14 November 2011 Leave a Comment

Do You Trust Me? Check Out My Results on the Trust Quotient Test…

Ask any senior professional about the books that have had the most influence on them and The Trusted Advisor by David Maister, Charles H Green and Rob Galford is almost certain to be up their near the top of the list.

It was a landmark work – explaining why trust needs to be at the centre of any professional relationship – and how to earn it with your clients.

The good news for us fans of the book is that Charles H Green has teamed up with Andrea Howe to write a follow-up book: The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook. This book takes up where The Trusted Advisor left off and dives into practical details on how to:

  • Develop business with trust
  • Nurture trust-based relationships
  • Build and run a trustworthy organization, and
  • Develop your trust skill set

One of the tools Charles and the team over at Trusted Advisor Associates use in their work is the Trust Quotient Self Assessment. This tool allows you to see which elements of trust you’re strong at, and where you have weaknesses.

Rather impulsively, I agreed to be a guinuea pig for the tool – and to video the results live with Charles.

On the video we look at my Trust Profile, and talk about how to go about improving your trustworthiness using the tool as a guide.

You can check it out here, find out what my profile is, and how to improve your trust:

Trust Quotient Interview

 

Filed Under: Business Development Mindset Tagged With: , ,
18 October 2011 3 Comments

7 Mindset Hacks That Will Help You Sell More

One of the biggest barriers many consultants, coaches and other professionals have that stands between them and achieving their business goals is their own mindset and attitude towards marketing and selling.

I can’t tell you the number of people I meet who absolutely know they need to be more effective at marketing and sales – yet who feel incredibly uncomfortable doing it.

And I have to admit, I used to feel that way too.

In fact, I’m still not a “hardcore” sales person ruthlessly focused on getting the sale. My primary concern is getting the best outcome for my clients. And I’m happy that way.

But what I’ve found is a way of thinking about marketing and sales – mindset “hacks” – that allow me to remain fully congruent with my primary goal of helping clients, while still being effective at marketing and selling.

I’m not saying you have to share all my beliefs and ways of thinking about marketing and sales. But I have found that the more of these you internalise and believe in, the more successful you’re likely to be at sales.

Mindset 1: Taking Control
A lot of consultants and coaches have a very passive mindset about marketing and selling. “If I do good work, people will hear about me”, “Word of mouth is the best marketing”, “Something will turn up, it always does”, “Once the recovery kicks in…”.

These may all be true – but if you let them dominate your thinking, it causes you to be passive. To sit back and wait for things to happen. If you want to be successful in marketing and sales you must decide to take things into your own hands: to choose Action over Hope.

Mindset 2: Focus
We’re so overwhelmed with opportunities and information these days it’s very easy to lose focus. Every day I read reports of others “crushing it” with webinars, events, product launches, direct mail…

It’s so tempting to become distracted – to try to do everything. To try out every shiny new method you hear about in the hope it will magically bring you in clients without a lot of work.

But the truth is that if we split our focus and keep trying new things, we’ll never get good at any of them. We’ll never develop the skills or the reputation for any of them to pay off. The path to success is to pick two or three proven approaches and stick with them.

Mindset 3: The SACI Principle
This builds on the principle of focus – and it’s something I’ve written about in detail here.

The SACI principle is that success comes not from silver bullets or one big amazing event – but from Simple Actions Consistently Implemented.

We all know we should keep in touch with our contacts and nurture our relationships. A simple action. But how many of us do it consistently? The same applies across all our marketing and sales. It’s consistency that counts.

Mindset 4: Systematize
This was quite a tough principle for me to get to grips with. I love to try new things, to innovate and play around with my marketing. But once you’ve found something that works, you need to set it on “autopilot”. You need it to be working day in, day out without having to think about it all the time.

That doesn’t mean it has to be automated – much of it can’t be. But it oes mean that – for example – if you’ve chosen to write articles or blog posts to attract clients, then you need to have a plan for what you’re going to write and you need to dedicate a morning a week to doing it. Rather than just aiming to grab some time when you can and make it up as you go along.

