A “Coach” is a person who can help you secure an opportunity. They often are not the direct buyer, but if you can develop a buyer or a major influencer in the purchase of the services you offer, that is the best coach of all.
The Coach’s Role
The Coach will work on your behalf to provide critical information that you would not otherwise be able to find through research. That information may be related to upcoming opportunities not yet public, background and passions of critical influencers, secret influencers such as the CEOs assistant that others might miss.
A critical role as to any specific sales objective is to identify all of the technical buyers, user buyers, economic buyers, the critical issue that will drive a win for each of them and thus their support, and their respective levels of influence over the sales decision. These are all critical pieces of information that will provide you with a fair advantage over your competition.
Finally, a major role of a great coach is to help secure introductions to the various influencers so that you can tell your story to decision-makers already interested in listening to it.
Identifying a Coach
According to Heimann and Sanchez, my experience and logic, a coach must absolutely satisfy three criteria:
1. “The Coach’s Credibility. A good Coach must have credibility with the Buying Influencers for your particular sales objective.”
2. “Your Credibility. A Coach is someone with whom you, the person orchestrating the sale, have personal credibility.”
3. “Desiring Your Success. The crucial distinction between your Coach and the other Buying Influencers is that by definition the Coach wants you to make this sale.”
The New Strategic Selling, Heimann and Sanchez at page 263-4.
Of course, the Coach is useless to you if she has no credibility with the other people you need to get on your side in order to secure the opportunity. Do not underestimate people because of their rank or title. I once secured a major piece of business for a prior firm where the receptionist was one of my incredibly invaluable Coaches. She knew everything about everyone, held the key to getting through to everyone, and they all loved her. She loved doughnuts.
Everyone in the world operates, consciously or unconsciously, on one basic principal:
Will this person make me look great in front of the people who are most important to me?
Your best friend in the world will NOT help you within her company if she does not believe you will make this statement come true for her. She simply cannot afford it. Her career depends on it. She will make excuses like, “Oh, I am so sorry, that is against company policy. My hands are tied.” If you are her friend, you will not ask her to put herself in that position until you are certain you will make this happen for her.
A Coach will not want you to succeed unless you can prove this is true as to him, personally. That means the Coach has to trust you individually. The Coach has to know, not just believe, that you will make him look great or better. It is your responsibility to make sure that the Coach knows that:
You are truly passionate about the service you will provide the company;
You have dedicated yourself to becoming a true “best in the world” expert in the area of the service you will provide the company;
You will provide “delight-the-customer” service throughout the execution of the service for the company; and, perhaps most important,
You will make this a true win for the Coach by understanding what is, and who are, most important to the Coach.
While this is certainly true as to every Buying Influencer, the Coach is arguably the most important influencer and the first one you need to secure in order to make a complex sale. You simply cannot gather enough valuable intelligence to have a truly fair advantage without a Coach to guide you.
Finding a Coach
Some of this is trial and error, but of course you want to be as certain as possible before you rely on a Coach. It is often wise early on to identify more than one potential Coach.
Choose individuals with whom you have credibility. Ideally, you will have done very successful work of this type with him in the past. If your colleague has done the wondrous work, that is a good start but not as ideal. Professional services are based on individual expertise. One person’s expertise does not necessarily translate into trusted expertise in another in the same firm. Least helpful, as we addressed above, you are old friends and he is well aware of your stellar reputation. As you move farther away from a direct on point mutual win with this potential Coach, the more you have to prove in order to secure the required level of personal credibility.
You then have to find out if they can actually help you in this sales objective. Of course you should do your homework. Read their bios, research them on-line, etc. Ask the potential Coaches in the firm the same questions and see if the information you get is the same. If not, you will have to determine who provided the reliable information. You certainly do not want to evaluate multiple potential Coaches in the same company without telling each that you are friends with the other.
Once you have established personal credibility with the Coach and established that the Coach has credibility with the relevant Buying Influencers you have identified, you have to determine how your securing this opportunity can be a major personal win for the Coach so that they will want you to succeed.
Which individuals are most important to the Coach?
How can your success on the project make the Coach look great in the eyes of those individuals?
How is this win for the Coach unique to you as the vendor?
How can you prove this to the Coach?
This same process has to occur as to each influencer as well. Once you have established personal credibility and that the Coach has internal credibility, it is perfectly appropriate for you to ask the individual to be your Coach on the project. The term Coach has a very high level of recognition and reputation associated with it. Sometimes this acknowledgement is a big enough win. To be sure, ask the Coach how this can be a great win for him. Then prove to him that you can make that happen.
As you do extraordinary work for the company, and make your Coaches look great, that relationship will deepen. Make sure that your work and customer service is so extraordinary that each person you work with becomes an internal Coach for the next piece of work. Cultivating Coaches throughout an organization will help you and your firm secure all of their work, all of the time and get them to tell all of their influential friends at other firms about you.
Conclusion
Find one or more Coaches for every significant sales objective. Use the Coach to secure a fair advantage over your competitors through intelligence gathering and introductions to the buying influencers critical to your sale. Build a stable of Coaches in each firm.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Covering Your Bases
There is a core concept in the book New Strategic Selling, by Heiman and Sanchez, that every person making complex sales must understand. Every sale of nebulous professional services is certainly a complex one. Especially when the effort is, as this blog hopes to help you accomplish, to secure high paying, expert dependant bet-the-company work.
To review, clients that have mission-critical work often need expertise found outside the firm on a temporary basis, to help them achieve a tremendous opportunity or avert a disaster. This may include achieving the best possible result in a multi-million (or billion) dollar lawsuit. Consummating a highly lucrative acquisition or sale of all or part of a business. Recovering from financial crisis. Addressing fraud or corruption within its domestic or international operations. Achieving greater revenues and exponential growth through focus and discipline. The situations are endless.
Heiman and Sanchez point out that every complex sale involves multiple buyers within the target, or perhaps tangential to it. Failure to create real wins for each of these critical buyers generally results in failure to secure the opportunity. Even if the contract is secured, failure to gain the support from all influencers within the entity will make it extremely difficult to succeed in the work or obtain any future work with that firm. A blessing from the top is seldom sufficient.
The four buying influencers are:
The Technical Buyer
The User Buyer
The Economic Buyer
The Coach
More than one person may fill each role and one person may completely or partially fill multiple roles. The objective is to identify who, within the target, holds the power to say no to your proposal, what their role is, how much influence do they really have, how to get to them and create a win for them so that they do not undermine your efforts. We will address coaches in the next post as they are extremely important and unique in their role in this process.
The Technical Buyer
This role is often filled by a gatekeeper. Often they are younger professionals whose job it is to find the individuals or firms who can be shown to have the necessary credentials to qualify as experts for the project. The role of this influences is to find objective proof that you are the right expert for this project.
Prior work experience – case studies.
Education, certifications, credentials.
Testimonials and references.
Thought Leading Articles, Speeches and White Papers.
Anything else that objectively proves you know this stuff better than anyone else.
The Technical Buyers role often is to narrow the field to the few top experts in the field. You have to stand out to make the cut.
The User Buyer
This role is filled by the individuals whose careers ride on how you perform. Once you have been approved technically, these influencers want to know whether they can work with you, whether you fit the culture of the organization, whether you can work as part of their team. Will you present well to critical third parties such as a jury, judge, Board of Directors, their client, etc.
We know you have the credentials at this point, but:
Are you well-spoken? Are you too well-spoken?
Do you have the right accent for work in Texas or New York?
Do you dress appropriately?
Are you attactive or fit or tall or not, which may be as important?
Do we seem to mesh on a personal level?
Does my team like you?
Etc.
This evaluation tends to be more esoteric and comes down to whether the person who is responsible for the success of this hugely important project can count on you to make him or her look great in front of the people most important to him or her.
The Economic Buyer
This is the person who writes the check to pay you for your work. The greater the support you have from the Technical and User Buyers charged with the success of the project, the more likely the economic buyer will give you the go ahead.
