Last week, I received a press release announcing the debut of a new, bioactive bone regeneration product for the European dental market. While it was fascinating to learn about this boon for Europeans’ dental health, I was scratching my head as I tried to figure out how I got on the list to receive this press release.

I know that publicists are notorious for blasting out press releases to the world, no matter who is on the receiving end. Still, it served as a good reminder about the power of targeting. Like you, I receive lots of "business proposals," solicitations, and other marketing communications that make no sense. Most are either poorly targeted, amateurish, or completely irrelevant, like the bone regeneration announcement I received.

If you plan to use direct mail or email for marketing, take a close look at your mailing list. Ask yourself a few questions before you send anything. Is the communication really relevant and current for those who would receive it? Will the recipients know exactly why they are receiving your message? Does your communication have a clear call to action?

If you answer no to those questions, sending out the communication would be a waste of time and money. Your goal is to move your readers to open, read, and act on your communication. You'll fail to achieve that goal, and just annoy people, if you blanket the world with your message.

Use your scarce resources wisely and focus on your target market. Oh, and don’t forget to ask your dentist "if bioactive bone regeneration is right for you."

Enjoy this month's issue.
And send me an email if you have comments.

Michael McLaughlin
Editor

Aon to Cut at Least 1,500 Positions

Aon Corporation announced that it completed its merger of Aon Consulting and Hewitt Associates by creating a subsidiary of Aon called Aon Hewitt. Before the acquisition of Hewitt, Aon Consulting had about 6,300 employees, while the Illinois-based Hewitt had about 23,000 employees.

In 2009, Aon Consulting and Hewitt each generated just over $1 billion in consulting revenue, but Hewitt's $2 billion in outsourcing revenue was about 10 times that of Aon Consulting.

Aon executives also announced plans to eliminate between 1,500 and 1,800 "non-client facing" positions globally as it integrates Hewitt Associates. Aon said it expects to incur about $325 million in restructuring costs, including $180 million in expenses related to employee terminations and $145 million in real estate-related expenses.

BNA Subsidiaries Files for Bankruptcy

BNA Subsidiaries, LLC, owner of Kennedy Information, voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Since 1970, Kennedy has provided information, in-depth research reports, and services for professionals in management consulting, executive recruiting, and investor relations.

Court filings indicate that BNA Subsidiaries intends to file a proposed plan of reorganization "within the first few weeks" of the bankruptcy case and hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 protection in "early 2011."

BNA Subsidiaries, LLC was formed January 1, 2009, through the merger of Kennedy Information, Inc. (acquired by BNA in 2000) and the Institute of Management and Administration, Inc. (acquired by BNA in 1997).

Dow Jones Consultant

Dow Jones has launched its own news and data aggregation service for the consulting industry. The new service called Dow Jones Consultant hopes to help consultants spend less time searching for information by offering a single, customized access point to industry trends, company information, and breaking news alerts.

The service boasts that subscribers have access to in-depth information on 18 million companies in 300 industries. A subscriber's custom news feed mines relevant information from 28,000 news and business sources, including major publications and regional sources.

You can learn more about the service by visiting the Dow Jones Consultant site. You'll find a brief description and an over-produced, underwhelming online "tour" of the service. If you want to know anything about pricing or a live demo, you have to contact Dow Jones.

Is this a tool that can help you become a "trusted advisor" as the site claims? Doubtful. But if the service saves time--at a reasonable cost--it may be worth a look.

By Fiona Czerniawska and Edward Haigh, SourceforConsulting.com

There's widespread acceptance that thought leadership marketing is good. Consulting firms are certainly producing more and more of the stuff. The thinking appears to be 'If thought leadership is good then let's make sure we've got more of it out there than anyone else.' In one month this year, 25 of the biggest firms collectively added 500 new articles to the 16,000 already on their websites.

The broad consensus that thought leadership is a force for good appears to hold some water. Recent Source research found that, in a majority of firms, most people think it is one of the most effective forms of marketing they use. But is it doing any good? Is anybody really listening anymore?

The trouble with thought leadership today is that in the rush to produce increasing amounts of it, quality has suffered, and all many clients are hearing is noise. Just as TV advertisers have to shout louder and louder to get their voices heard, thought leadership is in danger of pursuing the lowest common denominator--volume--to make people take notice.

