The Weekly Brief
Memos written for consultants Aug 2014 - June 2024.
Flight from Shadow
From The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton So he got up and ran. But every time he put his foot down there was another step, while his shadow kept up with him without the slightest difficulty. He attributed his failure to the fact that he was not running
When should you not use your expert mind?
My brother-in-law is an accomplished, self-taught, baker and his sourdough bread is amazing. Certainly the best I’ve tasted outside of France. I was eager to bake bread like his for myself. This week, with his tuition I prepared and baked my first loaf. It wasn’t perfect - slightly
Meetings don't need to be toxic
Mediocre listening. Something I see a lot when working with groups. Nowadays it seems everyone has a point to make. Our culture rewards show and tell. Listening seems to have become an afterthought. We wait for a pause … so we can interject and draw attention to our expertise. We ask
Beat the FUD factor and reposition to win the complex sale
In part 1 you saw how the FUD Factor (fear, uncertainly and doubt) and corporate politics threatened my sales success. In this part you’ll read about the 7 actions you can take to beat the FUD factor, reposition your offer and win the complex sale. 1. Take a dose
What Big Blue taught me about fear, uncertainty and doubt
I needed a strategy to win against IBM. I wanted to get into one of their major accounts. So, after much deliberation, I chose something different - The Trojan Horse. I would get my foot in the door and start proving my systems … before Big Blue noticed me. It worked
How outcome framing put a mega-project back on track
Most people can easily tell you what they don't want in a situation - that's negative outcome framing. But when it comes down to saying what they do want - positive outcome framing - they aren't always so forthcoming. Yesterday I was talking with
Here's a different approach to client intimacy
I read about Arthur Aron’s study in the New York Times about a month ago. It’s entitled The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness. That’s a bit of a mouthful. The 'asking questions to fall in love’ experiment seems more apt. Aron’s study showed that people
How to make hard choices
Did you every think you might be making important decisions all wrong? Ruth Chang's 15 minute Ted talk introduces a fresh approach.
3 simple tweaks to improve your initial meetings
A big frustration consultants have is with seemingly eager prospects who never actually commit to a project. The ugly truth is that many of these consultant's sales meetings are a 'grey zone' of business boredom. Even the best ones end up as 'interesting conversations'
Before and After
Before and after photo shots are used to sell a lot of weight loss and exercise programmes. Why? Because they quickly grab attention and pull the prospects mind into the gap - they contrast the pain they feel with the gain they want. The prospect gets pulled into the story