Never, however, take this influencer lightly. The person making this decision is also on the hook should the effort fail. If they do not know you, they may decide that it is safer to choose a highly regarded known quantity. The old saying is very relevant to this person, “No one ever got fired for hiring IBM.” The big name, highly regarded and much more expensive option is also the safest for the economic buyer, even in the face of support from all other influencers. If you fail to create a win for this critical influencer, you have made a critical error in your efforts.
Wins
The goal of your sale cannot just be to secure the work. You must identify each person with influence over the sale and the ultimate work and create a real and positive win for that person within the company and in their lives. You must show each buying influencer that you will make them look great in front of the people most important to them.
If you fail to do this, even if you secure the sale, the path will be fraught with pitfalls, the likelihood that you will fail and be blamed for the poor result and perhaps sued because of it, increase dramatically.
As they say,
“Hell hath no fury like a buying influencer scorned”
or something like that.
Complex sales are complex. It is important to work the whole puzzle. You are not finished if there are still pieces sitting on the table.
To review, clients that have mission-critical work often need expertise found outside the firm on a temporary basis, to help them achieve a tremendous opportunity or avert a disaster. This may include achieving the best possible result in a multi-million (or billion) dollar lawsuit. Consummating a highly lucrative acquisition or sale of all or part of a business. Recovering from financial crisis. Addressing fraud or corruption within its domestic or international operations. Achieving greater revenues and exponential growth through focus and discipline. The situations are endless.
Heiman and Sanchez point out that every complex sale involves multiple buyers within the target, or perhaps tangential to it. Failure to create real wins for each of these critical buyers generally results in failure to secure the opportunity. Even if the contract is secured, failure to gain the support from all influencers within the entity will make it extremely difficult to succeed in the work or obtain any future work with that firm. A blessing from the top is seldom sufficient.
The four buying influencers are:
The Technical Buyer
The User Buyer
The Economic Buyer
The Coach
More than one person may fill each role and one person may completely or partially fill multiple roles. The objective is to identify who, within the target, holds the power to say no to your proposal, what their role is, how much influence do they really have, how to get to them and create a win for them so that they do not undermine your efforts. We will address coaches in the next post as they are extremely important and unique in their role in this process.
The Technical Buyer
This role is often filled by a gatekeeper. Often they are younger professionals whose job it is to find the individuals or firms who can be shown to have the necessary credentials to qualify as experts for the project. The role of this influences is to find objective proof that you are the right expert for this project.
Prior work experience – case studies.
Education, certifications, credentials.
Testimonials and references.
Thought Leading Articles, Speeches and White Papers.
Anything else that objectively proves you know this stuff better than anyone else.
The Technical Buyers role often is to narrow the field to the few top experts in the field. You have to stand out to make the cut.
The User Buyer
This role is filled by the individuals whose careers ride on how you perform. Once you have been approved technically, these influencers want to know whether they can work with you, whether you fit the culture of the organization, whether you can work as part of their team. Will you present well to critical third parties such as a jury, judge, Board of Directors, their client, etc.
We know you have the credentials at this point, but:
Are you well-spoken? Are you too well-spoken?
Do you have the right accent for work in Texas or New York?
Do you dress appropriately?
Are you attactive or fit or tall or not, which may be as important?
Do we seem to mesh on a personal level?
Does my team like you?
Etc.
This evaluation tends to be more esoteric and comes down to whether the person who is responsible for the success of this hugely important project can count on you to make him or her look great in front of the people most important to him or her.
The Economic Buyer
This is the person who writes the check to pay you for your work. The greater the support you have from the Technical and User Buyers charged with the success of the project, the more likely the economic buyer will give you the go ahead.
Never, however, take this influencer lightly. The person making this decision is also on the hook should the effort fail. If they do not know you, they may decide that it is safer to choose a highly regarded known quantity. The old saying is very relevant to this person, “No one ever got fired for hiring IBM.” The big name, highly regarded and much more expensive option is also the safest for the economic buyer, even in the face of support from all other influencers. If you fail to create a win for this critical influencer, you have made a critical error in your efforts.
Wins
The goal of your sale cannot just be to secure the work. You must identify each person with influence over the sale and the ultimate work and create a real and positive win for that person within the company and in their lives. You must show each buying influencer that you will make them look great in front of the people most important to them.
If you fail to do this, even if you secure the sale, the path will be fraught with pitfalls, the likelihood that you will fail and be blamed for the poor result and perhaps sued because of it, increase dramatically.
As they say,
“Hell hath no fury like a buying influencer scorned”
or something like that.
Complex sales are complex. It is important to work the whole puzzle. You are not finished if there are still pieces sitting on the table.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Use a Rifle, Not a Shotgun: Target Marketing in Professional Service Firms
Every firm that provides professional services is different from all others. All professional firms are merely an allegiance of its members’ professional service businesses. Each firm is really many small firms working, sometimes collaboratively, under the same roof.
There Are NO Commodity Professional Services: Each provides services driven by individual brain-power and talent. It is the nature of delivering intellectually-based services that there are no commodity services, though often this is misperceived. The greater the level of expertise required for a service the fewer the number of professionals there are for clients to choose from.
Divorce cases, for example, are fairly straight forward. There are a plethora of divorce attorneys, yet the best divorce attorneys still get the most complicated and lucrative cases. That is because they have made themselves the best and sold this to the market. As a result, they are sought after for the most difficult cases and paid the most to do them.
Strategic Advantage: That difference is a strategic advantage. As this blog has discussed in more detail previously, the successful professional must identify the area in which she is most passionate. One will never spend the time required to become the best without passion.
She must focus her efforts toward a practice that involves doing just that work and on becoming a true expert in that area. She must become best in her world by delivering a higher level expertise with phenomenal customer service, so that she develops a reputation as the go-to professional in that area.
As a result, clients seek her out and pay her more. That should be every professional’s objective. It is the role of the firm to foster this.
Professionals who remain generalists have to work hard to find the next project. They do not get the mission-critical work. They get paid lower rates for the work they do get. They will do pretty much anything for anyone. Advertising works for this work, but who wants this work?
Know and Research Your Targets: Great professionals know their targets because great professionals know in what area they are true experts and who needs this superior talent, skill and passion to solve highly important problems or take advantage of highly lucrative opportunities. These professionals should be able to identify with precision who their target clients are by name, title and company. This is big game hunting and the quarry is quite cunning.
Go right after the target. Identify who they are. Research them in depth on the internet and through any connection you can find. Find anyone who knows them. Use them to gather information, reach people still closer to them and eventually to secure an introduction.
Know which conferences they attend, what groups they are a member of, and which charities they are involved in. Be there. Find and meet them. Find someone in advance to introduce you or create some other excuse. Listen to them as though you care deeply about whatever they are passionate about. Ask good questions about what they are doing. Court them. Woo them gradually.
Afterwards, follow up with an e-mail. Send them information by snail mail. Call them. Set up a follow up meeting.
Be prepared. No one trusts what you say about yourself. Your CV and firm brochure are essentially useless puff. What works are third-party endorsements.
Articles: Well crafted thought leading articles published in a highly regarded Journal indicates an editor who cares what gets into his publication so he can sell it, thinks you are an expert. The article which focuses on your expertise shows you really do know your stuff. Writing with a prominent co-author puts you in their class.
Testimonials: Powerful testimonials from third parties who love your work but receive nothing from your success and have only their own reputations on the line let the target know that you are perceived by many to be just the expert you claim to be. If you cannot secure testimonials, at least create a list of references who the client can call. The more prominent the individual, the more powerful the reference is.
Case Studies: If you have strong, verifiable examples of your work and your expertise, these can be very convincing. They can be verifiable either through access through an on-line independent database, such as CourtLink, or through calling others involved in the matter who have hopefully provided testimonials. Often the case example is integrated into the testimonial.
Any other way you can devise to prove you are an expert to someone who neither knows you or has the time to get to know you, will help you secure that first meeting. Once you get the work, you keep the client with phenomenal more-than-expected expertise and advice and delight-the-customer service.
