highest income consulting

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Highest Income Consulting

© Tom Lambert 2002 – 2003 http://www.tom-lambert.org

http://www.centreforconsultingexcellence.com/

Highest Income ConsultingThe Ultimate Guide for Consultants, Trainers andother Professional Advisors for the 21

stCentury

Book Three

Low Cost/No Cost Marketing

How to Apply the Research into what the Top Earners Actually Do toProduce the Highest Consulting Incomes

“Bringing Clients to Beat a Path to Your Door”

By

Tom Lamberthttp://www.centreforconsultingexcellence.com/

http://www.rushmore.edu/













The keys to effective marketing tacticsFor more than 20 years the leading researcher in the field of the actual tactics that are usedby the highest earners was the late Howard Shenson. I have continued that work and you and

I are both beneficiaries of Howard’s legacy. From the following detailed notes of the specifictactics that will build your status, credibility, fees and earnings select those that arecomfortable for you and are appropriate to the to image and reputation that you want to build.Having selected one or more use it consistently - particularly in Howard Shenson’s immortalphrase, “when you are fat, dumb and happy”. The only way to smooth out the peaks andtroughs of demand for your services is to market yourself effectively and consistently.

Consistent has two separate meanings. If you are to build your reputation, credibilityand status in the eyes of your clients everything that you do must be consistent with the“brand image” that you are building. What is more you must choose those elements that youknow that you can apply consistently in the sense of never letting a week go by without aserious marketing effort. Client memories can be short. You need to remind them of your presence and skills on a regular and compelling basis. Only by applying the two modes of consistency will you bring clients beating a path to your door.

Mini Case Study An alumnus of my master class was advised to write a report in a field where he had

expert knowledge and a good deal of material already to hand. The report was completed ingood time and featured an area of considerable press and business interest. As a result thereport sold extremely well netting an income of £100,000 ($150,000).

The author also received excellent media coverage, particularly on television. Thetelevision appearances led, however, to no additional consultancy business. Why not?There were two reasons and you need to bear these very much in mind whilst making your choices.

1. The consultant concerned was a poor television performer with a tendency to talk atconsiderable length without coming to the point. The medium is such that short,compelling, carefully pre-planned answers are a must.

2. In all the words spoken the consultant gave viewers no specific reason to contacthim. He did not think to offer further information to any who made contact, nor did heclearly indicate how he might be in a position to assist enquirers with his services. Hesimply answered the questions that he was asked in a style inappropriate to themedium.

The following tactics have all been shown to lead to dramatic results, but only when theyare done well. When making your choices you need to ask yourself the following questions.

What are my talents? How can I use what I am good at to build my reputation and status in the

eyes of my potential customers? How can I be sure that I reach those who would benefit from my services? How will I encourage those who might assign me to make contact with me?

Which of the tactics that are appropriate to my personality, talents anddesired image will I still be happy to do when I am busy and tired?

MARKETING –What the highest earners still do to build and sustain their practices

A quick note may be of interest to the reader. What follows is based on around thirtyyears of global research. It details what the highest earners still do to build and sustain their practices. One and one assumption has been made. It is that what has sustained topearnings for many consultants for up to thirty years will work for you.

The so-called "window of opportunity" is open only briefly as an organisation'spriorities change. When they recognise the need for the services that you supply, yours mustbe the name that they know. You marketing therefore must be consistent and indirect. Aimed

specifically at making you well known to all your prospective clients. To put it simply, youneed to work to make yourself a “brand”. Yours must be the name that springs to mind when





the prospective client thinks; “I need professional advice”. You must ensure that clients “beata path to your door” because yours is the name that they know and trust.

You cannot hope to do this by paid for marketing alone. You must use low cost/nocost approaches partly because to do otherwise can be ruinously expensive and partlybecause paid for promotional puff only builds reputations over a long period of time. People’sfirst response to advertising, direct mail and the like is, “they would say that wouldn’t they?”

Their response to indirect and no cost methods is that they see you in action and they knowwhat you can do. So those things that you choose to do from the following must be those thatindicate clearly that you are a master of your trade.

Avoid pursuing dream approaches unless you are prepared to put in the preparation.If you want to speak at conferences, but are a poor speaker for example, consider attending aFrank Furness Speakers Boot Camp (www.frankfurness.com) and then practice until you candazzle and inspire audiences. If you aspire to writing a book then forget rubbish spoken aboutwriter’s block or “genius”. Learn to write every day. Be prepared to edit what you have writtenand edit again and again until the meaning shines through. Try to ensure that your personalityis in your work. I try to write as I speak. Then because speech takes ungrammatical short cutsI edit my work by improving the grammar and readability without losing the cadence. Most of all I refuse to believe in “writer’s block”. I might write garbage when the words do not floweasily, but I write because tomorrow I will edit what I have written and, after ten books and

countless articles, I know that it will come right in spite of the fact that I will never be satisfied.Indirect methods of marketing bring clients to you, clamouring for you to serve them.

Indirect methods include: Public Speaking Engagements to suitable audiences. Writing Books and/or Articles for the Trade Journals. Publishing your own Newsletter. Writing "Letters to the Editor" to get your views in the press at the lowest possible

cost in terms of time. Being Listed in Directories. (Very few clients use them, but as long as one does and

the entry is free your name ought to be there.) Being prominent in Professional or Trade Associations. Attending conferences and seminars and asking intelligent questions to which the

rest of the audience want the answer. (My old, very old, hero Peter Drucker once

asked of an HR guru who had waved his hands wildly as he mouthed platitudes aboutempowerment; “Why do you snarl when ever you mention people?” I will never forgetsuch an incisive and justified question which, had Mr. Drucker said not one wordmore, would have labelled him as by far the most meaningful speaker at theconference. There is quite enough cant in the world and I for one remain grateful toPeter Drucker and those very rare people that like him are prepared to cut throughthe hypocrisy and puncture meaningless pretentiousness.)

Developing and Delivering Seminars. Using the Press Effectively to promote you.These are the no cost/low cost tools of professional marketing. They may well be boosted

by paid promotion, but they alone are the foundations of credibility and success. They carrythe added advantages that they have been the proven and preferred strategies of the highestearning consultants in the world and that, unlike paid promotion they are not subject to the

Mandy Rice-Davies Syndrome: “They would say that, wouldn’t they”.

Your overall marketing strategy should be aimed at becoming well known in your field sothat potential clients beat a path to your door. I cannot over-emphasise the fact that clientsmust come to you. If you have no choice other than to go cold calling on potential buyers of your services you will, even if you are a superior salesperson, experience more rejectionsthan assignments. If you can get clients to come to you, begging you to serve them, you canbe a poor salesperson and still win business. If you market effectively and develop effectivesales skills you will be among the highest income consultants and the earnings of consultancycan be very high indeed. The global master of selling professional services and I arecombining our skills to provide the tools that will make superior professionals into confident,comfortable and expert salespeople. Keep an occasional watch on www.tom-lambert.org for developments.

Once at your door the potential client must not be driven away again by unprofessionalsales techniques. (Later we will concentrate on research into client psychology and how to

http://www.frankfurness.com/


http://www.tom-lambert.org/








sell while appearing to the client to be a compelling and logical professional advisor rather than a salesperson, but there is always more to it than that. Planning and structure areessential and we propose to provide tools that ensure that you are effective in both.)

Status, reputation and credibilityThe tactics that you select must be consistent with building your status and reputation

and must be comfortable for you to perform. Everything that you do must be consistent withthe image that you are seeking to build. With many less than effective practitioners out thereyou are your “product” and you need to be relaxed in that role. You apart, your product isintangible. Your reputation apart, the results of hiring you are unknown. Your personal statusapart, the client has little reason to seek your opinion. Never forget that your clients will, for the most part, be successful people. Unless your status in your chosen field or fields is veryhigh they are more likely to put faith in their own judgement in preference to yours. You haveto become a brand because unless your name triggers an effect in the mind of your prospective client they will go down the safe track toward the big and big name consultancy or they will seek to do what they must as cheaply as possible. This reduces your earningcapability at best and at worst it removes it all together.

Marketing must be regular and consistent. When you are "fat, dumb and happy" stilldiscipline yourself to market a minimum of 15% to 20% of your time. The joy of proven low

cost/no cost marketing strategies is that they can frequently be completed out of “normal”working hours. So you can market consistently no matter how busy you may be. What is moremost of them can become the means of earning while you are marketing. Some effectivemethods will enable you to watch money accumulate in your bank account even while yousun yourself on some favourite beach.

The moment that you stop marketing is the moment when the client, whose attentionspan may well be very short, begins to forget you.

Consistent and effective marketing is the only way to smooth the peaks and troughsof business. The business cycle is spinning ever faster. (Recent research at Harvard by deGeus shows that any business, regardless of size or assets, will go “belly up” within little morethan a decade without effective and consistent marketing allied to frugality.) That means thatclients need more help and they need it more quickly and more economically. They do nothave time to waste. Your marketing must shorten their decision time and your performance –

which is still part of your total marketing strategy – must lead to repeat and referral business.But you only get repeats and referrals if your initial marketing tactics get you the firstassignment.

At the same time your marketing effort must become a role model for the industry andfor your clients. You must do it often, do it right and do it at the lowest possible cost or your business will founder.

Are you considering investing in a brochure?

Mailing brochures to potential clients "cold" seldom brings a response and isprohibitively expensive, only mail to those for whom you have identified a need that your services can meet. It is better to avoid having brochures printed until the pressure of workmakes them an essential tool. (Designing and using an effective brochure will be dealt with indetail in a later section.) Write letters that specify what you can do for each individual client

until you are so busy that a brochure is the only practical answer to the many demands onyour time. Be sure that your letter states what you can do for the client, (results), why you willdo it from the client perspective, (benefits), but never tells the client how to do it themselves.Clients have been known to pass proposals, letters and brochures that take the form of arecipe rather than a marketing tactic to a friend at the golf club who, with your recipe to guidehim is able to do something of a job and feed himself with the income that should be puttingbread on your table.

The news is under-rated intelligenceWatch and read the news specifically as a market development exercise. Take a little

time out to watch business programmes on television. Look consistently for opportunities toserve. Consultancy is big business. It is a $100 billion dollar business. There is no end of competition. Any clues that you can find for new, creative and profitable applications of your

skills and knowledge will put you and keep you ahead of the pack.





CV’s don’t build business Avoid using a CV to promote your services to business. HR (Personnel) Departments

have become the "bin" into that unsolicited CV's are automatically dropped by Directors andLine Management. If your offer is not specific to the Personnel function you have little hope of attracting business. Worse, the use of a CV says "gissajob", and that is not the image for a

professional to convey. Recruitment specialists make it clear that even the best-crafted CVmay contain items that will put off a prospective employer. Their only remedy is to keep itshort. With clients the situation is worse. Unless you know the potential client well how do youknow how he or she will react to reading of your precious higher degree? Will they think thatanyone without an MBA cannot be worthy of a high fee? Or will they think that a higher degree simply enhances the likelihood of an unworldly, case study driven, academicapproach to business? Even Richard Pascal, the author of “Managing at the Edge” and tutor of many MBA programmes has asked, “who wants a couple of newly minted MBA’s holdingyour hands as you peer into the abyss?” Before my reputation went before me I had twopacks of business cards. In one pocket I had all my professional and academic qualificationsprinted after my name, in the other I had my name alone and unadorned. No potential clientreceived a card until I was clear which I should use.

Paid and frankly – less effective – marketingShould you choose to advertise do so only when there are many buyers in the

market. Advertising professional services is difficult and if you try to use it to stimulate aflagging market it is ruinously expensive and ineffective. Advertising must turn prospects intobuyers. No prospects, no buyers. It really is as simple as that.

There are two types of advertising. Tombstone advertisements slowly build the brand,sometimes over a number of years. They are glossy and impressive. They say to the worldthat this firm is successful. They imply success because they are expensive and make noattempt to persuade anyone to part with their money today. The ill-fated dot coms spentmillions on tombstone advertisements many of which were impressive, but would have beenmore so had they mentioned at least in passing what it was that the company advertisedactually did or could do for you or me. You and I cannot afford tombstone advertising.

If you choose to advertise you must use what Howard used to call haemorrhoid

advertising: “you have the pain, I have the ointment”. Haemorrhoid advertising has a well-known structure. It is well known because it works.It consists of:

A compelling headline that speaks directly to those that we want to read our advertisement and to nobody else. The headline does not scream, “Hey look at me.I’m clever” so much as “Read me. I ‘m important to you.”

A promise that you can deliver an outcome that will be recognised as having realvalue to the reader. This promise must be to deliver what the reader wants, not whatyou may want him or her to want.

Proof that you, and preferably you alone, can deliver all that you promise. Instructions on how to take action to get the outcome that you have promised. If you

advertise, indeed whatever you do, make it easy to contact you.For full details of advertising tactics and media you may wish to refer to my “Key

Management Solutions” or “High Income Consulting ”, but remember this above all things. Youmay wish to advertise to build on the brand that you have created for yourself, but the firstessential steps are to use low cost/no cost tactics that the client will believe in order to buildthat brand most quickly and at least cost.

