Lessons from the Million Dollar Consulting® College
I always learn more than anyone when I conduct these sessions, and here is what strikes me, either as new learning or validation of best practices:
• Existing customers may love you, but that doesn’t translate to prospects unless you provide value that meets their self-interests.
ª We tend to overemphasize delivery. Marketing and business acquisition are the key skills, and finding delivery people is easy. (These are the people who are good at what they do, but can’t market themselves.)
• Somewhere around 99 percent of the time, it’s death to deal with the human resources department. They are paid to conserve budgets and are seldom respected elsewhere in the organization.
• The use of powerful language (metaphors) and images (process visuals) accelerates your ability to attract, involve, and partner with true buyers. This creates the gravity which attracts and entrances buyers.
• You must convert intellectual capital (intangible) to intellectual property (tangible) in order to diversify and magnify your offerings and your value.
• Occam’s Razor: The easiest route is usually the best. Analyze the gestalt of the situation to choose effective solutions and improvements. “Performance problems” may actually be structural issues, for example.
• Never assume your client is somehow damaged. Use observed behavior and empirical evidence to drive your work. Don’t superimpose arbitrary models, tests, or belief systems.
• Try to be diagnostic in the marketing of your services, but prescriptive in their delivery. You want a partner in making the buying decision, but you’re the expert when it comes to execution.
• Expertise, consulting practices, partnerships, and all the elements of successful business engagements are transnational, trans-cultural, and trans-industrial. All of us can be global consultants with current technology.
• Mastery of time use and mastery of relationships are the keys to self-esteem. Try to be selfish about your time, and discriminating in your relationships.
• If you’re spending more time worrying about the best software to use to contact prospects than you are actually calling prospects, you’ve lost the point.
• The first sale is to yourself. You have to believe you have value, and you’d be remiss in not offering it to people who can be helped.
© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.
Dan Weedin
Alan,
Many thanks for a fabulous week. I went in with high expectations and they were exceeded. Thanks for sharing yourself and your community.
Dan
Alan Weiss
I had a blast, great group, outstanding dinner, lots of learning. Stay the course.
Alan Weiss
By the way, beef Wellington followed by bread pudding—glad you weren’t coming back in the Bentley from dinner!
Dan Weedin
You’re right. I could have been responsible for an accident. I sat on one side of the van by myself to offset the rest of the group. That’s why I had the oatmeal for breakfast. It wasn’t bad…
Dan
Michael Zipursky
Great set of lessons and insights here. Thanks for sharing Alan. Have a great weekend!
Michael
Ian Brodie
Sounds like eberyone had a great time – and leart a lot.
I particularly like “If you’re spending more time worrying about the best software to use to contact prospects than you are actually calling prospects, you’ve lost the point.”
In my experience, those of us from a strategy consulting background tend to fall into this trap a lot – I certainly do. We’re most comfortable analysing, thinking and reviewing – rather than going out & doing.
Ian
Alan Weiss
Imperfect action beats perfect conceptualization.