Executive Wisdom for Business

The worst of times ... the best of times

There has never been a better time to be in business, especially in professional services. Conventional marketing wisdom always urged us to target classes or target masses. If you want to work in forensic accounting you are probably targeting the classes and if you want to work in mass delivery of individual returns with 24 hour tax refunds you are targeting the masses. Simple enough!

But a lot has changed. Clients want value, service, convenience, choice and lots of attention.

This isn't bad news. Quite the contrary. This is a great time to be in business armed with knowledge, enthusiasm, and an inquisitive mind. We have the opportunity to set strategies for our business that will bring challenges, fun and profit.

What's your vision for your organisation?

1. What value do you deliver to your clients?
2. What problems do you solve?
3. What improvements do you make?
4. Who specifically wants one or all of those three assets you offer?
5. Who is willing to write a cheque for it?
6. How specifically do you reach those people?

You must make yourself and your business known to those people identified in point 6 above. A millionaire client of mine said, "I don't care if I can't squeeze another customer into the shop, I still keep promoting. Because I have to keep convincing my customers that ours is still the place to come."

His point being that the real sale comes after the sale. We all must become unabashed, relentless self-promoters. Oprah continues to promote herself, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Gillette all continuously market their brand to us. We are never so good or so busy that we can afford to stop marketing.

The partner of a legal firm asked me to lunch. It wasn't until after we finished our main course and began settling in to coffee and cheese that he opened up. "Ric, I need you to come and assess the professionals on staff and tell me which of those it makes sense to let go."
"Let go? Why?"
"Revenues are down, and prospects of short-term improvement aren't obvious. To maintain profitability, if I release a few lawyers, we will lower our wages and therefore expenditure, significantly."
"Are these all good people?"
"Sure are; it's going to hurt to cut some of them."
"Then don't. Why have them as your competitors when the recovery cycle hits? Let's educate them in ways to become a further asset to the firm by developing their marketing, networking and business development skills. I'm also going to work on your delegation skills so you can release some of the workload you are carrying over to these people; and then we are going to get you out personally marketing and promoting the firm."

In the 1700s battles were fought with the general on his horse, sword drawn, leading his troops into battle. That's exactly what managing partners of legal and accounting firms need to be doing right now!

Yes, these have been some pretty challenging and tough times lately. This is also the best time for quality, value-based businesses to stand out from the crowd and be a class above the rest. These are the best of times.

Ric Willmot - Delivering Breakthrough Executive Performance


 

You don't want 000's of newsletter subscribers

Andrew Paul from Boca Networks wrote a post on LinkedIn giving some advice that was quite plainly "old news". Not only that, but it was puerile advice.

Here is what he wrote:

"Getting New Signups for your Newsletter"

1. Make your sign-up form easy to find. Remember that nearly every page on your site has the potential to be a landing page, particularly in the case of visitors arriving from search engines.
2. Provide a convincing incentive for subscribers to sign up. Provide good quality content for email subscribers.
3. Don't ask for too much information. It's tempting to ask for more information that might teach you slightly more about your subscribers, but the more information you ask for, the more hesitant many people will be to give up private information and to invest time into filling out your form. Keep it simple. Ask for what you need to email your subscribers with your goals for personalization and segmentation in mind.
4. Use a thank-you page that does its job. The job of a good thank-you page, usually, is to transition subscribers from a Website experience to an inbox experience. Set expectations with subscribers about what they should expect to receive, including what your emails will look like in their inbox, and what they should do with it. This is especially important when using a confirmed opt-in process.

My response:

Some businesses don't want a plethora of sign-ups from just anywhere. 
Some types of businesses want only qualified prospects as newsletter subscibers. And so, they should in fact ask for just enough information to deter pretenders, tyre-kickers and the competition.



One consultant that went through my Mentor Program will no longer accept hotmail or gmail addresses for sign-ups and specifically has mandatory fields in the sign-up form such as:

• Surname
• Company name
• Industry type



The consultant gets less numbers of sign-ups, but they are qualified, genuine, and "real". 

The point being, for years now we have been making the sign-up form easy. We have been doing the nice thank you and confirmation pages; but if that doesn't support your own personal business strategy, it's an alternative seeking an objective. And, it may well be the wrong objective. 



9000 subscribers that do not fit your prospective client profile is nowhere near as valuable as 100 subscribers who perfectly match your A-Class client profile.

Quality that transfers into business outcomes far exceeds quantity that only feeds your ego.


Ric Willmot - Delivering Breakthrough Executive Performance

Take action to build relationships

The term customer relationships refers to the extent to which there is a feeling of relatedness and rapport between a business and its customers. You must make it a high priority to ensure customers keep coming back to you.