Knowledge products beat promotional puff If you advertise try to do so through a "knowledge product" that may also bring you

some revenue. Something like a concise booklet, an audio or videotape, a tool or test, or thesubtle advertising of a paid for newsletter. The Internet’s propensity for free newsletters has toa major degree reduced the market for paid materials, but those who currently sellnewsletters as “knowledge products” argue that the paid-for market is growing again and thecompetition is less intense than you may think. In the good old days my colleague and mentor Howard Shenson had 250,000 subscribers paying $199 a year for an information-packed

newsletter.





An American who once called me to tell me that he was “the USA’s Tom Lambert”has a readership of more than 22,000 that he has built up in a matter of months. The key isthat, in Howard Shenson’s famous dictum, that your newsletter should be “very useful, but notquite useful enough”. In this way subscribers are encouraged to become clients.

Marketing Online

A conversation with a consultantMarketing and innovation, these are the drivers of profit in a business. The rest are costs. –Peter Drucker.

In spite of the debacle of the dot coms, especially in 1999 when £15 billion of investors money was urinated against walls by people who could not organise the proverbial“piss-up in a brewery” a website remains considerably more than a superior advertisingmedium for those that use it sensibly. The cost of getting on line may be modest, but theopportunities are not, so you owe it to yourself to think things through carefully. When I advisea corporation’s senior team that is developing a new business strategy these days theInternet remains an important feature. I ensure that clients take it very seriously.

The following are some of the questions that I would typically ask to ensure that myclients were planning for online success and not assuming that a Web presence is simply part

of the old routine.May I suggest that you carefully consider each question for yourself as well as using the

complete tool when working with clients? Some of the questions may not be directly relevantto you, but all are appropriate to most of your clients. Your additional business and the profitsthat it will bring will make you glad that you took the time.

In an ideal world where anything is possible what would you choose toaccomplish through your Web presence?

What is your objective for increased sales in the first year? How will a website support the achievement of this goal? What are your specific cost cutting goals? How do you expect to measure the economies of being online? How will your people become more productive?

How will you enjoy low cost/no cost entry into new markets? How will you switch from make and sell to sell and make? What products or services can be delivered online? What intermediaries can you stop having to pay? What are you doing to make your best customers more loyal? Some experts believe that online business will take off and will grow at a

cumulative rate of at 30% a year for the next 5 years. What are you doing toensure that you can handle the distribution and customer service problems thatcould arise if your business grew that fast or faster? (At this stage clients grin andsay: “That’s a problem I would like to have to deal with when it happens.” Towhich I rather bad temperedly reply; “Never mind the problem. What’s your solution?” In the last quarter of 2002 European online sales exceeded those of the USA for the first time. To do this they increased at an annual rate in excess of

60%. Meanwhile in the more mature market US sales only increased at a rate of 34% while those in more conservative Japan increased at a similar rate. It is notan idle question.)

What are your goals for customer service improvements? How will you measure your advances in customer service? What motivates your best customers to buy? What motivates them to buy from you? What motivates others with the same or better potential to buy elsewhere? Who do your best customers also do business with or get information from on the

Internet? What are your goals for doing joint ventures on the Internet? Can you list the Internet chat rooms, publications, newsgroups that your best

customers participate in? What do your best customers say about you and your service online and off it? How do your best customers perceive your business?





What precisely are your competitors doing online and what are you doing toensure a competitive edge?

As they change how will you stay ahead of the pack? What is the profile of your best customers? What future needs of your customers will your online presence enable you to

satisfy?

How do you plan to identify changing customer needs and expectations morequickly than your competition?

How are you building right now the competencies that you will need in the mostprofitable markets of the future?

What is your online marketing budget? What is your advertising policy? How many Internet PR pieces do you intend to have published each month? Who will publish them? Why will they publish your stuff? What are your growth limitations? What about order processing and fulfilment, e-mail capacity, credit card

processing and security, distribution and delivery, customer service and customer delight? What concrete steps have you put in place today to ensure your optimal

future growth potential?





E-Business Corporate Analysis

The following brief, but detailed survey is designed to enable you to take a fresh lookat your e-business strategy as you consider the degree to which you have established andare meeting optimal objectives for your firm. The survey is not exhaustive, but it is sufficiently

comprehensive to enable at least one or two “eureka!” thought breakthroughs for mostbusinesses and professional practices.

What are the key strategic or tactical benefits that you are seeking from your e-businessinitiative? Why have you chosen to go to the expense and trouble of having a website?Please tick each item that you are seeking from an online presence and give the others somethought. Should you widen your thinking about what the Internet might deliver for you? Haveyou set your sights on the right outcomes for today and, more importantly, tomorrow?

Sale of online advertising ___Building brands – existing products/services ___Opt-in email marketing ___Customer/market information ___

Access to world markets ___ Affinity (host/beneficiary) marketing ___Direct B2B sales ___Direct B2C sales ___Global presence/visibility ___Knowledge sharing ___Online training and development ___Sale of lists to e-mailers ___Cost reductions ___New advertising channel ___ Attracting new customers ___Improved buying terms ___Recruitment and retention of staff ___

Shorten supply chain (reduce intermediaries) ___Personalised customer service ___Reduced time-to-market ___24x7 availability to customers ___Global business platform ___Identify new suppliers ___Enhanced responsiveness to market ___Online distribution ___Faster decision making ___Low cost entry into new markets ___





To what degree have you been successful in enjoying the benefits of your e-businessstrategy? How well is it working for you? Has the web delivered what you planned for? Has itdelivered the unexpected? Do you need to revisit your strategy and beef it up a little – or alot? Please circle the appropriate number using the following guidelines.

0 = No success as yet

1 First glimmerings of results2 Some clear early benefits experienced3 Considerable benefits4 A major success

Access to world markets 0 1 2 3 4Sale of online advertising 0 1 2 3 4Building brands – existing products/services 0 1 2 3 4Opt-in email marketing 0 1 2 3 4Customer/market information 0 1 2 3 4Customer retention 0 1 2 3 4 Affinity (host/beneficiary) marketing 0 1 2 3 4

Direct B2B sales 0 1 2 3 4Direct B2C sales 0 1 2 3 4Global presence/visibility 0 1 2 3 4Knowledge sharing 0 1 2 3 4Online training and development 0 1 2 3 4Sale of lists to e-mailers 0 1 2 3 4Cost reductions 0 1 2 3 4New advertising channel 0 1 2 3 4 Attracting new customers 0 1 2 3 4Improved buying terms 0 1 2 3 4Recruitment and retention of staff 0 1 2 3 4Shorten supply chain (reduce intermediaries) 0 1 2 3 4Personalised customer service 0 1 2 3 4

Reduced time-to-market 0 1 2 3 424x7 availability to customers 0 1 2 3 4Global business platform 0 1 2 3 4Identify new suppliers 0 1 2 3 4Enhanced responsiveness to market 0 1 2 3 4Online distribution 0 1 2 3 4Faster decision making 0 1 2 3 4Low cost entry into new markets 0 1 2 3 4





What are the key performance indicators of your e-business? Please tick the appropriateitems. What are the sign posts which will tell you that it is working for you? What are thewarning signs that should scream at you; “do something different and do it now”?

Increased sales revenues in existing

markets ___Increased share of revenues fromnew markets ___Increased profitability ___Enhanced Return on Capital Employed ___Investment funds attracted ___Enhanced market value of company ___Competencies developed ___Information flow ___Cost per transaction ___Information distribution cost ___Increased stock turnover ___Customer retention ___

Customer satisfaction ___Market share ___Share of customer ___Overall cost reduction ___Staff reductions ___Sales per staff member ___Overall productivity ___Speed to market ___Number of customers ___Just in time deliveries ___Number of website visits ___Number of website transactions ___Trends recognised ___

Sales per website visitor ___Number of customer opt-ins ___Speed of response ___Service quality ___Staff retention ___Customer “churn” ___Staff “churn” ___Website downtime ___Brand recognition ___Transaction security failures ___





Having assessed your objectives, the status of your business to date and the key indicators of your online business success, you may well want to re-assess or reconsider your initial strategic and tactical considerations. If this small survey has helped you to think again it hasachieved its purpose.

Typical thoughts might include:

• Are we attracting enough visitors?

• Do they stay?• Do they welcome the offer of further information?

• Do they proactively request that we keep in touch?• Are we treating our customers as individuals with different needs?

• Do visitors buy online?• Do they come back to visit again?

• Do we know with certainty what the emerging needs of our customers are?• How do we compare against our competition when it comes to delighting the

customer?

• Do we know who are our online competition by name and understand each one’sunique marketing proposition?

• Does our site add transactional value for buyers?

• Does it give us added value as sellers?

• Does it make it easier than ever to do business with us?• Is our unique selling proposition emphasised effectively?• Could we use online activities to sell and make rather than to make and sell?

• Is our site properly integrated with the rest of the business?

• Is our site too clever to be useful to visitors?

• Does our site help build our service standards?• Are we attracting enough prospects of the right kind to our site?

• Have we entered into the right online strategic alliances?• Do we make it easy to do business online?

• Is our offline distribution up to the job?• Should we find ways to deliver more online?• Do we really understand how to keep in touch with the ever-changing search engine

algorithms?

• Are we treating our site as a technology breakthrough rather than a marketing andsales operation?

• Have we been persuaded by those with an axe to grind that a website is merely anelectronic brand building exercise?

• Have we a comprehensive strategy in place or was our web presence cobbledtogether by junior “techies” after the chairman returned from the golf course full of web enthusiasm?

• Does our offline marketing support success online?

• Has our web presence enabled us to cut costs?• Have we passed some of the advantages we have gained to our customers in the

exceptional value and quality of our offering?





Down and dirty marketing

1. How do you capture all customers, prospects, suppliers, distributors, affiliates,prospective affiliate promoters and joint venture partners’ email addresses?

2. Where would you find a list of, say, potential joint venture partners if you wanted to doit personally in a hurry?

3. What is the average purchase per visit?4. What is the purchase lifetime of the average customer?5. How frequently does the average customer buy?6. What parts of your range are “cash cows”?7. How are they promoted?8. What parts are “stars”?9. How are they promoted?10. What items are “question marks” at present?11. How are you keeping the costs of market testing them within bounds?12. What do you do to ensure that you can lose “dogs” without losing customers? (Note

for non-marketers:Cash Cows are established product lines that generate high revenues without further investment. Stars are high potential product lines that still require considerable

investment of money and effort to market, but which are selling well. Question marks are possibly future stars but which, at present need thorough market testing to justify a highinvestment of time, creativity and money. Dogs are slow moving low value lines that probably cost more to supply than they generate in profit. It is probably a good exercise tolook at clients and customers using the same definitions and the same nomenclature –but not in their hearing! )13. What specifically do you do to lengthen the product life cycle of cash cows and

accelerate the wide acceptance of stars?14. What is your policy for getting rid of customers who are and will remain more hassle

than they are worth?15. How often do you communicate with your customers?16. How do you personalise communications?17. What is in you signature file for emails?

18. Which host/ beneficiary deals are bringing in the most business?19. Which are bringing in the most profitable business?20. Which are competitions most profitable customers?21. What is your strategy for capturing them?22. What is your unique selling proposition online?23. What is it in the dirt world?24. What is your referral system?25. How do you reward referrals?26. If you could improve one key aspect of your marketing at a stroke what would it be?

I cannot pretend that this is an exhaustive list of questions that I ask in any specificsituation. Good questions lead to supplementary questions and they only have relevance inthe light of what has already been discussed. Similarly not all of the questions listed will be

the key questions to which your specific situation and strategy demands full and carefulanswers. They should, however, be of considerable relevance and, at the very worst, they willremind you of the important questions that you ought to be asking yourself.From a marketer’s viewpoint you must always keep in the forefront of your mind whether youmarket on line or in the local flea market:

• Who is my best type of customer?

• What do they need?• What do they want (WOMAN – wants overcome (lack of) money and needs)?

• What motivates them to buy?• What motivates them to buy from a specific supplier?• How can I give them more of what they like?

• How are their interests, needs and desires changing?

• If they want “A” today could they be persuaded to want “B” tomorrow?

• What is the lifetime value of a customer?• How much can I spend to attract the right customer?





• How will I delight and go on delighting my customers?• How can I dump those who are more trouble than they are worth without damaging

my reputation, credibility and image?

• How can I make the best, most economical use of emerging technology to delightand go on delighting my customers?

Ten tips for the small (and large) business website

1. Identity - Be clear about who you are and what you offer from the customer’sviewpoint.

2. Take a pride in your expertise, but don’t try to push what customers don’t want.3. Creativity – be creative, but never cloud the purpose of your business with cleverness

for its own sake.4. Constantly look at what works for others, adapt and adopt the best that your creativity

and budget can manage.5. Build customer loyalty and you will build employee loyalty without effort.6. Deliver more than you promise.7. Remember customers on line are short on time and attention, not money.8. Make it easy for people to buy on line.

9. Avoid pop up advertising and “get off my site” banners that distract customers fromtheir purpose.

10. Be consistent: market consistently when you’re fat, dumb and happy. Ensure thatyour messages consistently reflect the image that you want. Ensure that the customer is never confused by conflicting messages.

11. Make it easy to contact you.

(OK, we know that’s eleven, but always deliver more than you promise.)

If you already have a website

Who, outside the company has checked your website for speed of loading andease of use?

Do the headlines on each page sell to the customer as well as to the searchengines?

