Extraordinary business breakthroughs can be elicited by intelligent questions.
Who and what are your targets? Do you have any unique targets of focus that share certain common characteristics?
What do your targets need and want? What outcomes and results are they seeking?
Where will you find these targeted buyers?
Who or what influences your targeted buyers? What’s their ecosystem? — People or places that influence how they think, what they do, and how or what they buy?
How do your targeted buyers want to engage with professionals like you? How do they like to interact that makes them most comfortable?
It is understood we all want answers; my challenge for you is to seek the best questions.
“Hello Ric, Alan from Sydney here. Trevor from PwC said you could help me. I’ve had a great business for ten years but the current economic climate has really knocked us around. How can we get through this?”
– What’s different from before?
“Clients are cutting back on recruitment costs, new job orders have almost stopped and the ones we do get are arguing about our fees. It’s murder out there.”
– What’s your business?
“We offer specialist recruitment services where we do psychometric testing of all applicants, then we fully research …” He went on much more than this but I have no idea what he said. I had to interrupt.
– You try to find applicants for your client’s job vacancies?
“Well, we’re different to most other recruitment firms, but that’s essentially it.”
– How are you fundamentally different?
“Like I said, we do psychometric …” Life’s too short, I interrupted, again.
– There are a plethora of fine recruitment firms delivering all of those services and value-adds. And, Alan, if it takes you as long to explain your value-offering to prospective clients as you have to me, you’re losing their attention fairly quickly.
Lesson learned: we must articulate how we provide value and a return on investment for clients. Why else would they want to engage us? No matter what your profession.
What are the three most important reasons people are buying (and should continue to buy) from you?
How will your clients measure the ROI you provide for them? And, how can you show this to them so that your offer is so compelling they must invest in you, right now?
Is your communication style clear and concise?
Any business can make money in the good times. The best businesses are the ones that will continue to grow and thrive during the tough times.
Articulate your value proposition in the form of a business outcome.
Show your clients the ROI in having you on board.
Continue to market. It’s not your client’s job to remember you, it is your obligation to ensure they don’t forget you.
In preparation for creating your marketing strategy here is a checklist of questions required to make the process efficient and valuable. Have you thought these questions through in developing your marketing strategy?
Who are your customers?
What services do you provide to them?
What proportion of your time is attributed to genuine marketing and sales efforts?
What percentage increase could your business handle without significant capital expenditure or increases in your numbers of employees?
How much growth or otherwise have you experienced in the last twelve months?
What growth do you expect this (financial) year?
What do you anticipate will contribute most to this growth?
What do you ultimately want out of your business and how do you plan to get it?
What are your customers biggest frustrations?
What problems are they solving when buying from you?
What is your biggest marketing challenge?
Before you spend money on advertising, social media, business networking events, corporate golf days, business breakfasts, etc., consider what should be your strategy. Implementing marketing tactics before you’ve established your strategy is fallowed.
The marketing tactics need to underpin and support the strategy.
A leading business university undertook research into their graduates. It was discovered that their past students were successful during the early part of their careers after graduating, but ten years on, they were superseded by a more street-wise, pragmatic group.
The professor who undertook this research explained that the education the graduates had received was in “problem-solving”. What was more important was the ability to recognise opportunities.
Innovation trumps problem-solving.
Pragmatic thinking beats university degrees.
Action is the only precursor to success.
Are you looking for the opportunity in this current economic environment? Honestly?
I shared coffee with the owner of a business consultancy firm bemoaning the terrible circumstances that have decimated his business revenues. He was worried, distressed, more distressed than a consultant should be faced with such slight contretemps.
I also had coffee with the partner of a mid-tier accounting/auditing practice who relished in dissevering himself from the doomsayers. “Ric, we’ve been using your approaches to pricing, marketing and client-evaluation. Just yesterday, an existing client called to explain one of our competitors had proposed to do their audit at half the price we’ve been charging and would we reduce our fee. Remembering your advice, I calmly reiterated our value, our expertise and the significant levels of service delivery we provide which equate to greater ROI for the client. They stayed with us. Overall, we are 40% ahead of budget for this year.”
In the current business environment, there is an absurdity in the gap between the pragmatic, opportunity-thinking of successful professionals and the trivial reasons others adduce for failing.
Power your business to better results with Ric Willmot’s Five Keys:
1. Keep raising the bar – be innovative, focus on growth rather than cost-cutting or problem fixes, and expect more of yourself and those in your employ.
2. Always work towards results and outcomes – being busy doesn’t make you good, producing results does; means are less important than ends.
3. Empowering people is positive – power does not corrupt but powerlessness creates bureaucracy and roadblocks to positive productivity.
4. People believe what they see – influence is more likely through being an exemplar more than hanging motivational quotes on the walls.
5. Perception informs your reality – your perceptions may not necessarily be fact but they do inform your sense of what is real … to you. Walk in the other person’s shoes to get a sense of what may appear real to them.
When was the last time you were sitting in a conference room with the obligatory mints and bottled water, when it happened? That flash of brilliance where you were inspired to innovate and you generated new ideas that catapulted the performance of your business over the next six months.
