Making the most of conferences

Conferences are hard work and can be sometimes a little soul destroying. Get the delegate list, identify your targets, book meetings, prepare for 2 days of squalid drudgery that comes to nought when you walk into the conference centre and decide that anything would be better than this and book into the spa for 2 days of colonic irrigation. But you're a professional so you carry on as you'd planned and practice your coffee break patter and your teasing ‘glimpses of value’.

You do your duty to the boss and the bank, and during the course of the conference take every opportunity to reinforce the shallow and meaningless friendships you've made during greasy breakfasts, luke warm lunches and distinctly dodgy dinners.

Obviously it's very different if you're paying for your people to go. Then it's all about structure and discipline. Get them to commit to getting clients there, set targets for handshakes, kisses, business cards and follow-up and measure the ROI for their damaged liver. I'm told that poachers often make the best gamekeepers.

What do world class organisations do?

When you cut through all the bull, and there's plenty of it, as the new business responsible fool in your firm, it'd be nice to have a benchmark of what makes the difference between the sharpest operators in the field, and the 'bottom-feeders' wouldn't it?

Here's a really simple chcklist for you to use to think about your business. The question is, the only question is, how do you compare?

I know where we sit, and knowing that really helps to get me to be hard and clear about what we need to keep and what (who) we need to lose. Great sales businesses are very clear about-

VALUE....

• They clearly understand what they do and exhibit focus and discipline
• They understand the value of what they do
• They communicate the value to clients unequivocally, without excuses, without arrogance.
  

PROCESS... HARD SKILLS

• They set measurable farming goals, marketing and profile raising
• They ingrain a culture of continuous farming (sowing the seeds of future growth)
• They have transparent incentive programs that are continuously monitored
  

MORE PROCESS... SOFTER SKILLS

• They prepare for meetings carefully
• They write strong proposals that communicate value (and they follow up)
• They deliver strong pitches
• They maintain clients through strong project delivery
• They always follow up and project review with the client

What is the best marketing tool?

I know that sales people see marketeers as floppy-haired tossers, more interested in their clothes and teeth than selling, but even the most cynical salesperson would, on a good day have to say that when you've got a marketing director who's conneceted to her front-line sales people, it's bloody marvellous. So the question is valid. What's your best marketing tool?

Is it e-mail campaigns, is it free pens, or mouse mats? Is it talking at conferences, Schmoozing? Is it direct mail or is it cold calling to sell meetings and then snazzy presentations? Is it fancy brochures or interactive CDs? Or is it simply doing really, really good work?

Do you measure where your leads come from? We all need leads (we call it farming in here. Whatever it's called it's all about “sowing the seeds” of the future income.) and the ideas above are all valid and may all have a place in your armoury of weapons against the apathetic or un-enlightened client. However, you make life so much easier on yourself and add tremendous value to your business if your largest source of leads is “previous work”.

So, assuming that you do great work we can get started on growing your business.

Speaking at a conference

As a professional, perhaps with a valuable technical expertise, the chances are that you are going to use conferences as a marketing tool to convey to the market that you are innovative, approachable and available for hire.

If you are going to a conference then, get a speaking slot. You won’t get one if you don’t ask – then invite your clients and do a lot of self-publicity.

My experience tells me that there is not much point going to a conference unless you can address everyone in the room. If you do get a slot, push to get on during the first day or even the first morning – it makes a difference as drink-sodden conference audiences tire quite quickly on the second day.

Conference papers are normally so dull and badly expressed in speech that it is not difficult to stand out from the crowd. This is why you want to get to talk early on in the proceedings, provide the audience with opportunities to approach you…. Ah!! That is selling heaven. A person coming up to you in the bar or foyer and saying 'I really liked your speech….!

Your presentation has to be good though. And most aren't even competently done. There are plenty of books, courses, experts on how to do exceptional presentations and in fact, my co-author on this blog/book is a bit of a presentation aficionado so I’m not going to go much beyond the Golden rules: As a minimum standard

• Aim for no text except titles, not always possible but a target!
• If you read slides you should, in my opinion, be shot
• 15-20 slide max (ALWAYS)
• Tell them your message at the start, tell them again in the middle and remind them at the end

It is UNBELIEVABLE how bad conference presentations usually are. Tell a story – show some passion and emotion and WOW! What a difference that makes.