What are the specific benefits that you use? Are all contact details on each page? Do you give all potential customers clear and compelling reasons to give you

their e-mail addresses for further information? If I visited your page for looking for xxxxx what specifically would make me want

to permit you to keep in touch with me? How do you measure website traffic? How do you measure the sales per visitor? What keywords do people use to get to your site? What other sites, or newsrooms do they come from? How often do you check the search engines to ensure that you are in the top ten? How do you make the required changes when you find that you are slipping? How many times each day do your people check e-mails? How often do you check your auto responder messages to customers to be

certain that they are still relevant? When was the product or service information that you are currently sending out

last updated? Where do you display customer testimonials and how do you use them to build a

prospect’s confidence in you as the preferred supplier?





If you decide that you must advertise

1. Only use paid advertising when there is clearly no better alternative.Press releases, direct mail, word of mouth, seminars, conference presentations, point of salepromotions, articles in trade journals, letters to the editor or networking may be better and willcertainly be cheaper.

2. If you must advertise make sure that a high percentage of those who will see your message have an interest in what you offer.

Avoid being seduced by the agency view of reach. “Reach” has to mean that you place your advertisement only where it will be seen by a large number of potential customers rather thangetting the idle attention of uninterested passers by. Media are comprehensively listed inBRAD (SRDS in the USA) and Willings Press Guide. If you have designed the proverbialbetter mousetrap these publications will guide you to The Mouse Haters Gazette - if there issuch a recondite publication.

3. Design advertisements that lead the customer to take action.

Haemorrhoids are undoubtedly unpleasant, but given the unenviable choice betweenhaemorrhoids or a tombstone, I think that I might learn to live with haemorrhoids. (See the

next page for the simple rules for creating a haemorrhoid ad.)

The Key Steps Toward Successful Sensible Budget Advertising

1. Choose your medium with care.Having identified the probable media from Willings, BRAD or SRDS, contact them and ask for a “media pack”. This will tell you:• The demographic breakdown of the readership or audience;

• The numbers who buy the magazine or service;• The numbers who read, watch or listen to the publication or service;

• What those readers, listeners or viewers are interested in right now;•

What they are arguing about on the “letters” page or elsewhere;• What is likely to excite the editor or production team by helping to raise new issues -

contentious or otherwise. (But they generally prefer contentious.)With this information you can make an informed decision.

• Is this the right medium for you?• Might a cheaper approach than advertising get better results?

• Could paid advertising and editorial in work tandem?

• Should you become a radio or television personality?

• Might you usefully offer the editor a regular column or an “ agony aunt” piece that may turnyou into the world’s first “mousetrap guru”?

Pre-testing your advertising copyHaving carefully selected your medium as having the highest probability of reaching

the greatest number of people with whom you need to communicate, (those with the need or desire for the benefits that you offer and money to satisfy their desire), pre-test your copy.

1. Does the advertisement demand immediate, favourable attention?2. Is the headline powerful enough to dominate the infoclutter (excessive “information” to

which we are subjected every day of our lives) that surrounds it?3. Am I offering real benefits that are clear and desirable to my carefully chosen audience?4. Is the message concise, but unambiguous? Does it address a known need or desire?5. Is the layout clear and easy to read without wasting too much money on so-called “white

space”? (Black print on a white background remains the easiest to read, reverse printingtakes time and people are no longer generous with their time. Colour is fine, thoughexpensive, for pictures. It is less good for the text. You might like to exercise your own

judgement on the current BT advertisement that is a large, expensive blank square with a

message around its border suggesting that BT can help you to think out of the box.)6. Is the image of the firm that is conveyed appropriate and positive?





7. WouId the stimulus to action now work even on those with only a lukewarm interest in myoffering? (Am I appealing to people’s self interest?)

8. Is it absolutely clear how to respond?9. Are the simple things like address, telephone number, e-mail address and fax number

accurate and easy to find?10. Does the advertisement show why you should buy from me rather than my competitors?

11. Would I spend my own money on what is offered in this advertisement?12. How would I rate the overall impression created? What will be the “gut” response?

Only if the answers to each of the above questions are positive does your advertisement stand a realistic chance of competing for attention and action in the “noise” whichsurrounds every piece of present day communication. Being “good enough” doesn’t cut it anymore. We are in a world that is overloaded with messages. Yours must give people a compellingreason to give you some of their very limited capacity for attention. The most compelling reasonto attend is that “here is something that I want to know about - and I want to know now”. Peopleare selfish, greedy and in a hurry. Entice them, play to their greed and make it snappy.

Summary Advertise only when you have to in order to reach a wider audience that you cannot reach byother means. Do your advertising on the back of existing low cost/no cost tactics so that your

name is known to a proportion of readers who will then approach your advertisement withinterest and belief. Make it easy for potential buyers of your services to respond. If you mustadvertise, stick to the haemorrhoid variety.

Sit right down and write yourself a letter

As infoclutter has caused the effectiveness of advertising to fall, the traditional marketer’s faithin direct mail has risen. Strangely one of the worst ideas thought up by the “show me abandwagon and I’ll drive it” school of consultancy to damage business reinforced the belief for awhile. Downsizing improved the chances of getting your mail into the right hands as moreexecutives found themselves forced to take on the onerous task of opening their own mail. By1999 52% of marketing spend in the United States was devoted to direct mail. Direct mail canbe very effective. As a result of the anthrax scares following 9/11 email direct mail hasincreased at around 60% per annum. This raises new areas of concern including the matter of SPAM. As a general rule email mailing lists should be generated through opt-in mailingrequests. A key way of encouraging such requests is through a useful website that providesexcellent information in an easy to access form.New variations on the direct mail theme make it very effective indeed, but for the moment let usconcentrate on the traditional approaches.

Direct Mail

Advantages DisadvantagesMessages can be directed at Total dependence on the quality of a highly selective target group the list

Mailings can be highly Bought lists need constant updatingpersonalised

Messages can be long and Some rented lists can only be used onceand full of information - Researchmakes it clear that long copy sells

Timing can be totally flexible We have come to hate “junk mail”

Can keep you in touch with You have, according to research, no more thanvalued customers and build 8 seconds to catch the reader’s attentionreferral and repeat business

Can sometimes “piggy back” Getting attention is only half the battle, onlywith non-competing material maintaining it wins the war





Average response rates are low 0.5% is common,1% is good, 2% is sometimes regarded as amarketing miracle.

It costs more, but...........

Research Case Study Research has shown that there are ways to raise low response rates to direct mail.

The American Marketing Association conducted an experiment some years ago. Identicalmailings were sent to carefully targeted, equal in size and potential experimental and controlgroups. The control group received the mailing in the normal way. The experimental group wassent the same promotional material but:

It was preceded by a telephone call to the recipient with the objective of persuading him/her tolook out for it. (A member of the opposite sex to that of the recipient generally made the call. Thenear compulsion of keeping a promise to a member of the opposite sex is strong in most of us.)

After the mailing was received a follow up telephone call was made to establish the recipient’sresponse to what they had read.

The control group response rate was a little under 1%.

The experimental group-purchasing rate was a little over 15%.

As I write this The Institute of Practical Marketing is replicating this experiment. Having recommended the approach I received an email this morning to let me know that their responserate so far is an almost miraculous 90%. It clearly cannot stay at that level. The programme is inits early stages, but their experience is certainly underlining the effectiveness of the approach.

It is educational to consider just what happened in this case. Like most of us the experimental

group probably disliked junk mail. Their usual response to it was probably to bin it without evenopening it or to glance at it and decide that it held no interest for them. But that telephone callhad persuaded them to look out for this mailing and the vast majority of us keep our wordespecially if doing so is neither too onerous nor too expensive. So for starters it is almost certainthat more people read the message, but there is more to it than that. Psychology teaches us thatwhen we do something out of the ordinary we justify the changed behaviour to ourselves anyway than we can. More people read the mailing, but more importantly they read it with theintention of finding something worthwhile in it. In short they sold themselves on the message.

This three-pronged approach costs a little more, but unless you can afford massivemailings a 15 to 1 response ratio is almost certainly worth the additional cost. This isparticularly true for those who take our advice and test their marketing initiatives with smallnumbers. A few thousand telephone calls will stretch the budget of all but the biggestspender, but a couple of hundred brief calls, even if repeated, can be carried out relativelyquickly and cheaply.

Using new marketing methods we can produce response rates of between 35% and70%. We will tell you how as we progress, but there is no escaping the groundwork and thatgroundwork may include old fashioned direct mail.

Roses, roses all the way

Before we look at the new ideas in a later chapter it may be useful to look at howsome very clever people have overcome the problems of direct mail. One of the mostsuccessful mailings of all time before E-Market Dominance was discovered went like this.





Case study The bane of the mailing expert’s existence is the gatekeeper or dragon. The personalassistant who dumps unsolicited mail in the bin rather than bother a busy boss with it. If, andonly if, you can get your message past the gatekeeper and into the hands of the intendedrecipient can you make a sale. This innovative approach went like this:

• Most PA’s in this sexually unequal world are still women.• Most women like flowers and regard red roses as particularly romantic.

• Romance and mystery go together and are great, though harmless, fun.This mailing was aimed at chief executives with the intention of getting them to a

meeting to assess a new and exciting concept. The whole campaign went like this:

Step One: A single long stemmed red rose was mailed to each gatekeeper. It had a gold edged cardattached bearing no message, only the lady’s given name. The card was attached to the roseby a green ribbon.

Step Two:Three days later a gold edged envelope with an identical ribbon and addressed to the chief executive arrived in the mail. Inside was an invitation card that matched that which had beenattached to the rose in every way except that it bore details of the proposed meeting and wastherefore larger. The PA’s, in the main, went further than simply passing the invitation to theboss. They drew his/her attention to it and treated it as if it was very special. The responserate for attending the meeting was 78 out of 100. Putting that another way 78 busy businessopinion leaders attended the meeting and assessed the concept and bought into the idea.More importantly they became advocates who praised the idea to their business contactsleading to many more unsolicited sales.

The firm with the idea to sell was a marketing consultancy, but every entrepreneur should be prepared to think through successful approaches with the intention of building their own creativity.

Consultants are better than most.........but they must do better

In 1997 the Direct Mail Information Service researched 38 mailings from differentconsultants. If consultants offer anything worth buying to their clients they ought to be able todo better than most in promoting their wares. Fortunately their results were an improvementon the 0.5% to 2% that we have learned to expect. They scored on average a response rateof 5.3%. Of course, consultants seldom use mailings to sell a product or service. They sell ameeting with the potential client so you would expect a higher response rate than the norm ontwo accounts:1. It is an easier sale.2. Consultants should be good at doing what they teach others to do.

An idea from an acknowledged master

With cheap and easy communication by email many people think that direct mail assuch is dead. This is far from true if you are prepared to use a little imagination. Oneconsultant that I have heard of builds her business by sending out around 500 pre-printedpostcards each month. She finds that this approach brings in real dividends at relatively lowcost. It does not mean that she does not have her own email-based newsletter, but her postcards are different and it is being different that catches the attention. She explains thesuccess of her postcard campaign as follows. People these days receive several hundred,maybe thousands of emails each week. On the other hand they receive very few postcards.

As a result postcards may just get a touch more attention because they are a relative rarity.What is more, by using postcards rather than stuffing envelopes she keeps the cost down andovercomes any concerns that may still be around after the anthrax scares of last year that

opening an envelope from an unknown source can carry danger with it.The important thing is always to look for ways to stand out from the growing crowd.With that in mind I repeat the proven advice of an acknowledged master. The combination of





carefully researched advice and experience in the real world may just provide you with thekiller approach to bringing in even more business. But never forget the need for consistency.The lady referred to above finds that less than nine mailings a year and her business suffersmeasurably.

Drayton Bird is a genius of copy writing. You might expect him to emphasise that thecopy is the only thing that counts. He doesn’t. His Drayton Bird Partnership says that a

number of factors contribute to mailing success. They say that you can improve your successby a factor of up to 58 times if you get it all right. What counts in his expert opinion is:

The Mailing List (factor x 6)The Offer (factor x 3)The Timing (factor x 2)Creativity (factor x 1.35)Response Mechanism (factor x 1.2)

Get it all right and you may improve your hit rate by a factor of 6 x 3 x 2 x 1.35 x 1.2 = 58

On that basis we could all do better, much better.

To improve the effectiveness of direct mail

1. Get a good mailing list. You are buying an expensive ticket for a lottery if you buy a listdirectly from the list owner. Keeping the list up to date is a difficult and expensivebusiness. Too many list owners cut corners when it comes to cleaning the list. You canimprove your chances by going to a reputable list broker. Brokers want your business. Tokeep your business they want you to be delighted. Given an accurate brief they will findexactly what you want. They buy in lists every day. They know those who keep their listsup to date and those who do not. Be extra careful when buying lists on the Internet. Theymay have been collected by dubious means and use of them to send unsolicited e-mailscan lead to your site being removed by your Internet service provider.

2. Be clear about your offering. Differentiation is vital in marketing. You must make itabsolutely clear why the customer should buy from you.

3. Get and hold the reader’s attention. Speak directly to your reader. Identify a problemthat is hurting them or make an offer that they would die for.

4. Use long copy if you’re certain that the reader will want to know more. If they don’twant to know more why are you writing?