How often does that happen?
Not a lot, really, does it?
Then why do it?
Inspiration, innovation and successful business ideas come out of the blue. Most times when you least expect it. They fly in from the edge of consciousness and delightfully startle us. They are random, sometimes the result of wrong turns, errors, mishaps and misdirection. They don't naturally and regularly occur when we're forcibly confined in the staleness of another conference room that emits a musty odour of damp carpet.
If you're looking for inspiration, innovation and successful business ideas you need to be having fun. Drop the qualitative thinking. Don't invite the devil's advocate. And, ignore conventional wisdom and practicality.
Inspiration, innovation, blue ocean ideas do not evolve from conservative thinking and approaches. They come from having fun and being excited. Let's do it! You know it works.
A new Australian Defence report slams the quality of terrorism studies in Australia and overseas, saying the field is dominated by self-proclaimed experts who are inexperienced, do little primary research work in the field and have rarely met with genuine extremists. The study concluded there were common deficiencies in much of the writing on terrorism issues.
Similar charges could be laid against the preponderance of recent business and management texts. Most are shoddy and tawdry, fallowed and simplistic. Again, the business consulting field, like the terrorist field, is dominated by self-proclaimed experts who, once you research their backgrounds properly and fully, are inexperienced, do little primary research work in the field of business management and have rarely met with or consulted to significant and successful CEOs of major organisations.
Be careful whose advice you buy. First, check their credentials, thoroughly. Have they successfully achieved what you are wanting, and what they are telling you to do? Have they the experience or are they simply a theorist who has read a book or Googled a topic? If you go diving on the Great Barrier Reef you want the guidance of an experienced instructor who has swum that reef, not someone who has simply read a diving instruction manual, otherwise you might just drown. In Australia at the moment there are many self-proclaimed experts consulting to the accounting, coaching, legal and recruitment professions, who themselves actually failed in the same profession - although they are unwilling to admit it.
As the Sunscreen Song suggests, "advice is a form of nostalgia". But for you, right now, in this economy, you want your advice to come from those of us who do the research, are experienced, and engage at the highest levels. And, so should you, to ensure that you deliver exceptional value to your clients and guarantee them a substantial return on their investment in you and your professional advice.
The number of business coaches, trainers and speakers in my Mentor Program who work from home are growing exponentially. The excitement and trepidation rise as you take your seat at your desk realising you are independent, answerable only to yourself, free to manage and prioritise your time, efforts and schedules. Many consultants, trainers, coaches and speakers are escapees from the corporate world; relishing the freedoms afforded self-employment and entrepreneurialism.
However, the transition is not always trouble-free, uncomplicated or stress-free. Friends will telephone while you are working, assuming you have an abundance of time to chat. Others will call in mistakenly believing you have ample time for socialisation as well. You may also consider that you may have the discretionary time to quickly complete some household chores during your productive work time.
Establishing a business from your home premises is not always as liberating as it sounds or imagined. The abundance of distractions competing for your attention can destroy your concentration as well; young children, dirty dishes and television can be daunting challenges for home-based entrepreneurs attempting to establish, grow and develop a successful business.
There are a number of measures you can implement to support and assist your efforts to be successful as a home-based entrepreneur. Here are Ric’s Tips:
Formalise your working environment.
The temptation can be to treat working from home informally, especially considering you are your own boss and answerable to no one (excepting maybe your bank manager). Specifically, formalise how you will manage and prioritise your procedures and operations of working from home. This can incorporate scheduling of regular tasks, such as, telephone calls to clients, report-writing, invoicing, and so on.
It will benefit you to clearly understand how you will handle various scenarios which may impinge upon productivity, like: drop-ins by friends and relatives, interruptions by family members during important telephone calls, or children illnesses requiring they remain home from school. You might consider designating scheduled appointments for household chores, family errands, and recreational activities that you might otherwise be tempted to slip in to your working day.
Maintain balance.
For many of the professionals in my Mentor Program, there is a preponderance to work far too hard, and not nearly smart enough. Be realistic and be kind to yourself; emotionally, physically and creatively. Your success or otherwise will have less to do with the number of hours you work and more to do with the results and outcomes you produce.
There is no reason at all why home-based entrepreneurs could not be sitting by the pool at two in the afternoon, reading some journals, magazines or a good book. (See my article: “A martini by the pool.”) Thereby having no guilt at dropping by the ‘office’ at nine at night for an hour to do some emails and write a report. Just because you have your office at home does not necessarily require you work ‘office’ hours. But it is incumbent upon you to be disciplined to do what is needed, when it is needed.
Pronouncements for the home.
Just because you are clear about your patterns of work and priorities determined, it is negligent to assume your family and friends have the same clarity. There is no valid reason why you cannot close the door to your home-office as a simple indicator to your family that you cannot be disturbed and/or you are on important telephone call and quiet is important. Explain the measures to your family in advance, and then use those measures as needed, but only as needed so that they are not only understood but respected by others in your home.
Location, location, location.