Mindset 5: Client Focus
We all talk about being client focused. But in this context, what I mean is that when you have a sales meeting with a client, you’re overriding thought should be “how can I help?” – not “how can I sell?”.

What I mean by that is if you go into the meeting (or if you’re on a call with a potential client) thinking that your goal is to sell them your services, that a succesful result from that meeting is to emerge with a paying client. Then the chances are you’re not going to sell.

You see, more often than not your potential client will pick up on your motivation. If they think that your goal is to sell them, then they won’t trust your advice to be independent and in their best interests. They’ll second guess what you’re saying and resist your recommendations – unsure whether you’re making them because you think it’s right, or whether you’re making them in your own self interest.

However, if you go into the meeting thinking your goal is to help your potential client – and to discover if working together would be the right option – then things change.

When your potential client picks up that your overriding goal is to act in their best interests – and they will pick up on it – then they’ll trust your advice and recommendations. If at some point you suggest that working together would benefit them, they’re an awful lot likelier to accept that suggestion as being genuine advice rather than a self interested sales pitch than they would be if they felt your goal was to get the sale.

Mindset 6: Belief in Your Value and Expertise
Hand in hand with your focus on helping clients needs to be your belief in the value of what you do and in the strength of your expertise.

The risk with client focus is that you can become subservient – just doing whatever they ask. That’s not in their best interests. You need to have a strong belief in your own knowledge and capabilities – and in the value you bring them.

If you don’t believe in the tremendous results your potential clients will get if they work with you, then you’ll be unable to convincingly communicate that to them. You’ll be tentative. You’ll feel uncomfortable quoting the high fees you deserve.

In many ways, the first marketing battle is to sell your value to yourself.

Mindset 7: Make “No” An OK Answer
In other words – take the pressure off.

A lot of sales techniques involve putting subtle (or not so subtle) pressure on your potential clients. Deadlines, scarcity, the risk of others getting this deal if they hesitate.

All designed to put a little pressure on your potential client to overcome procrastination and get them to make a decision.

And they work – in their place.

But with complex, costly, intangible services, there’s a lot of risk and uncertainty for your potential clients. they need to see a lot of evidence that this will pay off and that you’re the right person before they’ll be ready to buy.

If you pressure them before they’re ready, it’ll backfire. They’ll feel manipulated and uncomfortable – and they won’t buy.

One of the best ways to overcome this – and to build trust – is to make it clear early on that them saying “no” – choosing not to do this – is an absolutely OK option and not one you’re going to fight. Going back to our Client Focus mindset – your goal is to figure out whether working together is the right thing for both sides – not to try to force them to say yes.

Take the pressure off by saying up front that it’s absolutely fine if you come to the end of the meeting and either of you decides it’s not the best option.

Without that pressure, your potential clients will open up much more, you’ll be able to build a more trusting relationship, and you’re more likely to get the sale.

Next Steps

Review some of your own beliefs about marketing and selling.

  • Are they helpful or counterproductive?
  • Would it be possible to change them?
  • What should you change them to?

Drop me a note in the comments to say what mindsets – either helpful or unhelpful – you have towards marketing and selling.

Filed Under: Business Development Mindset Tagged With:
21 June 2011 Leave a Comment

It Never Happens to Me…

If you’re like me and you subscribe to a zillion email newsletters and blogs, you probably hear the following type of stories fairly regularly:

  • “Jane got chatting to the guy sitting next to her in the dentist. The topic got around to business, they exchanged cards, and a few calls later she had a new client.”

    •  
     

  • “I met Bill at a conference. We got talking and I mentioned an article I’d written on cost reduction. Later I sent it to him and followed up with a call. He was interested and after a brief meeting he hired me to help them reduce their indirect spend by 20%.”
  • “John was at a party a few weeks ago. The conversation turned to what everyone in the group did for a living. John shared his “elevator pitch” and two of the people there followed up with him later – one becoming a client within a few weeks.”