Many businesses see the sale as the end of the selling process, whereas most customers see it as just the beginning of a relationship.

Simple action steps (this is not rocket science):

• Say "Thank You"
• Send a "Thank You" note
• Present commemorative plaques to customers
• Pay unexpected attention to customers
• Give away functional freebies
• Stay in touch
• Create a privileged customer group
• Hold a closed door sale
• Follow up with a telephone call (not email)
• Provide more service than what you get paid for

Do one thing every day ... if you dare to be great!

Ric Willmot

2009 Australian Small Business Research Released

Research conducted by the Society for Executive Wisdom in 2009 has provided the following extraordinary results of Australian Small Business.

• 59% consider marketing to be one of a number of important issues
• 36% report it is their key growth strategy (marketing)
• Businesses in operation for more than five (5) years tend to consider marketing to be an important but not the key issue
• More than one in three (35%) of small businesses set a marketing budget of between $5,000 and $20,000 for 2009
• 62% of business less than one year in operation (believe marketing is critical to the growth of their business) have only budgeted up to $5,000
• 95% expect to increase or spend the equivalent on networking in 2009
• 85% expect to increase or spend the equivalent for both website development & management as well as brochures and marketing collateral
• 53% cite the number of new leads generated as the main measure for ROI (Return on Investment)

If you are currently involved in running a business, either as an owner-manager, or as someone responsible for the marketing strategy in your organisation, or if you are planning to start a new business, then understanding the new world of marketing in this current rough economy is vital to your business success and longevity.

Research conducted by Executive Wisdom, coupled with my experiences, has clearly indicated there are twelve (12) key areas of marketing activity which are crucial if you are to be successful. This applies to any business, but especially SMEs (small and medium size enterprises). Not surprisingly an ability to excel in each of these areas is what sets apart winners from the rest.

But, where do you start? Here are six of the twelve recommendations:

1. Company-wide sales culture

Organisations are successful in direct proportion to the extent to which they satisfy customers. A customer-driven business is one in which there is a company-wide commitment to satisfy customers.

First: Satisfy customers, those unreasonable, emotional and awkward people who seem to have only one thing going for them. They give you their money!

Second: Satisfy customers, those impertinent people who expect us to do it their way, and at their convenience, just because they are paying us!

Third: Satisfy customers, those disloyal people, who at the drop of a hat, would rather spend their money elsewhere if they think they're going to get better value on a product or service that's more closely tailored to their needs!

 

2. Use business data to dramatically increase your success rate

Continually engage in a process of obtaining specific information from the marketplace for the purpose of making better quality decisions about what to sell, to whom and in what way. If you think there is a gap in the market, market research will tell you if there's a market in the gap.

 

3. Formulation of an effective engagement strategy

Creating a winning marketing strategy involves the careful positioning of a product or service in the marketplace so that it has a unique appeal to a certain group of target customers and is difficult for competitors to copy. Effective strategy is the pursuit of the right customers, with the right offering, in the right way, at the right time.

 

4. Become a nexus

Become a nexus organisation (person). A place where people come to get what they need, whether you have it or not. They just know that you will have the answers and steer them in the right direction no matter what. Develop a systematic approach to identifying potential ways to attract customers to you, using a variety of methods.

 

5. Audit your business communication

Design and implement methods of hearing the customer. Such as: Focus Groups, Customer Panels, Interviews and more. Executive Wisdom has created a spreadsheet showing the nature & purpose, advantages and disadvantages of varying business communication tools called: Tools for Hearing the Customer.

 

6. Take action and start the improvement today

The term customer relationships refers to the extent to which there is a feeling of relatedness and rapport between a business and its customers. Attach a high priority to make certain customers keep coming back. Many businesses see the sale as the end of the process, whereas most customers see it as just the beginning of a relationship.

 

If you would like to bring expertise to your specific marketing strategy, contact Executive Wisdom on +61 7 3395-1050

Ric Willmot

The Cortes Challenge

This week on my blog I wrote a post: "What was it you were telling me about why you can't succeed?". The intent was clear. I'm trying to bring some balance to the economic debate, as it specifically relates to Australian business. Yes, these are hard times and yes, there are some real hardships being felt. But we need to remember, we are in control.

