Inc.
Magazine has called Doug Hall "America's
top new idea man." Hall, a self-styled inventor,
entrepreneur and author, helps companies build their businesses
with new ideas and strategies.
He is the founder and CEO of Eureka! Ranch,
which is a corporate innovation, research and training
center. Big name clients include American Express, AT&T,
Johnson & Johnson, Mattel and Pepsi-Cola, to name
just a few.
Hall also has a passion for helping the
small business owner. He co-hosts a live show on public
radio station WVXU in Cincinnati and the affiliated stations
in the X-Star network.
The show provides on-air consultations on
sales and marketing issues for small business owners and
entrepreneurs using an "artificial wisdom computer"
invented by Hall and his team called Merwyn™ Technology.
In his most recent book, Jump
Start Your Business Brain, among other things,
Hall shares with small business owners his "Three
Laws of Marketing Physics." MCNews talked to Hall
about how those ideas might be useful for management consultants.
* * * * *
MCNews: What are the "Three Laws of Marketing
Physics," and how might they help a management consultant
be more successful?
Hall: These three laws apply equally
to marketing for all business endeavors: Overt
Benefit, a Reason to Believe and, Dramatic
Difference. Clients today demand to know precisely
what's in it for them, why they should believe you will
deliver, and what sets you apart from the competition.
My first challenge to a management consultant
would be, let me see your business card. Does it say on
the card what the overt benefit is that you offer to clients?
Now, some might say, you don't understand,
I'm really smart. OK, say it--I'm smarter than you, so
hire me. Do you believe your own hype or not? If you can't
tell clients what your overt benefit is, why should they
listen to you about anything? So, we need to get on the
business card that line that says exactly who and what
we are.
Because, here's the deal: in a world where
nobody's being overt and specific, if somebody says I'm
20% cheaper, bam, they get the work. So, if you want to
justify your fee structure and, I'm all in favor of that
because I'm a capitalist, then you need to be overt and
specific. What is the "it" that clients get
from you?
MCNews: The current market is
tough for many service providers and management consultants.
If you were going to say, here's one thing you ought to
think about to help your practice, what would it be?
Hall: First off, I've never seen
a better time. Business is spectacular. Many companies
have downsized to the point that they have no people,
so this is the greatest time in the world to be a consultant.
But, the world of business has changed dramatically
since last September 11th. Even though most people say
the economy is bouncing back, it's not coming back the
way it was before. Clients are much more challenging with
regards to what they are getting for their money. Partly
that is just a continuation of the end of the go-go times,
but we also went through a period when it was kind of
un-American to talk business.
Some people trivialize the concept of overt
benefit. They say, I know, benefits vs. features. But,
do they really? They need to drill down as I did with
my team and ask what is it that you do better than anybody
else? Take your practice and answer the very simple question:
we are the first company that offers what? The
only consultant that offers what? If you can't answer
that question, then figure it out.
If you're not a monopoly, the first or only
to do X, then you're just a commodity and you will sell
for commodity prices. The only question is, how cheap
will you go? Articulating absolutely what is the dramatically
different benefit you provide has the power to make your
business succeed.
MCNews: But, then you have to
support that with everything else, the features, you bring?
Hall: Of course, you support it with
all the data, research, the market systems, the quality
flow-charting, your pedigree, successes with past clients
and all that kind of stuff. But, first you've got to get
their attention. What are you doing to get their attention?
I sure don't recommend the old-boy network.
If you rely on clients to say, oh, I know you so here's
all our business, your success will be limited by your
rolodex.
MCNews: And, that's often held up as
being the end all in terms of getting new business.
Hall: That's because some people
don't understand the world of business. Business is
about selling somebody a benefit. It's not about getting
buddies to give you money. Think about it. Would you go
to a client and say, the key to your success is to become
buddies with all your customers? I think not.
The old-boy thing is painful and it's
outrageously expensive. I don't do dinner, I don't
do breakfast, I don't network, and I don't play golf with
clients. There's no leverage in it. And, besides, you're
at the whims of the economy. If the economy goes bad for
a client, they have to say, hey, we love ya baby, but
we can't afford you anymore.
Instead of lunching with your clients, do
great work for them and your business will thrive. All
I'm asking you to do is live the talk.
