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| Welcome |
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Every
month as we pull this newsletter together, you can bet
on one thing: At least one or two nights, dinner will
consist of take-out food from a local hole-in-the-wall
favorite. The restaurant’s tri-fold menu, which
sits conveniently in a drawer next to the phone, is
ragged from repeated use.
That
menu is a staple of the restaurant’s sales strategy.
It doesn’t matter what page you’re looking
at, you’ll find the restaurant’s phone number,
fax, and hours of operation.
We
can learn a thing or two from my favorite restaurant.
When
consultants were asked if a Web site visitor could send
feedback, such as an e-mail, from every page of their
sites, almost 60% answered no. People move so quickly
through Web pages that asking them to search for a way
to contact you may be a lost opportunity.
Have
a quick look at your site and be sure it’s as
easy for a visitor to reach you as it is to find the
phone number on a take-out menu.
Enjoy
the newsletter and, if you have any comments, please
send me an email.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor, Management Consulting News
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| Interview:
Robert Schaffer |
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Unfortunately, many companies find they don’t
have what it takes to carry out such grand plans. After
decades of trial and error, Robert Schaffer and his
team have mastered the art of large-scale change—the
Rapid Results approach.
We
asked Schaffer how consultants can apply Rapid Results
to help clients master their large-scale change initiatives.
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| Quick Facts on E-Newsletters |
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If
you’re using e-mail newsletters to reach clients,
here are some interesting facts from a thirty-day study
conducted by AWeber
Communications, a provider of e-mail management
services.
Although
AWeber’s clients prefer to send their e-newsletters
on Monday, open rates are only about 23% on Mondays—the
lowest of the week. The highest open rate during the
standard work week (Monday-Friday) is on Wednesday.
Sending
e-newsletters at 8:00am US EST generates an average
open rate of 50%. Those who send e-mails just one hour
later, at 9:00am US EST, generate an open rate of less
than 35%.
When
the e-mail subject line includes the date of your newsletter,
the average open rate is above 50%. Personalizing the
subject line with the subscriber’s first name
drops the open rate to 41%. Using the subscriber's full
name or last name generates even lower average open
rates at 20%.
E-newsletters
sent without any personalization in the subject line
generate average open rates of 29%.
Keep
in mind that this sample reflects the experiences of
one e-mail management company for a month. As they say
in the car business, “your mileage may vary.”
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| Increase
Your Sales: Ask "Which" Instead of "If" |
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One
way to increase sales, particularly for add-ons and
incremental sales, is to phrase the question as an assumption.
Elmer
Wheeler, who wrote many books about effective sales
processes, said it well: “Ask WHICH, not IF!”
What this means is that if you ask people which
of two choices they prefer, they are likely to choose
one of them rather than saying “None.” But
if you ask them if they want something in the
first place, it’s very easy to say “No!”
Think
of a waiter who takes your dinner order. The waiter
might then ask, “Do you want wine with your meal
tonight?” You might say, “Yes,” or
“What do you have?” or “Let me see
your wine list.” But it’s also quite probable
that you would say, “No, I don’t think so.”
And in that case the restaurant has lost out on a high-profit
sale of a glass or perhaps even a bottle of wine.
But
if the waiter says, “Would you prefer a red wine
or a white with your meal?” the odds are that
more customers will actually choose to order wine. In
fact, when Wheeler trained the wait staff in upscale
restaurants in New York to use this technique, wine
sales jumped off the chart.
How
would this apply to you? Think about the incremental
or add-on components you can offer to your customers.
For example, if you are selling a software application,
you probably include maintenance and support at an additional
charge. You could ask, “Would you like to sign
up for a year of support?” which would likely
provoke the response, “How much is it?”
at best or just plain “No!” at worst.
But
what if you asked, “Would you prefer our workday
maintenance coverage, which gives you support Monday
through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern, or would
you prefer comprehensive coverage, which gives you access
to technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week?”
Obviously, this can apply to a written offer, too—giving
a client a choice of two options and assuming they will
take one of them is just as effective in your sales
proposal as it is in the sales presentation.