Conferences are hard work and can sometimes be a little soul destroying if your expectations are too high. You probably won't make a sale, but you can make 3-5 good drinking buddies who might, over the next year, turn into fee paying clients. So if it still seems like a worthwhile investment-

Get the delegate list, identify targets, invite clients or lapsed clients and book meetings, breakfasts, golf, lunches for while you're there. Practice your coffee break patter; your ‘glimpses of value’ and during the course of the conference take every opportunity to reinforce the contacts you make. This is particularly useful at smaller conferences where you can quickly get with the in crowd…

Conferences for professionals are a bit like weddings for single people, you might not get a snog from the bridesmaid, but she'll happily dance with you all night. What happens when the confetti's swept away rather depends on your sincerity.

The real value of Networking

While every business development professional dreams of out of the blue phone calls from potential customers, they seldom happen.

It’s really important to remind ourselves that most new business opportunities come from following up on referrals and tips from your own network of friends, clients and contacts. We all know the old saw about it being 6 times more cost-effective to sell to existing clients- well then just how important is it to network well? According to research done by Communispond Inc in the USA-

• Fewer than 1 in 500 names from a purchased list or blanket mail campaign become warm leads-


• 1 in 100 people you cold call will turn into business, but one in 15 of those will refer you to someone else-


• More than 1 in 10 personal referrals turn into real business opportunities
  

So it’s worth asking yourself, your sales managers and their salespeople what steps they are taking to build regular networking opportunities and rigorous follow-up.

Selling professional services is different...

Yes it is, it really is....

Selling professional services is different to selling ‘stuff’. You are selling an intangible, a relationship, trust. I’ve seen the greatest salesman in the world reduced to blubbering wrecks as they try to close a consulting sale whereas some of the most introverted analysts within my organisation make great salesmen; simply by knowing their stuff and earning the trust of their clients. Why is it so difficult for salesmen to sell consultancy? They are selling trust in someone else and that can be a bit of a reach – it can be done and representing a brand that has been built on trust gets you more than half way there.
Within the world of PSF, a common problem is that the best sellers (or business developers, if the phrase selling is making you uncomfortable) are the same people who are often the best at executing and delivering the work sold. The very reason clients buy the work is that the consultant can demonstrate in real time the competency in doing the work.
“You can’t bullshit the bullshitters” – so this book won’t pretend that selling professional services is easy; it isn’t and real success will only come to those who work really hard. The objective of this handbook is to help competent consultants or other purveyors of professional services become better at selling (whoops, I mean business development).

Selling at the right level
“He doesn’t want to talk to me…”
How do you play the conversation with the major client, you are at the conference and believe it or not, there is the CEO of a target client, sipping coffee and enjoying some quiet time. What do you do?
We are back to relationships but the relationship with the CEO of a major client target may be the last person to see your proposal but he may read a cost report that discusses your £100k or £1million proposal so it would help if your company’s name conjured up some pleasant memories in his head.
When you get the opportunity to talk to the CEO be interested (don’t try to be interesting, and certainly not sycophantic!). Be friendly and ask questions about his business, preferably around a business that you understand. Yes, you do need to prepare for such meetings – if you attend a conference and the attendee list is available and you haven’t studied it then you missed the bit above when I said success comes to those who work really hard.
It’s relatively easy to practice opening lines and attempts at introducing the subjects where you can add value. However, if the ‘target’ gets chatty and goes off script then don’t push it but go with the flow, practice active listening and wait for him to ask you a question about you and your company and then deliver your practiced 15 second introduction that is guaranteed to make him ask you another question! You have started along the route of making a sale….
Example:
“As a COO I was comfortable with divisional managers of major companies, I considered myself their peers. For the billion dollar company CEOs, I was respectful and took my selling patter down a couple of notches. Why? Because these guys get sold to all the time and, at social occasions they don’t want to hear your elevator pitch”

The Trust Ladder

(Updated 17 October 2009)