5. Use incentives, coupons or free gifts. People are greedy, but make sure that what youoffer is really attractive.

6. Use telemarketing first and last if you can afford it. See case study above.7. Think carefully about your timing. Most products are seasonal in some way. You may

need an exceptional offer to sell heating oil in July.8. Make it easy to respond. Provide response mechanisms with the customer’s

convenience, not yours in mind. People like (0)800 phone numbers, but not if they areunmanned or always engaged. Most of us don’t like those tin voices that tell us to “Press 1for account enquiries, ...............press 9 to express despair........

9. Look for creative ways to get your message into the right hands. It doesn’t need to bea rose, though I think roses are nice.

10. Personalise your letters. No one likes to think that you can’t even be bothered to usetheir name.

11. Avoid sexual assumptions. Not all bosses are men. Not all secretaries are women.and12. Learn how to use new media such as email effectively

To write letters that sell

1. Plan. The great copywriters say that they spend 90% of their time planning and 10%writing. Those who do the most effective writing and therefore plan best can charge up to$50,000 for a single letter.

2. Personalise your letter. Build a personal relationship with your customer from the firstmoment. You need to become the friend that they rely on. (Most of us regard letters which





are sent without the courtesy of using our name as the worst of junk mail. To recover froma start like that demands a wonderful offer and a truly creative letter. Worst of all is “Dear Sir or Madam”, if you can’t even get the reader’s sex right, what chance do you have inaccurately predicting his or her needs.)

3. Write your letter from the recipient’s point of view. If you can offer the solution to animportant problem which you and I both know that I face, I might bite your hand off.

(Frankly, the wonderful technology or what have you that your firm has doesn’t interestme. I want to know what your widgets will do for me, not how clever you think you are.)

4. Customers buy benefits. Your biggest benefit is your offer. Tell the reader early andpowerfully what your offer is then build your case until the reader cannot wait to buy.(Remember you only have, on average, eight seconds to grab your reader’s attention.)

5. If your product is new to your reader, explain it to the reader in detail and hammer home what it will do for him or her. If it has been around for some time tell the reader what makes it different and better than competitive widgets and emphasise what thatdifference does for them. The more ferocious competition is, the more you must convincethe reader that you are offering them better value.

6. Prove that you can deliver all that you promise, and more. Include quotes fromdelighted customers or authorities.

7. Most firms spend most of their time and efforts on trying to attract new customers - don’t.

Delighted existing customers are six to eight times easier to sell. That means thatyou can get six to eight times the sales by simply keeping in touch. (You might evenconsider saying “thank you” now and again without pushing for a sale. Happy customerswho have a need will come to you to fulfil it.)

8. We all make rational decisions that would delight the economist. It is only others who useemotions when they decide to buy. Mix emotions and logic in your correspondence. (Logic implies that the reader is logical and that implication appeals to their emotions.)

9. Move the reader to buy now and make buying easy. 10. Underline and emphasise what you want the reader to notice. (But remember that if

you that if you emphasise everything, you emphasise nothing.) 11. If your product or service is expensive, your letter needs to be longer. Long copy

sells and there is a proven relationship between the cost of the offer and the length of theletter.

12. Sign letters. It may be a chore, but people like to buy from people that they like and wedon’t like impersonal facsimile signatures.

13. Never forget the old dictum that a letter needs to be “a salesperson in anenvelope”.

Breaking the 8 second barrier

Copy writing gurus have tested opening sentences of letters and have suggested anumber that have been proved to work. The first few words of a letter determine whether your reader will read greedily and sell him or herself on the offer or will consign your work of literature to the bin. Why not try the appropriate openings from ideas listed here:

1. Ask a provocative question. I sometimes ask prospective clients who are buying

training; “How much have you wasted on training in the last few years?” Most tell me ingreat detail and with not a little chagrin. Then I tell them how they need never wasteanother cent. Provocative questions take a little moral fibre, but they arouse, sometimespassionate, interest in what you have to say.

2. Suggest a vital decision. “The decision that you will make after reading this letter maymake the difference between disaster and prosperity.” Your offer of course must besufficiently important to the customer to justify such an approach.

3. As you know......... People love to be told how knowledgeable they are, that’s why thosewho most enjoy training courses are those who didn’t really need the training.

4. If you’re anything like me......... People like to buy from people that they like and we likebest people who are like us.

5. What if..... “If you could wave a magic marketing wand, what would you wish for?” Youmake an informed guess and show them that they’ll get it from you. (More profit, higher

sales, happier customers, less customer hassle or the biggest benefit that your offeringcan deliver.)





6. Congratulations. “Your position as an industry opinion leader entitles you to....” Only the other person likes flattery, but it is amazing how much they all love it.7. Invitation. “You are invited to a secret preview.”8. Free gift. Preferably with no strings attached.9. Narrative. A funny thing happened when I took up my pen to write this letter.”10. Introduction. “We don’t know each other, but we should because you and I.”

11. You did that, so we’re doing this. “Your generous action has not gone unnoticed.”12. You’re a rare bird. “The American Express Gold Card is not for everyone.” This is the

opening of one of the most famous and successful letters ever.13. “The experts say......” Respect for expert authority is a hardwired part of the human

psyche.14. “Are you paying too much.............” 15. “Why are we doing this?” (Your good reason for doing it must be good for the customer,

not you.)16. Give good news after bad. “Competition gets tougher every day, but you have the

answer in your hands right now.”17. “Have you ever wished........” 18. “Why don’t (do) they............” (It helps when we all hate “them”.) The great Peter

Drucker was once the main speaker at an international business conference. Another

speaker finished and the chair asked for questions. There was silence. Drucker intervened. “I have a question, sir. Why is it that you always snarl when you mentioncustomers?”

19. “I’ve missed you so I.........” ( A bit like Readers Digest perhaps, but Readers Digestdoes pretty well.)

20. “I’ve enclosed....” Make sure that the enclosure is interesting, valuable or useful to therecipient.

21. Solve a problem. “You don’t need to lose sleep over rising interest rates...........”22. “I’ll get straight to the point.” (If you try this you must be brief, even terse, so be sure

that you can get your offer across in very few words.)23. Because you’re an “A” you must be a “B”. “Cat lovers like you love........”24. “You are important to us so we want you to be the first to know........” 25. Others can’t we can. “ No one dare promise to get your Web site consistently in the top

ten, no one but us.”26. “When was the last time that you........” 27. “Less than an hour ago I realised.............” (The shorter the period of time the more

compelling - within reason.)28. “I love to share great ideas..........” 29. “I’m surprised that we haven’t heard from you............” 30. “In the less than two minutes that it will take you to read this letter.............”





The low cost/no cost tactics that deliver professional exposure and build credibilityNo matter how effectively you use paid for marketing it is seldom as effective as no

cost/low cost tactics. Unlike paid approaches these build credibility and status rather thanmerely communicate an offering.

Conference appearances

The best, most successful consultants are often the most adept at entertaining andinspiring audiences. If you have the talent or are prepared to put in the work conferencespeaking is something of a royal road down which clients may pour to reach your door.

When speaking at conferences before groups of potential clients be sure to give eachperson something that they will take away and to which they will refer and so keep handy.(Research in the USA showed that 13% of seminar and conference audiences were activelyassessing the speakers for possible assignments. They have got to remember your name,especially if they don’t get a chance to talk to you at the event. I find myself speaking toaudiences of up to 1000 or more. I cannot hope to speak with them all individually, but theycan all take away a useful piece of paper that, among other things, tells them how to contactme.) This excludes brochures almost by definition – they get left, sweat-grimed and dog-

eared in the toilets. Some information from a survey you have completed, some new tips andtechniques or new findings in business, economics or psychology are useful and retained. Asa business consultant I sometimes provide economic data, a brief note on some newlegislation, a business tool, a list of sources of information or a little psychometric self -test.These are the kind of things audiences keep and to which they continue to refer after theevent. Twenty or so years ago I produced a brief summary of how a “buyer” thinks whenfacing a decision. People still drag it, dog-eared and thumb-marked from pockets or handbagsand show me it with pride when we meet. An American colleague of mine used to hand out asmall mathematical trick. The trick had nothing to do with his business offering, but peopleloved it and copied it for friends and colleagues. It was a pre-Internet example of viralmarketing. Ed Stivala, the most magical of consultants, does a close magic trick with aplaying card that miraculously goes from being a plain backed card to one that bears hisbusiness details. As a playing card it is the “wrong” size to go into a crad file – another

expression for “lost” – it has the potential client’s signature on it as part of the trick and it is asouvenir so it is kept. We can’t all do magic perhaps, but you and I ought to think seriouslyabout how our business card can become something that people keep carefully apart from allthe others that they collect and to which they refer frequently. As in Ed’s case thinking “Iwonder how he did that”. How could you turn your simple card into a treasured souvenir?

When you speak avoid name-dropping. Confidentiality remains the key. On the other hand be ready to pepper your speech with anecdotes that demonstrate that you are paid toprovide business services, that you are good at what you do, that you are an accessible andlikeable person who can be approached without fear and above all, since most conferencesare dreary beyond belief, that you have a sense of humour.

Avoid telling jokes unless you are very good at it. Rather tell self-deprecating littlestories about real amusing experiences. My good friend Michael Cox and I were travellingtogether to a conference in South Africa. We stopped at a roadside restaurant to freshen up in

the rest room. The place was spotless. Mike congratulated the young guy in charge and gavehim a generous tip. The man was clearly delighted. He grinned a grin that threatened to splithis face in two. He hopped from one leg to the other as he tried to think of a way toreciprocate. Suddenly he had a great idea. He raised the air freshener spray that gave thetoilets their not unpleasing smell and sprayed Mike and I liberally. It was an interesting noveltyfor two keynote speakers to arrive at an international conference smelling like a well-maintained lavatory.

Recently I had the good fortune to hear Shelley Cooper (http://www.shelleycooper.co.uk/) speaking at a consultants’ conference. Shelley is a smartand funny lady with all the skills needed to hold an audience in the palm of her hand. Talkingabout and brilliantly demonstrating the use of humour in a presentation she warned againstthe use of jokes unless you have remarkable skills of timing and delivery. There is plenty of humour in the world that we live in and enough in what happens in our daily lives to enliven

any speech if you look for the gentle comedy of every day living. Rather than risk a joke that,should it fail to get a laugh, leaves you high and dry, talk about your family, your personal

http://www.shelleycooper.co.uk/







shortcomings, your pet hates or those slightly quirky things that you hold most dear and youwill get supportive laughter or smiles from those who experience the warmth that comes fromhaving similar feelings or encounters.

When my daughter Carole was about 5 years old she, along with her classmates wasasked by her teacher “what does your daddy do?” I am told that Carole gave this questionmuch thought. Finally and hesitantly she answered; “I think he talks at people.”

Shelley’s final piece of advice is as essential to those who believe that they areblessed with a remarkable talent as it is to those of us who need to quieten the butterflies, gritour teeth, smile through our fears and perform. It is to practise, practise and then practisesome more.

Learn from the masters Attend conferences when you can. Listen to the best in the business. Learn from

them, but be careful not to steal their material. They almost certainly deliver it best.If you can afford it go on a good training course. The best that I know of is Frank

Furness’ Speakers Boot Camp www.frankfurness.com. This intensive programme fits thespeaker for the task like no other and is increasingly available across the globe.

Be ready to speak

Write two good speeches one of about 20 minutes and another of around twice thatlength and practise both until your delivery is highly professional. Never be afraid to givesuccessful speeches again and again to different audiences. The more time that you repeat aspeech the better you will become at delivering it.

Having two speeches of different lengths ready means that you can step into thebreach at short notice. Conference organisers love speakers who can get them out of trouble.Mike Cox, one of the world’s best gave five speeches to the same audience in one day whenthree booked speakers failed to arrive due to illness or accident. (The fourth did arrive – sadlyhe was drunk.)

Make sure that your contact details are clear on all pieces you hand out, and formatthem to easily go into handbags or pockets. Fold A4 sheets three times and you have madean ideal breast pocket piece. As I mentioned above I have clients who still carry usefulmaterial 20 years after the event. They are old, but precious. (So are the clients.)

We all search for useful information

If you promote an information product through advertising always charge for it.People with no real interest in your services will send for "freebies" just to pass the time,(consider how often you have idly ticked advertiser’s boxes in an in-flight magazine or “subscribed” to an online newsletter that you never get time to read). A small charge producesqualified leads that really want to know more. Remember that my old guru Howard Shensonused to say that the really skilled consultant always gave “enough to be interesting, but notquite enough to be as useful as it appears”. That is why clients would beat a path to his door.They liked what they had and they wanted more.

The one exception to charging for information pieces is on the Internet. The searchengines, like God, love a cheerful giver. A few simple but desirable bits and pieces givenfreely from your website can attract search engines and visitors and will bring visitors back

again and again looking for more of the same. I will be building the free side of www.tom-lambert.org slowly, but consistently until it delivers an unequalled treasury of tools, techniquesand information for professionals.

