Read For New Business

One of the biggest challenges for any consultant is business development. I would be lying if I said my business was booming - always. I’ve written about the big business lie we tell one another before. Business isn’t always great sometimes it’s actually terrible. 

I recently picked up a copy of How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services by Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher. I literally found the book on the shelf at the airport and purchased a copy. I usually buy books or get sent books that come recommended to me but the title resonated with me, so I coughed up some cash and dug right in.

The following are my key takeaways directly from How Clients Buy:

It’s crucial that we recognize the seven elements of how clients buy. They have to be aware of your existence. They come to understand what you do and how you’re unique. They develop an interest. They respect your work and are filled with confidence that you can help them. They trust you. They have the ability to pull the trigger. They are ready to do something.

In professional services, we are the product. The biggest challenge in our path to become rainmakers is to unlearn what we think we already know. 

If you want to be remembered, you must find a category where you can be number one. You have to know who you want to serve. Identify the type of company but also the role inside the company who you help. When selling consulting or professional services, the goal is not to identify prospects and process them like corn flakes; it is to identify a community and position ourselves to serve it over time. Prospective clients cannot engage with us unless they know us. Niche yourself and then re-niche yourself over time. 

Create a point of differentiation. When there’s a really clear association in your mind between a person that you trust and the problem that they can solve, it makes it easier to refer you.

Great client relationships are built over time on foundations of trust and are not, by definition, transactional. Respect trumps charm when it comes to most buying decisions for consulting and professional services. Instead of focusing on like in “know, like and trust” focus on respect. They have to know, respect and trust you. 

Clients have to conclude that: What you do is relevant to them and their goals. You have to solve a problem, support a strategic initiative, or promote an organizational agenda that is on their plate. The goal is to be a problem solver. If you can tell them a solution before they recognize they have a problem they need, you are best positioned to win the business.

New business comes from three places: repeat, recommendations, new clients with no relationship. Always start with your current or past clients.

A high-return opportunity with very low risk will attract attention. Dedicate time every day to building genuine relationships with clients and prospective clients. Never underestimate the value of networking and the value of your network. 

The secret to business development is to ask lots of questions. Start from a place of empathy. No one ever needs a consultant until they do.

There are many actionable ideas you will learn in How Clients Buy. I highly recommend you pick up a copy now and dig right in.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

12 Tips You Might Not Know About Running a Winning Business

One of the first of many valuable tips in Andy Bailey's book, No Try Only Do: Building A Business On Purpose, Alignment, And Accountability is to seek guidance and advice for your business. I expect you will agree if you are a busy owner or leader of a business or department.

I recently spent some time with the author, CEO, and founder of Petra Coach. Bailey shared his story with me and gave me invaluable advice for my business, Futureforth. He also handed me a copy of his book filled with professional wisdom to help business owners.

Twelve Key Takeaways from “No Try Only Do” 

1. You must want to change. You have to know that where you are is not where you need to be for change to occur. Bailey urges his readers to “suck up your pride and get out of your own way.” It’s true that we all fall guilty of thinking we know what’s best all of the time. This simply isn’t always true, so learning from mentors and peers will help change yourself and your businesses. 

2. Create a one-page strategic plan and list your quarterly priorities. Stick this on your wall in your office. 

3. Determine what your Core Purpose for your business is. Who do you serve? What will they gain from working with you? Then add your Core Values. Begin by asking, “What is the purpose of your organization? Why does your company exist?”

4. Create a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) and set a date in the future when you will reach that goal. Bailey uses +10Mhm in his LinkedIn profile summary and email signature. This represents his goal of having a positive impact on ten million people. His previous BHAG was +10Khm which he reached. Anything is possible.

5. Hold a daily huddle with yourself. Write down your top priorities each day and recap the previous day. Create a weekly accountability report. Review these at the end of each quarter. Consider what lessons you have learned. Where were your biggest wins and biggest failures?

6. Money is something you can either spend wastefully or use strategically to build wealth.

7. Keep an Evernote list of people you have met whom you would call “A-Players”. These are people you wish to get to know better. Refer to this list and promote what these individuals create. Keep in touch with them.

8. Use handwritten Thank You notes. A physical note goes a long way in a digital world. 

9. Remember the value of being personable and ensuring you appreciate who you work with and who works for you.

10. To grow, you need to produce more time. Hiring interns and staff and outsourcing jobs will help you achieve this. 

11. Let go of things in order to grow. 

12. Create a plan and outline what you want to accomplish in a ten-year period for your business. Break that plan down to determine how you will reach each goal. Work backward to discover what it will take to make it work. 

