Million Dollar Consulting® College Lessons
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.
