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	<title>Clientonomy</title>
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	<link>http://clientonomy.com</link>
	<description>How To Gain &#38; Retain Great Clients</description>
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		<title>Everything I Know About Sex I Found In Movies</title>
		<link>http://clientonomy.com/everything-i-know-about-sex-i-found-in-movies</link>
		<comments>http://clientonomy.com/everything-i-know-about-sex-i-found-in-movies#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:29:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mac</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Creative]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://clientonomy.com/?p=949</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Everything I know about sex I learned from movies. Well maybe not everything but I observed deeds that I couldn&#8217;t have given life to myself, without first having seen them elsewhere. For many professionals it&#8217;s a similar story when it comes to their marketing. Everything they know about creative marketing they learned by copying the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Everything I know about sex I learned from movies.</p>
<p>Well maybe not everything but I observed deeds that I couldn&#8217;t have given life to myself, without first having seen them elsewhere.</p>
<p>For many professionals it&#8217;s a similar story when it comes to their marketing. Everything they know about creative marketing they learned by copying the output of competitors, collaborators, gurus.</p>
<p>Hence, they&#8217;re not originators. They&#8217;re voyeurs.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not criticising. It&#8217;s perfectly good to do this, for a while. But soon, if you&#8217;re ambitious for your business, it becomes less productive, less satisfying.</p>
<p>An exercise in semi-counterfeit because it&#8217;s easier and faster to adapt slightly on what everyone else in your market is already doing. But for many, somewhere inside, they know that this is:</p>
<p>Meaningless. Devoid. Degrading even.</p>
<p>Significantly, it&#8217;s also less effective. It marks you as one of the mass professionals for the mass market. <a href="http://clientonomy.com/how-to-be-outstandingly-average" target="_blank">Average</a>. Boilerplate. Typical.</p>
<p>Instead we need to cease imitating and sing with our own voice. Our own tone. Our own creative marketing.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t mean invent crazy methods that are unlikely to impact. I mean create by putting your heart and soul into methods that will work if you commit to them. By impregnating them with your own DNA.</p>
<p>Your personality. Your story. Your <a href="http://clientonomy.com/credo" target="_blank">credo</a>.</p>
<p>Unless you inject yourself into your market(ing), with meaning, true meaning, it will be a fascimile.</p>
<p>Dry. Arid. Fundamentally barren.</p>
<p>If you want to succeed at gaining clients, really succeed, then put yourself into it. Make yourself attractive. Make yourself enticing.</p>
<p>But above all, be creative with it.</p>
<p>Some questions: where, exactly, do you need more creative marketing? In what way do you need to put more of yourself into it? How best should this happen?</p>
<p>If you like the above then please click the &#8216;like&#8217; button at top. Then leave comments, questions, viewpoints below. Thanks.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>How To Get Referrals</title>
		<link>http://clientonomy.com/how-to-get-referrals</link>
		<comments>http://clientonomy.com/how-to-get-referrals#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:45:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mac</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Referrals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Storytelling]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://clientonomy.com/?p=508</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[T&#8217;was as if she had just one roll of the dice to throw double-six. Caitlin&#8217;s coaching assignment with Alberto Martinez, the Acting Head of Product Development, had taken over 4 months. Once every 14 days or so she had driven up from Philly to the New York H.Q. of the International Drinks company. Now it [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>T&#8217;was as if she had just one roll of the dice to throw double-six.</p>
<p>Caitlin&#8217;s coaching assignment with Alberto Martinez, the Acting Head of Product Development, had taken over 4 months.</p>
<p>Once every 14 days or so she had driven up from Philly to the New York H.Q. of the International Drinks company. Now it was coming to an end.</p>
<p>Her skilled coaching had achieved results. Alberto had managed to positively shift the personal relationship discomfort he had with the Director of Manufacturing.</p>
<p>He&#8217;d also set out, and commenced, a clear plan of action with his 5 direct reports in reducing the large backlog of product development delays. Delays that were costing the company an extra $14.27M every month.</p>
<p>Perhaps most telling of all, after years of trying, Alberto had finally lost thirteen pounds in body weight and was feeling significantly better about himself. He was beyond pleased.</p>
<p>Their final session was concluding. For the last time, Caitlin was ready to rise from her comfortable chair in the conference room.</p>