Speakers’ bureauxIf you have the talent, determination, knowledge and skills to be a much sought after

conference speaker you may wish to register with a speaker’s bureau in order to more widelyexploit your capabilities. There are many excellent bureaux in most parts of the world. Mostwill require that you provide them with the subjects, titles and areas that you wish to speakabout as well as the geographical areas in which you are happy to work. Almost all will wantto see a video of you delivering a talk to a live audience. Most will consider anything that yousend them. After all they will, if you are in demand, make a considerable income from findingyou work. I am personally happy to pay 20% of the fee for occasional work with a sliding scale

for frequent bookings. (It slides upwards – the more I work, the more I am willing and able topay.) Some bureaux seek to charge a considerable fee for just looking at your work. I













personally do not even bother to tell them where to go. I ignore them and their offer. If I investin my reputation and skills and that delivers income to them I expect them to invest a littletime in checking out a serious business opportunity.

Never talk and runWhen I appear at a conference I take the view that my fee is for the duration of the

conference and not for the hour or less for which I might be speaking. John Harvey-Jonesgave me this advice some years ago and I pass it to you with confidence. By remaining for the duration of the conference not only do you enable some of those interested to speakdirectly to you, but you also hear many conversations and discussions concerning what isreally important to your audience right now. This enables you to direct your presentationstraight toward the current and future needs of your audience. Once at the end of a three-dayconference in America I had heard so many re-iterated concerns that I was able to use thewhole of my presentation to suggest solutions to the audience’s problems and ideas to exploittheir vaguely thought-through opportunities. An audience that had been sitting bored for threedays came to life and they and I had a most invigorating exchange of ideas followed byglowing tributes and recommendations. It is a very valuable marketing activity just to beaccessible – and to keep ears and eyes open and mouth shut until the moment comes tospeak.

There is time for everything – if you care to use it Use travel and leisure time to keep in touch with clients and prospective clients.

When you see an item in print that you believe is of interest to a potential or existing client,circle it with ink, tear it out, photocopy or fax it and send it with a hand written note. To makemost effective use of time write the notes when watching TV or travelling by train or air. Thiswill keep those who could use your services, or refer you to others thinking of you and feelinga little indebted to you. Psychological research – Cialdini et al – shows that we are generallydriven to reciprocate for any and all “good turns”. Be sure that you do good turns for otherswithout an expectation of direct or immediate return, however, because although what goesaround does tend to come around it can take a hell of a time to make the trip.

When you tear out a piece for transmission make it look and feel as if you have takensome trouble to do it. Tear the paper by hand leaving a rough edge that says, “he or she saw

this and thought of me”. A neatly excised piece carefully cut with scissors fails to have thesame emotional impact.

Magazine and journal articlesRegard lifelong learning as a critical part of your marketing strategy. The more

knowledgeable you are the more ideas you have to exploit and the easier it is for you to findmaterial for interventions as well as articles and talks.

If you choose to write articles make sure that they appear where they will do the mostgood. Avoid the academic journals. It takes months for an article to go through the peer review system and by the time it appears your piece may have lost its topicality. What isworse the readership is unlikely, for most consultants, to be made up of prospective clients.Go instead for the trade press or the serious newspaper or magazines. If you want to target aspecific market check out the appropriate publications in Willings Press Guide, British Rates

and Data or Rates and Data (USA). If you don’t know the publication that you feel will reachyour target audience either buy a copy of the publication or call them and ask for a media pack. The media pack will give you reasonably reliable data on who reads the magazine –whether it is decision-makers or junior management – how many buy the publication and anestimate of how many are passed copies to read. The publication itself will tell you what arethe hot topics as well as indicating the preferred style and length of articles.

If possible try to be taken on as a regular contributor. I have written regular articles for newspapers in several parts of the world. The best journalistic job for a consultant is tobecome a business “agony aunt”. That way you have a privileged insight into the problemsand opportunities facing business as well as having the best of reasons to contact thosecompanies where the described challenge or opportunity is too complex to be dealt with onthe printed page. Business can come to you that way. You have what sales people call “warmprospects” since, having written to you, the enquirer is already identifying you as a trusted

expert.





Don't be afraid of becoming a guru. Comment on trends and happenings in your chosen field to the press. Cultivate journalists. They are as lazy as the rest of us and theywelcome easy and regular sources of information and opinion. Once they start to use your written pieces or calls there is a snowball effect as they increasingly turn to you for comment.That way your name can frequently be seen in the publications without your having written aline.

In your own columns and articles ally yourself in the public mind with the decision-makers in the field that you serve. Comment on what important people are saying or doingand you will rapidly become seen as one of the "makers and shakers" of an industry or profession. This is the one place where “dropping names” is permissible. If you quote directly,however, make sure that your quote is accurate. You can safely attribute a thought or belief tome or anyone if you carefully check your source. You cannot, however, quote me unless youquote me absolutely accurately. Some writers, for example, if they feel that you havescrambled their invariable deathless prose will regard what you have written as damaging andunder US law they can demand damages from you in return. If you have a newsletter, (morelater), ask your important clients for their views on how their industry is faring. Check that theylike the way that you have written up what they said and print their names in bold type, I’ll tellyou why in detail later.

Letters get your name in printIf you lack the ability or time to write articles, but want to have your name seen in the

papers or trade journals write letters to the editor. Pick a current theme and be contentious.Make sure that all means of contacting you are readily seen in your signature block. Readerswill either think you a genius, (if they agree with you), or an idiot (if they don’t). Either waythose with the strongest feelings may contact you and effective networking may follow adisplay of intelligence and tact that proves that not only are you no fool, but you are also aneasy person with whom to communicate.

NewslettersThe world and his wife all have newsletters these days. Make yours different. Too

many are merely some variant on the boasting book. “I have done this. I have done that.” If you want to have a newsletter that works for you make it information rich in ways that will help

your reader. Aim it accurately at the readers’ known needs and provide some immediatesatisfaction. Make your readers think, “that is useful – how can I get more of the same?” Invitecomment, enquiries and controversy. Turn over your newsletter now and again to other topnames that will give you kudos by association. I use my more influential and professionalfriend’s ideas in this way unblushingly, even if I have to write the copy myself from what theytell me. If you work this way be sure to have the person that you have quoted approve thecopy. Their reputation and status is important and they have the right to be quoted to their satisfaction. If they choose to change your beautiful purple prose; then publish what they havewritten or have asked you to write. It is no less than intellectual fraud to use someone else’sname to give credence to ideas that are not theirs but merely your own.

Have industry leaders contribute their thoughts by interviewing them about the futureor current state of their industry. Check that they approve of the copy before sending it outand encourage them to send it to their peers. Ask them for contact details of others who might

benefit from reading their valuable and expert opinion because if they have taken the troubleto think issues through they will want other opinion leaders to be aware of their conclusions.In this way you get your newsletter into the hands of more potential clients – and there ismore.

Being a writer opens doorsBusiness leaders rarely speak directly to consultants. They usually employ others to

do that for them. The higher in the organisation a person is the less likely that they are tohave direct personal, day-to-day contact with consultants. Interview the top person well andyou may well be the only consultant that he or she knows.

Top people do, however, speak to authors and journalists. When interviewing abusiness leader never hide the fact that you are a consultant as well as a writer. You may wellbe the only consultant with whom they have had a protracted discussion. If you behave

professionally your name will be the one that comes to their mind when in the boardroom or elsewhere the need for external advice or action is raised.





Let your readers put your newsletter on their websites with a simpleacknowledgement of authorship and details of how to contact you. The more places that itcan be read the better. Make sure that publication of your stuff is unedited. If your name is onit, you want it to be your truth and all your truth.

Forgive me while I repeat the essential prerequisite for getting assignments throughcontact with top people. It is worth repeating. When you interview industry leaders, when you

speak at conferences, when you write articles or newsletters make no secret of the fact thatyou do consultancy and you get well paid for doing it. If you do a good job expressing andpresenting your views or those of other people your listeners or readers will remember andbusiness may come to you.

SeminarsThere is a special and very important relationship that exists between those who

teach and those who choose to learn. I remember although it was many years ago now asenior colleague from Switzerland who never missed a seminar that I conducted even thoughhe had to travel far and wide to attend. When I asked him what drove his enthusiasm heanswered, “Ultimately the standard of living of my family, my car, my house and everythingelse that I enjoy at present is in the gift of General Motors and could be taken away. What yougive me is mine alone. No matter what GM decide I will always have what I have learned from

you. That is mine - absolutely mine.” I have never had a better testimonial, yet any trainer whois worth his or her salt will have had many similar experiences.

What is more, to remain commercially minded, research shows that at least one inthree of any group that you teach effectively will use your other services at some time.Conducting worthwhile seminars is an effective way of marketing everything that you can do.

If you are planning to start to run seminars try think like an entrepreneur at first rather than as a trainer. Do not produce expensive handouts, documentation or materials until youknow that there is a market for what you offer. Howard Shenson used to advise many whosought to share the knowledge that they had gained by conducting seminars. He used to saythat trainers came to him burdened down with caseloads of expensive paper with no real ideawhether there was anyone out there to buy their wares. Conversely the entrepreneur cameempty-handed, but with a brain teeming with ideas.

Nobody knew the market better than Howard. He had tested it again and again. People

would pay and attend in great numbers for seminars that taught them all or any of thefollowing.

How to make more money; How to keep more of the money that they made; How to get more out of life.

If you can devise a seminar that delivers any or all of the above and if you are prepared tostart your teaching business with a subject that you can deliver effectively without notes or props you may make so much income that you have no need to use training as a marketinginitiative. When you know absolutely that people will pay good money to attend, then and onlythen, should you invest in fancy materials and handouts. Try to bear in mind that although thepurpose of low cost/no cost marketing is to build and sustain your professional practice, thateverything that you elect to do should be aimed at building your credibility and status while

bringing in extra income.Give people what they want to know. Deliver it so that they will understand and apply it.

Provide them only with notepaper and pencils and they will develop their personal notes andbecause those notes will highlight specifically what they want to know right now, they willvalue them the more. Later as your income increases you can provide all the expensiveextras that add value.

Seward and Gers et alIf you intend to conduct seminars you would be wise to have a practical

understanding of how to ensure that what you teach is transferred to the world of work. At thevery least you should understand the old, but reliable Kolb Learning Styles Inventory and theresearch into Learning Transfer of Seward and Gers and of Mary Broad. I believe that BruceJoyce’s research finding while at Columbia are important as is the research conducted by

Xerox. (My book Key Management Solutions reviews much of the essential theory for thosewho are unfamiliar with it.)





Meetings

Some top earners make meetings the main thrust of their marketing. They identifyand attend those meetings where potential clients gather to exchange ideas and listen topresentations from experts. Such meetings contribute indirectly to the marketing strategy byenabling the consultant or trainer to identify emergent client needs before they becomecommon knowledge. Meetings also enable effective networking with the people that really

count - clients.When you attend a meeting as a marketer make sure that you arrive early. Meet and

greet the people with whom you want to network. Listen carefully to the guest speaker and,when appropriate, ask a searching question that shows that you know your subject and havebeen listening with care. Do not make a speech. Ask your question and wait for the answer. If appropriate ask another relevant question. If you have been listening carefully and know your subject it is a near certainty that others in the audience would have liked to ask somethingsimilar and are grateful to you for raising the point thoughtfully and courteously. These peopleare now your allies.

After the meeting take an accessible position in the bar or elsewhere according to thecircumstances. If there is a post meeting drink buy yours prior to taking up your position. If you have shown through your question that you are intelligent – you must be if you hit on thequestion that I was anxious to ask – courteous and approachable – you made that clear in the

way that you phrased your question – people will come to you and talk. The king of networkers, my friend Frank Furness and Roger Jones are perfect models of the art of usingquestions to become the centre of attraction. Do not underestimate the power of this simpleapproach. Some consultants do little else to build their businesses and those that do it withsensitivity prosper. Frank was always on the “million dollar table” when he sold financialproducts and mainly because he was a devoted marketer who was also a “nice person to talkto”.

Fame is the spur

Consultancy is an intangible. Nobody can say in advance with any certainty what theoutcome of a consultancy or training intervention will be. When clients buy in such a servicethey are effectively making a leap of faith. That is why it is essential that you make yourself atleast a little bit famous. That way the client has confidence in you as an individual. Those who

use meetings to network are using each meeting that they attend as a microcosm of thewhole world of business. They are, in effect, becoming famous within a restricted group of people. By so doing they build confidence in their ability to deliver.

Two key tactics accelerate the process. One is obvious. It is to deliver convincing andinspirational presentations. All that I have written above about conference presentations isequally true of smaller meetings. In some ways smaller meetings are easier to handle. Theaudience is more cohesive. The problems and opportunities are often common to most if notto all. It is relatively easy to design and deliver a presentation that will be valued by everylistener.

The second tactic is less obvious perhaps. It is a simple fact of life that no matter howgood a speaker you may be, you are unlikely to be invited to speak at every meeting. Soinstead of speaking you ask questions as described in detail above. By asking intelligent andsearching questions you demonstrate your own knowledge. But please let me remind you that

there is more to it than just standing up and blasting away with an interrogation of thespeaker.

Take up a position near to the front of the room, preferably on the left side as youface the speaker. (People want to see who is asking the question. You want them tosee you and people are disinclined to turn their heads and wriggle to see from whomis coming the apparently disembodied voice. Make it easy to see you.)