There Are NO Commodity Professional Services: Each provides services driven by individual brain-power and talent. It is the nature of delivering intellectually-based services that there are no commodity services, though often this is misperceived. The greater the level of expertise required for a service the fewer the number of professionals there are for clients to choose from.
Divorce cases, for example, are fairly straight forward. There are a plethora of divorce attorneys, yet the best divorce attorneys still get the most complicated and lucrative cases. That is because they have made themselves the best and sold this to the market. As a result, they are sought after for the most difficult cases and paid the most to do them.
Strategic Advantage: That difference is a strategic advantage. As this blog has discussed in more detail previously, the successful professional must identify the area in which she is most passionate. One will never spend the time required to become the best without passion.
She must focus her efforts toward a practice that involves doing just that work and on becoming a true expert in that area. She must become best in her world by delivering a higher level expertise with phenomenal customer service, so that she develops a reputation as the go-to professional in that area.
As a result, clients seek her out and pay her more. That should be every professional’s objective. It is the role of the firm to foster this.
Professionals who remain generalists have to work hard to find the next project. They do not get the mission-critical work. They get paid lower rates for the work they do get. They will do pretty much anything for anyone. Advertising works for this work, but who wants this work?
Know and Research Your Targets: Great professionals know their targets because great professionals know in what area they are true experts and who needs this superior talent, skill and passion to solve highly important problems or take advantage of highly lucrative opportunities. These professionals should be able to identify with precision who their target clients are by name, title and company. This is big game hunting and the quarry is quite cunning.
Go right after the target. Identify who they are. Research them in depth on the internet and through any connection you can find. Find anyone who knows them. Use them to gather information, reach people still closer to them and eventually to secure an introduction.
Know which conferences they attend, what groups they are a member of, and which charities they are involved in. Be there. Find and meet them. Find someone in advance to introduce you or create some other excuse. Listen to them as though you care deeply about whatever they are passionate about. Ask good questions about what they are doing. Court them. Woo them gradually.
Afterwards, follow up with an e-mail. Send them information by snail mail. Call them. Set up a follow up meeting.
Be prepared. No one trusts what you say about yourself. Your CV and firm brochure are essentially useless puff. What works are third-party endorsements.
Articles: Well crafted thought leading articles published in a highly regarded Journal indicates an editor who cares what gets into his publication so he can sell it, thinks you are an expert. The article which focuses on your expertise shows you really do know your stuff. Writing with a prominent co-author puts you in their class.
Testimonials: Powerful testimonials from third parties who love your work but receive nothing from your success and have only their own reputations on the line let the target know that you are perceived by many to be just the expert you claim to be. If you cannot secure testimonials, at least create a list of references who the client can call. The more prominent the individual, the more powerful the reference is.
Case Studies: If you have strong, verifiable examples of your work and your expertise, these can be very convincing. They can be verifiable either through access through an on-line independent database, such as CourtLink, or through calling others involved in the matter who have hopefully provided testimonials. Often the case example is integrated into the testimonial.
Any other way you can devise to prove you are an expert to someone who neither knows you or has the time to get to know you, will help you secure that first meeting. Once you get the work, you keep the client with phenomenal more-than-expected expertise and advice and delight-the-customer service.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
You Cannot Be Best in the World Alone
Building Your Team:
A critical piece of the puzzle is to get the absolute best people on your “bus.” You will require help doing that at which you are passionate and best in the world. Economically you must leverage the work to professionals at the right level of development, expertise and cost for the task.
If you want to be perceived as the expert, you cannot do the $100/hour work. You ultimately have to restrict yourself to the $500 plus/hour work. This is the work worthy of your highest level of expertise. Perhaps not at first, but as you become a recognized expert, you have to have a team in place to provide these lesser services efficiently and at a high level. That requires you to build and develop a strong supporting cast.
Over the last few years, I worked with one particular professional to help him develop his practice. Over the last year it has grown exponentially. A year ago we met with a high-level target we believed we were prepared for. He was impressed with the credentials of our lead expert, but the target asked a critical question, “How many professionals do you have on your team dedicated to providing this service?” We had to think about that. Well, really no one was truly 100% dedicated to the expert’s service area. He borrowed strong younger professionals from other areas.
We explained this process and that our clients receive high level service from our expert who leads every project. The target explained that while he certainly valued our expertise, he required a team of experts for the sort of work we contemplated providing him.
From that point forward, our expert began to build a strong dedicated highly-trained team. He now knows the answer to that question and is confident in the team he has created. Be prepared to answer that question.
Who do you need on your team?
Identify the skills that you need to perform your service at the highest levels. What must you do? Everything else needs to be delegated.
As you build your practice your team will be used on a part-time basis. Eventually your practice will grow to demand more and more of each critical person, then full time support of a few younger professionals and eventually a full team from senior to junior.
If you are established in your profession, consider whether you have the right team for your area of passionate expertise. As you move in that direction, are there members of the team who can take on those projects you no longer want to handle? How can you develop them to free you up to drive your higher level practice?
The goal, of course, is to get to the point where all of your available billable time is taken up doing the highest level work for your clients in your area of passionate expertise and you are driving enough business down through the firm to keep many skilled professionals at many levels very busy.
Who do you not want on your team?
As important, who do you NOT want on your team? Remove them. Over time, as you work younger professionals into your projects, you will develop a rapport and respect for certain younger professionals. This will become your team. Those who do not provide you the level of service you demand will be removed.
Can you lead it? Do they respect you?
One of the most difficult functions of a professional is that of managing a team. You are passionately expert at delivering your service at a very high level.
As you develop your team, if you are not passionate about or capable of managing the team, assigning tasks and delegating authority, recognize that fact and find a technically talented lieutenant who is also a good manager. You must remain responsible for the delivery of high quality product and service to the client. You must also remain responsible for the client relationship. Those tasks cannot be delegated to subordinates. But in addition to technical areas you need to fill, recognize you are building a business. Management cannot be ignored.
Everyone on the team must be comfortable that you are driving the business and the leader of the team. Ultimately they need to know, and your lieutenant must be comfortable with the fact, that his or her authority derives from you. Leaders have many styles. You will have to develop your own effective leadership style. That will tend to dictate who is willing to be on your team.
Is the team greater than the sum of its parts?
Young professionals want to know that they have a future. It is your responsibility to make sure that they see that future increased dramatically by being part of your team. Helping them understand their passions and become experts themselves is a critical part of your duties. Some will be happy as strong expert members of your team with increasing opportunities on your matters. Others will want to develop their own business and become rain-makers like you. You should take responsibility for helping them make that happen.
As your team sees you help those above them become more successful, your team’s chemistry and loyalty will grow. As team members “graduate,” you will build allies within the firm and may even work together to drive additional business for the growing team. You become the five-star general, adding lower star generals who understand where their loyalty lies.
Leaders who ignore the goals and objectives of their team members find that animosity begins to develop. This generally does not result in the level of client satisfaction you require or the long-term continuity your clients desire. You can be the greatest expert in the world, but if you cannot develop a team capable of delivering incredible customer service and expert-level technical service, your success will be limited.
Being best in the world is not easy.
A critical piece of the puzzle is to get the absolute best people on your “bus.” You will require help doing that at which you are passionate and best in the world. Economically you must leverage the work to professionals at the right level of development, expertise and cost for the task.
If you want to be perceived as the expert, you cannot do the $100/hour work. You ultimately have to restrict yourself to the $500 plus/hour work. This is the work worthy of your highest level of expertise. Perhaps not at first, but as you become a recognized expert, you have to have a team in place to provide these lesser services efficiently and at a high level. That requires you to build and develop a strong supporting cast.
Over the last few years, I worked with one particular professional to help him develop his practice. Over the last year it has grown exponentially. A year ago we met with a high-level target we believed we were prepared for. He was impressed with the credentials of our lead expert, but the target asked a critical question, “How many professionals do you have on your team dedicated to providing this service?” We had to think about that. Well, really no one was truly 100% dedicated to the expert’s service area. He borrowed strong younger professionals from other areas.
