Capturing Your "Only"

You know you need to differentiate yourself from others in your space but some days it just ain’t easy. One trick: think like a journalist. Remember the lesson from high school? Who, what, when, where, why and how.

Who are your clients? Consider industry, function, location, complexity, position, gender, ethnicity and more. What do they have in common?

What do you offer them? Be specific. You aren’t just the title on your business card. Drill down and consider all that you bring to the party. Perhaps you speak Spanish or have a highly tuned ability to mediate disputes. Don’t be shy—these are attributes your sweet-spot clients will truly appreciate.

When do they need you? Think triggers, like business events (buy/sell, merger, spin-off, new product line) or personal (promotion, marriage, birth, divorce, death). What trends and influences make them need you more?

Where are your clients? Do you practice locally, regionally, nationally or internationally? Do you have deep or broad geographic expertise that clients value?

Why do you matter to your clients? Remember, clients buy based on emotion—on how you make them feel. Do they feel more confident, safer, smarter, faster, richer when they work with you? Think about what they gain by being part of your tribe.

How are you different? Look at it from the client experience—from how you first attracted, engaged and consulted with them to how they experience you throughout the relationship. Don’t forget to include your distinct personality and style—it’s part of your “only” package.

Who, what, when , where, why, how. Try it to capture your “only”.

Staple Yourself

Alan Webber (of Fast Company fame) found a new use for HBS Professor Ben Shapiro’s “staple yourself to an order” concept: applying it to solve social problems that plague us. Think about eliminating hunger, homelessness and child abuse in our time. He’s got some great ideas well worth a look.

But why limit yourself to social issues? Your consulting, advisory or coaching practice could benefit from stapling yourself to a critical issue or two. Consider the big 3:

Attracting the right clients. Staple yourself to your potential clients’ experience. Are you, your team and your marketing collateral focused on your sweet-spot? For whom do you produce your best results? Are you repelling the bad-fits early in the attraction process or are you wasting valuable time on non-starters? What happens to prospects who become clients? Do they become apostles for your brand or do they fade into the background while you are dazzled by the next opportunity? Ask tough questions and be very attentive to the answers.

Boosting margins. Take a closer look at your business model. Staple yourself to that. Do you have pricey partners (including you) doing low billing rate work? Your senior talent could be waiting for the right moment to bolt. How well are you leveraging your intellectual capital across multiple platforms? What investments are you making in fostering innovation—creating white space and higher margins? If you were on the outside looking in, would you buy your business? A stable, growing enterprise with a deep story is worth far more than a series of one-off projects. How much of a marketplace premium would you command?

Courting media attention. So, you’ve got a killer concept and figure the media should be beating a path to your door. Not happening? Bring out the staple gun. Whose attention do you want to attract? Why should they care about you? What are you doing that is newsworthy to their audience? Are you investing consistent time and effort developing—and sharing—interesting, media-friendly content? Recycling the same old ideas will not get you headlines or influence. And how quickly do you respond to media inquiries? Do you come off as smoke and mirrors or the real deal?

Attracting the right clients, boosting margins and courting media attention. Staple yourself to those.

Competition: 3 Strategies for Professional Advisors

Competition in sports is good. Your personal win/loss record is public—an incentive to keep you sharp. Consistently high performers track their competitors but remember to always play their own game.

Competition in professional services can be a good thing too. In fact, there is an added advantage: having competitors often means there is an established market for your niche. So instead of trying to sell what you do (try getting people to watch synchronized swimming), your challenge becomes selling you.

You can learn a lot about marketing—your services, your practice and your firm—by looking outward. Take a look at the firms you consider your toughest competition. But don’t stop there—study the brands you most admire and envision the firm you’d like to create. And then consider these 3 strategies.

Imitation. Navigate the websites and compare the marketing collateral of your toughest competitors. Be brutally honest. If you could black out the logos, could you tell the difference between them? Imitation is easy—that’s why so many do it. The more you look like everyone else, the more your services sell like commodities. The best margins do not go to imitators.

Aspiration. Don’t limit yourself to the usual suspects. Take a look at any brand you admire. Would you like to be the Nike of technology consultants? The Ferrari of estate attorneys? The Starbucks of wealth advisors? How do your most admired companies build their brand? What does your firm need to do, say and be to enter your version of their territory? Note to self: is my firm truly committed to living our aspirational brand?

White space. Creating white space in your specialty is an art form. It defies competition—you may well have to create your own market for it. The first PC (IBM). The personal financial planning software that spawned an industry (Intuit). The pricing model that changed how people buy and listen to music (Apple). You’ll note the innovator isn’t always the last one standing—it takes vision, passion and superb execution to carry this off.

Imitation. Aspiration. White space. Which speaks to you?

Avoiding The Camel

Your work is giving—or, more precisely, selling—advice. How well are you selling yourself and your firm?

Let’s agree that being compelling to your sweet-spot clients is a must. Why then do so many firms—from 1-person shops to some mega names—insist on watering down what makes them distinct? Why do otherwise savvy partners fail to build a strong personal brand that aligns their talents and passions with their firm?

Three words: lizards, trolls and camels.