Listen carefully to the speaker to ensure that you do not ask a question that hasalready been answered fully. (Many people are so pleased with their questions thatthey simply do not see the need to listen. But you need to be seen to be smarter thanthat. You are ensuring that the important gaps are filled.)

Do not be tempted to make a speech rather than ask a question. Make youinterjections concise and to the point. (You must be perceived as someone who cutsdirectly to the chase.)

Having got an answer ask supplementary questions only if absolutely necessary.





Make yourself accessible at the end of the meeting to all who wish to continue thediscussion with you.

If after the meeting the group adjourns to a bar. Get a drink in your hand so thatnobody is inhibited from approaching you by the thought that the price of talking toyou is to buy you a drink.

The above strictures may appear to be self-evident, but please remember that I amdescribing, in detail what the top earners do and the devil is very much in the detail. If you geta detail wrong the tactic may not work for you as well as it has worked for others and thatmeans a potential loss of income.

Note;You may be wondering why from time to time I provide what is basically the same informationin a different form. The answer is simple. Without burdening you with academic detail, it isproved that we each have our own special way of taking in information. The written word putsa severe limitation on the number of idiosyncratic ways that I can use, but I try to add the littletouches of variety from time to time that will enable some of you to think, “that’s better, nowthe old man has made it clear!”

Consultant networkingI believe strongly in networking, but I also believe that networking, as it is usually

practised among consultants does not work. The majority of those who join consultancynetworks do so in the hope that others will provide them with work. If assignments result theyoften expect to pay the “finder” some 10% of the fee earned. Please think about it for amoment. How often will 10% deliver a worthwhile profit over and above the cost to the other consultant of finding the opportunity and selling the client on meeting you? The answer is“very rarely”.

I network with other consultants so I have to think carefully about what it is that I bringto the party. Why would others want to put work my way?

I hope and believe that I contribute knowledge and experience that others may lack. At the same time they are better at some things than I am. Where I can I will reciprocate for any business that they may choose to put my way.

Last and by no means least where simple reciprocation is not immediate or easy I willpay an intelligent “finders fee” to those that give me business opportunities.

If networking is a one-way-street, can it work?But if I join a consultants’ network only in the hope that you will find me work. What

then? I am unwilling to find reciprocal opportunities for you, although I still hope that you willfind them for me. If you find me work I will pay you not less than 25% of the fee. If you find mework sufficiently often that I am kept busy earning my normal fee rate for 5 days a week I willpay you half of all that I earn from your efforts. That is the level of payment that makes your effort worthwhile. Furthermore the client remains yours rather than mine. I pay you 25%minimum because that enables you to keep in touch with your client, ensure that the client isdelighted with my work and to look for other opportunities for either of us to serve. In my view,backed by stringent research and long experience, to pay you less amounts almost to aninsult. Of course what I pay you is what you pay me if the roles are reversed.

Let us be absolutely frank about this. Research has shown that some of the bestconsultants are the most appalling salespeople. So some of the very best business advisorsare not going to deliver much additional business into the general pot. Why? The reason iscomplex yet simple. Research shows that the best consultants and trainers and the bestsalespeople are driven by different motives and those motives make all the difference when itcomes to behaviour. If I am a super salesperson I am driven by a need to “win”. I regard asales situation as one in which I simply have to get the order or I have failed. As a super consultant, however, my drives are very different. I have a sense of vocation. I want to makea difference. I have a thousand ideas all of them good and I need to communicate them tothose who can benefit. I meet a potential client. He or she tells me of their pain and I simplycannot wait to provide the solution. The result is that I give away the only thing that I have tosell – solutions. What is worse perhaps is that the solutions that I deliver are oftenmisunderstood by the non-expert client who believes that they now have the answer and no





further need for my services. I am a commercial disaster. Ask any good salesperson. So whatcan we do?

If you and I network together with others we recognise our very different strengths andwork to an agreement.

None of us will carry out any work for which others are better qualified. We will work to an agreed fee structure when networking.

If I can justify far higher fees than others we will generally work to my fee level eventhough that may mean that some get less client work. (25% of a high fee may be agreat deal better than 100% of a lower one.)

The “finder” will invoice the client and will act as project manager passing to the“doer” his or her share of the fee as soon as it is to hand.

All members of the network will abide by the agreed standard terms and conditions. All assignments will be the subject of simple but comprehensive contracts. Quality control and codes of practice are agreed and binding on all.

In summary the network will work to agreed rules, the seller will receive an equitablereward for his or her efforts, ownership of the client is clear and the network will be clearlyunderpinned by a written agreement.

Highest income consultants network, if they network at all, ethically and effectively. As

Kat Callo has expressed it, “they only network with those who build their status andcredibility”. It may be tough to get into the right network, but to be in the wrong one is utterlymeaningless. As the new global institute develops and international networking opportunitiesincrease I will be keeping visitors to my website and readers of my newsletter informed of progress. So keep visiting http://www.tom-lambert.org . What is more the world’s number onesales consultancy, SCMG, through its CEO Richard Ilsley is working with me to enable topconsultants to become top salespeople by providing a complete and ethical structure that hasbrought six figure incomes to top advisors from London to Chicago and Sao Paulo. So keep intouch with www.tom-lambert.org if you want to enjoy the independence that comes from beingthe best in each relevant field.

Press relations

It is perhaps a sad fact of life that hype plays a major part in building reputations. It is

a happier fact that only performance can keep you at the top. Whether you are on your wayup, or whether you are busy staying at the top you need some support from the press.

Having had the real privilege of working with Lizzie Dean and other superb PRadvisors including Merle Whale, I prefer to work with a good professional if I can afford it or when others, usually publishers, are paying. Until you are a highest income consultant,however, you may well be forced by circumstances to do it yourself. You may also find if youlook for a top class professional in PR that there are at least ten, possibly ten thousandexpensive nonentities for every Lizzie Dean or Merle Whale. So be very careful not to enter into a contract where you pay a monthly fee to a so-called expert who does nothing for you. If in doubt try a “do it yourself” approach first.

Contact the press regularly. They will not, indeed they cannot, find space for everything that you submit. Never assume that your practice, no matter how splendid, is thecentre of any busy editor’s universe, it is not. When an editor gives you space he or she is

doing you a massive favour. The least that you can do is to make it easy for them.

Make your press releases press friendly. Concentrate on what the press likes to print – survey results, valid but contentious

comments on society, economics, business, culture or technology. Write your press release on a single page where possible. Be specific about the release date. Write, “BEGINS” at the beginning of your release and “ENDS” under the last

sentence so that the editor knows that he or she has the whole piece and has noneed to search for other pages.

Attach a good photograph whenever possible to increase your chances of beingpublished by around 28%.

Mark the back of any photograph clearly with information that ties it immediately to

the written release.











Make it clear how the editor may contact you for further information and make surethat you are available where you have said that you will be.

If asked for further information, be prepared to provide it immediately. Editors havedeadlines. They cannot wait around for your input when you have nothing better todo.

Leave adequate margins for the editor to edit your piece.

Do not, under any circumstances, pester an editor to try to get your piece printed. Theeditor is the sole judge of what the readers want to read and will not welcome anypressure from an outsider.

Mail any piece to the appropriate editor by name. Use Willings Press Guide to identifyeditors of any journal or, for example the “features” department.

Pick the right editor. News is the province of news editors, features of features editorsand business of business editors. Try to avoid sending your precious piece tosomewhere where it will only get spiked. If in doubt read the publication with somecare before sending anything.

Do not use email unless you know that is acceptable. (Nobody likes spam andeverybody is conscious of the danger posed by cretins with viruses.)

If your piece is published build a relationship by sending neutral, factual informationregularly so that you are seen as a source of help.

If they asked meWhen it comes to writing a book I am frequently reminded of the Frank Sinatra song

that began “If they asked me, I could write a book”. I am lucky. They do ask me – now, butthere was a time when nobody in publishing knew my name. But what if you are in theposition that I was in ten years ago? I was lucky. I was introduced to best-selling author RonHolland before I wrote a word. Ron dictated a letter in my presence – to me – stating that hisdatabase of 40,000 names would be interested in buying the book I was proposing. He thensuggested that instead of getting on with the business of writing the book I would better usemy limited time writing a single page description of what I had in mind to write. I was then tosend that synopsis to retailers – not publishers – and ask whether such a book would have amarket. Retailers told me that it would sell. Publishers, advised of the book by their retailersbeat a path to my door. The result, High Income Consulting sold out its first printing in a little

over a month and is still a global best seller after ten years. Let me try to help you as Ronhelped me.

Getting Published – Tom Lambert (www.tom-lambert.org)

Author Mini Fact FileFact: There are more than 2,500 non-fiction books published each month in English. Everyone of these is your competitor for shelf space and the book buyer’s limited budget.

Fact: Americans buy many more books than English buyers.

Fact: American bookshops return to the publisher on average 42% of the books ordered andthe author gets no royalty on these.

Fact: Research shows that the average book buyer reads to page 29 before putting the bookto one side with the intention of reading it another day.

Fact: When foreign rights to your book are sold the publisher is entitled to 50% of the advanceand subsequent royalties.

Fact: So called “co-operative publishing” deals mean in practice that a publisher makes aprofit out of you without selling a single book. Their motivation to sell is minimal.

Fact: Whereas the royalty on a book was 10% of the cover price, today it is common for publishers to pass to the author 10% of what they receive for the book. So if they sell your books cheaply you will receive pennies where you might have expected pounds.

Fact: All sales to booksellers are on a sale or return basis.








Fact: If you do a book signing for a retailer, signed books cannot be returned.

Fact: All the above being true – authorship of a best selling book adds more to your credibility and perceived value than any other form of marketing.

Is there a market for this book?1. Before taking on the considerable labour of writing a book try a little market testing.

Write a single page (don’t take this too literally if it takes two you of course need two)synopsis and send it to buyers at the major retail book outlets asking; “will such abook sell?” If they think that it will they will either provide you with a dossier of lettersthat will enthuse publishers when you send a proposal – or better they will contacttheir favourite publishers saying; “talk to this guy”.

2. Make sure that your synopsis makes it clear that you know something of the market.If you need to include separately a short biographical sketch that shows that you arethe Great Poohbah where this subject is concerned and that you command aconsiderable following.

3. Be careful not to tell retailers that you intend to give the book to your clients. They willnot want to read anything that reduces their market. (On the other hand make the

giveaways clear later to any publisher – from their prospective they want to sell out of the first printing in double quick time to recoup their investment and a sale to you isas good to them as a sale to anyone – better in fact they will only give you 35%margin, Waterstones demand 50% and book clubs are worse – 80%% or more.)

Proposal

If a publisher wants a proposal or if you elect to go direct they will generally want some thatexplains:

1. What the book is about including a chapter listing with a short description of thecontents of each. (Synopsis and dummy contents page)

2. Why this book is needed right now and will sell in huge numbers.3. Who will buy it – the more the merrier so “supervisors and managers, consultants and

students of business”, are a better bet than “corporate CEOs”.

4. What similar titles are in the market at the time.5. How your proposed book is different and why it is better.6. Your qualifications to write such a book.7. Your thoughts on how you will market the book through seminars or client work

perhaps. (Assume for the moment that the editor that you are dealing with has to sellto a committee and can’t do that unless you provide all the ammo and that themarketing people will want to do the minimum so anything that you can do for themwill be useful. If either belief turns out to be false you are very lucky!)

Marketing1. Get to know the publisher’s marketing people as soon as possible once you have a

contract.2. Write and send them a few “blurbs” for the cover.

3. Send a list of every “big name” that you know personally who might say somethingnice about you and your book if given the chance to read it before publication. (They’llsend out pre-publication copies by the busload with a request that people saysomething wonderful, but only if you provide all the names and addresses. If youknow any titled people or captains of industry or other (successful) authors, so muchthe better. It is credibility that counts.)

4. Consider doing your own PR campaign, offering yourself to television chat shows andwrite short articles for newspapers identifying you as the author of this new andimportant work if you enjoy doing that kind of thing. (The contract may commit you tosupplying the publisher with one short article for them to place.)

5. List every magazine, newspaper or journal here or abroad that ought to receive areview copy. In your case since you work with say, accountants, include

Accountancy, Accountancy Age and particularly that specialist video channel run by

Channel 4 to which so many subscribe. (Studios in Jockey Fields – London if Iremember rightly.)





“Vanity” publishingGenerally if you want your book to work for you, your association with a major publisher canbe important. I have worked with Nicholas Brealey, (because at the time he had a very smalllist and had no choice other than to market and sell my first effort), Prentice Hall/FinancialTimes, (because as a business author being published in a relationship with the FT is

important) and McGraw Hill, (because they can deliver major sales in the USA and have astrong relationship with amazon.com for online sales).

Choosing a publisher is a strategic issue. I would personally have never have published abook if I had to rely on a vanity publisher. Paying a publisher can, however, deliver major dividends. If you are prepared to sell your book from a garage full of them you can build your reputation and make money. One regular conference speaker, Amway trained, sells anaverage of 200 of my books each month for a 35% profit on a sale or return deal with thepublisher.

Publishing abroadIf you can be sure that your book is ready for publication without further editing you can haveit printed in Hong Kong, Warsaw or Prague for around £2 per copy. If you can then sell your

book for £20 a copy you have a high profit potential, but with a considerable investmentrequirement.