<p>But, instead, she steeled herself in anticipation. Plucked up thin courage and managed to half-heartedly say &#8220;I&#8217;m wondering… you&#8217;ve told me you got a lot of value from the coaching… em, is there anybody else you know who you think I could coach?&#8221;</p>
<p>Her voice pitched high unexpectedly at the end of her question, slightly wavering. She cringed inside, she&#8217;d just inadvertently made noticeable her nervousness. The very thing she didn&#8217;t want to display.</p>
<p>Alberto looked at her not quite knowing what to say in response. He had been taken by surprise, like a rabbit suddenly caught in headlights.</p>
<p>A period of four or five seconds of very awkward silence ensued. To her, time suspended in mid-air, making every second excruciating. She was embarrassed to have asked him.</p>
<p>It felt like begging for business.</p>
<p>The corporate equivalent of a panhandler sitting on the sidewalk rattling a tin at passers-by, making them feel so bad they wouldn&#8217;t even look you in the face.</p>
<p>Caitlin became aware of her wedding ring digging into her finger and realised her hands were clenched onto the arms of the chair, very tightly.</p>
<p>Every fibre in her body despised asking for referrals. But she knew, from what marketing material she had read, that it should be her best chance of obtaining a new client. Why didn&#8217;t it feel like that?</p>
<p>By unexpectedly springing the question, it had left Alberto no room to think. No room to properly consider it. No room to say &#8216;yes&#8217;.</p>
<p>This escaped Caitlin. Totally.</p>
<p>All Alberto could utter were the words that felt disappointing &#8211; &#8220;oh right, em… let me have a think about that… (further pause)&#8230; eh, i&#8217;ve got to get to a lunchtime appointment, let me have a proper think about it, okay?&#8221;</p>
<p>Caitlin fumbled her papers into her briefcase and walked out the conference room, hating the situation. She&#8217;d embarrassed herself. Put her valued client smack, bang, squarely on-the-spot. Made both of them feel ill-at-ease.</p>
<p>And, for what? Probably nothing. She knew by his response that it was unlikely that anything would come of it. She&#8217;d seen that startled look before, and heard the response before.</p>
<p>Caitlin loathed asking for referrals. It all felt so unsavoury.</p>
<p>She muttered under her breath &#8220;Why do good coaches have to do this? Why can&#8217;t we just do really good work with clients and somehow new clients just appear?&#8221;</p>
<p>Sound familiar?</p>
<p>How many of us have been in this position before? Knowing we need to gain more clients, but hating asking for them through referrals.</p>
<p>There are very good reasons for this. We don&#8217;t want to damage our client relationship. We don&#8217;t want to impose on people. Biggest of all, we don&#8217;t want to feel rejected.</p>
<p>Humans fear rejection.</p>
<p>We, irrationally, fear clients will laugh in our face. Reveal to their work colleagues how futile we must be to ask for a referral. Humiliate us by immediately changing their opinion from &#8216;great executive advisor&#8217; to &#8216;lonely desperate loser&#8217;.</p>
<p>So, if you don&#8217;t want to end up feeling you&#8217;re in some sort of business crapshoot with just a single throw of the dice to win new clients, here are a few things you might think about:</p>
<p>1.   Crucially, address the referrals issue at the outset of your engagement (not at the end). Make it clear that you seek them.</p>
<p>Simply say &#8220;Henry, if you gain significant value from our work together, in return will you be happy to introduce me to a couple of referrals who you think would also benefit from my consulting?&#8221;</p>
<p>Explain that this is one of the main ways that you obtain new clients, and that your business is built upon it. Leave no doubt about the importance to you, sensitively but clearly.</p>
<p>Of course, you then must deliver excellent value for this to work.</p>
<p>2.   I recommend sending an email to the client, between first and second meetings, which sets out detail of the scope and objectives of the agreed assignment.</p>
<p>Importantly, at the end of the email informally mention that the client will seek to recommend referrals if they are delighted with the service received.</p>
<p>Do this in addition to any signed, formal, contract agreement.</p>
<p>3.   If during your conversations with your client they mention the performance of others, take note. At the end of the following meeting just ask, matter-of-factly, if that person would also benefit from your service.</p>
<p>Do it in a sophisticated manner. Sensitively. Casually.</p>
<p>But, do it at the following meeting so as not to appear keen to jump upon any slightest opportunity.</p>
<p>4.   At your second-to-last session with your client, ask them directly about possible referrals. Leave at least 10-15 minutes at the end to do so.</p>
<p>In my experience at this point, having followed the above process, a client will often come up with a couple of names. If not, they know at the final meeting they will be asked again.</p>
<p>5.   Ask them if they would introduce you personally to the referral by phone. Try to first have a three-way phone introduction conversation: you, your client, your referral.</p>
<p>If more appropriate, offer to draft an introduction email for your client to send.</p>
<p>Make sure you include the results achieved by your client. Give to your client so they can re-write in their own style.</p>
