market is hovering around being in the black for 2009.

Government indicators are cautiously positive on trends in unemployment, housing sales, and trade. That is, things aren’t as bad as feared, or are slowing their slide, or are actually stabilizing.

Of course some things never change. Insurer AIG, after a mega-massive government bailout, is now stonewalling over paying property and medical claims to the passengers on the US Airways flight that ditched in the Hudson River. You just can’t make that stuff up. And banks, themselves the recipients of massive tax payer funding (some of which are proudly claiming they are starting to repay the loans) are still not providing mortgage loans and consumer credit.

Nonetheless, as I’ve been suggesting, the inevitable rebound will be sooner, not later, and economists in the Wall Street Journal this morning are starting to talk about early 2010 as the time of improvement.

Last night the coauthors on my newest book, “The Power of Strategic Commitment” (Amacom), Gershon Mader and Josh Leibner, threw a huge launch party at The Campbell Apartments in Grand Central Station. They invited clients, friends, and press, and taped a great deal of the proceedings. They understand that you invest in marketing and promotion, and that you don’t grow through cutting. Their clients clearly understand that, as well. We all had a great time.

The guy who coauthored my very first book, “The Innovation Formula,” is Mike Robert. He used to say to anyone who would listen, “If you had a dollar left, would you feed your family for a day, or invest it to market yourself so that you could feed your family forever?”

What investment are you making in optimism, courage, growth, and most of all, yourself? Not just for now, but forever?

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

I’ve published here previously research done by McGraw-Hill underscoring the wisdom of investing in promotion, development, and so on during a recession, and why such companies outperform those which hide under a rock. Thanks to Mark Smith, a member of my Million Dollar Club, here is another great article from The New Yorker on the topic, and why Kellog out-cerealed Post, among other fascinating examples:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2009/04/20/090420ta_talk_surowiecki

You ought to be citing these resources to your clients who claim it’s a bad time to invest. They’re afraid of wrecking the boat, but in the meantime they’re missing the boat.

It’s astounding to me how much consultants spend on marketing that not only need not be expended but is pretty useless, and how many simple, inexpensive activities with high impact are ignored.

Interested in reading on?

Here are examples of wasted time and money—poor ROI:

• Third parties who claim to market you or include you on some list or site. These people simply make money from your subscription or membership, and besides, this is a relationship business, not conducive to selling through lists. Would you buy services this way? Many of these groups make outrageous claims, have shills give testimonials, but can be found on various “rip-off” web sites where victims tell the tale. Do you choose a doctor or attorney from a list, or from personal references and having heard that they’re good?

• Search Engine Optimization, the mythical “SEO.” The people making money here are the ones helping you to achieve SEO. In the consulting business, buyers don’t troll the Internet searching for consultants or key words. They act on word-of-mouth and reference, and use your web site to investigate your credibility and expertise. You’re not selling toasters or time-shares. Save your time. Web site “hits” are irrelevant. You only need one good hit.

• Long hours on social media platforms. I’ve written about this here recently: http://www.contrarianconsulting.com/what-price-glory-orcan-we-get-some-air-in-here/. I don’t care about the exceptions who “claim” they are doing six figures on Linkedin. If you are a consultant working with corporate clients and prospects, that’s not where to spend marketing hours (I don’t care how many leisure hours you spend there, it’s your time). I’ve found utility in social media platforms, but not in place of far more effective marketing pursuits.

• Indentured servitude in return for “exposure.” When you work for free or peanuts, people often learn of your arrangements. You’re also clearly seen as a performing seal—you’re there to please the crowd on behalf of someone else.

• Self-development programs with people who do nothing but self-development programs (usually featuring multi-page letters of benefits, testimonials, and “money back” guarantees). Has the person who will be in front of you actually done, personally and successfully and continually, what you want to learn to do better? Or do they merely provide advice and coaching or, worse, are a representative of someone providing advice and coaching?!