MCNews: That is a different approach
than a lot of consultants take.
Hall: But, it's exactly what they
tell their clients to do. When you're trying to sell something
to somebody, deliver a benefit, not dinner. Then, the
state of the economy doesn't make any difference. Clients
are going to want that benefit.
Look at it another way: client repeat rate.
What often happens to consultants when there's a management
change--they lose the client, right? Not us. At one company,
we've been through four management changes, and we're
still working there.
Go beyond the person who brings you in to
a client, and ask other people why they think you're there.
Oftentimes the perception will be that it's because you're
the friend of x, y or z. What you want is to be brought
in because you're great at what you do and because you
have tangible technologies.
Often you will work for different clients
within the same company. For many consultants, the minute
there's a change in client, it's like a completely different
company. That's because their business is dependant on
the person they know, not the results.
MCNews: I assume once a client hires
you, you continue to build the relationships with the
people who hired you.
Hall: I don't do any of that. In
fact, I make an overt statement: hey, I want to let you
know, we won't call and bug you. If you need me, call
me.
This all grew out of an experience I had
many years ago. A consultant wanted to hire me to work
in his practice. I told him I was thinking of starting
my own business instead, and he said, you don't understand,
it's not what you can do, but who you know that counts.
Well, I got really ticked about that, and
I decided it was going to be what I did. I didn't know
enough people anyway. Besides, I thought about all those
mind-numbing dinners, and a root canal without Novocain
would be less painful.
I'm not saying I have anything against clients,
and some of them will be friends. But, don't ask them
to hire you because they love you; ask them to hire you
because you will do great work for them.
MCNews: A lot of consultants probably
wish they could behave that way, or would try it if they
thought it would work for them.
Hall: The reality is that they know
it will work because that's what they tell clients to
do. And when they find the courage to do it themselves,
then they can be wildly successful.
MCNews: You've spent a lot of
time helping people create ideas. When you are really
stuck, and can't see an answer, what do you do?
Hall: This may sound incredibly boring,
but I go back to fundamentals. Usually when I get stuck,
it's because I've tried to take a shortcut, I've tried
to leap to the flashy answer. I just go back to the fundamentals
and do it by the systems.
Now, the value of the Merwyn™ system
is that if you don't have the fundamentals right, it kills
you. It used to be easy to tell clients an idea would
work, and they would believe me. Now, the computer tells
me when I'm being sloppy. And, so I have to go back and
do my homework.
That, and drinking massive quantities of
coffee seems to work. We did a study and found that by
drinking more coffee you create 40% more ideas.
MCNews: Even though it's been
reported that caffeine reduces blood flow to the brain?
Hall: Consider this: caffeine is
a banned substance in Olympic competition. And, every
study has shown that coffee increases the ability to think.
MCNews: Last question: are you reading
anything interesting these days?
Hall: On the radio show I co-host,
we do book awards: we name the best books of the year.
One of my rules is that I won't put it on the show unless
I have read the book. The show's target audience is the
small business owner, which is my personal passion. Because
of that audience, another rule is that the book has to
give practical advice and proven wisdom. Now, that can
be either first person data, or in-depth first person
experience, but not philosophy or an assemblage of other
people's stuff.
The book I'm reading now, It's Your
Ship: Management Techniques From the Best
Damn Ship in the Navy, is by Michael Abrashoff,
a navy guy with a lot of useful personal experience. What
I like about the book, and what is applicable to my work
is how he managed to work around the bureaucracy to be
successful.
The Navy is one of the bigger bureaucracies
I can imagine, and it's quite cool to listen to him talk
about how to deal with that system from his first-person
experience. Look, I believe in the power of people to
do things. It's the problems with the systems that we
need to address.
MCNews: Thanks a lot, Doug. We
really appreciate your time.
Hall: Excellent. Have a ball!
* * * * *
Visit Doug Hall at www.DougHall.com
or his firm at www.EurekaRanch.com.
Tune in live to his radio show at www.wvxu.com. For more
information, you can call Dave Raichle at 513 271-9911.
Doug's books can be found by clicking on the titles -
Jump
Start Your Brain and Jump
Start Your Business Brain
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