Some firms even routinely outsource their thought leadership to third parties to keep feeding the machine without overburdening internal resources. That ought to be as good an indication as any that something is amiss.

So what does good thought leadership look like? We believe it's a combination of these four elements:

• Differentiation: originality or distinctiveness of conclusions
• Resilience: depth of thinking and/or evidence of research
• Appeal: clients should perceive the material to be immediately relevant to their specific circumstances
• Appropriate commercialisation: the material should encourage the audience to take action.

Judging by the material we've analysed, as much as 62 percent probably fails on the basis of lack of appeal alone. The ideas it contains may be brilliant and well researched, but if clients don't feel that it's immediately relevant to their business, they're unlikely to think much more about it.

But perhaps the biggest issue is that once a firm sets out to create serious amounts of thought leadership--particularly if it regularly brings these together in a publication--it has to keep coming up with new ideas. That inevitably leads it to say something rather than nothing. And that's when quality suffers.

Nobody's immune, either. For precisely this reason, McKinsey--historically the undisputed king of thought leadership--fell from first place to sixth in the 2010 White Space quality rankings (replaced in the top position by Booz & Company). If McKinsey is getting it wrong, it's probably time for everybody to sit up and take notice.

Companies around the world spend up to $100 billion a year to train their employees, according researchers at McKinsey & Company. But according to McKinsey's survey, training doesn't have much impact. In fact, only one-quarter of the survey respondents said their training programs measurably improved business performance. And most companies don't track their returns on training investments.

The most important failures in training occur outside the classroom. That's because, before they can master new skills, employees must know how the new skills will benefit the organization, understand that they need the training, and then choose to learn. Most often, there's little or no dialogue with employees about the need for training. Instead, executives just expect employees to show up and absorb whatever they are given.

Once a training program is finished, employees often struggle to put their new skills into practice. Most executives mistakenly assume that employees will go back to their jobs and figure out for themselves how to apply their new skills. To get the most from training investments, executives must help employees adopt the right mindset before they begin training, and offer them a work environment that supports the use of their new skills.

It's in your clients’ best interest to find ways of engaging their employees in a dialogue before and after training. If you offer training services, look for opportunities to help participants get the most out of your programs by incorporating pre-training briefings and post-training job design activities in your next proposal.

Everyone knows that sinking feeling of blowing it under pressure. Maybe it was when you suddenly lost your train of thought in a sales presentation, or a client meeting you flubbed. It happens to all of us, at some point. Usually, we chalk it up to a case of "nerves."

Now, University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock tells us that choking under pressure is preventable. In her new book, Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting It Right When You Have To, Beilock attributes suboptimal performance to information logjams in the brain.

Beilock says that thinking too much about what you are doing and over-analyzing can create mental logjams that sabotage your performance. And when you try to control every aspect of a situation in an effort to succeed, that can backfire and make you choke.

What can you do to improve the odds that you won't choke? One strategy is to find ways to reduce the stress associated with high-pressure events. We know how important it is, for example, to rehearse a speech. You can further improve your performance if, when you are rehearsing, you simulate the stress you'd experience during the actual meeting.

The goal should be to make your practice feel as close as possible to the real event. That way, you'll avoid creating a logjam in your head, make your presentation more of a routine occurrence, and you'll choke less.

About a year ago, I read Ian Brodie's eBook, The Client Breakthrough System, which he wrote to help consultants and coaches attract and retain profitable clients. I found the book to be excellent--concise, easy-to-read, and well-conceived.

Brodie has now published an updated version of the book, which includes more hands-on instruction, additional marketing strategies, and a series of six companion videos.

What I've always liked about Brodie's work is his no-nonsense approach to marketing. This isn't about pie-in-the-sky theories. It's a step-by-step approach to making the most of your marketing, while allowing you enough time to serve your clients and live your life.

Best of all, the book and companion videos are available at no cost. Visit www.clientbreakthrough.com to download the book.

"So many speakers wander around the stage because they're filled with adrenaline. Plant your feet and make your point."

Next month, we'll talk with Nick Morgan, the author of the new eBook, 7 Steps to a Great Speech. Morgan, one of America's top communication theorists and coaches, is also the author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, and Give Your Speech, Change the World: How to Move Your Audience to Action.

We'll ask Morgan for his best advice on how to take the anxiety out of preparing and delivering any speech.

Look for the next issue of Management Consulting News on December 7, 2010.