|
| Welcome |
 |
It
happens way too often.
You
finish reading a consultant’s article, and glance
at the author’s profile to learn more about the
writer. The bio blurb asserts that the author is THE
expert in the fill-in-the-blank industry. Some authors
even go so far as to proclaim themselves to be world
renowned.
But
you’ve never heard of this supposed expert before.
To
position themselves in the market, some consultants
throw humility out the window and put forth grandiose
proclamations of greatness. Maybe the hope is that an
assertion of eminence will be a convenient shortcut
to success. After all, if professionals declare themselves
to be leaders, maybe the label will stick in the minds
of prospective clients.
I’m
pretty sure that positioning strategy is a non-starter.
It’s
a slippery slope to anoint yourself as a leader, especially
when that assessment is subject to interpretation. The
real experts rarely self-proclaim their spot on the
top of the heap. Why? Because the market decides who’s
on top. Of course, you must let the market know about
your value, accomplishments, and competence. But let
someone else elect you the world-renowned whatever.
It will have a much greater impact.
But,
what do I know? I’m not an expert on the subject.
We’ve packed this issue with tools you can use.
You’ll find a primer on project management, a
discussion of consulting ROI, and an innovative approach
to selling consulting services. Alan Weiss gives us
the skinny on what to do when you know your client is
wrong, and we wrap up our six-part series on Crucial
Conversations with some real-world advice on how to
deliver our services flawlessly.
Andrew
Sobel is this month’s guest and he shares his
latest thoughts on client relationships, with an emphasis
on the client’s perspective. Also, our friend
Mark Haas offers his Consultant Haiku—his
reflections on the consulting industry from a rainy
Saturday afternoon.
And
we have new
podcasts too.
Enjoy
the issue. And send me an email
if you have comments.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor
Management Consulting News is a publication of
MindShare
Consulting, LLC
P.S.
I was interviewed by Dan Walker on Sales Rep Radio on
creating winning proposals. Listen
to the Podcast.
|
| Interview:
Andrew Sobel |
 |
  I
think the headline is that client relationships are
harder than ever to build and sustain but they’re
also more important than ever.
Most
consultants learn about the power of long-term client
relationships before saying “It depends”
to a client for the first time. But how can a consultant
establish—and sustain—those all-important
relationships?
Andrew
Sobel, consultant and client relationship guru, tells
us that keeping up with the pressures clients face is
essential to any relationship building effort. What
are those pressures? Read my conversation with Sobel
for the details.
|
| The
Writing on the Wall, by Alan Weiss |
 |
 When
the Client Is Wrong You Need to Make It Right
In
perhaps a quarter of my consulting work over the years,
I've found a client—that is, the buyer of the
project—to be dead wrong about one or more assumptions,
“facts,” or beliefs. It’s usually
the result of neither stupidity nor malice, but rather
of insulation and isolation from the operation.
And,
of course, many of the buyer’s direct reports
are withholding or “spinning” information
so as not to get the boss in an uproar.
As
trusted advisors, it’s our job to apprise them
of the weakness of that process and the lack of that
content.
Read
the article
|
| Consultant
Haiku |
 |
by
Mark Haas
Perhaps
the most sublime expression of heart and soul is haiku,
a traditional seventeen-syllable form of Japanese poetry,
which is set in three non-rhyming metrical units of
five, seven, and five syllables.
Consultant
Haiku expresses both the profession’s
philosophy and the innermost, unspoken feelings of a
consultant pursuing truth, beauty, and elusive clients.
My
client calls me,
“Six figures if you come now.”
My alarm clock rings.
Tell
the maitre ‘d,
good supply chain management
will speed slow service.
I
have reached the top,
president of my own firm,
but where’s the toner?
The
consultant’s joy:
working only half a day.
Which twelve hours is it?
Sweet
smell of success—
new client and new contract.
My marketing worked!
Fallback
strategy
in competitive markets:
“Will Consult for Food!”
Pack
my suitcase for
exotic destinations.
Look, a Red Roof Inn!
Arriving
slowly,
like a turtle in winter.
My receivables.
A
successful close,
then professional service—
satisfied clients.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Haas is President of Research
and Organization Management Inc. and Chairman of
the US Board of the Institute of Management Consultants.
|
| Crucial
Conversations: Flawless Execution |
 |
by
Kerry Patterson and Eric Patten
A
consultant’s job is inherently project-based.
You go into an organization, initiate a project, diagnose
problems, create solutions, and drive for flawless execution.
But flawless execution rarely comes without a hitch
and, as it turns out, it often doesn’t come at
all. In fact, according to research, over 90 percent
of major change initiatives fail—costing hundreds
of billions of dollars a year.
How
do you fare? How many of your projects have mostly finished
okay, but you missed the schedule, the specs, or the
budget? Do you routinely go three-for-three or do one
or more factors typically take a hit?
Fortunately,
if you’re looking to achieve your objectives—without
having to go back and constantly recalculate—there
are steps you can take to hit your goals every time.
Read
the article
|
| The
Thought Leadership Challenge |
|
by
Michael McLaughlin
“In
reality, 99 percent of what consultants spew as “thought
leadership” is pure, unadulterated drivel.”
- Tom Rodenhauser
For
decades, consulting firms have worked diligently to
establish market leading positions on the power of their
ideas—aka thought leadership. Today, the sheer
volume of “thought leadership” in the market
has led some to believe that most of it is dreck.
Like
it or not, thought leadership is at the core of many
firms’ marketing strategy and the trend will likely
pick up steam.
Researchers
at The Bloom
Group surveyed professional firms and found that
respondents rated having strong intellectual capital
for their marketing programs more highly than having
client references or strong sales capabilities.
And
almost 80 percent of respondents believe the importance
of strong intellectual capital has increased in importance
in the past five years.
So
what’s holding up a firm’s effort to create
market-ready thought leadership? Resources, incentives,
and a development process, say survey respondents. This
isn’t surprising given that only one-third of
companies surveyed measure the relationship between
their intellectual capital, proposal opportunities,
and project wins. Without some measurement of success,
it’s tough for firms to sort out how intellectual
capital contributes to growing the business.
Thought
leadership can be the great equalizer between large
and small firms, as neither has a monopoly on good ideas.
But to grab that advantage, recognize that becoming
a thought leader is more than re-tooling past project
ideas to serve a marketing purpose. A haphazard approach
can lead to what Tom Rodenhauser calls “unadulterated
drivel.”
Instead,
ask yourself three questions before publishing your
ideas: what tangible value can a client gain? What’s
different? And can we offer a profitable service to
help the client implement these concepts?
Next
month, we’ll feature an article by Fiona Czerniawska
on her recent research on the consulting industry’s
thought leaders.
|
| Coming
Attractions |
|
 “If
you don’t see all three dimensions of negotiation,
you may end up stuck as a 1-D player in a 3-D world.”
- David Lax
Consultants,
like many others, are negotiators. Whether it’s
about project scope, price, or how to influence change
in an organization, consultants often find themselves
at the negotiating table.
We’ve
all been trained to rely on negotiating techniques like
win-win, win-lose, and others. Our guest next month,
David Lax, believes traditional negotiating techniques
can lead to disastrous results, and he has an alternative.
Lax is the coauthor with James Sebenius of 3D
Negotiation, which lays out a bold
new approach to managing any negotiation.
Don’t
miss our interview with David Lax.
Look
for the next issue of Management Consulting
News on December 5, 2006.
|
