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Do You Call Yourself a “Trusted Advisor?”

By Michael W. McLaughlin on May 26, 2011 in Client Relationships, Marketing

In their bestseller, The Trusted Advisor, David Maister, Charles Green, and Rob Galford made the case that professionals need more than just technical expertise to succeed. They must also have the ability to earn the trust and confidence of clients.

As the term Trusted Advisor became part of the language of the services business, a funny thing happened. Some firms started using the term as a marketing slogan. Here are some examples:

“Like you, we are much more than ‘just’ service providers to our clients. We are trusted advisors.”

“___________ provides these solutions by being a trusted advisor to our clients. “

“Before we become your trusted advisor, we discuss your values; goals; personal, professional and institutional relationships; assets; and interests.”

Even HP got into the act with a splashy press release:

“The HP Trusted Advisor service offers HP consulting experts who work closely with clients to consider all aspects of business operations, IT infrastructure and facilities, as well as the enablement of technologies, such as cloud and green computing.”

Becoming a Trusted Advisor marks a stage in the development of your relationship with a client. It’s a state you aspire to achieve, not something to assert as your marketing catchphrase. That’s like calling yourself world-renowned; someone else needs to give you the label.

Adopting Trusted Advisor as your slogan masks a real problem: You are basing your marketing strategy on an unsupported claim, and that’s likely to fall flat in the market. Just because you declare yourself to be a Trusted Advisor doesn’t mean prospective clients will see you as such.

Your marketing goal must be to find highly credible points of differentiation for your business. And there are many options to do that, from marketing your ideas to touting your people. Making unsubstantiated assertions could be the weakest marketing strategy of all.

So why continue to use it?

If you want to learn more about the authors of The Trusted Advisor, you might be interested in my interviews with them on various subjects:

David Maister on Strategy and the Fat Smoker

Charles Green on Who and Why Clients Trust

Robert Galford and Regina Maruca on How Legacy Thinking Makes Better Leaders Today

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What’s Your Ideal?

By Michael W. McLaughlin on May 11, 2011 in Client Relationships, Marketing

If you are looking to grow a services business, the effort can seem akin to pushing a two-ton boulder up a mountain with one arm. The market is crowded, strong competitors lurk around every corner, and price competition seems relentless.

You can sidestep those obstacles by defining precisely who you want to work for and what you’ll do for your clients. You might be saying to yourself, “well, that’s obvious.” But I’m not suggesting that you define your business by the clients you have and the work you can do. I’m saying to define your business—and your marketing strategy—by the work you want to do.

Marketing your business takes drive, determination, and passion. You need a ton of motivation to get up early and work late to get and keep your business on track. Long term, you’ll only put out that level of energy for clients and issues that you’re truly passionate about. Once you’re pursuing your passion, crowded markets, tough competitors, and price pressure become secondary concerns.

Who Is Your Ideal Client?

One thing you can do to ease your path to profit is to make good decisions about how you’ll go to market. Your first step: define your ideal client. Once you figure out who those clients are, then you can design marketing strategies to reach them.

Your ideal clients might be executives with specific titles, like CEOs, CFOs, or CIOs. Or maybe your ideal client leads a particular business function in sales, marketing, or manufacturing. For some, reaching the ideal client means directing marketing efforts toward specific companies.

What Do You Want to Do

But you shouldn’t stop with identifying your ideal client. Step two is to define your ideal project too. What issues or problems do you want to help with, what impact do you want to make, and how will you structure the way you work with your ideal client?

Granted, you won’t always get to work with the clients you really want. But you should market your business as though you can. It’s the prospect of working with those ideal clients that will keep you focused on building your business, even after the toughest day.

No service provider must give in to the notion that the market is saturated. Focus on your ideal client and project and you’ll get a boost in your innovation, marketing energy, and results.