Selling anything requires trust, you need to trust the brand, the salesman or (preferably) both.
Why do you buy stuff? This is a digression from the focus of selling professional service but bear with me, when did you last buy a car? Who did you trust, the brand or the car dealer? Probably the brand (Q for JH: is there an interesting (i.e. boring) fact about why people buy cars?). Yes, but trust and relationship makes a difference; I bought a new car recently and although I liked my german brand, I really detested the dealer – he was arrogant and did not provide me with any kind of service. I moved to another brand where, frankly, the salesman didn’t really matter for the first sale but again, will probably influence my subsequent purchase..

With Professional Services; it is probably the other way around. Unless you work for the big brand consultants (you know who I mean) your brand may mean little and it is probably up to you to close the deal; and deliver; and do some more work.

In the current environment, selling consultancy services is a tough, tough game; you are a discretionary spend and it is times like this that the relationships developed during happier times need to be leveraged. Those of you with no regard for the success or well being of your clients; you will be the first ones to suffer.

Talking to clients about why they choose consultants is very enlightening and its easy, builds trust and reduces your selling costs.... Those clients that have talked about why they choose consultants, it often comes down to relationship; knowing the consultant ("i don't care who they work for") and believing that the person they choose will simply deliver.....

OK, so what is the trust ladder?

The trust ladder is something you climb with everyone you meet and there are milestones that enable you to progress from level 0 - the 'who the hell are you?' level to level 5 - the 'will you be my best man?' level...

Lets try and label the levels:

0 - cold call

1 - you meet someone for the first time through a common 3rd party, your conversation with a stranger moves onto common territory

2 - the idea of potential work is openly discussed

3 - work is done and completed ok

4 - work is done and completed very well

5 - valued client who can openly criticise but will probably still give you work

Labels are difficult and can mean different things to different people....

Concrete is always good- or how to avoid boring your friends and clients when talking about what you do

When you're trying to explain what you do to other people whether in conversation, through the written word or as part of a proposal, remember that 'concrete is always good'.

I'm not talking about the noxious mix of cement, sand and lime used in building, obviously, but it's a useful metaphor as it's an almost ubiquitous building material that causes real damage to the environment if it's used unthinkingly. In speech, the opposite of concrete, abstraction, is a noxious mix of jargon, generalisation and the 'passive voice' that causes real damage to interest and understanding, when used unthinkingly. We hear it so much.

There's always a moment when someone asks a person, out of politeness, what they do. For many professionals it's a terrifying moment. There's often a pause to think and then the following occurs...

"We're a multi-faceted, global consulting business, working in the sales consulting and general marketing space, helping blue-chips and other expert service firms to regularise the quality of their inputs vis-a-vis human resource skills sets in business development and sales ...."

It's the kind of complex answer to a simple question that's, 'abstract' in the extreme. The kind of answer that leaves the audience asking themselves three questions-

• Who is this loony?
• What does it mean?
• Why did I bother, I was only being polite?

You hear it all of the time and you read it even more frequently in job advertisements, marketing materials and conversation, and very seldom does the audience really understand what it is that the other party is trying to say.

Abstraction is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "The act of considering something as a general quality or characteristic, apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances..." And the abstract doesn't help to show what you actually do because it's too general, devoid of examples or 'actual instances' of the effects that your product or services has on your customers' lives.

So if we look at the previous example it can be transformed, very easily into a concrete and simple sentence thus-

"Mine is a business that helps people to sell their products and services more effectively..."

Concrete, specific and short.

Try a really narrow campaign

In the last 3 months we've been trying something a bit different in our campaigning for new business- we decided to follow our own advice, which is rare for consulting firms, in that we decided to run a really narrow campaign, rather than the 'we can do everything in our space' marketing so common in our field. So we chose a single product to concentrate on, one that we're really proud of, and is different in form and content, to what a lot of our competitors do. We developed some simple and cost-effective (cheap but cheery) marketing materials to send out to interested clients, identified 100 or so international companies to target and began a one-person (Her name's Elvira and she's based in Barcelona) telephone driven approach to very senior people in those firms. Our call plan was simple. We wanted to explain-

• This is who we are,
• This is what we do,
• This is how we think it might help you and in the following ways,
• This is who we've done it for in your region.
• Are you interested in finding out some more?
• Can we send you some materials?
• Can we call you back in a couple of weeks?
  