Electronic publishingThe Internet provides excellent opportunities to minimise investment and maximise profits.Once your book is in PDF format online every sale is highly profitable. Of course you do haveto have a website and a great many visitors.

Be a published author without writing a book

You don’t have to write a book to be a published author. One very famous thriller writer actually wrote very little. A specialist developed the plots and his wife carried out thenecessary research as well as much of the writing, but it was his name that sold – and stillsells – the books.

In the USA a lady has a considerable reputation as a business author without ever writing abook. She contacts a dozen or so experts in any field that takes her fancy and invites each towrite a chapter. She sells each contributor 1000 books for back of the room sales atconferences. With 12,000 books sold in advance publishers constantly beat a path to her door. She then takes the role of “series editor”, writes a short introduction and is perceived asboth author and subject expert. When the books are published the first printing is in 1000 lotsand the cover shows all contributors with the editor’s mug shot in the middle of the circle. Inorder to satisfy the vanity or commercial needs of the contributors each 1000 printing showsone portrait a little bigger than the rest. If that were your portrait, these 1000 copies would beyour book.

A different, but similar approach is that of a skilled trainer. Knowing that, for example,

academics need publication to raise their profile he conducts seminars on authorship. Heemploys a skilled lady to put the “exercises” into publishable form and by the end of a five-dayprogramme there is a book ready for the presses. Thereafter things go roughly as describedabove.

GeneralBuy yourself a copy of the Artists and Writers Yearbook so that you have a reference of all themajor publishers and what they look for. (ISBN 0-7136-6281-6

Apply to become an Associate Member of the Society of Authors (the world’s poshest tradeunion), 84 Drayton Gardens, London SW10 9SB. You can rise to full membership once youare an established author of “at least one full length publication”.

On a personal note; do not be tempted to write for Kogan Page. Experience of authors that Iknow is that marketing is non-existent, books are simply stuffed into carousel displays by





“salespeople” and sales are miserably low unless you enjoy the kind of luck that wins thelottery – twice.

Conclusion

If you have the drive and ability to use words you will write a book – nothing will stop you.How you choose to get published is therefore a key strategic issue.

The borderline between no cost and high costLet me admit it. Although I recognise that brochures are a vital part of marketing for

many, I don’t like them. They are expensive, too easy for the client to bin and are oftendesigned in such a way that they fail entirely to put the sales message across by being tooclever by half. When it comes to proposals the problems are different, but essentially similar.The consultant usually tries to tell the client too much and either the client fails to see throughthe detail to the relevance of the proposal or, much worse, the consultant delivers a detailedrecipe from which the client or his newly-retired friend from the golf club can work without anyfurther help from the initiating consultant. So the consultant effectively does the tough part of the job and someone else makes money from it. Unless designed, developed and used withthe client’s behaviour as well as expectations in mind, brochures and proposals can lose not

win, business. Like all marketing tools, however, they can be very effective when the detailsare thought through with care. Again one of the secrets of the stars is to keep things low costfor as long as is possible.

BrochuresDelay using a brochure until the pressures of time forces you to have one. For as

long as possible write an individual letter for each client or prospective client showing how youare uniquely qualified to solve his or her very specific problem. Using a computer anddesigning your brochure as the top earners do you can even produce a brochure for eachassignment if you wish. A letter that focuses on the client problem or opportunity rather than abrochure which tends to be a general statement of competence to serve, however,demonstrates that you have been listening and have understood. I will explain how to make abrochure appear to be much more than a general statement below.

Brochures are often unnecessary. William du Toit, possibly the world’s leadingconsultant in the field of globalisation and national culture has run a busy consultancy fromSouth Africa and Lichtenstein for a number of years without experiencing any need for abrochure. He always writes individual letters demonstrating that he fully understands and isuniquely capable of responding to the client’s needs. When in doubt he subjects his drafts tothe scrutiny of an experienced friend with the question, “would you buy my services if this isall that you had to go on?”

When pressure of business forces you write a brochure make it factual notgeneralised sales bumf. The idea is to allow the client to read a solution to a situation that he,not you, believes is similar enough to the problems and opportunities that he faces to makehim or her think: “yes, I want some of that!” If the client is to extrapolate from your previousexperience to his own needs you must be careful not to write in too much detail that will causehim or her to think; “ah, but that’s different”. Be very clear about this. Clients hate to be told

that a different situation was “just like theirs”. They have a mindset that suggests that their problem or opportunity is unique. At the same time, however, their mind has been alerted,consciously or otherwise to search fro a solution. This means that when they come acrosssomething similar to their situation they recognise the similarities and wonder whether theanswer lies in what they are looking at.

As a consultant it would be death for you to say, “here is a situation just like yours”,but if you put some limited information in front of a client they often will see parallels that youwould miss.

Write four or five very brief case studies of your achievements. Say what you haveachieved in a range of situations in quantified terms (“within 3 months”, “saving £2,000,000 inthe first year”, “improving market penetration by 13%”); the special skills and knowledge thatyou brought to bear and the benefits to your clients, (quantified where possible see above –for well tested psychological reasons it is addition of numbers that makes the written word

look factual as well as creating desire for some of what others have had) of using your services. Limit each to about 40 – 50 words. Too much detail will cause the client to see





major differences between what you describe and his or her own situation. Never lose sight of the opinion of the best professional recruitment firms that a CV should say as little as possiblethat the prospective employee can react adversely to, while saying just enough to make themwant to hire you. A brochure must have the same effect.

In my GM days one of my national training managers was conducting regular problemsolving courses. He sent out to management a “newsletter” that was nothing more than a list

of savings made as a result of attending the course. His courses were always oversubscribed.Confident of the success he was enjoying he stopped collecting the data on savings. Withinthree months no one was being sent to his courses. Only when he reissued one of his earlynewsletters did he get things back on track – numbers are important. So quantify benefitseven where it is difficult to do so. Do not invent, but make your best estimate if you must.

Spice your case studies lightly with those details from your CV that you cannot bear the world to remain ignorant of and you're there. You may be rightly proud of your MBA or Ph.D, but to many practical businesspeople higher degrees hint broadly at too academic anapproach. Even Richard Pascale the great business guru and business school professor, hasasked; “when facing the abyss who wants his hands held by two newly minted MBA’s?” Manypeople perceive academic qualifications as if they forced people into trying to view real lifethrough the pages of an ancient case study. You know this is not the case, but if you wantothers to share your view you need to emphasise the practicality of “book learning”. If you

write as part of a specific mini case study of carefully quantified success; “My MBA studiesprovided me with a number of viable strategies without reducing the client problem to anacademic exercise or getting in the way of my ability to get things done at the coal face”;(preferably using less words!) your qualifications make sense in the real world of work.

If you speak one or more foreign languages you may say; “my knowledge of Xhosaenabled me to understand the subtleties behind the president’s thinking”.

If desirable, write a separate brochure for each sector or client group that you serve,using cases relevant to their forecast needs or current issues. Use your computer and printer to make your brochures inexpensive and easy to write. Clients increasingly see expensivebrochures on fancy stock as evidence of excessively high prices. In research I have hadmajor corporate buyers state that they prefer not to be financing consultants expensivepromotional material whilst their own company spends a fortune on every piece of paper fromthe brochure to the Annual Report. (I keep any comments to myself. It is their feelings and

beliefs that I want to know about. In research it is not my role to point out inconsistencies.)There are a number of readability tests including the famous and unfortunately

named Fogg Index, but remember that the average businessperson in a hurry responds bestand most rapidly to writing that is readily understandable to a nine year old child. Use nineyear olds to test for readability if you can. If a nine year old can feed back exactly what youwere trying to communicate any businessperson will feel that you are not wasting his or her time by being too smart for your or their own good.

Get them talking A good brochure makes the potential client want to talk to you. That means it must

raise as many questions as it answers, but they have to be the right questions. Theprospective client must want to say; “that is valuable - please tell me more”, rather than “whatis he or she trying to say?” People these days tend to be cash rich, but time poor. They may

occasionally waste money, but they will not thank you for wasting their time. Keep every wordin your brochure succinct and to the point.

Provide some useful information to think about, but never quite enough to actually dotoo much with until critical supplementary questions are answered. Make the prospectiveclient want to speak to you. To do that you need to make them feel that they already havevalue from what they have read and they want more.

Overcome the ease with which brochures are binned (and “filed”) by printing yours onan A4 sheet folded (x3) to go easily into a pocket or handbag and ideally print some usefulinformation to which the client will want to refer. Try to ensure that the information is of lastingvalue. I used to print on mine the steps that anyone’s mind goes through when making adecision (described in detail in my book The Power of Influence and in my No Fail Seminars),and I added a brief model of how to use the information. People kept and constantly referredto the model. So they remembered my name. Some have kept the now tatty pieces of paper

through a number of photocopies for 20 years.





Penny plain?

If you prefer to make your brochure highly colourful, full of photographs and printed on themost expensive stock, that, of course, is your choice, but make it an informed choice.

Who will this kind of brochure impress? Why precisely is it important to impress them in this way? What is my evidence that they are more likely to assign consultants who offer fancy

brochures than those who write letters or use simple brochures? How specifically does my brochure relate to their problems or opportunities? What evidence do I have that clients read and retain brochures? What in my brochure specifically hits the clients’ “hot button”? Am I trying to cover up limited marketing effort and inadequate sales skills with a

touch of glitz? What does it say about me that could not have been said more cheaply and more

effectively? How can I use my brochure to bring in business? Have I a sufficient budget to look good when my brochure is compared with those

distributed by the best of my competitors? Is there a better use that I could be making of my money right now?

Fancy or plain, always handle your brochure with exaggerated respect. Ensure that whenyou take it from your briefcase and hand it to the client that they realise that they are gettingsomething worth having. Never say anything like; “I’ll just leave you one of these”. Insteadshow your client with some care those parts that are of immediate interest to him or her andindicate that there are other pearls to be found by the careful reader. This predisposes thereader’s mind to interpret what he or she sees as being of great value to them. In this wayhaving a brochure can be made to work for you. The alternative is to spend a small or considerable fortune on something that the client may see as an impressive irrelevance that isallowed to clutter a desk for a day or two before being filed in the waste paper basket.

ProposalsDo not under-estimate the importance of proposals or the dangers that go with badly

developed or badly written screeds. A proposal may be an important marketing device. It may

be a tool that enables you to deliver top-quality service. It may be a recipe that loses youopportunities to less able competitors.

Always write yourself a proposal, even when the client does not ask for one. It is your route map for giving superior service. Since you will be writing many proposals make it easyfor yourself by working consistently to a format. My approach to proposals is simple. First Iwrite a flow chart of the activities that will take my client from where they are to where theywant to be. For every box on the flow chart I write a benefit summary that makes it absolutelyclear that the client gets a return on anything and everything that I do. A simple Gantt Chart or time line shows when things will be done and the time that it will take to do them. I add myTerms and Conditions to a Summary of Costs (I don’t like calling “costs” “investment” it foolsnobody), and I have a complete proposal. From my knowledge of the client I now may chooseto “pretty-up” the document. If the client likes to be “busy-busy” I add an Executive Summary.If the client knows little of me I might add a short biographical sketch slanted toward his or her

need. If the client is strong on values I may add a copy of my Mission Statement. In short Ihave a simple template that I am able to tailor quickly from what I already have on mycomputer.

Activities, benefits, time and costBefore I had the fancy computer programmes that make flow charting easy I used to

use simple 5 x 3 cards. Now as I sit at my computer I am tempted to return to cards with aspecific activity scribbled on each as the start point of understanding step by step how I getthe client from where they are to where they want to be.

A good proposal is your tool at least as much as it is for the client’s benefit. It isessential to accurate costing and it helps you to clarify the job in your mind. If mind mapping,flow charting or scattering cards about does this for you, go for what works for you.

Proposals are intended to sell your services, if you have been employed in an

organisation where proposals are designed to primarily to satisfy a senior partner's view of what is "proper" you may need to rethink your proposal writing skills or lose business. House





styles can be the death of effective communication. Even if your client regards you so highlythat he or she will never need to see a proposal it needs to communicate clearly so that asyou discuss progress of the assignment at any time you can identify clearly for your clientwhere you have got to, why you are there, what steps remain and how long it is going to taketo get to the end of the journey.

If you are an engineer, educator or scientist think carefully about writing proposals that

sell rather than simply inform the already initiated. You must tell the prospective client: What is to be done – but NOT how to do it. – An activity flow chart is clear, concise

and compelling, but it never gives the “how” away. Why it is to be done – but NOT how to do it. – A concise relevant Benefit Summary

with the benefits linked logically so that you can prove that because the first is true allthe others are guaranteed, for every box on your flow chart (action) will sell everysingle activity without giving the “how” away.

When it will be done – but NOT how to do it. – A Gantt chart or Time Line fulfilsthe vital role of telling the client when the benefits will be experienced. This isessential when the client is under extreme pressure to perform now and win benefitswithin a tight timeframe. It also has the advantage that a timeline or Gantt chart willnever provide a competitor with a recipe, but it may offer a level of challenge that willsend him or her scuttling back to the golf club.

How much it is going to cost. I know that some salespeople believe that it isimportant to write or talk about “investment” rather than costs. I believe that, like somany excellent ideas the use of the word investment has become so excessive thatthe client thinks “cost” and wonders why you lack the honesty to say the word.