Now I don’t know about you, but whenever I read these stories, or hear similar ones from people talking about their experiences, my immediate reaction is “how come that never happens to me?”

When I go to the dentist, the topic never gets round to business. When I meet people at parties, the conversation usually turns to football, not marketing.

So how come these folks in the stories seem to have so much success turning social situations into business? Is there a secret they’re not sharing that they do and we don’t? Some amazing technique we’ve not heard of?

Well, there is a secret. But it’s not a clever technique.

You see, what the stories usually omit is that the people they’re talking about initiate conversations EVERY time they’re at the dentist (or the doctors, or at the hairdressers, or in a queue for tickets, or…). Only one in twenty turns into a business discussion – and that’s the one you hear in the story. Of course, one in twenty is one more than you get if you don’t initiate any conversations at all.

When they’re at parties, the conversation doesn’t always turn to business. It’s just that they go to more parties than us, and they’re the ones bringing up business.

In short, they turn more social situations into business than you or I because they put themselves in more social situations than you or I, they proactively talk to more people than you or I, and they bring up business more than you or I.

The rather simple logic is that all other things being equal, if you want to win more business, you’ve got to do more business development.

Or to paraphrase the old joke: it’s no good just praying to win the lottery – you have to give your deity of choice a fighting chance by actually buying a ticket.

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16 April 2011 3 Comments

What’s Your Story?

In the world of espionage they call it your “legend”. In drama, it’s a character’s “backstory”. In marketing we often call it a “persona”.

In essence, it’s the stories about you, your history, your experiences which uniquely qualify you to do the things you claim you can do. The things that give credibility to your services.

If you’re a an innovation consultant, perhaps you spent 10 years at Apple and know how the very best do it. If you’re an IT outsourcer, perhaps you used to be the CIO of a major corporation and know just what CIOs need from outsourcing. If you’re a leadership coach, perhaps you interviewed the 10 most prominent leaders in your sector and know what they do that makes them so effective.

In my post on Marketing Half-Truths I showed how important this backstory can be. How it can give you significant credibility and also make you more interesting to clients.

I’m not talking here just about your achievements or your CV. Just a list of stuff you’ve done is neither interesting nor memorable.

What I’m talking about is crafting a coherent and memorable story that brings a logical underpinning to your capabilities and services.

It works best if you can sum it up in one sentence. “<your name> can <do what you say you can do> because <your story which justifies it>”.

In my case, I can help consultants and coaches get more clients because I’ve done it myself – despite being far from a natural at business development.

Here are some others from my Authority Marketing podcast interviews:

Drayton Bird can do world-class copywriting because he’s an obsessive student of the art and learned personally from the very best.

Greg Alexander can use benchmarking to improve sales performance because he’s an ex-Sales VP who teamed up with a benchmarking geek to devise a method that really measures what drives sales success.

Tom Searcy can help small businesses beat their bigger competitors to land huge clients because he’s done it time and time again himself and has turned his experience into a practical methodology.

In each of the cases, the history of the person lends credibility to what they say they can do.

Knowing their backstory, I’m going to hire each of them ahead of someone who claims to be able to do the same, but doesn’t have the same credibility in their story.

So do you have a credible backstory like this?

I’m not suggesting you make one up if you don’t. But what you can do is identify and focus on the elements in your own history which support your claims. This could be jobs you’ve done, experiences you’ve had, something you’ve studied, or a quirk of your personality.

What sort of stories typically work well?