<p>Generating good quality referrals need not be tackled like playing the casino. Instead follow a strategic approach that will not only be much more successful, but will also leave you and your client feeling good about it too.</p>
<p>If this blog post raised any issues, or you simply liked it, please click the &#8216;like&#8217; button at the top of the page.</p>
<p>As always, the Clientonomy community values your viewpoints, questions, examples, so please leave these in the comments section below.</p>
<p>Unpublished client-gaining tips can be received through the box on top right of this page.</p>
<p>For sharp, in-depth, client gaining methods, go to:</p>
<p><a href="http://letterly.net/Clientonomy-Confidential" target="_blank">Clientonomy Confidential</a></p>
<p>Mac.</p>
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		<title>How To Be Outstandingly Average</title>
		<link>http://clientonomy.com/how-to-be-outstandingly-average</link>
		<comments>http://clientonomy.com/how-to-be-outstandingly-average#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 May 2011 17:48:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mac</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Niche]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://clientonomy.com/?p=706</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It was way back then, before we transformed. Before we asked ourselves how to stand out. The consultancy I co-created had been in business a little under three years. We sought feedback from the big-company client we had just completed with. He told us, smiling and nodding, that yes he was pleased and that we [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>It was way back then, before we transformed.</p>
<p>Before we asked ourselves how to stand out.</p>
<p>The consultancy I co-created had been in business a little under three years. We sought feedback from the big-company client we had just completed with.</p>
<p>He told us, smiling and nodding, that yes he was pleased and that we were totally professional. That we&#8217;d given his company a very solid performance. That our skills as consultants were considerably competent.</p>
<p>Afterwards, I was depressed. Then devastated. Then demolished.</p>
<p>Everything is relative. Being viewed as profoundly decent is extremely bad news when you&#8217;ve actually set out to be crackerjack.</p>
<p>It means you&#8217;ve been blind. Unaware. Deluded.</p>
<p>We had been outstandingly average!</p>
<p>If you too wish to be remarkably standard then here are a few basic guidelines to move you in the right direction:</p>
<p>1. Don&#8217;t ever confront yourself with the possibility that you may be performing just satisfactorily.</p>
<p>2. Think of yourself as the model, qualified, professional.</p>
<p>3. Comfortably fit-in with the mainstream of your profession.</p>
<p>4. To your potential clients, look and sound impressively like your main competitors.</p>
<p>5. Smartly jump through all the hoops, and tick all the boxes, the Authorities have set up for your profession.</p>
<p>6. Strive to be anointed as a highly qualified professional by the High Priests of the Authorities.</p>
<p>7. Don&#8217;t keynote speak or blog contrarian points of view.</p>
<p>8. In fact, blog only sporadically; better still, don&#8217;t start posting with any real seriousness in the first place.</p>
<p>9. Attend several professional trainings over several years, but…</p>
<p>10. Don&#8217;t read or attend much on how to seriously, and powerfully, market yourself.</p>
<p>11. Occasionally do a little, half-hearted, marketing then stop (as it never seems to work anyway).</p>
<p>12. Don&#8217;t ever stand yourself out, on-the-line.</p>
<p>13. Deliver for your clients dependable results that are predictable for your profession.</p>
<p>14. Don&#8217;t ever contradict anybody in your market with an alternative worldview.</p>
<p>15. Dream of one day writing the definitive book about your profession.</p>
<p>16. Work long, hard, hours but be unproductive in many of them.</p>
<p>17. Work long, hard, hours and pretend to others you&#8217;re not being unproductive.</p>
<p>18. Don&#8217;t create a distinct and powerful story about your service purpose.</p>
<p>19. Never sharply define your market and stand four-square in the middle of it looking attractive.</p>
<p>20. Draft a partly-done, fuzzy, value proposition for where you have the edge over your competitors.</p>
<p>21. Only ever tell anyone about it, if specifically asked.</p>
<p>22. Charge approximately the standard price for your professional services.</p>
<p>23. Create just enough business to keep yourself in just enough business.</p>
<p>24. Avoid becoming highly specialised, and on no account become exceptional at a few things of deep value.</p>
<p>25. Partly believe in yourself.</p>
<p>If you are already carrying out much of this then please give yourself a big slap on the back. Then a big slap on the forehead.</p>
<p>In the distant past we could get away with being average. In the bell-curve distribution of performance, many occupied the middle ground. The competitive market place had enough space in it to do so.</p>
<p>Nowadays it&#8217;s different. Very different. Not only is it hyper-competitive out there, yet more competition arrives every day.</p>
<p>So it&#8217;s not good news and the average may want to take a very well-earned holiday. Then book themselves onto the Titanic, make themselves comfortable, and begin re-arranging the deck-chairs.</p>