Proof positive:

1. A client, (I am on retainer to her business and am also a board member) tells me she will pay me my full-fee to "volunteer" my consulting services for a day to help a friend. I said, that I didn't think that was the most appropriate way to help her friend. If you don't pay for something you tend not to value it as much. The three of us had breakfast, chatted and her friend agreed to engage my services at full-fee, and I agreed to payment terms. Her friend is in control and not making excuses.
2. There was a vacancy in my Private Clients Mentor Program becoming available on 1 March. I keep a list of people who express an interest in joining when there is an opening. I sent an email to those 14 people and within 15 minutes someone registered and paid in full via my website. That person is in control and taking charge of their future.
3. The Queensland President of an Association requests a meeting to discuss the possibility of me speaking at their national conference later in the year. "But we don't have much money, it's tough at the moment." During our coffee date, I asked smart questions, listened intently to her wants, and then explained what I was hearing she actually needed. I will be giving a keynote, doing a breakout, and every delegate is receiving a copy of my $55 CD on "Getting to the Buyer". The five-figure fee was more than double what she was intending to invest in me originally. I am responsible for the trajectory of my business.

So, why the pessimism?

When the Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortes landed at Veracruz, he immediately burned his ships. He said to his sailors: "You can fight or you can die".

Burning his ships removed the third option: ceding and sailing back to Spain. Now and then it requires greater creativity to eradicate excuses than it does to come up with the idea.

What three factors make it harder to achieve your business objectives?
How might you stop the excuses?

Ric Willmot

What's Your Backstory? by Ian Brodie

My mate from the UK has written quite a pertinent piece for those in professional services and responsible for marketing those services.

Take a peek: "What's Your Backstory?

Ric Willmot

Sales Benchmarking to Drive Performance

Ian Brodie has written a great book review on his website: Rainmaker Resources for a new release entitled, "Making the Number". 

If you are responsible for sales or business development, either individually or as a manager, I commend Ian's review to you. The review itself, provides valuable information and sensible thinking.

Read the review by clicking here.

Ric Willmot

Building trust to build business

In Hobart recently, I addressed a group of 20 or so owners of specialist recruitment firms. The interesting dynamic that pertains to the thinking of "specialists" is that some consider this to be of greater importance to prospective clients than anything else.

The message I was engaged to share with these business owners was my premise that professional service firms, especially recruitment firms, necessarily must think of the value they are providing to their clients, in ways the clients would appreciate. To stop giving clients what they want, and to make the time and effort to discover what the client truly needs.

The buzz phrase being used by some recruitment owners is that they are "solution providers". That's great. They did admit though, that even still, business was hard and they didn't always get the sales they wanted.

"Specialist Solution Providers" -- why weren't the clients knocking their doors down?

On each trip to Dubai, I see more buildings being constructed, of greater enormity than the last. Each striving to outdo the prior in height, design, and opulence. The factor common to all these buildings is the foundation. The larger the building, the more substantive the foundation.

The foundation required for selling personal and professional services is "relationship". The better the relationships, the more robust your business sales will be.

How do you develop true and real relationships in professional services? The kind of relationships that will ensure you get the "benefit of the doubt" from clients when others may be competing with you for the sale.

The Hobart delegation had a start on this puzzle when they identified themselves as solution providers. But that's not where it starts. A colleague who is a sales coach explains to his clients that they need to be trusted and trustworthy. Building rapport will help you build trust. Showing your competence will help you build trust. Having your competence recognised will help you build trust.

If you have gained trust, you now have the opportunity to get past the wants, to uncover needs. Need comes in three flavours:

1. Painlessness: the need to eradicate pain or misfortune, debilitating the client (e.g. employment of staff to fulfill roles left vacant through attrition, retirement, resignation or illness).
2. Creation: the need to create something to happen that improves the client condition (e.g. creating an induction program for new staff to improve retention of new recruits).
3. Improvement: you build a more successful business by improving upon your strengths not correcting weaknesses (e.g. providing ongoing HR consultancy services, training & development programs and performance appraisal processes that continually help the client raise the bar).

Uncovering the needs allows you to develop the best solutions.

Designing and developing solutions, specifically for the client needs, shows you as a true "solutions provider" rather than simply a "services seller". Offering solutions which hit the need may seem simple; however I am continually amazed at how many professionals throw the whole toolkit at a prospective client. They're so afraid of losing the sale that they unwittingly clutter the process and fail to actually make the sale.

The work doesn't stop there. The solution now needs to be articulated in a way that affords the client the ability to grasp quite clearly the value of this solution for them. How will the solution make the pain go away? How will the solution create the new objective? How will they be better-off? What will the results mean for them? Consider both the tangible and the intangible.

Dubai is continually building engineering monuments of mammoth proportions by constructing foundations of great depth and breadth to support these monoliths. Professional service firms can build highly successful businesses by establishing relationships of trust, need and value.

What's your next project?