For
most businesses, add-ons are lucrative, and research
proves that the best time to ask for the customer to
buy them is after they have just agreed to the main
part of your offer. The momentum favors the client saying
“yes” again. But it’s even more likely
if you ask the right way.
`````````````````````````````
Tom
Sant is a consultant and the author of Persuasive
Business Proposals and the forthcoming
The Giants of Sales. His firm,
Hyde Park Partners, offers expertise in proposal writing,
persuasive communication, tactical marketing, and sales
process improvement. Find out more at www.hydeparkpartnerscal.com.
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| Who's
Winning the War for Talent? |
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McKinsey
& Company has a strategic advantage in the war for
new consulting talent. According to WetFeet’s
Student Recruitment Report: Management Consulting
Edition, two-thirds of all students seeking
jobs in management consulting identified McKinsey &
Company as their first, second, or third choice employer.
The
annual survey of more than 2,600 candidates from top-tier
undergraduate business and MBA programs provides an
inside look at what it takes to attract the top people
to management consulting firms.
This year’s report shows that about one-third
of all MBA students are interested in careers in consulting
and they have their favorite firms lined up:
- McKinsey & Company
- Boston Consulting Group
- Bain & Company
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- Deloitte Consulting
As for typical MBA candidates seeking a career in consulting,
81% are male, 61% are Caucasian, and the average age
is 29.
MBA students said that prestige, culture, and the job
itself are the three most compelling factors in selecting
a firm. And only 14% of respondents included starting
salary as one of the top three factors in deciding which
consulting firm to join.
The report shows that while the average starting offers
of management consulting firms still lead the pack,
the compensation differential between management consulting,
financial services and other industries is not as great
as it once was.
“Candidates
are becoming much more savvy and selective about where
they apply and ultimately choose to work,” said
Steve Pollock, president of WetFeet and author of the
report. “As student confidence rises, employers
need to get a much better understanding of the competition
and do a better job differentiating their own firms’
strengths and weaknesses—especially in an industry
as competitive as management consulting.”
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| Top Ten MCNews Downloads |
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In no particular order, here are Management
Consulting News readers’ choices
for the ten most downloaded articles of 2005. Because
some of these articles have been on the site longer
than others, it’s impossible to conclude that
one article is more popular than another.
How
to Make Your Competition Irrelevant: An interview
with W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
The
Power of Impossible Thinking: An interview with
Jerry Wind
Marketing
Professional Services: An interview with Philip
Kotler
10
Really Good Reasons to Quit Your Job and Start Your
Own Business, by Michael J. Katz
Michael
Gerber Unravels the Myth of the Entrepreneur: An
interview with Michael Gerber
Beyond
Bullet Points: An interview with Cliff Atkinson
What's
the Brain Got To Do With Business?: An interview
with Tony Buzan
Common
Sense Web Design: An interview with Steve Krug
Insurance
Tips and Traps for Consultants, by Scott Simmonds
One
Thing You Need to Know: An interview with Marcus
Buckingham
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| Coming
Attractions |
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 “Not
finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork
that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both
because it is so
powerful and so rare." — Patrick Lencioni
Next
month, consultant and bestselling author Patrick Lencioni
joins us to talk about an issue all consultants face:
forming and managing productive teams. Lencioni is the
founder and president of The Table Group, Inc., a specialized
management consulting firm focused on organizational
health.
He
is the author of four business books including The
Five Dysfunctions of a Team, which
continues to be highlighted on The New York
Times, BusinessWeek,
Wall Street Journal and USA
Today bestseller lists.
Lencioni’s
other books, Death
by Meeting, The
Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive
and The
Five Temptations of a CEO, have helped
his clients define a new model for organizational health
and productivity.
Look
for the interview with Lencioni in the next issue of
Management Consulting News
on December 6, 2005.
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Too
often, in companies that are trying to make big
changes—mergers, going into new businesses,
or opening up new plants or new markets—a
few people at the top dream stuff up, create elaborate
plans, and then expect everybody else in the organization
to carry out those plans.