We explained this process and that our clients receive high level service from our expert who leads every project. The target explained that while he certainly valued our expertise, he required a team of experts for the sort of work we contemplated providing him.
From that point forward, our expert began to build a strong dedicated highly-trained team. He now knows the answer to that question and is confident in the team he has created. Be prepared to answer that question.
Who do you need on your team?
Identify the skills that you need to perform your service at the highest levels. What must you do? Everything else needs to be delegated.
As you build your practice your team will be used on a part-time basis. Eventually your practice will grow to demand more and more of each critical person, then full time support of a few younger professionals and eventually a full team from senior to junior.
If you are established in your profession, consider whether you have the right team for your area of passionate expertise. As you move in that direction, are there members of the team who can take on those projects you no longer want to handle? How can you develop them to free you up to drive your higher level practice?
The goal, of course, is to get to the point where all of your available billable time is taken up doing the highest level work for your clients in your area of passionate expertise and you are driving enough business down through the firm to keep many skilled professionals at many levels very busy.
Who do you not want on your team?
As important, who do you NOT want on your team? Remove them. Over time, as you work younger professionals into your projects, you will develop a rapport and respect for certain younger professionals. This will become your team. Those who do not provide you the level of service you demand will be removed.
Can you lead it? Do they respect you?
One of the most difficult functions of a professional is that of managing a team. You are passionately expert at delivering your service at a very high level.
As you develop your team, if you are not passionate about or capable of managing the team, assigning tasks and delegating authority, recognize that fact and find a technically talented lieutenant who is also a good manager. You must remain responsible for the delivery of high quality product and service to the client. You must also remain responsible for the client relationship. Those tasks cannot be delegated to subordinates. But in addition to technical areas you need to fill, recognize you are building a business. Management cannot be ignored.
Everyone on the team must be comfortable that you are driving the business and the leader of the team. Ultimately they need to know, and your lieutenant must be comfortable with the fact, that his or her authority derives from you. Leaders have many styles. You will have to develop your own effective leadership style. That will tend to dictate who is willing to be on your team.
Is the team greater than the sum of its parts?
Young professionals want to know that they have a future. It is your responsibility to make sure that they see that future increased dramatically by being part of your team. Helping them understand their passions and become experts themselves is a critical part of your duties. Some will be happy as strong expert members of your team with increasing opportunities on your matters. Others will want to develop their own business and become rain-makers like you. You should take responsibility for helping them make that happen.
As your team sees you help those above them become more successful, your team’s chemistry and loyalty will grow. As team members “graduate,” you will build allies within the firm and may even work together to drive additional business for the growing team. You become the five-star general, adding lower star generals who understand where their loyalty lies.
Leaders who ignore the goals and objectives of their team members find that animosity begins to develop. This generally does not result in the level of client satisfaction you require or the long-term continuity your clients desire. You can be the greatest expert in the world, but if you cannot develop a team capable of delivering incredible customer service and expert-level technical service, your success will be limited.
Being best in the world is not easy.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Take a Harsh Look in the Mirror
For your passion and expertise to drive your economic engine, you have to figure out what it is that you are going to do and for whom. This is of course a process based on what we have learned from earlier posts. By this posting you are well on your way to:
- clarifying what you are truly most passionate about;
- understanding at what you really want to be best in the world, because clients of professionals seek out experts for “bet-the-company” work and pay more for that work, and because you can only be an expert in that about which you are most passionate;
- defining what “world” you will be best in; and
- establishing a culture of discipline around becoming best in that world.
So fine, you are passionate about X, and you are really driving to be best in the world at X. What if no one wants to pay anything for X?
In my experience and according to all of the literature I have read, if you are best in the world at something, you can make a good living doing it so long as you find your driver, follow up and provide phenomenal service. The best welder in the world does not work on steel buildings, he or she works on high-risk projects that absolutely positively have to be welded perfectly or people will die, or on fine tiny welding that requires incredible precision. These welders make a lot of money because very few can do this work. These welders are truly passionate about welding because it requires incredible skill, training, dedication and is high-pressure work. If your weld fails and people die . . . well you have to KNOW that will not happen.
As a professional, however, you have to be able to articulate what it is that you do so that potential buyers will understand it clearly. The first step is a strong self-evaluation. You must take a harsh look in the mirror.
What are your skills? At what are you dedicated do becoming best in the world? How does that translate into a marketable service? What about your expertise will clients want to purchase for large sums of money? This may take some additional research. You may need to consult partners in the firm, friends in business, journals on the subject, internet website, e-newsletters and the like.
Identify future trends. What will be “hot” in your area? Do not change your expertise to fit into hot areas about which you are not passionate. Uncover the future for the things about which you are most passionate. Be realistic. If you have decided you are passionate about making really great buggy whips, you may want to refocus your passion a bit, though perhaps there is a market for really wonderful buggy whips. Who am I to judge?
You have to face the brutal facts. In addition to clearly defining what you do, you have to clearly identify what do you NOT do and, as important, what do you not want to do. If you do not want to do it, you will not be any good at it. If you do work you are not expert in for a client who has hired you as a high level expert, you will ruin your customer relationship, reputation and the perception of you as an expert even in the area where you actually are best in the world. Reputation is all you have to sell. You cannot lose that by doing things you cannot or do not want to do.
Are these tasks important to providing the service you want to provide? If so, how can you fill those voids? Outsource to other experts in your firm or in another firm? Find juniors who love this stuff and are already good or great? Train juniors to be great in these areas? All of the above or something else. Building your team will be the subject of the next post.
At this point you are looking internally at yourself. As you build your service, you must have in mind what the client will want, but you first have to be honest about who you are, who you want to be, and what you offer as a true expert. The first step is always an honest look at yourself and how you fit in the marketplace.
Take a harsh, honest look in the mirror. What do you see?
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Professional Service Means Phenomenal Service
The standard reprise among professional service providers is,
“If I do a good job for the client they will hire me again.”
There are many service providers who can do a good job. There are even quite a few who are experts and will do a great technical job. At a minimum, as has been discussed, the professional service provider must be best in the world, a true expert, in the services he or she will provide.
But, expertise is not enough!
Delighting the customer with phenomenal service is the real key to getting and retaining customers. I have a friend who has an opportunity to secure some business from a well-healed company in his field. There is no question that this company did its due diligence and that the current provider is a highly regarded expert in the field.
The company is not looking for a better technical expert. They are looking for a true expert who also provides them with a high level of personal and professional service. As we have discussed, in cases where true expertise is required for the engagement, price is a distant concern.
In addition to becoming Great in the field about which you are passionate, you must develop the habits of Great professional service. One without the other will not drive great success.
Great Service:
Begin to develop systems around exceptional customer service with every customer no matter how small. Things to consider include:
During the Courting Period: It is during the time you are working on securing business from a prospect that you want to prove that you will provide superior customer service if you secure the work. Of course, you must simultaneously prove that you are an expert in the services required.
Listen carefully to the needs of the client. When you think they are done speaking, pause. They often are not finished or if you give them a chance will keep going and tell you the most critical piece of information you need to secure the work. It is incredibly tempting to want to show your brilliance by jumping in with the answer to the problem you are sure they have before you have the facts required to make that determination. Nothing will verify to them that you will provide poor customer service than this. Even if that is an incorrect assumption, you have lost.
Ask open-ended questions and listen more. People love to talk. Gather real and valuable information about what the issues are. Nothing shows that you understand your field as an expert than asking high-quality questions. Do not ask leading questions to show off. Let the client show how brilliant they are, especially if anyone else is listening in. It is your job to help them along, not take over the show.
When you return to the office after any conversation or call with a prospect or client, send an e-mail summarizing the client’s issues to show that you really did listen. Do not refer to them as problems. No one wants to admit they have problems. Try to consider them opportunities if possible, or issues if not. Every problem has an upside or it is not worth fixing. That is the opportunity.