In no particular order, here’s a list of types of backstory which can work well. See if your experience can fit into any of these templates:

  • “I’ve done what you want to do”. This is a particularly powerful one. If you’ve done yourself what you’re advising others to do (turned around a company, led a large organisation, doubled the sales of your business) then it makes sense to people that your advice will be good.
  • “The researcher“. You may not have done yourself what you’re advising people about – but you’ve studied those who have and become an expert on what drives success based on multiple examples.
  • “The power behind the throne”. You were the guy behind the scenes advising, guiding and coaching others who’ve become big successes in the way your potential clients want to. Who did Roger Federer turn to recently to revitalise his career? Paul Annacone, the guy who helped Pete Sampras to nine of his Grand Slam victories.
  • “The pioneer”. You’ve the guy who’s come up with new ideas in your field. A new theory of leadership. The first application of benchmarking to HR or whatever.
  • “The man on a mission”. You’re dedicated to a cause – reducing waste in the public sector, democratising leadership.
  • “The champion”. This time you’re dedicated to a particular type of business. Like Tom Searcy, for example, who champions small companies in their fight to win big deals against their big competitors.
  • “The safe pair of hands”. You want someone to manage a big IT project? This guy’s done dozens. He knows every trick in the book and lives and breathes these projects.
  • “The engineer”. The guy who sees everything as a puzzle to be solved. Incredibly curious and obsessive about cracking every problem he gets given. You have a tough marketing challenge? Give it to him and he’ll figure it out.

And, of course, there could be a whole bunch more.

In every case, something about the character or the experience of the persona gives credibility to why you should hire them. People can understand simple stereotypes like this. The can mentally file them and associate them with good things.

And if they’re playing their role well, their behaviour and the stories they tell should be congruent with that stereotype.

So what’s your story?

———-

PS For more information on using personas as part of business development, check out Dan Kennedy’s work on Personality in Copy, and Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren on Maven Marketing.

Image by Nicolas Nova

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31 March 2011 1 Comment

Marketing Half Truths

Did you listen to my recent Authority Marketing Podcast interview with Drayton Bird? Hasn’t he led an amazing life?

The interview reminded me of something I’ve long felt, but never spoken about before. Something I describe as one of Marketing’s biggest “half truths”.

Have you ever heard anyone say “your clients aren’t interested in you – only what you can do for them”? Or “they don’t care what you do – only the result they’ll get”? Or the old classic “clients are tuned in to WIIFM – what’s in it for me”?

Well, of course, that’s marketing 101. Real basics.

But it’s also only half the story.

Here’s the thing: weren’t you fascinated by Drayton’s anecdotes about his experiences, for example? And what are the most popular programmes on TV? The soap operas or character based dramas like House or CSI.

We humans are fascinated by interesting characters. We want to know why House is the way he is – not just watch him cure the patient. We want to see the interplay between Grissom and Sara – not just the solution to the crime.

And vitally important for professionals – those stories lend credibility to our expertise. We hear Drayton’s stories of studying human nature in his parents’ pub. Of researching direct marketing more than anyone else. Of learning from the greats. And of making mistake after mistake until he got it right.

And so we think “yes – he must know what he’s doing”.

So although clients initially focus on what’s in it for them – what results you’ll deliver for them. They’re also interested in your story. What is it in your backstory that makes you credible to deliver those results.

And that means that as a consultant, a coach or other advisor, you need an interesting and credibility-bestowing backstory.

I don’t mean you make one up. But you look at your story and pick out the elements that make you credible in what you do.

Did you obsessively research your subject, for example. Or have you, like Drayton, “made every mistake in the book and then some” – you’ve got the experience and scars that mean you can steer your clients away from the problems you hit.

Perhaps you’re the champion of the little guy (or big guy) like them. Or maybe you’ve been the guy behind the scenes pulling the strings making others like them successful.

Or maybe it’s a combination of those things.

In the next post I’ll run through some of the most effective “stories” you can have.

But for now, just think about your own story and what elements of it give you the most credibility in what you do.

Hopkins' Schlitz Beer AdPS – it’s not just people that people are interested in the backstory of. One of the most successful print advertisements of all time was the legendary Claude Hopkins’ ad for Schlitz Beer shown here.

