Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants

"Where's Your Slide Deck?"

Whether it's a proposal, training seminar, status update, or final report, consultants use slides for nearly every presentation. When you show up to present (or even before), expect the client or meeting host to ask, "Where's your slide deck?"

Unfortunately, too many speakers misuse slide decks as a glorified cheat sheet for remembering what to say next. In this month's Guerrilla Consultant, we discuss some simple rules for transforming any slide presentation from a necessary evil into a powerful way to get your point across.

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Ideas That Matter: Comfort Zones

Some consultants are uncomfortable with selling or with client relationship building, and would rather just do project work. But staying in your comfort zone is actually risky.

I agree with Harry Beckwith, author of Selling the Invisible and What Clients Love. In a Management Consulting News interview, Beckwith points out the relationship between comfort and complacency:

"...comfort nudges us dangerously close to complacency, and nothing good comes from that. It kills businesses, dulls lives, and encourages nothing better than ordinary. Our greatest blessings come from people who refused to be complacent, whether it was Beethoven or the Beatles."

Are there one or two activities that could boost the performance of your practice, but you hesitate because it's uncomfortable? Give them a try.

Methodology

A debate persists in the consulting industry about the role of methodologies and tools in the sales process.

Some argue that, once you utter a word about "how" you plan to do the work, the client begins to perceive you as a commodity, rather than an adviser. Others suggest, with equal vigor, that a consultant's methods and tools are central to any sale.

In my opinion, both positions are right--and wrong.

Any experienced consultant will tell you that our business has few hard and fast rules. What works for one client doesn't necessarily work for another. What we really need is flexibility, not dogma.

Naturally, clients will ask you to help solve a problem or envision the future. And it's foolish to talk about how you will get there until you and the client agree on what needs to be done.

But it's equally wrongheaded to believe that prospective buyers should have no interest in your methods. Most clients want that vision of the future and a road map to get there. Providing both, in the right proportion, can help close a sale.

If you tell a senior executive, for instance, that you'll help shave 15 percent off the company's inventory costs, don't be surprised when the client asks exactly how you'd do that. Brush that question off, and expect to be shown the door.

When hiring, say, carpenters, most people don't care if they plan to uses 21 oz., Anti-Vibration Hammers for the job. They leave it to the pros to do the job the best way possible.

Services buyers, though, do care how you will do the work. They want to know how your team will manage the project and communicate with the client's people. They want to know how much disruption to expect, and how you will produce the promised result.

The challenge is deciding what level of detail is appropriate for your audience at various points in the sales cycle. Of course, focus first on what needs to be done. But be ready to answer the inevitable "how" questions.

Ideas That Matter: What's in a Name?

The words we use can evoke unintended responses, perhaps because of the listener's pre-conceived notions or past experiences. For example, some clients might have good reason to react negatively to the word "consultant."

In a Management Consulting News interview, I talked to author and marketing expert, Jeffrey Fox, about how consultants describe themselves. Fox had this to say:

"To begin with, the Rainmaker does not use the word consultant. There are a lot of companies that say they don't use consultants. Then you ask do you do your own accounting, your own legal work, or pension management? They all use consultants and, frankly, they should because they don't want to be in those businesses. I think consultant can be a bad word. For that reason you are much better off being an expert in something, rather than a consultant."

Obviously, you can find scores of rainmakers who do call themselves consultants. But clients are paying for expertise and an outcome. Does your title convey, in a meaningful way, what you do for your client?

The Trouble with Marketing

If you've ever thought your marketing and sales processes weren't working well together, you're not alone. According to a survey by The Bloom Group, professional services firms' sales and marketing efforts are often out of synch.

Bloom surveyed marketing and sales executives from 224 professional services firms in North America and Europe. The survey found that few firms effectively coordinate marketing campaigns, measure results of those campaigns, or even work from a common client data base.

It's no wonder that only 29 percent of firms are highly successful in creating awareness of their expertise and services with target buyers.

Of course, it's no secret that many firms throw good money after bad in the hopes of making a market impression. But it's equally true that by landing a few engagements, most firms can cover years of marketing costs. And, unfortunately, that seems to be okay with some firm executives.

Have a look at the survey results by visiting The Bloom Group.

The One Service Every Consultant Should Offer

In one of our recent webcasts, a participant asked me if there is one service every consultant should offer. I didn't hesitate with my answer.

No matter how different your practice is from that of other consultants, the one service you should offer to clients is a diagnostic assessment. You might refer to your service as a strategic assessment, gap analysis, business process evaluation, or even an initial consultation.