<p>Please click the &#8216;like&#8217; button at the top of the page (if you genuinely &#8216;like&#8217; the post). Sign up for the private newsletter at top right of the page.</p>
<p>Above all, please leave your comments, views, questions, ramblings and insights below in the comment section.</p>
<p>If you want a more in-depth taste of Clientonomy, attract and keep great clients, how to stand out, then the very best stuff is in a private letter at:</p>
<p><a href="http://letterly.net/Clientonomy-Confidential" target="_blank">Clientonomy Confidential</a>.</p>
<p>Just click on the link to be taken straight there.</p>
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		<title>How To Change Your Marketing</title>
		<link>http://clientonomy.com/how-to-change-your-marketing</link>
		<comments>http://clientonomy.com/how-to-change-your-marketing#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:52:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mac</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mindset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Storytelling]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://clientonomy.com/?p=675</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After seven years, four months and nineteen days as an apparently successful management consultant, Vanessa changed forever. She flew home from the concluding meeting with her client, sat down in her study, and finally left her job. She didn&#8217;t leave the consultancy. She didn&#8217;t gain a new job title. She didn&#8217;t obtain different projects. She [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>After seven years, four months and nineteen days as an apparently successful management consultant, Vanessa changed forever.</p>
<p>She flew home from the concluding meeting with her client, sat down in her study, and finally left her job.</p>
<p>She didn&#8217;t leave the consultancy. She didn&#8217;t gain a new job title. She didn&#8217;t obtain different projects.</p>
<p>She simply started doing her old job in a new way.</p>
<p>Vanessa turned Pro. Uber-Pro.</p>
<p>It happened in an instant. Although several years in gestation, it took a nano-second to actually occur. The moment it did, everything changed for good.</p>
<p>It changed. She changed. The World around her changed.</p>
<p>Of course, for all intents-and-purposes, Vanessa was already a good professional. After all, she had an MBA from Columbia Business School. Had worked five years for Booz Allen, out of their Houston office, before creating a co-owned consultancy with two other partners.</p>
<p>Her consultancy could point to a string of happy clients. Although the number of customer engagements went through a famine-and-feast cycle they had a reasonable income, for most of the time.</p>
<p>Even so, it felt much more like surviving than thriving.</p>
<p>In the delivery of her consultancy specialism, Vanessa was a high quality professional. But when it came to gaining new clients, Vanessa was amateur.</p>
<p>What did she change? What did she start? What did she stop?</p>
<p>Vanessa stopped hiding her personality behind the company name. Stopped doing just enough to attract just enough clients.</p>
<p>Stopped depending on existing clients to keep her in work. Stopped accepting that a feast-then-famine income cycle was the best that could be achieved. Stopped accepting the status quo.</p>
<p>Instead she started herself.</p>
<p>Now, she was inspired. Started leading herself in a new way. Started actively hunting far bigger opportunities. Started seriously searching for exactly the right clients. Started risking. Started putting herself out there, on the line.</p>
<p>Most of all, she started taking a big, bold, personal stand for what she truly believed she could uniquely offer. She started making new things happen.</p>
<p>Vanessa now held the market afresh. The market could now distinguish her clearly, for the first time.</p>
<p>As a result, she found more.</p>
<p>More interest. More enquiries. More invitations. More opportunities. More listening. More questions. More dialogue. More clients. More income. More satisfaction.</p>
<p>More influence on issues she truly cared about. With clients she really wanted to work with.</p>
<p>The truth is, new opportunities came after she was inspired to turn Pro. She didn&#8217;t turn Pro because of the inspiration of new opportunities.</p>
<p>Fortunately, inspiring the Self like this does not require a ninety page executive report highlighting all the strategic issues involved.</p>
<p>It doesn&#8217;t need sixty rows on a spreadsheet matrix with all the costs and benefits detailed, down to the bottom line.</p>
<p>It doesn&#8217;t demand the construction of a twenty five page powerpoint presentation, complete with thirty-eight branch decision-tree in order to arrive at the right answer.</p>
<p>It &#8216;only&#8217; requires change to the Self. Spontaneously. Instantaneously.</p>
<p>Miraculously, as every one of us knows deep down, somehow the synaptic electro-chemical signals firing off in our head can achieve this, in a flash.</p>
<p>We just pretend it can&#8217;t.</p>
<p>If this blog post is interesting to you, please click the &#8216;like&#8217; button at the top of the page. If you want to know more, sign up for the private-only newsletter at the top right of this page. You can also retweet and send notification of this, and other posts, by using the buttons directly below the post.</p>