Did the ad focus on the refreshing taste, or how the beer would make you feel? Was it all about the result?

Nope. it talked about the 50 years of brewing experience. It described the care they took selecting the hops from Bohemia. It detailed the supervision of the process, the cleanliness, the purity, the filtration and the storage.

In short it gave the backstory of the beer. It gave credibility to the claim that it was the best beer in the world.

And the impact for Schlitz? It went from fifth in the market to first in a few months and stayed there for years.

That’s the power of a good backstory. One that goes beyond just WIIFM.

———-

Image by Andrew Morrell

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28 February 2011 7 Comments

How Productivity Tools Destroy Your Productivity

I love gadgets.

I’ve bought every sort of smartphone right from the Treo through Windows smartphones to my shiny new iPhone 4.

And I love tools too. I must have bought every available to-do manager on the market.

So with all these productivity tech and tool purchases you’d have thought I’d become more productive, right?

Well, in the sense that I can now fill my downtime with activities, yes.

If I’m on the train or in a cab I can read my email. Using my online CRM I can browse my client and prospect details anytime, anyplace, anywhere. If I’m in the middle of nowhere I can still keep in touch with my Twitter buddies.

But the truth is that none of these activities are particularly vital for my business. They’re not unimportant. But they’re not crucial.

In essence, the tools have made me more productive at the mundane. They’ve allowed me to do “admin” when I wouldn’t previously have been doing anything.

Or would I?

If I think back at what I really used to do when I was sitting on a train, or in a cab it turns out I wasn’t doing nothing.

If I was on a train then usually I’d be reading. Learning useful stuff. Or thinking about a client or project – maybe planning or taking notes.

And actually, this is important stuff. Actually taking the time to think about my work and my clients or to improve my knowledge and skills.

Way more important than answering emails, tweeting or doing admin.

The fact that I’m “always online” with my iPhone has meant that I now spend more time reacting to events (email, tweets, even phone calls) than I do proactively thinking and planning. My ability to get access to this constant electronic stimulation has squeezed out the quiet time where I used to actually do some of my best thinking.

And it gets worse.

Being constantly online has conditioned me now to check my email when I’m a bit bored to see if something interesting has come in.

And usually it has.

Not something important. Probably nowhere near as important as the document or the plan or the idea I was supposed to be working on when I got a bit “stuck”. But interesting.

And if there’s nothing interesting on email I’m sure there will be on Twitter. Or I could always check my website stats for the 20th time today.

Lord help me, I’ve even just checked email right now while I was in the middle of writing this blog post.

And who knows how bad I’d be if I had a Blackberry with that awful red light that tells you when you get a new email. I’m not sure I’d ever be able to resist checking what had come in.

In truth, we’ve got more productive at the things that aren’t really important – and less productive at the thoughtful hard work that really is.

We’re obsessed by “real time”. I had to laugh recently when otherwise-sensible social media guru David Meerman-Scott lauded the new development in Tweetdeck that meant you got instant updates rather than every 30 seconds. ‘Cos being 29 seconds behind the times is going to kill ‘ya…

Now here’s the thing: I’m not saying all these productivity tools and technology are a bad thing. Even if they were, it’s too late – the genie’s out of the bottle.

But what we need to do – me especially – is learn to become their master, not their slave.

To use them when it actually is productive – not to oust otherwise productive activities because checking email is intellectually easier and more stimulating.

So next time you find yourself checking email more than a couple of times a day – or whipping out your Blackberry in a cab to check Twitter. Think to yourself whether this really is the best use of your time.

So how about you? Have you managed to tame your tools and use them really productively?

———-
Image by Jeff Kontur

Filed Under: Business Development Mindset Tagged With:
29 January 2011 2 Comments

The SACI Principle

When I was developing a recent training course I put in a tiny little section on what I call the SACI principle.

I have to admit, at the time it was pretty much an afterthought. A few minutes of filler I thought.

But the feedback I got told me it was something more.