Simple as that, always giving the client the chance to say 'no thanks'. Guess what? 15 out of 100 clients targeted agreed to meet us straight away. We are delighted. Why? Because though we're pretty good at this kind of thing, we've never had such a high hit rate so soon. I've been pondering why this might be and have decicded that it's probably because we were focused on such a small niche thing, and therefore 'clean' and clear in our approach. By contacting clients and saying, honestly, that's all we want to talk to you about, gave them a chance to say that they don't need it, and gave them the power in the conversation.

We got a far more positive response than we've ever had when we tried to say "we can do everything, give us a job." The meetings that we've attended in pursuit of these opportunities, have been some of the most satisfying in my career. We've had 5 meetings so far with people and organisations we've never met before, and the clients we've met have been open, warm, and genuinely interested in what we have to say.

Remember the simple stuff works

With all of the stuff I've been writing recently about the importance of campaigning, it's easy to forget that there's a hard-edge to it all. The edge is that it's about building and maintaining your network over time. But like all advice, unless you trust the source of that advice, I'm simply a stranger asking you to belive that it's true and worth doing. I don't expect you to believe campaigning will work for you, you have to try it out for yourself, build your own experience of it and find your own truth in there.

Trying something out builds your experience and that experience gives you the confidence to know what activities will pay off in the long-term, if you keep on keeping on. The less experienced of us will tend to expect instant results from our first attempt at something new, and drop the whole thing when we don't get offered a million-pound contract in the sun inside the first three weeks of trying. In campaigning for new business it's the long-term over the instant fix that wins every time.

Even for the most experienced of us though, there's a time when our experience and belief can waver. Our mischevious mind can begin to open up to the possibility that maybe this time... I'm really screwed. But then what happens? A client rings out of the blue and says something like "I was thinking about you today when I was talking to a colleague... I seem to remember that this is right up your street... Could you send me some information that I can pass on?"

Just this week I had two long established clients/friends contact me after months and years of silence. It's fantastic when it happens isn't it? To know that they're thinking of you is a fantastic boost at just the right time. My experience then tells me that- If you've got a strong network of clients; if they like you, trust you and they know what you do, you'll be OK in the long-term. Remove any one of those things and you might have to wait a little longer for the 'phone to ring.

Campaigning for professionals- why it's seldom done well

A war is made up of a number of campaigns with distinct aims, leading to your ultimate victory. Campaigns should be connected and shaped by the ultimate war aim. For Churchill in 1941, it was the unconditional surrender of Germany and her allies. Every campaign of the war, whether in the air, on the ground or on the oceans was tested against its usefulness in delivering the final victory.
In business, your campaigns should link to your overall aim as a business. If you want to have 25% market share delivering management development programme to FTSE 100 companies in UK by January 25th 2012, then your various campaigns should lead to that result for you.
Campaigning, at its simplest, is deciding where you want to be, what you want to be doing and for whom, deciding how best to let the target know that you exist, and doing it in a way that supports who you are, what you do and how you do it. Campaigning, for a small consultancy firm, is best done simply, repetitively and professionally, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money if you set things up right from the start. A campaign is not a battle, fought over a relatively short time and then forgotten, it's a longer-term thing.

The missing gene for professionals

There's a gene missing in many professionals who have spent years building their skills. That gene is the "telling anyone who'll listen that you've a skill that you're proud of, and if they ever need that skill, they know where you are" gene. We just don't tend to spend enough time getting out there and getting ourselves known.

"Getting out there" is in the natural born salesperson's genes, along with the code that leads to a skin as thick as a hippo's hide, and no embarrassment, ever. If you don't have this "getting out there.." thing as a part of your personality then as an independent consultant you have 3 options-

1. Hire someone with that make-up to do it for you
2. Learn to live with the ebb and flow of the economy
3. Learn a few simple things to do to make sure that you've always got more opportunities in the pipeline than anyone else.