<p>If you want a marketing change, a more in-depth taste of Clientonomy, attract and keep great clients, then the very best stuff is in a private letter at:</p>
<p><a href="http://letterly.net/Clientonomy-Confidential" target="_blank">Clientonomy Confidential</a>.</p>
<p>Just click on the link to be taken straight there.</p>
<p>Importantly, we want your comments, viewpoints, questions, remarks. Please put them in the comment section below.</p>
<p>Mac.</p>
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		<title>How Often Should You Blog?</title>
		<link>http://clientonomy.com/how-often-should-you-blog</link>
		<comments>http://clientonomy.com/how-often-should-you-blog#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:12:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mac</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Positioning]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://clientonomy.com/?p=524</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many professionals stress about how often they should blog post. But let me ask you something. How many songs should a composer write? How many movies should a film director shoot? How many dances should a choreographer create? When should your next blog post be? Is once a week too much? Is once a week [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Many professionals stress about how often they should blog post.</p>
<p>But let me ask you something. How many songs should a composer write? How many movies should a film director shoot? How many dances should a choreographer create?</p>
<p>When should your next blog post be? Is once a week too much? Is once a week nowhere near enough?</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the truth, there are no hard-and-fast rules. It&#8217;s contextual. It is wholly contingent upon a number of factors, including:</p>
<p>1. You.</p>
<p>2. The generalities of your overall market.</p>
<p>3. The particular idiosyncracies of your niche.</p>
<p>4. The type of readership you have.</p>
<p>5. Your blogging objectives.</p>
<p>Wait. Stop. Blogging objectives?</p>
<p>I think I can hear the distant sound of weeping as many of you read this; &#8220;What? You mean I should have objectives specific to my blog? I thought everybody blogged because it was simply just a good thing to do. Who knew we had to have blogging objectives? Why did nobody tell me this before?&#8221;</p>
<p>Yes. I&#8217;m afraid so. Your blog should be an integral part of your marketing approach.</p>
<p>A way of bringing you to the overall attention of your market.</p>
<p>A way of increasing your impact in your own particular niche.</p>
<p>A way of communicating thoughts that are of significant value.</p>
<p>A way of building up a bond and relationship with your prospects.</p>
<p>A way of directly helping you to gain new clients.</p>
<p>If the purpose of your blog is to keep you front-of-mind in a fast moving market place, &#8220;fire-hosing&#8221; your readers with up-to-date news, then blogging once a day may not be enough.</p>
<p>If the purpose of your blog is to create yourself as thought leader by writing mind-changing, in-depth, analysis of long-term critical issues in your niche, with the intention of facilitating significant debate, then blogging once every three weeks may be too much.</p>
<p>So, how often should you blog post?</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know. But, here are some things you can do to find out:</p>
<p>1. Experiment. Test out different schedules of posting. Evaluate to see what works best for your audience.</p>
<p>2. Analyse. Install Google Analytics on your blog. It&#8217;s free. Now you can see what happens to your readership numbers when experimenting.</p>
<p>3. Cheat. Spy on your direct competitor&#8217;s blog posting schedule. Can you see posting patterns that may work better for you?</p>
<p>4. Ask. Use one of the many polling options on Linkedin, Facebook, etc to ask your readers how often you should post.</p>
<p>Of course, how often you should post is but one piece of the blogging jigsaw. What, exactly, the content of your posts should contain, I will blog about soon.</p>
<p>Some of it will be in the private newsletter only. To make sure you will have access simply go now to the top right of this page and sign up.</p>
<p>If this post caused you pain, caused you to tear your hair-out, caused you mental anguish, caused you to think &#8220;What on earth are my blogging objectives?&#8221;, or in any way caused you to question the whole existence of your blog, then please click the &#8216;like&#8217; button at the top of this post, now.</p>
<p>If you want a more in-depth taste of Clientonomy, attract and keep great clients, then the very best stuff is in a private letter at:</p>
<p><a href="http://letterly.net/Clientonomy-Confidential" target="_blank">Clientonomy Confidential</a>.</p>
<p>Just click on the link to be taken straight there.</p>
<p>In addition, if the post caused you anger, frustration, questions, the need to shout, swear, or otherwise think, then please leave your comments, views, utterances and groans in the comments section below.</p>
<p>The whole Clientonomy community wants to hear and learn from you too.</p>
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		<title>Improve Listening Skills To Win More Clients</title>
		<link>http://clientonomy.com/improve-listening-skills-to-win-more-clients</link>