And the more I reflected on it, the more I realised I was onto something. I’d accidentally stumbled ont a really important point.

Let me explain.

You see, we all like secrets. Silver Bullets.

We all want to know that one elusive thing that’s gonna change everything. Turn everything around.

“It’s not your fault”. How many times have you heard that before someone tries to sell you the latest, greatest silver bullet?

“It’s not your fault. You see, you didn’t know X”.

It’s super alluring. The thought that if we just knew X – that one elusive thing – then we’d be a huge success.

Of course, there is no X. No one mystery or secret that’s going to change our lives.

But that doesn’t stop us wishing for one.

How often have you been on a training course or read a book hoping to learn a new secret only to be disappointed?

“I already know that”. You think. “Nothing new here”.

But really, the question shouldn’t be whether you already know it. It should be whether you already do it.

You see, we already know the things that will make us successful. They’re not complex. They’re not mysteries. They’re not magic silver bullets.

They’re simple things.

Things like regularly keeping in touch with prospects and clients.

Things like regularly going out and networking (if that’s a strategy that works for us). Or regularly getting up on stage to present. or regularly writing blog posts and articles.

The secret – if there is one – is consistency. It’s doing these simple things week in, week out.

Success in business development is not determined by big, one-off, complex new strategies.

It’s Simple Actions, Consistently Implemented that bring success.

And that’s the SACI principle.

————

Image by Tim Green

Filed Under: Business Development Mindset
22 January 2011 9 Comments

Accelerating Expertise – Part 1

In my posts about Authority Marketing I talk about the power of establishing yourself as authority in your field.

It’s common sense really: when you’re viewed as an authority, you’re the default “go to” person for the difficult, challenging problems your clients have. You’re the benchmark. And you’ll command the high fees that being the leader in your field delivers.

One of the key components (along with enhancing your influence) of Authority Marketing is positioning yourself as an expert.

But being recognised as an expert is no easy task.

Please don’t believe all the “how to instantly become an expert in your field” hype you might read on the internet.

Doing a handful of interviews with real experts doesn’t make you one yourself. That gives you a valuable product to sell and some useful knowledge. But it doesn’t make you an expert. Not yet at least.

Nor does endless self promotion and chatter on social media sites.

According to Professor Anders Ericsson – probably the worlds leading researcher on expertise and elite performance – becoming a true expert in a field takes around 10,000 hours of deliberate (goal-directed, feedback guided) practice.

Wow. That’s 5 hours of practice every working day for 10 years.

Is that really necessary to become an expert in your specialism in consulting, coaching or other profession.

The answer is both yes and no.

Ericsson’s definition of expertise is based on elite performance. An international-level concert violinist, a chess grandmaster, or one of the top athletes in a sport.

If you want to achieve those levels of expertise in your own field then yes – you do have to put in 10,000 hours of practice.

But if you’re not “competing” at that level. If you’re a marketing consultant who wants to be seen as the go-to expert for retail businesses in California, for example. Or you’re a leadership coach focused on the public sector in the UK. In those cases, the level of expertise needed is not quite so high.

Selecting The Right Niche is One of the Keys to Becoming an Expert Quickly

By focusing on a very specific sector, geographic area or other factor, you don’t have to be the leader in your field globally. What you need as a minimum is to have the expertise needed to provide significant help to your clients. And expertise at a level which puts you well above your competitors.

If you focus on leadership in the public sector in the UK, you’ll rarely be competing for work against a Warren Bennis or John Kotter, for example.

So by focusing on a very specific niche, it’s easier to become the recognised expert. Of course, you have to find a niche where there is still strong demand for your services. There’s no point in being the recognised expert in a field where no one is buying.

It’s also easier to become the recognised expert in a relatively new field. Where few people have any expertise at all, you can steal a march and become a recognised expert fairly quickly. Rather than standing on the sidelines waiting to see if the new technology or trend becomes mainstream, taking a gamble and investing your time to learn and experience the field can put you well ahead of others. Of course, the risk is that the new field doesn’t become mainstream and your investment is wasted.

