Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants

How Do Women Buy Services?

Do women behave differently than men when buying professional services? Yes, according to executives at Deloitte, the global professional services firm.

Since women now occupy almost half of all managerial and professional positions in the US, Deloitte believed that understanding any differences between the buying behaviors of men and women could help its own professionals be more successful.

Among the findings of Deloitte's research: Women buyers want to know and trust their consultants personally--not just professionally; they generally prefer business lunches to dinners; and they often want to meet all of the people who will work on a consulting assignment, not just the leadership team.

Deloitte's findings have drawn some skeptical comments but, given that more than 40 percent of purchasing managers are women, the question is worth asking.

CFOs Are Restless

CFOs are jumping ship in record numbers. According to a study by Liberium Research, in 2006, more than 2,300 CFOs of public, North American companies bailed out. That's a 23 percent rise from 2005.

The churn at the top is accompanied by a drop in average CFO tenure to roughly 30 months, which is a 50 percent decline from five years ago.

Consultants who can help their clients ease the CFO transition process, whether the CFO is coming or going, will likely find a receptive audience. And keep close tabs on your CFO relationships. Your former client may be facing new challenges in a new position.

A Tip for Retail Consultants

Earlier this year, researchers at Accenture asked 1,300 consumers what really ticked them off about their shopping experiences. The number one consumer annoyance: too little attention. Most of us probably could have guessed that was the pet peeve among consumers, but what's interesting is what ranked second.

The researchers found that too much attention was consumers' second most popular complaint. The challenge facing retailers is to find a balance between these two extremes.

Perhaps it's time for a change in our clients' consumer service mindset, which often stresses cross-selling over helpful service.

Top 10 Management Consulting News Articles

The archive over at Management Consulting News now contains more than 250 interviews and articles written for and by consultants. If you're interested in what people read most often on that site, here are the ten most requested items from the archive in 2007, in descending order of popularity:

• A Conversation with Philip Kotler
• W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne: How to Make Your Competition Irrelevant
• Flawless Consulting with Peter Block
• Michael Gerber Unravels the Myth of the Entrepreneur
• An Exclusive Interview with Tony Buzan: What's the Brain Got to Do with Business?
• Rosabeth Moss Kanter on Confidence
• Cliff Atkinson Goes Beyond Bullet Points
• Patricia Fripp: So You're Going to Make a Speech
• Marcus Buckingham's One Thing You Need to Know
• Nick Morgan on the Secrets of Powerful Speaking

Run with the Bulls

As 2007 wraps up, many consulting firms chalked up another year of double-digit revenue growth and strong profit performance. And the demand for consulting services appears bullish as we head into 2008.

You might think that selling services in times of high demand is the easiest of the market conditions we face. Some firms will find that a "rising tide" lifts their boats. But to reap the potential rewards from a bull market, you may need to make subtle changes in how you position your services.

In this month's issue of The Guerrilla Consultant, I discuss the challenges and essential strategies for consultants to succeed in any bull market.

Read this month's issue.

Job Misery

77 percent of people in the US workforce say they hate their jobs. That adds up to more than 100 million people, so it’s pretty likely that you know someone who is miserable at work. It's hard to imagine how organizations can create such toxic work environments and remain in business.

Patrick Lencioni, who has written about dysfunctional teams, turf problems in organizations, and the productivity-sapping power of meetings, has turned his attention to a $350 billion problem—job misery. His latest book is The Three Signs of a Miserable Job.

In the December 2007 issue of Management Consulting News, we interview Lencioni and ask him why so many people are miserable at work and what consultants can do to help their clients make the workplace less miserable and more productive.

Read the interview with Patrick Lencioni.

Also in this issue: Alan Weiss bemoans the impact that an artificial sense of self worth has on a consultant’s ability to grow a business; what to do if you think your client is a jerk; what clients say they want from consultants; and strategies for capturing more time for life outside of work. Plus, Jeff Thull gives us some advice on a slight change in mindset that can make selling to decision makers easier.

Read the current issue of Management Consulting News.

Loyalty

My subscription to the Wall Street Journal expired recently.

I knew well in advance that the renewal date was looming because I was barraged with mailers from Dow Jones offering me a "special renewal rate" for current subscribers. For $249.00, my service would be uninterrupted, at a substantial savings, for the next year.

With time running out, I finally went to the Dow Jones web site, special renewal offer in hand, to extend my subscription. As I navigated through the site, I learned that new subscribers could get a very different deal. For just $99.00 a year, a new subscriber would receive the same benefits, at a 60 percent lower cost.

I understand that customer acquisition programs sustain a newspaper operation, but that seemed like a slap in the face for my years of loyalty. The company is risking the same reaction from every renewal customer by displaying its rock-bottom, new subscriber offer so prominently on the site.

In our business, client retention is often more important than client acquisition, as most would agree. But it's easy to lose sight of that priority in our zeal to find the next client.

Are your marketing programs targeted toward new clients at the expense of your existing ones? Are you proactively marketing to your best audience--existing clients?

Make sure your marketing tactics emphasize the importance of your current clients. Don't short-change them as you search for your next opportunity because you might just lose them along the way.