Here is what you can do to thrill people with your marketing and achieve huge ROI:

• Return your calls and emails properly. If you can’t call or write back because you’re currently with a client, or traveling, or on vacation, or whatever is consuming your current attention, that’s not great focus, that’s a learning disability. Simply get back to people quickly and you’ll not only start the relationship process earlier, but they will get an idea of how responsive your are. (When I used to routinely call people back from Hong Kong, they were astounded. The call cost about $20. Calling back from a beach in St. Barth’s, believe me, is not a hardship.)

• Orient your marketing materials toward the client, not you. Your credentials and methodology are unimportant. How the client is improved is important. Do you have case studies, typical client results, and a buyer-friendly web site, collateral, and conversation? Do your testimonials talk about how great you are or how great the client results are?

• Learn business etiquette. In the Million Dollar Consulting® College I’ve often had a segment on social etiquette. In the preparatory work, participants would remark, “I have no needs in this area,” and treat the session lightly. Then they would use the wrong bread dish at dinner and hold their knife as if playing a role in “MacBeth.” Buyers can be turned off when you act as if you’re new in the big city.

• Learn the language of the sale. Use language correctly, confidently, and cogently to turn aside buyer objections and focus on the next step in the process. It’s really that simple. Influence is about language. Language controls the discussion, the discussion controls the relationship, and the relationship controls the business.

• Associate with people who ARE master marketers, and with whom you can see the evidence to support this. Don’t copy them, but do appropriate the techniques that work for you (so long as you don’t plagiarize or steal). There are people out there obtaining great consulting business right now. Why them?

Why not you?

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

Too many consultants are thwarted when the buyer says, “Sounds interesting, I think you should talk to our human resources director (or training manager or whatever).” That’s not the time to ask directions to the HR department, but to say any of the following:

1. I’m happy to do that. In my experience, I often hear ideas and intent not consistent with your own. So it’s very valuable to debrief on my meeting. What’s the best date and time to schedule our getting back together?

2. This is a strategic decision, not something that HR has the means or capability to decide. They need marching orders on this from a comprehensive business perspective, and that can only come from you.

3. If they haven’t been able to address this issue internally yet—and obviously they haven’t or you wouldn’t be talking to me—why is it useful to involve them at this stage?

4. They are the executors and implementers for a portion of this, and I’m happy to work with them at the proper time. But right now we’re formulating what the project should achieve and look like.

5. If this is perceived as an “HR project,” it will fail. This must come from line leadership, as initiated and supported by you. It’s your team.

6. Every HR department has credibility problems, political preferences, and certain blind spots in terms of the daily operations. It’s not a good idea to burden a new project with those liabilities.

7. I guarantee you that HR will tell you to delay, study, and otherwise make this project more complex than it needs to be. Let’s tell them what to do to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

8. Anything you try to do through HR will wind up to be more expensive, more time consuming, less credible, and include two dozen of the latest fads, academics’ books, and buzzwords. People will recoil from that, or see it as “this, too, shall pass.”

9. Does your HR leadership regularly sit in on your senior meetings with your team, with policy initiatives, or with strategy formulation? If not, then they would be dysfunctional participating in the formulation of this project.

10. I deal with the person who has the fiduciary responsibility to make investment decisions and evaluate ROI. Ethically, I need to understand your expectations to ensure that I can help to meet them and to ensure they are reasonable. Those needs and this relationship cannot be delegated to a third party.

You cannot name for me, in the last ten years, ten human resource executives promoted directly to CEO positions in Fortune 1000 firms. You can name line vice presidents, actuaries, general counsels, CFOs, COOs, and myriad others. There is a reason for that. Don’t go there.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

For those of you dealing with clients and prospects loath to invest “until times are better,” here is a link to research done on the wisdom and results of investing during the early 80′s recession which may be of great use:

Innovating through Recession: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Innovate
by Prof. Andrew J. Razeghi, Kellog School of Management

located here:
search on McGraw to quickly find the reference in the paper on page 6.