I've tried all 3 approaches over the last 18 years and, in order of preference, I'd recommend-

1. Learn a few simple things...- Leaves you in control of your destiny
2. Employ someone to do it for you...- Leaves you in control, but you have the cost and the management issues to deal with
3. Learn to live with the ebb and flow...OK when you've no need of more work, terrible at all other times, and your wife, bank manager, accountant, kids and blood pressure will hate you.
   

The real lesson though for concentrating on options 1&2 is that professionals, be they architects, actuaries, engineers or financial advisors, would rather do almost anything else than marketing and networking.

So learning the skills is not enough. Running regular and rigorous campaigns is the key to getting more business than you need, whatever the weather.

Once you’re focused, find a way to stand out from the crowd

So you've identified what it is that you do brilliantly, or at least well enough to offer you real specialist status in your potential customers' eyes. This is not as difficult as it seems. One of my specialist areas of work is presentation skills and nearly everyone who has ever got up to speak to anyone thinks they can run a presentation skills course. It's a really competitive and commoditised area unless you have something that sets you apart. What I did was to think for myself about the challenge of bringing something new to the field.

So, over time I developed my own approach, with my own materials and methods and tested them out with clients and colleagues and they liked what I'd done and "Fit, Focus and Flair" (http://www.allcow.com/) became my Unique Selling Point. Nobody does presentation skills like me. It doesn't mean that I'm better than everyone, because there are some great people out there doing what I do. I just do things differently. Clients may choose to work with someone else, but they'll remember me. That's what differentiation is. It gives you an edge so that when a client thinks "How is this person different to the 234 other people offering the same thing?" you have something interesting and persuasive to say.

Charisma for Consultants

I once saw charisma defined as- "the ability to transfer an emotion that the speaker has to his audience." I thought it was a pretty good definition too because it covers all of the angles that you might need, positive and negative. Let's think about Gordon Brown for a moment. Gordon must be charismatic by this definition as I think he's absolutely able to transfer his feelings and emotions to his audience. He's brilliant at it. Every time I've seen him speak he's done that to me. Whatever I've been feeling at the start of his oration, I've felt a mixture of frustration, resentment and barely controlled contempt by the end. Brilliant.

I don't use the UK Prime Minister (Until May 2010, probably) as an example to be cruel to him. There's a lot of his skills and intellect that I envy and admire, it's just that in presentation terms he's very charismatic in a negative way. Bet your life that at home he laughs, cries, takes the mickey out of himself, is thoughtful, kind and sincere. It's just that he's not well practisd in the art of doing that in public, of communicating his charisma in a positive way. I think I know the reason why. My guess is that GB doesn't like the job he's spent his whole political life woking for. So actually he's communicating truthfully all of his emotions about the state he, and we, are in.

Charisma starts with how you feel about you and the place you're in, and many consultants don't care too much for themselves and even less for their clients as human beings, that's the problem. They're going through the motions to earn money, they're not loving it and living for it and it's easy to fake for a day or two, but really hard to fake over te years.

The three “E’s” leading to the “big C” of independent consulting

I know it might sound glib but it just came to me sitting here. Focus is about all of those things that I mentioned yesterday, and here's why: If you concentrate on doing things that you really enjoy then the chances are that you'll also be really good at them. I know this flies in the face of watching the procession of dreadful singers, utterly rejected by Simon Cowell and his mates, who then say something like "Oh please let me through, I really want this." As if wanting it was enough no matter that they sounded like pressurised air being released from the rear end of a cow. But bear with me...

In experienced professional people there's usually a link between what they enjoy and what they are good at. If there's enjoyment in what you do, expertise will tend to follow. Enthusiasm then, is a given. These three "e's" lead to the "big C" of independent consulting. Charisma. Everyone you're involved with will notice the charismatic consultant over the one who seems like all the joy has been kicked out of him.

There's nothing new under the sun

We're going to ask you to look at some pretty simple things in the first part of this book. Then we're going ask you to identify some fundamentals to work on. Again simple things that when done well will see you through.

