The Weekly Brief
Memos written for consultants Aug 2014 - June 2024.
One free app - 7 questions - personal status update
This is an excerpt
Leave something for the client to say
Many of us are conditioned, while growing up at school, that solving problems means having all the answers. Later in life this manifests in our telling clients what we know. (And using big words like 'manifests' instead of 'comes out'!) We try, pre-sale, to impress clients
3 reasons 'ghosting' happens after you've sent a consulting proposal
Coming up to Halloween it seems the right time to write about this. If you’re not familiar with the term ‘ghosting’ it’s defined on Wikipedia as: ... breaking off a relationship by stopping all communication and contact with the partner without any apparent warning or justification, as well as
Is "attraction marketing" the best way to find new clients?
With the rise of content marketing, attraction strategies are very popular ... writing articles, posting on social media, conducting webinars, redesigning websites ... But, are these activities the best way for consultants to find significant new business? Let's get some perspective. Without looking too hard I was able to find:
Avoiding the gravitational pull of black hole communication
Consultants who agree the client's next actions at the end of meetings sell more. It's a great habit. Doing so ensures the client understands what's expected from them, as well as what they can expect from you. It means they are buying into a
4 rules for reaching out to executives
Lots of advisors suggest outreach is a numbers game, where you monotonously grind out emails, LinkedIn requests etc. But if you want quality connections, with senior executives, it's not about numbers and grind. Outreach requires thoughtfulness ... word craft ... sequencing ... and resilience. 1. Do your homework Nowadays executives are
7 ideas for improving your sales performance
1. Set standards. It is impossible to have accountability without standards. 2. Separate new business and account development. New business is psychologically harder than account development, both are less comfortable than delivery. 3. Be purposeful. Have an objective and key results for every sales interaction. What is your most wanted
Message management
When meeting executives for the first time you might default to your safe zone ... pitching your firm and its 'unique' methodology. Interestingly these 'unique' methods all look very similar to senior people - usually a series of right facing arrows! And if that's the
My Weekly Review
Once you have clear goals tracking progress weekly helps improve focus and increase confidence. Here are the 7 questions I use: 1. What did you commit to achieving in the last week? 2. What was the reality? 3. What did you learn? 4. What are you working on next week?
Who do you want to meet?
Some research this week took me to the Fahrenheit 212 website, the innovation consultancy that was snapped up by CapGemini back in 2016. I read this on their careers page ... We’re always looking to meet strategists, designers, inventors, analysts, and creative technologists with the desire to make things better