Where your office is located within the confines of your residence will play a big role in the potential distractions and how enticing those distractions may become to you. Ideally, your office should be away from the busiest areas of the home; not in the thoroughfare of life. Neither should it be in your bedroom! It does need a door … that closes.
It is imperative that you maintain a separate and dedicated business telephone line that nobody else in the family answers … ever! And it is preferred that you have your own office equipment that is not for family use. Computers, printers, scanners and alike are tools of your business. Let the family have their own in another area of the home.
Achieve more by doing less.
Whether it be home duties or business needs, where it makes sense and is readily done with minimum supervision, outsource tasks. Get a housekeeper, have the lawns and gardens handled for you by a contractor, hire an external bookkeeper, use a virtual assistant; you get the idea. Utilise others to quickly accomplish tasks that distract and unenthused you so that your creative and productive energies remain focused on bringing in the high-premium business results.
Being a work from home entrepreneur has as many challenges as it does rewards; whether you profit from the opportunities it affords you, is a matter of choice. The level of efficacious productivity will be solely determined by the decisions you make. There is a rising tide for home-based entrepreneurs, unless you wish to be a victim of the water.
Geelong dentist Paul Gardner, a confessed "God-botherer" has been described by a tribunal investigating his professional conduct as likely to re-offend. He has been accused of spouting fundamental Christian views during consultations. Lawyer Patrick Monahan, acting for the Dental Board of Australia said Mr Gardner has failed to comprehend the seriousness of his actions and was as "likely to repeat his behaviour as he ever was". (The details of this case can be found by searching your favourite news website.)
But here's a thought: If you don't like your dentist - change and get a new one!
Why, why, why do we seem intent on replicating the moronic litigious culture of the United States? When things go wrong in our lives, are we as a people really so weak, indecisive and pusillanimous to deal with it? Let's take back responsibility for ourselves from the legislators. In business, become responsible and make your own path. If something in your firm doesn't work, change it. If it upsets you when you do something, stop doing it. If what you're doing now isn't working, do something different. Build some resolve to be accountable for your own success. Execute some action that will go towards achieving your desired objectives and results. You're in control.
The proverb in Luke 4:23 was right: Physician, heal thyself.
Anyone responsible for winning business has probably been there. Whether you're the partner of a legal firm, the budding associate director looking to be promoted within an accounting practice, the enthusiastic financial planner, the seasoned recruitment consultant, etc. It's that place that makes us shudder and cringe as we awkwardly look around to see who might be watching.
The slump.
You know you're good at what you do, your education, qualifications and experience are testament to that. And, your past successes in business acquisition speak for themselves. But, there are times where there's nothing in the pipeline and you just don't believe you can pick up that telephone and make another call.
Whether you're a veteran or a neophyte, these five techniques may be just the panacea you need to generate momentum.
Hit your target
You need to be contacting the true buyers (the people who have the budget and the authority) not the feasibility buyers or gatekeepers. Feasibility buyers have the authority to say no but do not have the authority to say yes and write you a cheque. When you're in a slump, your lack of self-esteem may give rise to feelings of uncertainty causing you to make initial contacts with those who are not the real buyers who can make decisions. Speak to the true decision makers. Ensure your database of prospective clients is current, accurate and targeting the right people.
Why you?
The credibility justification can be done really badly, especially if you are trying to dig yourself out of a slump. You should never immediately launch into your credentials, capabilities, history, and alike when you initiate contact with a prospective client. They want to know what you can do for them, not how good you are. How can you ease their pain, eradicate their problems, improve their business, increase their results. You have to give to get. Give some value early to allow the prospective client experience what it's like to be your client. The psychology of it being, "This has been good value and it cost me nothing; how much better will it be when I hire these people?"
Sell them only on meeting you
When you do make that initial contact with a new prospective client, remember that you're not trying to make a sale. You're trying to have them agree to meet you. That's all. Move along a path of small yeses. You don't swallow the whole lobster in one mouthful. You're calling the prospective client just to have them meet you.
Weddings seldom happen on a first date
Realise that you will not always get through to speak to the real buyer, the first time. You may have to leave multiple messages and try numerous times before you will personally speak with them. Also understand that depending on the product or service you're offering that it may (will) take more than a 10-minute meeting to make a sale. These things take time. Be patient. Be thoughtful. Be genuine. Be respectful. Acknowledge and accept that it will take multiple touches for you to speak to a true buyer and it will require multiple touches to get to the stage of asking for the business.
Variety is the spice of life
Mix it up a little. Use the telephone, use handwritten notes, send an e-mail, drop in personally for coffee, send a real brochure in the post, send an electronic version through e-mail, etc. Multiple touches in various ways make for slightly improved interest than simply cold calling or mass-market e-mail blasts.
No matter what your profession; accountant, lawyer, business coach, mortgage broker, recruiter, these five techniques will help pick you up out of that slump and improve your generation of prospective business leads. When you're in a slump and your self-esteem has taken a whack, no amount of cold calling or networking breakfasts will make your results lift like these techniques will. Work smarter not harder.