In your e-mail, carefully reflect on what was said and recount the issue and opportunity the prospect conveyed as accurately and in the best light possible. Then restate your commitments and promised deadlines, as well as any commitments they made to you and the promised deadlines. Ask if those are still acceptable.
Meet or beat your deadlines. Exceed their expectations with what you deliver. Follow up to verify that what was sent was acceptable. Get another meeting.
Once You Get the Engagement:
Schedule customer service into the project. What are critical delivery dates? Make sure that after each phase of the project the senior on the project touches base with the client to make sure all is going well.
Consider having the Managing Partner in the firm reach out to the client at some mid-way point. This confirms to the client his or her importance to the firm. Sometimes a client will confide in the Managing Partner and provide certain valuable information that the client would be uncomfortable sharing with the partner in charge of the engagement. People tend to be non-confrontational, especially as to those with whom they have developed a relationship.
Often a carefully drafted written survey is the best way to gage the progress of an engagement. Again, the client may be willing to provide valuable information in a survey that he will not tell a person, often for fear of hurting someone’s feelings, but as often because he had time to sit and think about it. These are great at the end of an engagement, but interim surveys will catch opportunities to delight when they can still be taken advantage of.
Sometimes professional service providers are concerned about asking too many questions. They fear that raising the question will raise the concern, perhaps one that would not have otherwise been uncovered by the client. The reality is that if the client, or God-forbid, his or her boss or client for whom the work is really being performed, should uncover the problem later, it may be too late to correct and the client, and any accounts receivable, may be lost forever.
Continue to listen, ask good open-ended questions and listen some more. Not only will you find issues that you can correct quickly, but you may find other opportunities to do work. Follow up conversations with e-mails. Under promise and over perform. There is no one formulaic way of providing excellent service. Personalize what you do. Think of other ways to make the client happy with not only the work, but the attention you pay to her and her needs.
Work is never performed for a company. It is always performed for human beings. They should be thrilled, excited, and wowed by not only the work but by how it was performed. You want them to be so happy that they will buy everything you sell and tell all of their friends to do the same.
Back in school, that would earn you an "A." Never settle for "satisfied." That just earns a "C."
“If I do a good job for the client they will hire me again.”
There are many service providers who can do a good job. There are even quite a few who are experts and will do a great technical job. At a minimum, as has been discussed, the professional service provider must be best in the world, a true expert, in the services he or she will provide.
But, expertise is not enough!
Delighting the customer with phenomenal service is the real key to getting and retaining customers. I have a friend who has an opportunity to secure some business from a well-healed company in his field. There is no question that this company did its due diligence and that the current provider is a highly regarded expert in the field.
The company is not looking for a better technical expert. They are looking for a true expert who also provides them with a high level of personal and professional service. As we have discussed, in cases where true expertise is required for the engagement, price is a distant concern.
In addition to becoming Great in the field about which you are passionate, you must develop the habits of Great professional service. One without the other will not drive great success.
Great Service:
Begin to develop systems around exceptional customer service with every customer no matter how small. Things to consider include:
During the Courting Period: It is during the time you are working on securing business from a prospect that you want to prove that you will provide superior customer service if you secure the work. Of course, you must simultaneously prove that you are an expert in the services required.
Listen carefully to the needs of the client. When you think they are done speaking, pause. They often are not finished or if you give them a chance will keep going and tell you the most critical piece of information you need to secure the work. It is incredibly tempting to want to show your brilliance by jumping in with the answer to the problem you are sure they have before you have the facts required to make that determination. Nothing will verify to them that you will provide poor customer service than this. Even if that is an incorrect assumption, you have lost.
Ask open-ended questions and listen more. People love to talk. Gather real and valuable information about what the issues are. Nothing shows that you understand your field as an expert than asking high-quality questions. Do not ask leading questions to show off. Let the client show how brilliant they are, especially if anyone else is listening in. It is your job to help them along, not take over the show.
When you return to the office after any conversation or call with a prospect or client, send an e-mail summarizing the client’s issues to show that you really did listen. Do not refer to them as problems. No one wants to admit they have problems. Try to consider them opportunities if possible, or issues if not. Every problem has an upside or it is not worth fixing. That is the opportunity.
In your e-mail, carefully reflect on what was said and recount the issue and opportunity the prospect conveyed as accurately and in the best light possible. Then restate your commitments and promised deadlines, as well as any commitments they made to you and the promised deadlines. Ask if those are still acceptable.
Meet or beat your deadlines. Exceed their expectations with what you deliver. Follow up to verify that what was sent was acceptable. Get another meeting.
Once You Get the Engagement:
Schedule customer service into the project. What are critical delivery dates? Make sure that after each phase of the project the senior on the project touches base with the client to make sure all is going well.
Consider having the Managing Partner in the firm reach out to the client at some mid-way point. This confirms to the client his or her importance to the firm. Sometimes a client will confide in the Managing Partner and provide certain valuable information that the client would be uncomfortable sharing with the partner in charge of the engagement. People tend to be non-confrontational, especially as to those with whom they have developed a relationship.
Often a carefully drafted written survey is the best way to gage the progress of an engagement. Again, the client may be willing to provide valuable information in a survey that he will not tell a person, often for fear of hurting someone’s feelings, but as often because he had time to sit and think about it. These are great at the end of an engagement, but interim surveys will catch opportunities to delight when they can still be taken advantage of.
Sometimes professional service providers are concerned about asking too many questions. They fear that raising the question will raise the concern, perhaps one that would not have otherwise been uncovered by the client. The reality is that if the client, or God-forbid, his or her boss or client for whom the work is really being performed, should uncover the problem later, it may be too late to correct and the client, and any accounts receivable, may be lost forever.
Continue to listen, ask good open-ended questions and listen some more. Not only will you find issues that you can correct quickly, but you may find other opportunities to do work. Follow up conversations with e-mails. Under promise and over perform. There is no one formulaic way of providing excellent service. Personalize what you do. Think of other ways to make the client happy with not only the work, but the attention you pay to her and her needs.
Work is never performed for a company. It is always performed for human beings. They should be thrilled, excited, and wowed by not only the work but by how it was performed. You want them to be so happy that they will buy everything you sell and tell all of their friends to do the same.
Back in school, that would earn you an "A." Never settle for "satisfied." That just earns a "C."
Monday, August 24, 2009
Driving Your Economic Engine
The third prong of the Good to Great model involves the translation of that at which you are best in the world into something at which you can make a lot of money. In the corporate world the goals are to:
- Maximize profits;
- Accelerate growth; and
- Create a sustainable competitive advantage.
And so to it is for you and your personal professional business. Again, this will be personal to you. How hard to you want to work? How much money do you want to make? When do you want to retire? Stuff like that. This process can be tailored precisely to your needs.
Find the Driver:
I attended the Festival of the Little Hills yesterday. It was a lovely day. Very relaxing and for a person who studies passion, it is on display in spades. There were rows of booths with artisans of varying levels of expertise, all displaying their wares for the passers by. I stopped to speak to a particularly wonderful glass artist, from whom we purchased a few items, and I asked her about her work. She was clearly passionate. From what I could tell, her work was extraordinary.
After she explained in detail how she does what she does, I asked her why she sells at shows like this. “That’s easy,” she answered, “I love the people.” She has a shop back home, sells through quite a few retail outlets around the country and sells quite a bit over the internet. She considered that she probably does not need to do this, but this is how she got started and this is one of the things she loves about doing what she does.
As we spoke, however, she also pointed out that these shows drive people to her website, which takes them to the stores that sell her items, and from both she makes a great deal more money than what she will take home from this weekend. In her mind, these shows are the driver of her economic engine.
In the end, she comes because she loves standing with me, talking passionately about her art, and selling me just what my lovely wife was looking for. That drives her passion and HER economic engine. That is what we are all striving for.
Follow Through:
I met the number one professional dart player in the United States over the weekend. I did not even know there was such a thing as professional darts. This guy can knock a dime off your tongue from 10 feet away, with a dart.
You could never in a million years get me to stand there with a dime on my tongue so he could show off.