		<comments>http://clientonomy.com/improve-listening-skills-to-win-more-clients#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:39:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mac</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Storytelling]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://clientonomy.com/?p=431</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The room temperature was rising. The air conditioning wasn&#8217;t working effectively. And, although I wasn&#8217;t aware of it, neither was I. I&#8217;d been sitting in a plush, modern, boardroom about half an hour, alongside one of my consultancy colleagues. For nearly fifteen minutes i&#8217;d been explaining in great detail to our prospect, two senior executives [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>The room temperature was rising.</p>
<p>The air conditioning wasn&#8217;t working effectively. And, although I wasn&#8217;t aware of it, neither was I.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d been sitting in a plush, modern, boardroom about half an hour, alongside one of my consultancy colleagues.</p>
<p>For nearly fifteen minutes i&#8217;d been explaining in great detail to our prospect, two senior executives from a large supermarket chain, how we had previously dealt with issues similar to their&#8217;s.</p>
<p>I was on top form. Waxing lyrical. Laying it all out for them.</p>
<p>The carefully researched strategy. The innovative plan of action. The creative use of resources. The dangerous pitfalls to avoid. Timelines. Inputs. Processes. Key performance indicators. Everything.</p>
<p>In my boldness, cleverness and certainty, I had been unaware of my colleague&#8217;s hand nudging my leg underneath the boardroom table, until he finally dug me sharply on the thigh.</p>
<p>Furtively, he secreted a folded piece of yellow legal notepaper into my hand, out of sight of the executives. Whilst my colleague said something to the them I carefully opened it out, trying not to make a rustling sound. Without shifting the angle of my head, I slowly lowered my eyes to see what was written. It said, simply:</p>
<p>Shut Up!</p>
<p>I was taken aback. Confused. What on earth was wrong? I had been impressing them with how we could help them achieve the result they said they wanted. Now I was stunned.</p>
<p>My colleague took over, even before I&#8217;d had time to digest the note. And, he wasn&#8217;t presenting solutions, he was posing questions. Inciting them to think.</p>
<p>His speech, slower than mine. His voice, quieter. His tone, softer.</p>
<p>The temperature in the room felt as if it dropped a few degrees.</p>
<p>&#8220;Can we go back for a second and revisit the outcome you say you need?&#8221;. They nodded. He continued &#8220;Can you go a bit deeper, why exactly you consider the problem lies with your company&#8217;s ability to implement properly?&#8221;</p>
<p>They looked at each other. A slightly awkward silence ensued. I was desperate to intervene, to suggest a few possible causes. But, I didn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>Eventually, after what seemed an age, one of them spoke. A discussion slowly and tentatively unfolded. And, my colleague probed further. Never once suggesting a solution.</p>
<p>I listened intently. The executives were having difficulty in answering some of the time. I could see, on their face, they were being forced to think deeply.</p>
<p>It was as if they were discovering inside themselves, for the first time, what some of the true issues were in causing them to fail to implement strategically.</p>
<p>This wasn&#8217;t now a client presentation. Instead, an explorative lab.</p>
<p>After a further fifty minutes or so, and in a very different atmosphere, they concluded. Perhaps the main problem wasn&#8217;t in getting the organisation to implement, but in the senior executive team&#8217;s management of the company in implementing. This was a subtle but profound shift.</p>
<p>It meant a very different solution was needed.</p>
<p>That day, nearly fifteen years ago, was a turning point for me. I had learned some harsh and abrupt lessons in attempting to win new business. I resolved to improve. And,  to listen much more carefully and &#8216;cleanly&#8217; to win more clients.</p>
<p>Looking back, there were a number of lessons, including:</p>
<p>1/ Deploying silence, as a question.</p>
<p>Deliberately holding silent &#8216;space and time&#8217; for longer, so that the prospective client takes it as a prompt to go further in thought. And, not rescuing a prospect from any discomfort they may feel from the use of silence.</p>
<p>2/ Listening to what, precisely, they are saying.</p>
<p>Including how, exactly, they are describing matters. What modifiers are they are using in their wording? What gross generalisations do they make?.</p>
<p>3/ Listening to what, precisely, they are not saying.</p>
<p>Including what are they missing in their responses? What might they be avoiding in their answers?  Where do they appear to be uncomfortable?</p>
<p>Nowadays, taken together with a number of other &#8216;signals&#8217;, I consider what insights or further questioning this might suggest?</p>
<p>For me, this is not a linear process. Much more of an iterative, and intuitive, one. And, the result of all this?</p>
<p>More business. More clients. More income.</p>
<p>But, it wasn&#8217;t something I learned once and for all. Like many of life&#8217;s best lessons, I have to remember to remember.</p>