Whatever you choose to call it, the service is a relatively short, systematic project to evaluate a specific area of client concern and offer objective advice. The emphasis is on short, systematic, and objective.

In this month's issue of The Guerrilla Consultant, I'll discuss this service offering, which can form the basis for everything you do with your clients.   

Read the article.

From the Bookshelf

Here are two recent books that you might want to have a look at. The first focuses on managing a professional firm, while the second provides advice on becoming a thought leader.

When Professionals Have to Lead, by Thomas J. DeLong, John J. Gabarro, and Robert J. Lees

Leaders of professional services firms face a tricky balancing act: how to manage the sometimes conflicting needs of clients, practitioners, and partners. In their new book, When Professionals Have to Lead: A New Model for High Performance, the authors offer a compelling framework for managing the professional services firm.

Using examples from a range of firms, industry veterans DeLong, Gabarro, and Lees show how this framework functions to:

• Align a firm's culture with key organizational components
• Satisfy clients' needs without sacrificing essential managerial responsibilities
• Address matters of size, scale, and complexity.

The authors provide a creative approach to address the realities of managing a firm, while maintaining the qualities that make professional services firms unique.

The Expert's Edge, by Ken Lizotte

It's easy to say that the path to success in the consulting business lies in establishing a position as a thought leader. But how do you do that? In his new book, The Expert's Edge: Become the Go-To Authority People Turn to Every Time, Ken Lizotte lays out the details.

Using the "Five Pillars of Thoughtleading," Lizotte, the Chief Imaginative Officer of emerson consulting group, outlines the strategies any consultant can use to gain the expert's edge in the market.

The Language of Success

Ask any client about the writing habits of consultants, and you’ll probably hear about jargon-laden prose that needs a translator to decipher. It’s never simple to find just the right words for every business communication.               

So, this month in Management Consulting News, we asked Tom Sant, author of The Language of Success: Business Writing That Informs, Persuades, and Gets Results, for his advice on beating the nonsense out of our writing.

Sant has effective writing tips for everything from proposals and marketing messages to email and memos.      

Read the interview with Tom Sant

Also in this month's issue of Management Consulting News, we’re featuring articles on presentation skills, the state of services marketing, how to qualify any client opportunity, and more.                  

Read this month's issue

Another Independence Issue Brewing

According to a recent study by the US Congress, consultants who recommend compensation packages for corporate clients have "pervasive" conflicts of interest that appear to be inflating executive compensation.

The study found that at least 113 of the nation's 250 largest companies rely on compensation consultants who also do other, more lucrative work for them. On the surface, this fact isn't problematic given that multi-service firms often provide an array of services to big organizations.

What troubles some legislators is that, on average, median CEO pay in 2006 was 67 percent higher at companies whose consultants had the most potential for such conflicts, compared with those whose consultants didn't have such conflicts.

The implication is that consultants sweeten their recommended pay packages in an effort to win other work from their clients. It may be easy for some people to believe that consulting firms try to line their own pockets by stuffing their clients' wallets, but it's probably time to take a deep breath and fully explore the issue--and the study's methodology and results.

Maybe the executive pay that some compensation consultants recommend is in the stratosphere. But as soon as the market comes to believe that a quid pro quo exists that trades executive compensation for future consulting work, the firms involved could lose some or all of their work with clients.

Most firms won't sell their integrity, or future, even if the price runs into the millions. Still, the issue has grabbed the attention of legislators, so stay tuned.

The last time we heard this type of concern, the US Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

US Airlines Performance--Are We There Yet?

It's always frustrating to hang around an airport waiting for a delayed flight.

When we're lucky, pilots find some way, whether it's using a different route or taking advantage of favorable winds, to travel a little faster than originally planned. After all, waiting to depart is a drag, but we tend to care more about when we get there.

How often do the largest airlines actually arrive on time? According to the US Government, the major airlines get their planes to the arrival gate on schedule about 75 percent of the time. When they miss, expect about an hour delay.

It's disturbing that the worst performer, American Airlines, logged the most revenue passenger miles of the top carriers. Over the past several years, American's executives have watched the airline's on-time arrival percentage fall and the average flight delay rise.

Southwest Airlines bucks the trend by keeping its on-time arrival performance steady and boasting the lowest average flight delay. I wonder what client would knowingly hire a consultant with an on-time project completion rate like some of these:

	% of On-Time Arrival	Avg. Flight Delay	Market Ranking
American	69%	61 Mins.	1
United	72%	59 Mins.	3
Continental	75%	60 Mins.	5
Delta	78%	50 Mins.	4
Southwest	81%	47 Mins.	2

Source: US Department of Transportation