© Ric Willmot 2008 All rights reserved

Don't Tell People What to Do!

It seems to be a well-known fact or belief that the majority of new businesses go under within the first three years. Some say that perhaps 90% of all startups fail within a year.

At the same time, it's quite apparent that few business owners understand the difference between explaining what they have to offer versus telling people what they do every day. Wandering around the Web, looking at many different Web sites with a critical eye toward the average visitor's mind, I see the problem increasing, not decreasing.

With economies in downturns, many companies laying off employees, money being tight, and jobs disappearing, lots of people want to start their own business. They often put up a Web site, broker some sort of product, and just assume the world will come pounding to their virtual doorstep, handing out money.

Here's the thing: How well do you like being told what to do? There's that expression, "You're not the boss of me!" It nicely sums up the idea that most people prefer to have a choice in matters. Most people don't like being told they must do this, or have to do that. Most people right-away go on the defensive when they're told how they should live.

Yet more Web sites seem to be doing just this: "telling." Not only do they tell you what you must do, need to do, or that if you don't do something, dire things will happen. On a more subtle level, they also tell you there's only one way to view their product or service. It's "their way or the highway," in a nutshell.

Now think about your own product. You may believe it's viewed in a particular way. You many believe there's only one market for that product. You may believe you have a clear sense of your target customers. You may believe all sorts of things.

Nobody cares.

All that matters is what everybody ELSE believes! The market, that mish-mash of mixed minds working independently, has no unified consciousness. Things move by trends, statistical pathways, and generalized feelings. Nobody acts as the spokesperson for The Market. The only feedback you'll get is from a few people now and then, and of course your sales numbers.

If you persist in the belief that you know what's going on, you know what people want, you know how they want it, and you know how everything should be presented, then there's one basic question you should also know how to answer: "How much are you selling?"

Take a look at your own Web site and marketing tactics. Do you "tell" people what to think, how to act, who you are, and what you sell? Or do you present an interesting description of things, and offer them something? Are you explaining your company or are you describing your company?

Someone once wrote a book, both the name and its author now escape me, in which they discussed women wanting to be married. The jist of it was that so many women say they want to "get a man." They want to "be married." This author began questioning women, generally, and asking what they were doing to "attract" a man.

It's the same problem for a business. How many business owners want to "get customers," or "be successful?" And yet, how many of those people try to "attract" customers?

What are you doing to attract more business? Conversely, what are you doing in terms of telling people what they must, should, have to, or will do when they arrive at your Web site?

How much room do you allow for your product to be used entirely differently from what you thought originally? Think of Lotus 1-2-3, originally developed as a spreadsheet for accounting-type people. Because it was left so wide open as to user customization, it soon was used in ways nobody dreamed a spreadsheet program could be used.

Do you have that sort of optional customization? Or are you telling people the only way they can ever get, use, buy or understand your business is if they do it exactly the way in which you tell them?

Which target do you have in your sights?

How professional service providers interact with their clients will determine how well the business partnership develops. Accountants, lawyers, recruiters, et al believe they need to become ever more technically better to attract more and/or better clients. But that's not always what the client is seeking.

The relationship between client and professional is about two people working together as peers, mutually evaluating the worth of one another in the partnership. If developed in a positive environment of improving the client's condition, there will be a bond that is created that will weather the test of time and competition.

Open, honest two-way communication is required by both parties; yet in many instances, good communication is absent.

Accountants, lawyers, financial advisers, recruiters and alike sometimes lack the ongoing, proactive communication their clients would value and appreciate to build an ever stronger bond. In my consulting life, large numbers of professional service firms seek my counsel in improving their marketing strategy, client relationships, business development and fee/revenue growth.

During the initial enquiry analysis and research, I commonly discover similar results:

The professional services firm is exceptionally good at clearly explaining their costs and methodology, supported by qualifications, skills and experience. What is not so well done is articulating the results and outcomes for the client (both tangible and intangible) in language common to the client.

Professional service firms are in an age of relentless competition. Pressure to continually lower prices comes from the clients. Pressure to continually raise revenues and profits comes from the principals and partners, while pressure to reduce costs comes from CFOs and Administration Managers.

Service firms can rise above the mire to stand out from the crowd by focusing on service, quality, innovation ... a broader holistic approach.

This can be achieved by speaking to the client about what interests the client, in a language the client can understand. What's important for your client? Being in a better position today than what they were yesterday because they had you working on their behalf.

What target do you have in your sights? The technical issues? The fees and prices? Your qualifications? Or the results, value and outcome to be achieved for the client? Hit the mark and watch your business grow.

© Ric Willmot 2008 All rights reserved