“Oops, one more time. Sorry about that chap. The medic here will fix that right up. You’ll be talking again in no time. Next?”
How did he practice? How many people have holes in them because he had not quite perfected the feat? Even Meadowlark Lemon missed his patented half court half hook every once in a while.
He is incredibly passionate about darts. He plays with darts all the time, reads about darts, watches darts and travels the world participating in professional dart throwing competitions and exhibitions. The way his wife rolled her eyes confirmed this. As a result, he has become the US Dart Champion and is ranked in the top five in the world. He has found his passion and is best in one world and working on becoming best in a bigger world. Two prongs accomplished.
Does this drive his economic engine? He makes a decent living, but he has not yet channeled his passion and the fact that he is best in the world into truly driving his economic engine. His wife holds down two jobs. He has no sponsors, no agent, no commercial endorsements, no line of darts or dart shirts, and otherwise does nothing besides winning dart competitions. Unlike the glass artisan from the fair, he has never followed through to cause his passion to drive his economic engine.
Tiger Woods makes millions playing golf. That drives his economic engine, but the REAL MONEY comes from sponsors, endorsements, appearance fees, etc. It comes from the follow through. As you become best in the world you need to follow through and say to yourself, in the words of Cuba Gooding, Jr., “Show Me the Money.”
All I could think about as I spoke to the dart champion, were all the opportunities he had to make money using his expertise in the dart world. What should he do to cause his dart throwing to accelerate his economic engine? He has the driver. He needs the follow-through.
It reminded me of the movie with Tom Cruise and Paul Newman, “The Color of Money.” Paul Newman was the Hustler, reborn from the 1960s film about a pool shark who tried to defeat Minnesota Fats. Newman tried to explain to Cruise that one makes money in pool, not by winning tournaments, but by sharking pool and playing the competitions behind the scenes. That is how one drives the 8-ball economic engine. Tom Cruise had the passion and drive to be best in the world, but he missed that critical point.
How do you turn that into money!!!
Finding the Money.
The next several blog posts will assume that you have:
- begun the iterative exercises required to figure out what you are passionate about; and
- created your culture of discipline necessary to become best in the world.
If you have not, START. If you are not going to start, stop reading this blog as it is a waste of your time. You will remain one of the modestly paid worker-bees the rest of us need.
As Chris Draft of the St. Louis Rams recently pointed out,
“If you are not a Superstar, from the moment you make the team they are trying to replace you.”
Who is Chris Draft, you ask? My point, and his, exactly.
You can make yourself a Superstar, but remember, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Albert Pujols work harder than everyone else in their professions. Sam Walton pointed out after WalMart was promoted as an overnight success,
“We were an overnight success that was over twenty years in the making.”
Quotes are close but may not be exact.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Culture of Discipline
Being best in the world requires a lot of work. That is why you have to be passionate about the area in which you are going to become an expert.
Do not worry about finalizing every detail of what you are passionate about. Just start the process. You will use the process to iterate toward your passion and what the brutal facts show you is and is not your future area of expertise.
Step 1:
If you want to be the best in the area you are passionate about and do something you love for the rest of your life, then you have to decide to make it happen. Now is a good time to start.
If there is someone in your firm who is doing what you want to do, approach them and tell them about your passion. Ask them to be your mentor.
Either way you have to find all of the following:
What do experts read every day to stay on top of the area? What are the critical websites?
What books must you read to get the base background information?
Are there classes or seminars that you should take?
Who is regarded as the world’s experts in the area? Where can you go hear them speak or read what they have to say?
What organizations should you join and become active in?
How else can you learn and become a true expert? Think!
At this point we are still not worried about money. The goal is not to become rich. The goal is to do what you love, what you are passionate about, become best in the world and then parlay that into wealth.
Step 2:
Get out there and learn.
Go to every seminar by every important person on this subject that you can until you know that you could give a better seminar on the topic yourself. Then start doing that.
Read every core book on the subject. Read every current journal on the subject. Read ancillary articles and information that might clarify all your options in the area.
Write articles on the subject. Cutting edge forward looking critical thinking articles that show that you understand this information extremely well. Initially, they may only get as far as internal memos to the team. Then perhaps white papers posted on your firm’s internet. Eventually, work to create something that can be published and then co-author articles with an attorney who is well-respected in the field.
Take classes if that will help make you a true expert. Then find a way to teach those classes. First teach internally, then to perhaps junior professionals in a target client, then at a college and finally in a graduate program. Build up your credentials.
Join all of the important associations involved in any aspect of your area of expertise. Become involved. Meet people. Talk about the subject with passion and flair. Ask lots of strong questions. Show those who may need your services that you are passionate about this, that you know your stuff and are interested in knowing everything they know on the subject.
Even if you are shy, when you are in a group that is focused on the things you are passionate about, you will be able to comfortably talk to anyone. It is the fear of being unprepared that stops us from talking to people. Be prepared!
Step 3:
Do!
Find work on the sort of matters that you want to spend your life on.
Start by working with your mentor, if you have one, on any case in this area he or she has.
Do a pro bono project for a not-for-profit or charity.
Find small projects with friends you already have or have met in the associations you have joined to get started.
Do a phenomenal, over-the-top, perfect job on everything you do, no matter how mundane. Build your expertise from the ground up.
The ultimate goal as a professional is to establish yourself as the person everyone with a need for what you offer calls first, because you are the best and they know they cannot afford to have you on the other side of the table. You cannot get there overnight, but if you start now you will get there sooner.
We will talk a bit about time management next time.
READY SET - GO!!!!
Do not worry about finalizing every detail of what you are passionate about. Just start the process. You will use the process to iterate toward your passion and what the brutal facts show you is and is not your future area of expertise.
Step 1:
If you want to be the best in the area you are passionate about and do something you love for the rest of your life, then you have to decide to make it happen. Now is a good time to start.
If there is someone in your firm who is doing what you want to do, approach them and tell them about your passion. Ask them to be your mentor.
Either way you have to find all of the following:
What do experts read every day to stay on top of the area? What are the critical websites?
What books must you read to get the base background information?
Are there classes or seminars that you should take?
Who is regarded as the world’s experts in the area? Where can you go hear them speak or read what they have to say?
What organizations should you join and become active in?
How else can you learn and become a true expert? Think!
At this point we are still not worried about money. The goal is not to become rich. The goal is to do what you love, what you are passionate about, become best in the world and then parlay that into wealth.
Step 2:
Get out there and learn.
Go to every seminar by every important person on this subject that you can until you know that you could give a better seminar on the topic yourself. Then start doing that.
Read every core book on the subject. Read every current journal on the subject. Read ancillary articles and information that might clarify all your options in the area.
Write articles on the subject. Cutting edge forward looking critical thinking articles that show that you understand this information extremely well. Initially, they may only get as far as internal memos to the team. Then perhaps white papers posted on your firm’s internet. Eventually, work to create something that can be published and then co-author articles with an attorney who is well-respected in the field.
Take classes if that will help make you a true expert. Then find a way to teach those classes. First teach internally, then to perhaps junior professionals in a target client, then at a college and finally in a graduate program. Build up your credentials.
Join all of the important associations involved in any aspect of your area of expertise. Become involved. Meet people. Talk about the subject with passion and flair. Ask lots of strong questions. Show those who may need your services that you are passionate about this, that you know your stuff and are interested in knowing everything they know on the subject.
Even if you are shy, when you are in a group that is focused on the things you are passionate about, you will be able to comfortably talk to anyone. It is the fear of being unprepared that stops us from talking to people. Be prepared!
Step 3:
Do!
Find work on the sort of matters that you want to spend your life on.
Start by working with your mentor, if you have one, on any case in this area he or she has.
Do a pro bono project for a not-for-profit or charity.
Find small projects with friends you already have or have met in the associations you have joined to get started.
Do a phenomenal, over-the-top, perfect job on everything you do, no matter how mundane. Build your expertise from the ground up.