And selecting a niche where you already have considerable expertise helps too. If you look below the surface of the sort of work you’ve done, you can often find common themes and threads which you can use as a foundation for your niche.

When I initially looked at professional services marketing and sales as a potential niche, for example, at first I thought I hadn’t done that much work in the field. But then I realised that for over a decade I’d been marketing and selling my professional services and the services of the consulting firms I’d been working for. So do look beyond the obvious.

Finally, and in my view, most importantly of all, find a niche you’re passionate about.

If you choose a niche that you’re not really interested in – then no matter how lucrative it initially looks – you’ll struggle to build the enthusiasm to really “get into” it.

If you’re going to invest thousands of hours into continually building your expertise over the years and strengthening your expert positioning – then you really need to love what you do.

Think of the best and highest paid sportspeople and performers in their field. How often have we heard them say that they’d do what they do for free, they love it so much?

Time and time again.

Ironically, it’s that love of their subject, that willingness to “do it for free”, that drives them do the hours and hours of practice when others fall by the wayside. And that’s what’s given them such a high degree of skill and has earnt them so much money.

Now sure, it’s certainly possible to become an expert in a field you don’t love. But it ain’t easy. And it’s certainly not a life I’d want to condemn myself to.

So in summary – if you want to accelerate your path to expertise – find a niche that you love, that you already have some experience in, and that isn’t already filled with experts.

And stay tuned for the next article on Accelerating Expertise where I’m going to take a look at the practical steps you can take to build your expertise once you’ve defined your niche.

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17 December 2010 4 Comments

Hustle, Hustle, Hustle

In my experience, the people who succeed at business development are not necessarily the ones who are the best at it. They’re the ones who are the busiest at it.

They’re not the people with the greatest skills. They’re the people with the most “hustle”.

I’d like you to do a little exercise for me, right now.

Really simple. Will only take 2 minutes.

First – write down what your top 3 sources of new clients are. It could be referrals, your website, networking, giving presentations – whatever.

Then for each of those methods – write down when you last did whatever it is. The last time you went networking, wrote an article for your website, asked for a referral.

If it’s not within the last few days then the chances are you’re not busy enough at business development.

In my experience, the people who get the most business from networking aren’t the people who are the best at it in the technical sense. They’re the people who do it the most.

The people who get the most clients from seminars? The people who run the most.

The people who get the most clients from referrals? The people who ask the most.

The people who get the most business from their website? Well, you see where I’m going.

So ask yourself seriously – how busy are you at business development? How much hustle are you putting into it.

I see far too many people “waiting” for something to drop. They put some feelers out, do a little networking, speak to a few people.

Then wait.

Don’t wait.

If you’re not busy with client work – do something.

I found myself falling into this trap myself recently. I read a few articles on the web about how to get clients online and kept thinking to myself “I could do better than that”.

But of course, what I should have asked myself (and thankfully eventually did) was “why haven’t I done better than that?”. Why don’t I get off my backside and get some better articles written, published and attracting traffic for me.

Instead of looking at others succeeding and thinking you COULD do better. Get out there and DO better.

Hustle, Hustle, Hustle.

——

Photo by Steve Edgeworth

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24 November 2010 3 Comments

Overcoming Procrastination

A slightly off-topic post, but one that should be highly relevant to most professionals: overcoming procrastination.

Since most professionals have a high degree of control over their activities and schedules, they very often fall victim to procrastination.

Last night I read an excellent article in the New Yorker reviewing a collection of essays on procrastination – and how to overcome it.

The good thing about the book is that it presents a variety of different viewpoints on procrastination (rather than one dogmatic view) and hence offers a range of potential solutions.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the major viewpoints and my experience and ideas on how to use each one to overcome your own procrastination.