The lizard rules. The lizard is the part of us that is satisfied with the ordinary (for more about the lizard brain, read Seth Godin’s “Linchpins”). Reaching for more feels too risky. Unsafe. The website that says: “our service, our people, our technology are second to none” was written by the lizard. When you find yourself holding back, afraid to shoot higher, the lizard is in charge.

The troll appears. You overcome the lizard to firmly stake your territory—you publish an article, write a blog post, or make a bold statement in a speech. That’s when the trolls appear. Trolls are critics who take perverse pleasure in tearing others down. In fact, you haven’t conquered the lizard if you haven’t attracted a few trolls. Your job with trolls is simple. Ignore them. Engaging trolls only fires them up for more criticism. Who needs that? Let them go find someone else to annoy.

You create the camel. You’ve subdued the lizard enough to attempt something compelling, but haven’t quite been able to ignore the trolls. The result? Camel territory. Yes, the camel that was a horse drawn by committee. Camels are great if you’re crossing the desert, but most of us aren’t. While getting other inputs (especially in a partnership) is necessary and valuable, don’t let it dilute what makes you unique. Keep your focus on resonating with your sweet spot clients.

The secret to compelling marketing? Subdue the lizard. Ignore the troll. Avoid the camel.

Growing Your Practice: Hitting Your Sweet Spot

Sweet spot: Where your story (and marketing) meets a rigorous business model and a winning (not whining) mindset.

Outrageously successful consultants, advisors and coaches spend a lot of time in their sweet spot. Why? Life is better there. It’s dramatically easier to draw the RIGHT clients, prospects and referral sources to you.

Ready to spend more time in your sweet spot? Consider these essentials:

Your story: What’s your bankable value? Do you have a clear, compelling story that draws clients, prospects and referral sources to you? Is your marketing aligning your unique talents and passions with what your clients need most? Are you engaging with the right people?

Your business model: Have you created the ideal business model that optimizes your revenue and growth opportunities? Have you fully leveraged your intellectual property? Do you have administrative systems in place so you can spend your time where it matters?

Your mindset and actions: Do you maintain a winning mindset or are you making excuses for why you can’t make a sales call? Are you taking the consistent, daily actions needed to build the enterprise you envision-–even when it’s hard?

Getting to your sweet spot can take some hard thinking and thoughtful insight. But there’s a reason we call it sweet.

Be Like Gustavo

When was the last time you felt like this when you’re working?

Meet Gustavo Dudamel, the joyfully passionate conductor of the LA Philharmonic. Watching him conduct Dvorak and Tchaikovsky left me breathless and thrilled to my toes. A true maestro, he drew stellar performances from his soloists as well as the orchestra and swept the entire audience along with him. Brilliant.

See him live if you can for the full effect (the LA Phil starts their U.S. tour today). In the meantime, consider this photo and bringing some maestro mindset to your next “performance”….

Age is irrelevant. Dudamel is all of 28 in a field where age is revered. Yet he commands the respect of talented, experienced musicians twice his age. How? Dogged preparation. Respect for the individual artist and their collective work. Sharing every bow with one or more of his players. Sheer passion for the perfect performance.

Leave it all on the stage. Last week, he was so intent on conducting Dvorak’s Cell Concerto that he popped a neck muscle. In great pain, he insisted on conducting Tchaikovsky’s highly physical Sixth Symphony. Only intervention by a clear-thinking Executive Director got him immediate medical attention.

Serve up a little drama. Not for the sake of drama (who wants to work with a drama king/queen?) but to advance your art. A pregnant pause at the right spot in the meeting. A compelling photo (not a PowerPoint bullet) to make your point. A pitch-perfect story that inspires your audience to act.

Go ahead. Try it. Embrace your inner Gustavo.

Don't Be That Blackberry Guy

You’ve met him. Or her. Glued to his Blackberry, iphone or new gizmo. Addicted to the ability to know what is going on—anywhere and at anytime. Key word here? Addicted.

Meet the quintessential Blackberry Guy. A big firm partner, he invited me to lunch to compare notes on our businesses. As we walked to lunch (10 minutes) he checked his Blackberry—twice. As we were being seated, he checked it again. Finally, he put it in a pocket and there it stayed while he talked about his work and his practice. He responded to my questions and we dug a bit deeper. He engaged.

Eventually, the talk turned to my work. It didn’t take long for the Blackberry to reappear. Not once, not twice. I lost count of how often he looked down at it. The message it sent to me was that talking about him was important enough to leave the Blackberry stowed. Listening to me? Not so much. The irony is that his practice requires a high level of client intimacy to be fully effective as an advisor.

Right now, I’m not inclined to refer anyone to Blackberry Guy. I know others in his specialty—just as smart and capable—who exhibit far more interest in those around them. What could Blackberry Guy do differently to earn my respect?

Focus completely on who you’re with. We underestimate the power of our full, undivided attention, especially in a world with so many distractions.

Explain extenuating circumstances—they do happen. If you are waiting for deal or life-altering news, say so. Ask for permission to check your incoming. Most everyone says yes and your candor may actually build a stronger relationship.

Put your Blackberry where it can’t distract you. Shut it off before putting it in your pocket. Vibrate mode will grab your attention every time (Ladies, turn the sound off and throw it in your purse. Better still, shut it off).

Should I give him a 2nd chance? Maybe. But will a potential client? I doubt it…..