This is an op-ed piece published yesterday in the Providence Journal:

Alan Weiss: How boards can help, hurt nonprofits
01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, December 10, 2008
ALAN WEISS

I’VE BEEN A CONSULTANT for over 25 years, working with organizations of all sizes all over the world. I’ve found that tough times serve to exacerbate both strengths and weaknesses. Strong assets can become keys to thriving, but significant weaknesses can become fatal flaws that undermine survival.

Over the years, my wife and I have served on dozens of nonprofit boards and are currently on six between us. Board leadership of the organization (and leadership of the board) is critical to nonprofit success, particularly in this economy, especially in a small state. Many people claim, mistakenly, that there is no money to be raised under current circumstances and that people are loath to contribute to the arts, or education or social needs.

But that’s not true in my experience. Rhode Island has a core of very generous people and institutions. Case in point: We recently raised $140,000 in two weeks for the Newport International Film Festival (NIFF) after going public with the reality that we’d have to shut down if we couldn’t raise a minimum of $100,000 in that time frame.

There are terrific people serving on boards here, passionate about the organization, generous of spirit and wonderful in giving time. This is not an indictment of boards or their members, but suggestions for optimizing both.

Here are some guidelines for success, more important than ever in tough times:

• Appropriate board members. No matter how wonderful their intentions, board candidates should bring at least four assets to be appointed: passion; intellectual capital; contacts who can be accessed to support the cause, and the ability to donate or raise funds. Advisory committees, task forces and subcommittees can be formed to accommodate others who don’t meet these criteria. (And there should be minimum attendance requirements for board members.)

• Term limits. I was shocked at one board meeting when a woman next to me remarked she had been a board member for 22 years! Boards need fresh blood. Community Preparatory School, in Providence, is a good example of a board that demands sabbaticals for board members, during which committee membership is allowable, but after which the individual may or may not be reappointed.

• Mandatory financial contribution (donated or raised). Both our major anonymous donor ($90,000) and Steve Feinberg, executive director of the Rhode Island film commission, and who came to our aid, insisted that our NIFF board be fully committed. That means meeting our minimum of contributing or raising $5,000 annually. It’s awkward to ask the public for money when the board members aren’t donating or raising funds themselves. I believe that’s an ethical necessity.

• Acting as more than a fund-raising committee. Boards have relatively few responsibilities, but two critical ones are governance and evaluation of senior management. Too often, senior management (artistic directors, executive directors, managing directors, etc.) don’t have results-oriented goals, and their performance is not critically reviewed, which isn’t fair to them.

• Resisting micromanaging. I estimate that 75 percent or more of most boards’ time is focused on issues properly in the complete domain of management. I’ve sat through the details of fundraisers, how much food coupons will cost, how to price T-shirts, and other minutiae that is none of the board’s business and shouldn’t usurp the precious time of the members.

We’ve been blessed in Rhode Island to have seen the likes of Adrian Hall, Richard Jenkins, Curt Columbus, Misha Djuric, Larry Rachleff, Tony Estrella, the superb RISD Museum, with its world-class artists, and all the rest of the people and performances in our rich arts scene. My experience is that the cultural scene in and around Providence is richer than a city of its size otherwise merits. (For example, Trinity Rep and Steppenwolf Theater of Chicago are often favorably compared, yet Chicago has nearly 3 million people within the city itself, about 10 times that of Providence.) According to one report I saw, the cultural and arts scene in Rhode Island is the second largest contributor to the economy, behind tourism, which you can easily link to the former.

Millions of school children have been exposed to the performing and fine arts through these institutions over the decades. (Festival Ballet is currently exploring adaptive dance programs for physically challenged children.)

We’re also blessed with generous people who believe in the arts, and who contribute consistently and diversely. Many have their names on the walls, many are anonymous. Sometimes, unfortunately, they are bailing out boards that haven’t performed well rather than contributing to an exciting future.

Thus, “nonprofit” doesn’t mean “non-professional.” We’re dealing with huge amounts of public money and public trust. Boards have to be led, and themselves lead, so that the money and the trust are confidently given. That’s not an issue of the economy.

It’s an issue of stewardship.

Alan Weiss is a consultant who lives in East Greenwich.