Viewpoint: Procrastination happens when you’re overwhelmed. You have so much on your plate that doing any specific task doesn’t seem like it will help – so you put off the tasks and do something trivial instead.

Idea: Take a radical review of your tasks and cut out those that aren’t absolutely essential. get down to a psychologically manageable task list. And in future, only take on essential jobs.

Viewpoint: You procrastinate with something if subconsciously you don’t think it’s worthwhile.

Idea: Sometimes your subconscious is right. If there’s a particular task you’re avoiding, take a good look at whether it really is worth doing.

Viewpoint: You procrastinate when you don’t realise the full impact of doing so. In other words, if you realised how much damage you’re really doing by avoiding the task, you’d get on and do it.

Idea: Make sure that before adding tasks to your “to do” list you’ve properly assessed what you’re required to do and the impact of doing/not doing it. Often I find that I’ll write down actions but not really think them through and so I don’t realise what impact delaying them has. Make sure you break down big tasks into concrete steps – it’s much easier to procrastinate big, fuzzy things than specific actions. Probably also a good idea to remind yourself of the impacts on a regular basis too when reviewing your to-do list.

Viewpoint: Procrastination is a natural condition that’s almost impossible to overcoming using your own willpower.

idea: Use external rules and help to get you to stay on track. Create deadlines and commit to them publicly. Find an accountability partner who you can discuss progress with your goals with. Join a mastermind group who will support you (this has really worked for me – see my blog post on Mastermind Groups for details). Block yourself from distractions (head to a room with no TV, use Freedom to block the internet etc.)

My take is that there’s not one simple cause of procrastination – so there’s not one best way to beat it. But by looking at some of the different ideas above you should be able to find something that helps you.

Filed Under: Business Development Mindset Tagged With:
4 August 2010 8 Comments

How Not To Keep In Touch – IBM Style

It’s important that you keep the contact details of your prospects and customers up to date. But here’s an example of the wrong way to do it…

I got a phone call a couple of days ago from IBM – or rather from one of their offshore call centres.

Is that Mr Brodie?

Yeah, that’s me.

Can I confirm your address please?

Hang on, who is this calling?

I’m calling from IBM. [Now sounding quite annoyed]Can you confirm your address please?

Er, no.

I’m sorry. Can I confirm your address please so that IBM can contact you?

Actually, no. I don’t think I want IBM to contact me. Bye.

Now there are many things wrong with they way they handled that call. But the biggest thing it brought to mind for me is the huge shift in my (and most other people’s) willingness to put up with these sorts of calls over the last 5 years.

5 years ago I’d have been most obliging. I’d have given my details over so that IBM could get their stuff to me.

Today, not only do I not particularly want to give over my details in case I get sent junk – but I even feel resentful that they’re wasting my time with the call.

Today, if you want to get anything from me on a call – even answering a few quick questions, I’m going to have to feel I’m getting something of value in return. In fact, I need to know that within the first few seconds of the call or I’m already tuning out and thinking of ways to get rid of you.

I don’t think it’s just me. We’re all incredibly short of time these days, incredibly cynical about why people want our details, and incredibly intolerant of being “sold to”.

So next time you or your team need to make a call to get some information from a client or prospect; think how you can actually make the call valuable to the person you’re calling rather just a drain on their time and energy.

If you want to confirm their address, for example – offer to send them a free report in a subject area of interest to them. That way they get something in return and it’s logical that you need their address to be up to date.

Want to carry out a client survey to get feedback on where your firm can improve its performance? Offer to create an individual action plan as a result showing how you’ll improve your performance for them.

Anything you need from them: give them something back in return.

Otherwise each non-valuable communication is one step further to them becoming an ex-client.

———-
What do you think?

Are we all less tolerant these days of communications that don’t add value to us?

Or is it just me getting grumpy in my old age?

I’d love to hear your views – drop me a comment in the comments box below.

Thanks!

Filed Under: Business Development Mindset Tagged With: ,
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