Saying “No” on the way to “Yes”
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
The Future of Consulting: An Interview with Alan Weiss (#1)
The Future of Consulting: An Interview with Alan Weiss Session 1 Alan was recently interviewed by a graduate student who wishes to remain anonymous. BEB: We’re seeing increasingly startling headlines about management incompetence, whether Toyota’s quality problems or Hewlett-Packard’s leadership follies. Do these
Collegial vs. Adversarial
I find that the default position for far too many professional services providers is adversarial. That is, someone has to lose for someone else to win. I recall one of the "sales gurus" commenting from the stage, "In every sales
Consulting Tips of the Trade
Here are some incredibly easy tips to stay ahead of the pack that most consultants simply ignore or aren’t disciplined about. Speed: “Right from the outset, we saw how quickly you responded and realized that was lacking with people in the
When Consultants Collaborate
"Collaboration" with colleagues is too often a theoretical exercise that burns up time determining what would happen "if": If a client came along. If you had a project together. If you combined your methodologies. Collaborate (that is, work together on a
Eight Things To Do When You Enter A Buyer’s Office and Before You Leave It
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.
Marketing Best Practices from Hall of Fame
Here are the marketing best practices being used by members of the Private Roster Mentor Program Hall of Fame, who met for the last three days in New York City: • Repurpose existing intellectual property (IP) in multiple ways on diversified media. • Obtain
Contrarian Wisdom
I'm conducting my Mentor Hall of Fame meeting in New York just prior to my birthday party. Andrew Sobel, who has been in my community for quite a while, came up with an interesting phrase, "contrarian wisdom." I told him
The Consulting Bible: An Excerpt
Here is the opening of my new book, available in about a month from John Wiley & Sons, The Consulting Bible. It will be available for order on my site in about a week. Section I: Genesis Consulting as a
Million Dollar Referrals
An excerpt from my new book to be released by McGraw-Hill in a few months: I was introduced once to a top client team by their boss who had hired me, who had used my help in a prior company and