The ultimate goal as a professional is to establish yourself as the person everyone with a need for what you offer calls first, because you are the best and they know they cannot afford to have you on the other side of the table. You cannot get there overnight, but if you start now you will get there sooner.
We will talk a bit about time management next time.
READY SET - GO!!!!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Becoming Best in the World
Continuing with the themes and lessons of Good to Great by Jim Collins, once you have found your passion, which is no easy task and is an iterative process you will come back to over and over to refine, you must take that passion and turn it into something great.
Being Best in the World:
All of the Great companies discovered that to win in their markets they had to decide to be the very best in the world at what they did.
There is no way to become best in the world at anything if you are not truly passionate about doing it every day. You can force yourself to be good, but eventually you will become too bored or tired of the subject to keep yourself beyond the cutting edge, as the best must be. One must find that place where you have deep burning passion and determine that it is an area in which you can become great.
We have one of the best intellectual property damages experts in the country in Wayne Hoeberlein. It took him years to find this passion. He did boring accounting work, did some expert work in divorces and contract disputes. Then one day he did an IP case. The light went on. He found what he loved and focused on becoming best in the world. He now does this exclusively and serves in cases involving the biggest companies in the world every day.
Everyone migrates away from things that do not engross them to those things that do. So step one is always to find what you love to do. What you are passionate about.
Face the Brutal Facts:
Of course one cannot be best in the world at anything, not even in an area about which they are not truly passionate. One has to “face the brutal facts” about who they are and how they are going to become Best in the World at the thing they are most passionate about.
For example, Kimberly Clark, long one of the world’s largest paper manufactures decided that even if they were passionate about paper, the brutal facts were that there was no way for them to be best in the world at producing this commodity product. So they built on their passion for paper products by deciding to be best in the world at paper distribution systems.
They took the dramatic step of selling all of their paper mills and got completely out of the paper manufacturing business. They channeled all of their efforts into reinventing paper dispensing systems. Those big roll toilet paper dispensers reduced the amount of times the rolls had to be changed. The dispensers with a second roll above the first so that again the rolls did not have to be changed as often. Creative new ideas based on their passion for paper but in an area where they could actually become best in the world. They followed their passion and are best in the world in that category and during the 15 years they were studied outperformed the market by over 15:1.
One of our professionals has a passion for scuba diving. Can she translate that passion into something within UHY FLVS at which she can be best in the world?
Is there a financial component to environmental law?
Calculating damages associated with pollution that destroys a delicate reef system?
Do companies involved in marine work require audits, tax work, etc.?
Are they international and do they perhaps pay bribes to foreign governments, perhaps to fish in certain waters or bring in catches above limits?
Is her passion for scuba diving about something else entirely?
Perhaps risk taking?
Are there opportunities to get that thrill in an area within our company?
Perhaps calm get-away beauty?
Is there an area in our company that is low-risk, low-pressure where she can be happiest and become best in the world?
What else? Go through the questions and discover the real passion. What is it about what you love to do that makes it something you love to do?
Perhaps, God forbid, she has to sell all of her “paper mills” here at UHY and go after becoming the best scuba diver in the world, or buy a shack on the beach and sell scuba gear and teach.
Brutal facts are important. I may love sprinting (I don't but go with me here), but I am old and fat and there is no way I can ever be best in any world in sprinting. So, that is not a career option for me. I have to figure out what else I am passionate about.
How about writing? I could start a blog or lead thought and help our experts write articles?
How about helping young professionals develop their careers and become happy in their work? Hmmmm.
Take you passion and think about whether (not "how" yet) you can be Best in Your Defined World at something that will drive your passion.
Face the brutal facts and build your future.
Being Best in the World:
All of the Great companies discovered that to win in their markets they had to decide to be the very best in the world at what they did.
There is no way to become best in the world at anything if you are not truly passionate about doing it every day. You can force yourself to be good, but eventually you will become too bored or tired of the subject to keep yourself beyond the cutting edge, as the best must be. One must find that place where you have deep burning passion and determine that it is an area in which you can become great.
We have one of the best intellectual property damages experts in the country in Wayne Hoeberlein. It took him years to find this passion. He did boring accounting work, did some expert work in divorces and contract disputes. Then one day he did an IP case. The light went on. He found what he loved and focused on becoming best in the world. He now does this exclusively and serves in cases involving the biggest companies in the world every day.
Everyone migrates away from things that do not engross them to those things that do. So step one is always to find what you love to do. What you are passionate about.
Face the Brutal Facts:
Of course one cannot be best in the world at anything, not even in an area about which they are not truly passionate. One has to “face the brutal facts” about who they are and how they are going to become Best in the World at the thing they are most passionate about.
For example, Kimberly Clark, long one of the world’s largest paper manufactures decided that even if they were passionate about paper, the brutal facts were that there was no way for them to be best in the world at producing this commodity product. So they built on their passion for paper products by deciding to be best in the world at paper distribution systems.
They took the dramatic step of selling all of their paper mills and got completely out of the paper manufacturing business. They channeled all of their efforts into reinventing paper dispensing systems. Those big roll toilet paper dispensers reduced the amount of times the rolls had to be changed. The dispensers with a second roll above the first so that again the rolls did not have to be changed as often. Creative new ideas based on their passion for paper but in an area where they could actually become best in the world. They followed their passion and are best in the world in that category and during the 15 years they were studied outperformed the market by over 15:1.
One of our professionals has a passion for scuba diving. Can she translate that passion into something within UHY FLVS at which she can be best in the world?
Is there a financial component to environmental law?
Calculating damages associated with pollution that destroys a delicate reef system?
Do companies involved in marine work require audits, tax work, etc.?
Are they international and do they perhaps pay bribes to foreign governments, perhaps to fish in certain waters or bring in catches above limits?
Is her passion for scuba diving about something else entirely?
Perhaps risk taking?
Are there opportunities to get that thrill in an area within our company?
Perhaps calm get-away beauty?
Is there an area in our company that is low-risk, low-pressure where she can be happiest and become best in the world?
What else? Go through the questions and discover the real passion. What is it about what you love to do that makes it something you love to do?
Perhaps, God forbid, she has to sell all of her “paper mills” here at UHY and go after becoming the best scuba diver in the world, or buy a shack on the beach and sell scuba gear and teach.
Brutal facts are important. I may love sprinting (I don't but go with me here), but I am old and fat and there is no way I can ever be best in any world in sprinting. So, that is not a career option for me. I have to figure out what else I am passionate about.
How about writing? I could start a blog or lead thought and help our experts write articles?
How about helping young professionals develop their careers and become happy in their work? Hmmmm.
Take you passion and think about whether (not "how" yet) you can be Best in Your Defined World at something that will drive your passion.
Face the brutal facts and build your future.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Finding Your Passion
The following is derived from one of the great business books of all time, Good to Great by Jim Collins and his team of researchers. They wanted to find out what drove great businesses to greatness. Get the book. It is a wonderful and relatively easy read.
I have taken the messages and transformed them into a process for any professional, since we are all our own business, to use to become great.
About what are you deeply passionate?
At what can you be best in the world?
What drives your economic engine?
The First of These is Passion:
The first step in creating your own Great business is to find what you are passionate about. No one can become an expert in anything they are not passionate about. One will never engate in the level of discipline necessary unless you love what you are doing.
A recreational or hobby passion is good to have and be aware of, but what you really have to work on is finding what in a business sense you are passionate about.
Passion is not based on money. The question is not, "How can I get rich?" We will get to that, but that is not this question.
As you do what you do, see what others do and explore on your own, what absolutely turns you on? What would you do if you could only do one thing every day?
This can be a job but more often these are tasks or functions. Things you like to do, not a job you like. The process will get to the latter.
At UHY Advisors FLVS, one thing we do is provide services for attorneys prosecuting some form of litigation. Our services range from pre-litigation strategy, to eDiscovery, investigation, forensics to damages analysis and expert testimony.
Let's say you are in this firm and your answer is:
"I love to discuss complex things with people. I could do that all day long. I have even considered trying to have my own talk show on the radio."
Why?