Follow the steps above, and as the book subtitle reads, “you will build a business on purpose, alignment, and accountability.”

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash.

How to Book Yourself Solid

I have had the good fortune of spending time with best-selling author, speaker trainer, and keynote speaker Michael Port. He is a warm, wise, and sincere guy - my kind of people! 

I recently read and loved his best-selling book, Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling. I have already seen an increase in new consulting clients as a result of reading and working through the excerises in his book.

Here are some of my takeaways from Book Yourself Solid. I encourage you to pick up a copy and dig right in today.

17 Takeaways From Book Yourself Solid

• You are the company you keep. 

I've read this in many of my favorite business and self-help-type books. It's true. Choose your friends wisely. Ditch them if they don't support you.

• Your ideal clients are those individuals who energize and inspire you. 

This is why I typically work with small business owners and teams. It always seems like small businesses are the most passionate about the work they do. That passion always gets me excited to serve them.

• Being everything to everyone just isn't possible. 

I'm guilty of trying to please all of the people all of the time - in the past. Michael serves his readers a good reminder of why this doesn't work.

• It’s much easier to carve out a very lucrative domain for yourself once you’ve identified a specific target market. 

This is something I have been doing with NetworkingForNicePeople.com. I wrote my book all about networking, so I have returned to the topic to teach and build a community. My target market is anyone who wants to jumpstart their career or grow their business. 

• If your potential clients are going to purchase your services and products, they must see them as investable opportunities; they must feel that the return they receive is greater than the investment they made.

• The secret to having a successful business is to know what your clients want and deliver it. 

• People buy results and the benefits of those results. So think about the solutions you offer and the subsequent results and benefits they provide.

• View yourself as a leader in your client’s life.

• Your brand is about making yourself known for your skills and talents. More than that — your brand is about what you stand for.

• Establish an advisory board.

I'm finally in the process of making this happen officially in a private mastermind. 

• Read one book a month.

You'll know I did this from reading these mini book-report posts.

• When you have made the effort to speak and write directly to your ideal client, he’ll feel it.

• Perform daily tasks that will keep your name in front of potential clients.

I do this with my writing here, at Networking For Nice People, in my email newsletters, and in my column in The Tennessean. I also use a CRM to remind me to check-in with clients and follow-up. 

• From a practical perspective there may be two simple reasons why you don’t have as many clients as you’d like: Either you don’t know what to do to attract and secure more clients; or You know what to do but you’re not actually doing it.

Guilty as charged with not doing what I knew I needed to be doing. I'm getting better at holding myself accountable, though. The photos of my family in my office help keep me focused. 

• Each day, introduce two people within your network who do not yet know each other but you think might benefit from knowing each other. 

I do this with my Daily Goals Worksheet. You can grab a copy here. 

• Start by choosing one day of the week that you can focus on where and when you could be asking for referrals.

• Instead of focusing on what I do, focus on what I can do for my clients.

Get a Copy of Book Yourself Solid

I pulled each of these quotes from Michael Port's valuable book because they stood out to me. I expect many (if not all) will stand out to you too.

Book Yourself Solid is a must-read book to help you grow your business. Michael Port is definitely somebody you should be following. 
 

Knock on Some Doors

I am currently writing this from a small town north of Toronto, Ontario. I had lunch with an old friend who is a steel salesperson today. He spends his time driving from metal shop to metal shop across the province meeting with owners to close sales and build his network. He is old school and it works for him.

I asked him for his advice on how he makes sales and he told me to knock on some doors.

Most of my business at Futureforth comes from word of mouth. The trouble is, I sometimes depend on it too much. Instead of knocking on doors, I wait for the business owners to knock on mine. It doesn't sound very proactive, right? It isn't.

Instead of driving back to his office after our lunch, he was going to pop into a few businesses he noticed as he drove to meet me. He literally will walk in unannounced and introduce himself. He's not a pushy, sales guy. He simply wants to meet the owners and get on their radar. 

People do business with those they know, like and trust.

He will ask the owners if they need any steel now. If so, he will offer to get a quote. If the owner says no, he will suggest that he give them a quote to share his prices. My friend is a charming, good guy. He's not a slick, sales jerk. 

His main goal is to make people like him. He reminded me that people do business with those they know and like. If they like him, they will decide to give him a chance for business. Once he makes a sale, he's in with that new customer. 

It all starts with knocking on some doors. It was a good reminder for me to do the same. How about you?