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Selling to the “C-Suite”

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 28, 2011 in Marketing, Selling

It’s common to see articles, courses, webinars, boot camps, and other programs about accessing, communicating with, and selling to the so-called “C-Suite.” Being part of the “C-Suite,” of course, means that your job title begins with the letter C, as in CEO, CFO, CIO, and so on.

“C-Suite” executives, the reasoning goes, are an elite class of clients, and so people working with those executives need to possess enhanced skills. Granted, “C-Suite” people hold positions of seniority and usually have more responsibility than others. But the skills you need to succeed with them are the same ones you use no matter what “suite” you’re working in.

You may be a polished, “C-Suite-ready” communicator, but you’ll fall flat if you can’t grasp and synthesize a client’s issue and connect it to a range of workable solutions. It’s your expertise, diagnostic skills, ability to comprehend complex issues, and creativity that hold a client’s attention. And that’s true whether or not that person is one of the higher ups.

You can’t afford to stumble through any client presentation, but insight and expertise trumps a smooth talker any day. Your goal—no, your job—must be to continually explore every facet of your field in the search for ideas that can transform your relationships with clients.

The things you do when there isn’t a client meeting to prepare for, like brushing up on the latest industry research, or talking with other experts to expand your thinking, give you the essential foundation to make any client meeting go more smoothly.

That’s how you prepare to make an impact in the “C-Suite” and in every other client situation you encounter.

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The Client Value Dip

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 22, 2011 in Client Relationships, Marketing

In a perfect world, the more value you give to clients, the more you receive. If you’ve got clients who fit the ideal profile below, hold onto them.

But the value profile of most client relationships isn’t linear–it’s more like a sine wave, as shown below. The value you get (projects, referrals, compensation, and so on) grows for a while with the value you deliver, and then it dips. One common time for a dip is when you wrap up a project.

When a relationship enters a dip, lots of service providers pack up and move on to the next opportunity. Predictably, the relationship fizzles out.

If you find yourself in a dip, take steps to make sure it is temporary. Often, you can pull out of a dip by staying in touch and visible, and by bringing new ideas to your clients. You’ll find that getting out of the dip with an existing client can be easier—and more profitable—than chasing after a brand new one.

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A Blog You Should Read

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 14, 2011 in Managing Your Business, Marketing, Selling

Ian Brodie

Ian Brodie, a UK-based consultant and coach, publishes a thought-provoking blog called Get More Clients in Less Time. If you are in the professional services business, there’s a lot to like about Ian’s blog.

He’s Been There and Done It

One of the things I like about Ian’s work is that he really knows his stuff—and sticks with it. He’s got real expertise in professional services and it shows. You can find other people writing about services marketing who mistakenly believe their general knowledge of marketing qualifies them to opine on the challenges facing services marketers. Ian’s not a pretender. He’s been there and done it.

Keeps It Fresh

Ian does a good job of posting on a regular basis. You’ll find fresh content every week, often with a counter-intuitive spin on conventional wisdom. Not long ago, he wrote an interesting post on Marketing Half Truths, which you’ll see challenges the “rules” of services selling.

Presents a Variety of Viewpoints

Recently, Ian added a podcast program called Authority Marketing. Each podcast is an interview with a leading consultant about how that person built an authority position in the market. He’s got interviews with people like Drayton Bird, John Seddon, Charles Green, and Tom Searcy.

Speaks Authentically

The blog’s intent is to support Ian’s sales process, but not in an in-your-face way. His writing style is authentic, engaging, and personable. Here’s an example from his bio:

“I’m far from a natural salesperson. But through study and experience I’ve learned what it takes for even the most reluctant of professionals to become highly effective at marketing and sales – and that’s what I teach my clients.”

Check It Out

Ian is doing interesting work and shares his expertise freely. If you haven’t seen his blog, it’s worth a look.

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The Fallacy of Standardization

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 12, 2011 in Managing Your Business, Marketing

It’s fairly common to hear the advice that service providers should package their services into product-like offerings. That is, if they want to grow their businesses more quickly, close sales more easily, and rack up the profits.