<p>I remind myself before going into a prospecting meeting to: allow a lot of &#8216;time and space&#8217;, listen cleanly, and probe very deeply.</p>
<p>If you liked any of the above post, or if you recognise any of it, or if it resonated with you in any way, please go now to the top of the page and click the &#8216;like&#8217; button.</p>
<p>There will be much more to come on this subject. Some of it will be in the private newsletter and not available on the blog.</p>
<p>To sign up for this, go to the top right of this page.</p>
<p>If you want to win more clients, a more in-depth taste of Clientonomy, attract and keep great clients, then the very best stuff is in a private letter at:</p>
<p><a href="http://letterly.net/Clientonomy-Confidential" target="_blank">Clientonomy Confidential</a>.</p>
<p>Just click on the link to be taken straight there.</p>
<p>We had some great comments and viewpoints from our first two posts. Please continue.</p>
<p>Leave your views, questions, alternatives below in the comments section.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
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		<title>How Do You Position Yourself?</title>
		<link>http://clientonomy.com/how-do-you-position-yourself</link>
		<comments>http://clientonomy.com/how-do-you-position-yourself#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:04:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mac</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Positioning]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://clientonomy.com/?p=91</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just how do you position yourself, in a very crowded market place? The question is important. Your answer, crucial. At the airport you&#8217;re in the business lounge. Bored with flicking through The Economist, waiting for your long-haul flight. A silver-haired man in his fifties sits down beside you, adjusts his suit and takes a sip [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Just how do you position yourself, in a very crowded market place?</p>
<p>The question is important. Your answer, crucial.</p>
<p>At the airport you&#8217;re in the business lounge. Bored with flicking through The Economist, waiting for your long-haul flight. A silver-haired man in his fifties sits down beside you, adjusts his suit and takes a sip of his hot coffee. Feeling friendly you remark &#8216;hi&#8217;.</p>
<p>You both play the obligatory &#8216;small talk&#8217; game for a while.</p>
<p>Then, he asks you the question. The one you&#8217;ve answered hundreds of times before, without too much thought.</p>
<p>&#8220;What do you do?&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a question that I often tell consultants and coaches to think very carefully about, before replying.</p>
<p>How do you answer?</p>
<p>When I led the advisory company, Trinity Consulting Group, and was asked in situations like these &#8216;What do you do?&#8221;, I never replied &#8220;I run Trinity Consulting Group&#8221; or &#8220;I&#8217;m a senior consultant&#8221; or &#8220;I&#8217;m a master coach&#8221;. To have said that would be a huge, lost opportunity to make an impact. And, far too vague to give the person asking any clear idea.</p>
<p>Yet, that is exactly how a large number of professionals respond.</p>
<p>Do you?</p>
<p>What I did say was something like:</p>
<p>&#8220;We coach, as a collective, the senior leadership team&#8230; of global companies&#8230; to accelerate their business results&#8230; especially at times when they are facing difficult, strategic problems in their market&#8221;.</p>
<p>I had several versions of this response. And, used variations depending upon who I was talking with.</p>
<p>Sometimes this resulted in &#8216;Oh, that&#8217;s interesting&#8217;. Occasionally, it would develop into a conversation on who were our clients, how we operated, and more. A number of times, this resulted in a relaxed social conversation, with a senior executive, that sounded like a &#8216;softer&#8217; version of a first prospect meeting. Which was, precisely, my intent.</p>
<p>And, all because I had positioned myself carefully in responding to their initial, socially-driven, question.</p>
<p>We gained new business this way. More than once.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re alert, you will note that my response, to the enquirer, has four main elements:</p>
<p>1) Coach the senior leadership team (targeted at the top tier only, as a team collectively, and not anything further down the organisation)&#8230;</p>
<p>2) Global companies (in terms of our target, size did matter!&#8230; international organisations, not national or local)&#8230;</p>
<p>3) Accelerate business results (focusing on the company performance, not the people or strategy or culture&#8230; not to improve it, or increase it, but to accelerate it &#8211; which is a word that suggests not incremental growth but exponential)&#8230;</p>
<p>4) Facing difficult, strategic problems in their market (not a context of &#8216;business-as-usual&#8217; circumstances, or when an issue was localised).</p>
<p>Now, here&#8217;s the important thing. In and of themselves, each single element is specific. But, taken together they paint a picture of working a highly specialised niche. It deliberately includes a very small part of the market place, and excludes the vast majority of it.</p>
<p>Ironically, being niche gets you more work.</p>
<p>Interestingly, some of our work, as a direct result of this precise positioning, was gained &#8216;outside&#8217; and adjacent to our niche.</p>