Add anything fancy that you fancy

All things being equal the above are all that you and your client would need. All thingsare never equal, however, and clients look for and expect different things in a proposal. Somewant confirmation that you have understood their situation and seek a summary of what theymay have told you. Others are so busy that they give themselves extra work by demandingthe addition of an executive summary. Some are more interested in the values that drive youthan in what you will do and want to see a value or mission statement. Whatever they want,believe that the customer really is right and give it to them.

A proposal may also state or include, strictly according to the needs and expectations of the client:

Unique skills, knowledge or experience that you will apply. Your terms and conditions of doing business. The values and ethics that drive your business. It may, and often should include a summary of RESEARCH that you have carried out

concerning the client’s industry – but avoid giving away too much of what you shouldbe selling.

You may wish to add a few testimonials.The rest is padding, but sometimes it is essential padding. So you may wish to save your

prospect time, or otherwise, by adding an Executive Summary. When you write an ExecutiveSummary, however, be very sure that you are telling the prospective client in an inspirational,

yet brief way what they need to know that will make them want to “consume” every word of the complete document. Where your principle client is not the principal client an executivesummary may be all that the top person will get to read. Given that political situations aboundin organisations make your summary so clear and inspirational that the person who hired youis proud to pass it upwards.

Repeat business

Often in a business, particularly a large company, consultants are brought in at anoperational level and the top team are hardly aware of their existence. When I have runconsultancies I have been at pains to do all that I can to arouse interest at the highest level.

At the end of important assignments for major corporates in the USA in particular I had a thirdparty, an honest broker, meet with the board to ensure that they understood and weredelighted with the outcomes. The man who did this for us was one welcome in any boardroom

in the USA. He was President of a good size bank, adjunct professor at a leading businessschool and a retired general with a reputation for courage that was well known throughout the





nation. (He was also a fan of my books.) He would meet with the board and carefully debrief them on the intervention. He would make it clear that he was there only to ensure their totalsatisfaction. I was taken along only to respond to any complaints or doubts. Usually the boardwould express absolute satisfaction with what had been achieved. With me still little morethan an observer the conversation would become light-hearted and general. Then, and italways seemed like the most casual question in the world, my third party assessor would ask

what was the client company’s next priority. His next question would be what used to becalled an assumptive close. He asked a group of people who had just expressed themselvesas being delighted with our work, “how will you use Tom’s team in this one?”

This approach brought in the bigger and better repeat work, but it was contingent on theboard having a clear indication in advance of what we were there for and using a respectedthird party to genuinely ensure that they were delighted with the outcome. Nothing less wouldhave worked. Nothing less would have been ethical. Almost the nicest thing about thesituation was that our third party so much enjoyed the task and was so aware of the need toserve the client that he worked unpaid, not even asking for expenses. So if you write anexecutive summary make sure that it is good enough to have a real practical use and is not

just one more page added to make the proposal feel a little heavier.

Danger signs

Be careful to write proposals not recipes. Recipes can be too easily handed to another cook. Most businesspeople have friends, newly retired, who call themselves consultants andwho use the old network to get a little business. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is notyour job to provide them with the means to do the job that you have planned so carefully. Ihave seen, at client consultant “beauty parades” while waiting to strut my own stuff, proposalspresented by eager consultants being photocopied and have even been told by a PA thatthey were to be passed to a friend at the golf club to see if he could do the business.

Do not include the contract or letter of agreement in your proposal. Clients dislikeanything that indicates that you are taking them for granted.

Talk, but not too much, and grow richIf you are invited to present your proposal verbally prepare as carefully as you would for

any important speech. Check the room and equipment as a matter of course and find out all

that you can about your audience so that you can talk individually to the needs or wants of each person present. I try to make it a rule to always present proposals verbally, but withinternational activities it isn’t always practical.

Do not attempt to sell what is already sold. I once flew to New York following a proposalthat I had mailed to save costs. The CEO introduced me to the board of the major corporationwith the words, “I’m sure that we all agree that Tom has hit the nail firmly on the head. Haveyou anything to add Tom?” Like the fool that I am at times, I had and I talked myself right outof an assignment that was mine had I only had sense enough to keep my mouth shut andenjoy a 3000 mile flight for its own sake.

RecyclingWhen by mischance a good proposal fails to get you the business recycle it. Take out of it

all references to the “would have been” client. Add any up to date data that you can find about

the industry and send what was once your proposal, but is now a “report” to the CEO's of theother major players in the industry with a letter that reads something like:" I have recently conducted research into some of the major issues that your industry iscurrently facing. The enclosed briefly covers some of my conclusions and recommendations. I would welcome an opportunity to discuss them........"

I won a major contract from an international brewery because the CEO assumed thatI was an expert on his industry. I almost was an expert on the basis of what I had learnedfrom his competitor that had rejected my proposal. A consultant needs to be a master rather than a mere expert. Of course it is nice to appear to be an expert if that is what the clientwants above all else. A proposal should demonstrate that you are an expert. The way thatyou use it should show you to be a master.





SummaryDemand of yourself that each day you will think of three new ideas to promote your practice.They may not all be viable, but your enthusiasm and energy will remain high and the exerciseis good for keeping the brain active. (At my age forcing myself to think works better thanselenium.)

For the sake of economy and effectiveness always seek to use low cost/no cost marketingmethods rather than paid promotion.Us the ideas of the stars like a menu rather than a checklist. Be careful to select and applythose that your talents and sense of fun will enable you to exploit to the maximum.Never let your clients and prospective clients forget that you are a professional. Use lowcost/no cost marketing techniques that built your status and credibility. Make sure that youdemonstrate what you have to offer rather than appear to boast about it. “Promotional puff”simply leads the reader to think; “well they would say that – wouldn’t they”.Always deliver more than you promise because delivery is the final key to marketingsuperiority.

Putting the Right People In and the Wrong People OutWe have a dream

When we developed our plan for the international Centre for Consulting Excellence we were driven by a vision of making the best use of the best people in the interest of clientsworldwide. From more than twenty years of dedicated research we know that many excellentpeople are merely getting by where their skills, knowledge and experience should enablethem to get rich. They are not the only losers. All those that buy consulting services are thepoorer where they cannot access the best people using the best research, tools andtechniques. But there are, of course, beneficiaries of an unhappy situation.Fads, fallacies and foul-ups

As an author of some ten globally successful business books I think that I understandthe triumph of hype over utility better than some. Every year a number of “business bodicerippers” are published and succeed beyond the authors’ most extreme dreams of avarice.Management, particularly British management, are the world’s leading change junkies. Theyadopt on average some fourteen and a half “new” ideas a year. Unlike the Round Table mostdo not “adapt and adopt”. They rush in to introduce change in the form of half-digestedconcepts and they are too impatient to give those few that might, just might, work time tomature before they charge in to pile change on change. The only winners are the authors thathave for the most part cunningly hidden one good idea in 300 pages of dense prose andthose consultants that find a short-lived bandwagon a true transport of delight.

Meanwhile at the sharp end of academia far away from the ivory towers where thedross of past failures is being dusted off and given a new name before being thrust upon theworld in a new guise real research of value is being painstakingly completed prior to testing inthe real world. Through its strategic allies the Centre for Consulting Excellence is helping toturn that proven research into reliable tools and techniques and get those tools into the handsof those best able to use them whether those people are consultants or clients.

Stand and deliver – or in most cases don’tWith the growth of ageism and a tendency to downsize or globalise with anenthusiasm that Gadarene pigs might envy companies and corporations on both sides of the

Atlantic are casting aside experience for no better reason than that it has become fashionableto see the fiftieth or even the fortieth birthday as a sort of “dispose by” date. This has createda great market opportunity for purveyors of third to fifth rate management and sales training.No corporate and few SME’s will buy in to outdated ideas badly delivered, but the redundantexecutive, anxious to use his or her knowledge and experience and painfully aware of thedifficulties of making it on their own have little opportunity to taste and try before they buy. Asa result many sign up for what, in the cases that I have been able to research, stands anexcellent chance of being the world’s leading brand of irrelevant and impertinent so-called“development” – and it doesn’t end there.

Some years ago I was assigned to investigate some of the many companies that

offered to make me a successful consultant for a considerable slice – or in one case all – of my redundancy money. One charged some £17,500 for which he offered three days of training based on insurance sales techniques, a “territory” in the form of approximately 3000





business names and addresses culled from readily accessible business sources, two days of telemarketing support and “administration”. Administration consisted of the provision of stationery and invoicing for any work that his unfortunate investors were lucky enough to find.He passed on 70% of what he collected, retaining £30 in every hundred for providing theservice. When it became clear to him that I was a fish that was not going to bite he becameavuncular. I asked him how he justified what he called “an investment” of £17,500. His answer

had at least the advantage of honesty. “That,” he said, “Is how much the buggers have got”.Believe me when I assure you that more recent research suggests that his like still

lurk behind the airy promises that can be read in too many small advertisements.It takes a great deal of diligence

Newspapers, journals, magazines and the like invest in their own otherwise saleableadvertising space to advise would be buyers to exercise care to check out advertisers beforeparting with cash. This is excellent advice, but it is far from easy to accomplish with anycertainty that the information that you find is reliable. You may have the opportunity as I havehad to interview a considerable number that have parted with cash only to discover that thetraining given is useless and the assignment opportunities are non-existent. Or you may find afew “happy campers” that share with the immortal Dr. Pangloss an unshakeable faith that allis for the best in the best of all possible worlds. How do you know that the Jonah has lifted hisrump and really attempted to use what was taught? How do you know that the Panglossian

attitude is not driven by a need to recoup some of a wasted investment by earningcommissions through introducing other lambs to be fleeced? It is with the aim of helping toprovide a tool that if pursued with determination will tell you all that you need to know that weat the Centre developed the following questions. Use them with determination and do not partwith any money until the advertisers have delivered answers that satisfy you. Even then addone little question that Professor Don Thain proved was the most trustworthy anti-BS devicethat I have ever encountered. “What is your evidence for that?”The killer questions

1. Do they have worldwide contacts with leading business people, researchers andacademics that will enable me to have “bleeding edge” research and proveninformation that will keep me ahead of the pack?

2. If they don’t, what do they have that you lack?3. How much is what they have really worth in terms of giving you an edge in a highly

competitive business?4. Can they deliver to me and continue to update top quality consulting tools and

techniques?5. Do they have strategic allies that are specialists in turning the best of global research

into established tools?6. Can they provide me with an internationally recognised accreditation?7. Are they developing a programme that could give me advanced qualifications that are

specific to the consulting profession?8. Are they able to share with me more than 20 years of research into how the top

earners market themselves at no cost and ensure a stream of clients beating a pathto their door?

9. Do they have a proven process for winning repeat and referral business?10. Have they convinced me that they can support my activities with effective corporate

marketing?11. Do they have an advisory panel of recognised business and academic leaders that

can support me in the field and help me to win additional business?12. Do they have the individual “big names” of consultancy and business that will give me

status and credibility through association?13. “Big names” dominate the consultancy sector if they don’t have a big name what do I

get through associating with them?14. Do they appear big enough to enable me to charge the level of fee that my skills,

experience and knowledge deserve?15. In a world where litigation against consultants has recently increased by 40% how will

they help me to protect myself?16. Do they have a membership organisation including corporate executives that may

assign me work?

17. Do they enable me to take established psychometrics that are valid and reliable andwhich will identify and enable me to exploit my key strengths?




18. Do they have a sales team in the field or do they expect me to do all my own selling?19. Do they offer training that is focused on building and sustaining a high-income

practice rather than run-of-the-mill general management training?20. Do they offer the established consultant continuous professional development

opportunities?21. Do they research and report on the changing needs of clients and give me the

information that I require to successfully exploit new market opportunities?22. Do they enable me to work with a network of superior professionals that will enable

me to deliver the “holistic” solutions that clients are increasingly demanding?23. Can they teach me the secrets of client psychology to help me to sell my capabilities

without ever acting or appearing to act as a salesperson?24. Can they provide me with the tools that help to make consulting less of an intangible

“product”?25. Have they provided me with information, including a convincing and professional

business plan that enables me to answer every single question above with aresounding “yes”?

The Centre for Consulting ExcellenceI make no bones about the fact that a small but vital part of my motivation in helping

to build the centre springs from my desire to help to ensure that the more mature among us

gets a better deal as well as clients. With this in the forefront of my mind I want to see thecharlatans of our industry fold up their businesses and creep away.

Many hope and some even expect that the anti-ageism legislation that this country iscommitted to bring in by 2006 will automatically keep the mature executive gainfully employedand will put an end to the exploitation of the redundant by the totally useless. With this week’sreport that shows that we are still not paying women equally after almost 30 years of legislation I for one am not prepared to hold my breath.

Top business brains and academics are already working with us and I hope thatreaders will join the fight – after a spot of due diligence that may start with a critical look at our website http://www.centreforconsultingexcellence.com/

I have been told that the easy way to understand any organisation begins byconsidering the degree to which it promotes its values and the resonance that those valueshave with its actions. Our values are:

Values Consistently making the best use of the best people Making consultancy and training true professions Only proven, research-based processes, tools and techniques Global in scope and application Life long learning – just in time Fast, reliable and economic results




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