In short we're going to ask you to look at your business and identify clearly-

• What do you love to do?
• What do you do well?
• What do your clients need right now?
• What do potential clients need that you're already doing for clients like them?
• How can you best communicate those simple messages to them?
• What's the minimum amount of process you need to make sure that you do it?
• How are you different (really different) to your key competitors

Don't look at the tree- Focus and surviving the storm

It's a time of year- moving into winter, and an economic season- bloody cold- that can combine to make anyone with a new business responsibility feel like staying in bed. When even the weather is against you feeling sunny, it takes a few simple truths to get you out there doing what you've got to do. Focus here is the key.

I remember sitting at the wheel of an old Subaru Impreza being taught how to "drive to survive" on a skid-pan, and amidst the howling in terror- mine, and the tears- my instructor's, as I failed to follow every single one of his instructions, a useful lesson has stuck with me. The guy was a serving police officer of 20 years standing and I quote...

"When you're heading for an effing tree at 60 miles an hour, you've got to look for the soft landing and steer for that, don't look at the effing tree, concentrate on where you want to go..." And he was right. In his short-haired, no-bull, black and white life of cleaning up the mess after kids and drunks in cars had hit trees, he'd learned the hard way. And after a few goes of not being able to stop looking at the thing that I was heading towards and hitting it, I learned to look for the soft landing, I was amazed then and think of it now.

That's what this is about. Focus on the place you want to get to, not the tree looming towards you, and all of us, at the speed of the clock ticking. Most of us will be OK in this crisis, particularly those of us who know where they're going and can keep looking at that.

Surviving the Storm

I've been a self-employed consultant for 18 years. Phil has been working for consultancies large and small for the same period and so far we've been able to feed the kids, pay the mortgage, live comfortably and have fun.

We've been through the early 90's downturn, survived the tech-stock bubble, the post 9-11 crash and other various stumbles and trips. We've walked away with a set of generally happy clients, some great experiences, a couple of bruised friendships but many, many more positives than negatives. Will we be able to do that in the 2009-2011 period. I guess we'll have to wait and see. In this blog we'd like to share our experiences with you and maybe get some feedback too. Stronger together.

What's your selling philosophy?

You may not know... But you'll have one. There are 2. A Philosophy of plenty or A philosophy of scarcity… What is your business philosophy?

It's useful to know because it expalins what you've done in the past and gives you choices in future if you know. Most people just assume that their way of thinking about selling is the only one and therefore the right one.

Yor philosophy affects-

Goal setting methods
Goals- stretch or SMART or whatever
Selling process
Sales stratgey
Marketing & segmentation
Recruitment and perfoamance management
Business philosophy and so on....


What do you want to achieve? What is it you do that is really brilliant? How are you going to get more opportunities to do the stuff you are brilliant at?

Value....

Growth is impossible without selling; understanding your value is the first step; communicating your value is the second steo and delivering your value is the 3rd step.

Why Pitching into the Wind?

October 7 - Lets go!!!!

We’ve just been told it’s the end of the ‘nice’ decade and the business of business is about to get tougher, much tougher. Selling has been easy with such strong growth but we’re moving into a buyers market , a strong headwind for all of us with responsibilities–are you ready to "pitch into the wind"?
Engineers, architects, designers, IT developers and the enormous range of we professional people are a vain bunch and frankly we’re not often, natural salespeople. We don’t have ‘customers’, we have ‘clients’ and the idea of our needing, and I can barely say it without wincing, ‘sales training’ is, frankly, vulgar. Perhaps we call "sales" business development, client / account management, or whatever, but let’s at least be honest with ourselves for a moment; it isselling. We need to match a customer needto what we are offering and, particularly important in professional services where you are selling absolute intangibles, we need to demonstrate the value of that service clearly and very confidently. If we don’t then someone else will win the business we covet.
This handbook has been developed from work done by the authors, Phil as professional engineer and COO of a global metals and mining consultancy, Jim, as an entrepreneur, salesman, and consultant, to help you to sell more and better in the real world of business. Our goal is to give you practical help and advice to entrench a professional "pitching culture " in your business, whatever it is.
2009