The reasoning is that clients will have an easier time understanding and buying a “product” than grasping the benefit of a pure (intangible) service offer. To make the buyer’s job easier, each service offer should have a standard methodology (not a bad idea), a brand name, canned “deliverables,” and a set price. That way, clients would know exactly what they were getting, thereby simplifying the buying process.

As a marketing strategy, standardizing your offerings does accomplish one goal: it helps clients evaluate what you’re offering. As a sales strategy, though, the standard offer usually falls flat on its face.

I don’t remember a client ever saying, “Just give me the standard package of services you give to everyone else.” Clients want new ideas that are relevant to their unique situations. That’s what they pay for. Your standard offer may get the door open, but the actual solution you design is what leads to differentiation—and the sale.

If you rely solely on a standardized “product” for sales, you strip the innovation from your service and risk landing on the pile of commodity providers who compete solely on price. To find the path to growth, you need the right balance between standardization and innovation.

It makes sense to describe your services in an understandable way by referring to a service name, an approach to delivering the service, and the benefits others have achieved. But if you try to sell any off-the-shelf service as-is, you’re leaving out the most important part of the service—your own creativity.

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What’s in a Name?

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 4, 2011 in Client Relationships, Managing Your Business, Marketing

It’s easy to overlook little things that make a big impression on clients. The job titles we use on business cards, email signature lines, and web sites, for example, convey a world of meaning to others, some of which isn’t helpful.

Take the title Business Development Manager, which seems harmless enough. The problem is that many clients will get the clear message that your aim is to develop your business, not theirs.

The same holds true for Account Manager or Sales Executive. You’re sending clients a seller-centered message, when they’re looking for someone who puts their interests at the center of the conversation.

Some people recognize this problem but make it worse with their solutions. Instead of Client Relationship Manager, for instance, they go with something lame like Chief Synergy Detector or the Grand Marshall of Morale Boosting. Besides making people roll their eyes, these titles are less useful than the run-of-the-mill ones.

So what do you use instead? If you feel that you must use a title (which I’m not convinced everyone needs to), begin by thinking about titles that reflect what you do for clients, not what you do for your business.

Maybe you’re a Supplier Productivity Specialist, Online Marketing Strategist, or a Leadership Development Manager. With such a title, you can use your calling card or email signature line to help convey your value to clients.

If you’re not inclined to use this kind of title, you have two options. Either dump the title entirely, or use a simple one like Consultant, Associate, Principal, and so on. Whatever choice you make, be sure it’s for the benefit of the client, not you.

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The One Sentence Challenge

By Michael W. McLaughlin on March 31, 2011 in Business Life, Managing Your Business, Marketing

Can you distill the purpose of your business, latest project, or your career into a single sentence?

A single sentence brings clarity to your purpose, helps you communicate that to others, and sets a foundation for how you’ll achieve your purpose. Most importantly, the process of crafting a single sentence forces you to define precisely what you want to achieve for your business, project, or career.

Scan the New York Times Bestsellers List and you’ll see how novelists condense the plot of a book into one sentence (One-armed juggler races against time to uncover the mystery of his Mother’s terminal illness.)

Don’t talk about yourself in that one sentence, but emphasize what you’ll achieve for others (Project Life Raft creates new educational opportunities for underprivileged children by recycling computers and books formerly owned by others.)

Try to limit your sentence to 20 words or less. Pyramid Consulting helps clients land more profitable customers at a lower cost of acquisition.

Strive to be specific. For example, The Rain Group says “…we help companies with complex products and services develop an army of rainmakers – top performers who drive robust revenue growth.”

Few things bring your business or project into focus more effectively than a single sentence description. You can build your project plan, marketing plan, or career plan around that 20-word description.

I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t struggle to get that single sentence exactly the way they want it–myself included. Still, it’s worth the effort to try.