<p>Some may ask, how did we carry out these assignments, in our chosen arena? Well, many of you would immediately recognise a few of the consultancy methods. And, a number of them were our own creations. Additionally, coaching made up a reasonably sized part of our solutions with the client.</p>
<p>But, please note, n-o-n-e of your methods should play a part in your response to the &#8216;What do you do?&#8217; question.</p>
<p>It only plays a part, later, in &#8220;How do you do it?&#8221; follow up.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the lesson in answering &#8220;What do you do?&#8221; Position yourself as helping clients with their end result. Not what it is that you do to help them get there. That part is simply your methodology.</p>
<p>Methods are numerous. Results are not. Clients know it.</p>
<p>I will be writing much more about this issue, including further ways of dealing with it, in the other areas of Clientonomy. To access this, when it becomes available, simply go now to the top right of this page and sign-up for the private newsletter.</p>
<p>Please note you will then be sent a message asking you to confirm your request. Unfortunately, we cannot send you anything without your confirmation. So, please do that first, then come back to this page.</p>
<p>Now, what issues, questions, comments does this post raise with you? How do you position yourself? Are you clear enough? Has it worked for you? What are the problems? What successes have you had? What about working in multiple niches?</p>
<p>Please use the commenting boxes below to let the readership know your viewpoints. I want to hear them.</p>
<p>Also, if this blog has resonated with you, please do click the &#8216;like&#8217; button at the top of the post (or the tweet, facebook or linkedin button below this).</p>
<p>If you want a more in-depth taste of Clientonomy, attract and keep great clients, then the very best stuff is in a private letter at:</p>
<p><a href="http://letterly.net/Clientonomy-Confidential" target="_blank">Clientonomy Confidential</a>.</p>
<p>Just click on the link to be taken straight there.</p>
<p>I look forward to hearing your points of view.</p>
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		<title>Mispricing Your Service</title>
		<link>http://clientonomy.com/mispricing-your-service</link>
		<comments>http://clientonomy.com/mispricing-your-service#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:09:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mac</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Pricing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://clientonomy.com/?p=57</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What is the right price for your service? It&#8217;s a question that troubles many consultants, coaches, trainers and other experts. For a large number of them, pricing correctly is an activity based in mystery. Whenever i ask a service professional how exactly they set their prices, nine times out of ten i get a blank [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>What is the right price for your service?</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a question that troubles many consultants, coaches, trainers and other experts. For a large number of them, pricing correctly is an activity based in mystery. Whenever i ask a service professional how exactly they set their prices, nine times out of ten i get a blank stare.</p>
<p>When i follow up and ask what are the issues they ought to consider, in setting their fees, many stumble and fumble.</p>
<p>Is it any wonder that many of us are making fundamental mistakes in this arena?</p>
<p>Here are the top 3 errors i see professionals making:</p>
<p>Mistake 1. &#8211; Setting prices as a result of their &#8216;general feelings&#8217; about the prevailing economic conditions.</p>
<p>Mistake 2. &#8211; Setting prices that are limited as a result of comparing themselves to other providers of the same service.</p>
<p>Mistake 3. &#8211; Setting prices as a direct result of their personal discomfort with asking for money.</p>
<p>Do you do any/all of these?</p>
<p>Mistake 3, in particular, is a huge issue for a large number of professionals.</p>
<p>There is a common thread running through these errors. Is it immediately apparent to you?</p>
<p>At their base, all three have the professional as the centre point for pricing. They are orientated on the pro. and their own issues.</p>
<p>Critically, they are not fundamentally focused on the potential value to be created for the prospective client. Why?</p>
<p>Are you mispricing? What are the issues for you? How do you deal with these?</p>
<p>I will be writing much more about this, specifically on how to deal with it, in the private newsletter (sign up box is top right on this page).</p>
<p>Please leave your comments, questions, queries below. Let&#8217;s start the conversation here.</p>
<p>And, if this post has resonated with you, please click the &#8216;like&#8217; button at the top of the page, or the tweet, linkedin or facebook button below.</p>
<p>If you want a more in-depth taste of Clientonomy, attract and keep great clients, then the very best stuff is in a private letter at:</p>
<p><a href="http://letterly.net/Clientonomy-Confidential" target="_blank">Clientonomy Confidential</a>.</p>
<p>Just click on the link to be taken straight there.</p>
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