"Because I love to delve deeply into a subject and really get to the roots."
Why?
"Well I am interested in things and I always believe there is more to the story than meets the eye."
Why?
"I just do not trust anything I read unless I verify it for myself."
Why?
"People are selfish and greedy. Everything they say or write has their personal agenda behind it, but I know I can get down to the real, bald truth."
Well as we look at this we start to realize that this person is really cut out to be a forensic investigator and probably an expert witness as well. They will love the digging and research through the piles of data to find the real untained facts that prove the ultimate truth. But in the end they really will need to tell someone about it and debate the issues. Just gathering the data will probably not be enough.
"Well, I don't have a passion, well except for scuba diving. I work so I can scuba dive all night long and all weekend."
Why scuba diving?
"Because it is so calm and peaceful and there is a whole world down there that few know about."
Why?
"Because they can't see it so they just pollute it, and over fish it, and ruin the reefs and fish and crustacean habitat."
Why?
"People don't care about things they don't see. These areas need protection."
Well looking at this we can see how we have uncovered that there is a passion about scuba diving because there is a passion about marine life. There are laws protecting marine life. There are attorneys who are engaged in stopping companies from harming marine life. There are companies who do not realize they are harming marine life. Perhaps that passionate scuba diver can find a niche where she can work to protect the world she loves so much?
Find your passion first. Get deep into it. Once you do the "whys" adjust the questions a bit to "What" questions as well. Have someone go through this process with you. You may want to do it twice, once with someone who knows you well and at least one other time with someone who does not know you well. A person who knows you well may have some unique insights, but they are also likely to add color based on their own opinions of you, good or bad.
This is your future. Find your real passion. Do not necessarily define it in terms of a job yet. Define it in terms of things you love to do. Tasks and functions you would do every day if you could.
You have to be best in the world at something to drive your economic engine in the professional services arena and you will never be best in the world at anything you are not passionate about.
Good luck.
"
I have taken the messages and transformed them into a process for any professional, since we are all our own business, to use to become great.
About what are you deeply passionate?
At what can you be best in the world?
What drives your economic engine?
The First of These is Passion:
The first step in creating your own Great business is to find what you are passionate about. No one can become an expert in anything they are not passionate about. One will never engate in the level of discipline necessary unless you love what you are doing.
A recreational or hobby passion is good to have and be aware of, but what you really have to work on is finding what in a business sense you are passionate about.
Passion is not based on money. The question is not, "How can I get rich?" We will get to that, but that is not this question.
As you do what you do, see what others do and explore on your own, what absolutely turns you on? What would you do if you could only do one thing every day?
This can be a job but more often these are tasks or functions. Things you like to do, not a job you like. The process will get to the latter.
At UHY Advisors FLVS, one thing we do is provide services for attorneys prosecuting some form of litigation. Our services range from pre-litigation strategy, to eDiscovery, investigation, forensics to damages analysis and expert testimony.
Let's say you are in this firm and your answer is:
"I love to discuss complex things with people. I could do that all day long. I have even considered trying to have my own talk show on the radio."
Why?
"Because I love to delve deeply into a subject and really get to the roots."
Why?
"Well I am interested in things and I always believe there is more to the story than meets the eye."
Why?
"I just do not trust anything I read unless I verify it for myself."
Why?
"People are selfish and greedy. Everything they say or write has their personal agenda behind it, but I know I can get down to the real, bald truth."
Well as we look at this we start to realize that this person is really cut out to be a forensic investigator and probably an expert witness as well. They will love the digging and research through the piles of data to find the real untained facts that prove the ultimate truth. But in the end they really will need to tell someone about it and debate the issues. Just gathering the data will probably not be enough.
"Well, I don't have a passion, well except for scuba diving. I work so I can scuba dive all night long and all weekend."
Why scuba diving?
"Because it is so calm and peaceful and there is a whole world down there that few know about."
Why?
"Because they can't see it so they just pollute it, and over fish it, and ruin the reefs and fish and crustacean habitat."
Why?
"People don't care about things they don't see. These areas need protection."
Well looking at this we can see how we have uncovered that there is a passion about scuba diving because there is a passion about marine life. There are laws protecting marine life. There are attorneys who are engaged in stopping companies from harming marine life. There are companies who do not realize they are harming marine life. Perhaps that passionate scuba diver can find a niche where she can work to protect the world she loves so much?
Find your passion first. Get deep into it. Once you do the "whys" adjust the questions a bit to "What" questions as well. Have someone go through this process with you. You may want to do it twice, once with someone who knows you well and at least one other time with someone who does not know you well. A person who knows you well may have some unique insights, but they are also likely to add color based on their own opinions of you, good or bad.
This is your future. Find your real passion. Do not necessarily define it in terms of a job yet. Define it in terms of things you love to do. Tasks and functions you would do every day if you could.
You have to be best in the world at something to drive your economic engine in the professional services arena and you will never be best in the world at anything you are not passionate about.
Good luck.
"
Monday, August 3, 2009
Basic Concepts - An Outline
Over the coming weeks, I will elaborate on all of the following issues. I hope you find them illuminating and helpful.
1. You are a Business: Every professional is a unique and independent business.
This is true whether one works for a firm or hangs out her own shingle. Buyers by a professional and his or her team, not the firm, though the firm must help or the professional will leave.
2. Find Your Passion: As explained in Good to Great, one must become the best in the world at that about which one is passionate and use that to drive his or her economic engine.
What are you truly passionate about? It is only in these areas that you can become a true expert.
3. What is YOUR Focused Business? Identify your service or services and create your professional services business.
You must be the expert. Buyers pay the most in "bet-the-company" situations. In those situations they want the best. To get the best they will pay more. If you are the best, buyers will seek you out and pay you more. It can be a long road to get there, but worth the trip.
4. Become an Expert: Once you have identified the services you will deliver through your business, you must develop a "culture of discipline" to become the very best.
Read everything. Listen to the current experts. Take their ideas to the next level. See the future. Get published. Speak often.
5. Marketing: Building your expertise and more precisely the perception of expertise. Tell the "world."
6. Sell Strategically: Identify your targets with specificity. Research them. Who are they and who else influences the decision to hire you. Find them. Hunt them down. Create a "Win" for each and you will create a big win for you.
7. Execute and Exploit: Perform flawlessly. Use the client at a reference. Secure a testimonial. Write and article together and get it published.
The recession is apparently nearing its end, at least at some point in time. Those who have become experts and focused their efforts will end up on top.
At UHY Advisors FLVS, we are working diligently on this. It is a never ending endeavor. Our strategy now focuses on the areas in which we are truly top in our fields and we are building on that. The first six months of 2009 saw new business at around 150% of that brought in during the same period in 2008. That during a strong recession.
We are coming out of this rolling with a full head of steam. You can too.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Selling Professional Services - Welcome
Professional services are among the most difficult to sell. There is no tangible product to set on the table or demonstrate for the potential buyer to evaluate. There is no website with interactive functionality that one can work with to determine whether needs will be met. Every individual is unique.
I have been marketing and selling professional services my entire career. For my credentials, please check out my site on LinkedIn and you can decide on your own.
I have made an incredible number of mistakes along the way. I have learned from those mistakes and the wisdom of mentors, authors and those I have been charged with leading over the years.
One thing is clear - success for professionals is based largely on their ability to market and sell themselves yet marketing and selling oneself is not taught anywhere to any professional in any formal setting.
My goal is to impart some ideas I have learned and learn from whoever bothers to read this along the way.
Glad to have you on board.
I have been marketing and selling professional services my entire career. For my credentials, please check out my site on LinkedIn and you can decide on your own.
I have made an incredible number of mistakes along the way. I have learned from those mistakes and the wisdom of mentors, authors and those I have been charged with leading over the years.
One thing is clear - success for professionals is based largely on their ability to market and sell themselves yet marketing and selling oneself is not taught anywhere to any professional in any formal setting.
My goal is to impart some ideas I have learned and learn from whoever bothers to read this along the way.
Glad to have you on board.
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