What’s in your sentence?

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If You Are Really Different, Why Aren’t You Differentiated?

By Michael W. McLaughlin on March 23, 2011 in Managing Your Business, Marketing, Selling

Most consultants I know believe they are different from everyone else in the market, which makes sense. After all, who thinks they are just like every other service firm out there?

If everyone believes they have unique abilities, why do so many service firms look exactly alike to prospective clients? I can think of two reasons.

First, copying the practices of other companies in the services business runs rampant. People search for “best practices” and competitive intelligence to piece together how they want to communicate with the world. Instead of using that information to build a unique spot in the market, they “borrow” the ideas of others. The result: most service firms look identical to clients.

Second, in an effort to reach as wide a market as possible, lots of service companies generalize the description of their service offerings to the point that all meaning is lost. Think consultants who “manage change” or “design business strategies.”

Granted, what many consultants actually do for clients is similar. Web designers, for example, offer similar services to their clients. The same holds true for marketing strategy firms, cost reduction specialists, and copy writers.

So, what’s the source of differentiation in a crowded market of me-too companies? For a rich source of differentiation, consider how your business does its work.

Clients are usually in the market for a core service like a training program, an operations assessment, or a new marketing strategy–with the hope of achieving a desired future state. And most consultants’ marketing communication does a good job of highlighting core services.

But most clients also value the distinctive benefits of working with a particular consultant. Those extra benefits present opportunities to differentiate any service offer.

Consultants have more options for differentiating their core service offers than channels to watch on TV. For instance, some clients will appreciate your twist on designing a blogging strategy, but they may really value how you create self-sufficiency once you leave. Or, your prospective clients may like your hands-on approach to rolling out a training program, but they also value your quarterly follow-up program to measure results. The possibilities for finding points of differentiation are endless.

As you look at how you’ve differentiated your business, ask yourself three questions:

Is my service offer just a me-too one? You can review the web sites of other service providers as one way to answer this question.
What are the unique ways I serve my clients? What are the aspects of your work that your clients value? Your approach to projects, how you interact with others, and the way you deliver your services offer lots of opportunities to differentiate your business.
What one new thing could I do to differentiate my offer? Start with something small and build it out. Begin with one area of new value that you can describe to clients.

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a commodity service, as long as you clearly communicate to your prospective clients all of the things you do for them–and how you do it.

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Sales Proposal Challenge: Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot

By Michael W. McLaughlin on March 18, 2011 in Client Relationships, Marketing, Proposal Writing, Selling

It’s pretty rare for a sales proposal to be a riveting read. But, having read (and written) more sales proposals than I care to remember, I have a low tolerance for poorly constructed ones.

Usually, it’s the dumb, avoidable mistakes that cause the biggest problems with sales proposals. When you get ready to write a proposal, it’s easy to get tripped up by any of these three common mistakes.

First, some consultants believe that every proposal must follow the same template, no matter what. Sure, every proposal has common elements, like objective, scope, value, timing, staffing, and fees. But the most successful proposal efforts begin with the assumption that every client situation is different, even if you’ve done hundreds of similar projects. Make sure your proposal structure meets the client’s needs for clarity of purpose, not your desire for convenience.

Second, proposal writers have a tendency to “bury the lead,” as journalists say. Too many proposals take too long to get to the point–which should be the client’s issue and how you’ll address it. Your buyer wants to know immediately how you can help, not how great you are. Include a qualifications section in your proposal if needed, but focus first on what the buyer wants to accomplish.

Finally, some proposals are just sloppy about grammar, spelling, or formatting consistency. This may seem like a minor point. But when clients spot sloppy work in a proposal, they immediately wonder about the mistakes you’re likely to make during the project.

Simple mistakes in a sales proposal can unravel a lot of hard work you’ve done during the sales process. So really check every proposal one last time before handing it over to your client. It may make the difference between a win and a loss.

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