Reflections on the Mentor Summit
This was my first Mentor Summit in Europe. (I conduct these every 9 months of so, free, for all members of my Mentor Community.) We had representation from Germany, U.S., U.K., Ireland, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, and Switzerland.
Some conversations that may be of help to you:
• Value is key to gaining the interest of prospective buyers, provided quickly at the first meeting.
• Being an object of interest to others leads to easier appointments.
• There is significant opportunity to work across Europe and in the U.S. for European consultants.
• We have to become accustomed to providing options with higher fees. If no one every resists even our highest fees, then they are probably consistently too low.
• Start-ups are very difficult for consultants since the money is scarce and oriented toward marketing and R&D, so you must demonstrate how your help with be relevant for these areas.
• Smaller business has owners who will make more emotional than logical decisions, and both husband and wife should be seen and convinced.
• Don’t worry about being liked by everyone, worry about pleasing the buyer.
• Turn coaching business into consulting business by providing the buyer with insights into what you’ve seen that is non-confidential about systems, procedures, communications, product mix, and the like.
• When you are with a buyer, do everything you can to reach agreement on the key business issues to be improved, and what the key objectives are. Don’t allow the conversation to stray or get out of your control.
• For every objective, have at least one measure of success and three statements of value (impact) created by achieving it.
© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.
