Great presentation. It’s always good to look at consulting decks to see how they put together data in a coherent way to tell a story. It is a craft and an art form. Was reading through reddit, and they mentioned this odd presentation from 2016. BCG was giving the City of Dallas advice on how to… Read More »
The post BCG report: Loose dogs in Dallas appeared first on Consultant's Mind.
Curious what a McKinsey presentation looks like? Please find links to 30+ McKinsey presentations which are publicly available online. Many of these are from conferences, or governmental / non-profit organizations clients who have chosen to make them available online. Yes, Google is useful. I selected the ones which as less than 10 years old have more than… Read More »
The post 30+ McKinsey presentations appeared first on Consultant's Mind.
I wrote this post 5 years ago. It is still true today. Management consultants use the phrase “best practices” often. Perhaps too often. You will see that magical phrase mentioned numerous times in white papers and research on these websites: Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, PWC and Accenture. A few pictures that help explain why a best practice can be so… Read More »
The post What is a best practice? appeared first on Consultant's Mind.
A consultant recently told me his firm spent three months evaluating CRM systems to find the right one for their business.
“How is your outreach and marketing going right now?” I asked.
“Well, we’re just getting going on that, as we now have a CRM in place. Most of our business comes from referrals,” he said.
Essentially, the consultancy delayed its marketing and outreach efforts by three months because they wanted to have a perfect system in place.
What a shame. Having a CRM in place is a smart move. I believe every consultant should use a CRM. However, you should not delay your marketing or outreach and spend months analyzing the options and thinking about it to find the perfect one, because there is no perfect one.
I will share them with you in just a minute. Keep in mind these are the key high-level stages every consultant should track.
You want to consistently follow up by phone and email with your ideal clients.
You may want to adjust them slightly or add an additional sub-stage or two for even more detailed tracking.
But you can run a million-dollar consulting business focusing on just these five stages.
You should track each of them on a weekly basis at minimum. Doing this every day will help you become even more accountable, which is fine.
Let’s get right into it. Here are the five stages…
It’s important to track how many people you have reached out to. An ‘outreach’ is defined as an attempt to get in front of an ideal client. This is done most often by a personal email or custom LinkedIn connection request.
Running ads or publishing content (even if you have a list) isn’t considered an outreach. Yes, you may get your message in front of many people, but what we want to focus on here is directly reaching out to an ideal client in a personalized way.
Most initial outreaches won’t result in a meeting or conversation initially. That’s why the follow-up stage is so crucial. A CRM system or service that can remind you to follow up with people is exceptionally valuable at this stage.
You want to consistently follow up by phone and email with your ideal clients.
Not every follow up should involve you pushing for a meeting or conversation.
In fact, it’s best to follow up a direct request by speaking with the buyer and providing them with valuable content. What I call ‘engagement materials.’ These demonstrate your authority and expertise and keep you top of mind.
If you’ve done a good job of identifying the value the buyer can gain and have crafted an effective proposal, you should be a winner.
This follow up, when done correctly, moves you to the next stage.
At this stage, you want to track how many conversations you are having with ideal clients every week. The more conversations you have, the more business you will generate, especially if you are using an effective approach to ensure a meaningful consulting sales conversation like I teach here.
Many consultants make business development more difficult than it needs to be. Your #1 focus should always be on having conversations. Everything you do should support that goal.
It’s not about social media, ads, landing pages, funnels, e-books, or any other technology or trend. That stuff is fine, but everything you do in your marketing and outreach should directly help you get to this stage, so you can have more conversations.
Once you’ve had a meaningful consulting sales conversation and identified value you can deliver to the buyer it’s time to move to Stage 4.
This is where you’ll suggest a next step to the buyer, and if they agree, you should draft a proposal that outlines what you have agreed on.
An important reminder: at this stage, always schedule a time to review the proposal with the buyer before you send it. Failing to do so will result in a longer sales cycle and delays.
If you’ve done a good job of identifying the value the buyer can gain and have crafted an effective proposal, you should be a winner.
These five stages are critical to track. By doing so, you are able to see the areas in which you are strong and where you can improve.
If you’re currently not seeing the results you’d like in your business, locate the stage at which you’re underperforming and focus on improving it or reach out for help to get better results faster.
Of course, there is much more to each stage than I can go through in one article. I hope you’ve found this helpful and will use it to grow your own consulting firm.
If you would like help and personal coaching and support to attract more ideal clients, increase your fees and win more proposals, apply for the Accelerator Coaching Program. This is where we personally work with consultants to grow their business. You can see the kind of results people achieve in the program here: http://ift.tt/2pNHsUW
5 Stages to Track Your Consulting Firm’s Marketing is a post from: Consulting Success
Generally speaking, I am pretty good under pressure. This can take the form of final revisions the night before the presentation, or conference calls lined up back-to-back. The endorphin gets going and you can ignore the pain. The dopamine gets going and you feel the achievement. If it’s team-based work, the serotonin gets going and it feels like… Read More »
The post Important, not urgent appeared first on Consultant's Mind.
Consultants are in the business of taking ambiguous problems, structuring them, and telling cogent, actionable stories. This often involves charts – yes – charts and graphs. The older crew – like me – is used to Excel, but you will also see Tableau, Cliq, and other Prezi-like craziness. First and foremost, the content needs to be relevant and accurate. Then, it… Read More »
The post Anti-example: 10 bad charts appeared first on Consultant's Mind.
Would earning 100%, 200% even 300% more than you are now with your consulting fees be of interest?
If you’d like to learn how to increase your fees so you can make more with every project that you take on and spend potentially less time on each project this will be relevant for you.
In today’s article I’m going to explain how to establish value for your consulting fees.
If you’re not basing your fees on value or ROI you’re leaving significant money on the table. Put simply, hourly fees and daily rates compensate you for your time, not your value or contribution to the project.
Most buyers of consulting services are more than happy to invest at a 5-10X ROI.
If you spend 20 hours on a project at $300/hr you’d earn $6000.
There’s nothing wrong with that number, except, what if the work you did for that client helped them to directly increase their sales by $400,000.
Would that be equitable compensation? If you feel it is, you’re certainly leaving a lot of money on the table!
Most buyers of consulting services are more than happy to invest at a 5-10X ROI.
That means if you helped them realize a $400,000 gain your compensation could range from $40,000 to $80,000.
You tell me, $6k or $40k-$80k – which would you prefer?
And what if it only took you 15 hours to get them that result? It may take more or less, but in almost all cases you’ll earn significantly more by basing your fees on value.
There are two types of value to consider with all projects. When you understand what they are and how to identify them you can often earn even more than the example I shared above. You can do this through discovering additional value and communicating it to the buyer.
Tangible value is easy to spot. It can include:
Tangible value can be measured and typically has a $ sign or % mark attached to it.
Intangible value is the area that most consultants get tripped up on. They feel it is elusive and hard to spot. That doesn’t have to be the case when you know what to look for.
Intangible value can include:
I recently spoke with one client who felt unclear about communicating the intangible side of their fees. In our conversation it became clear that “reputation” was very important to this buyer.
“Why is it so important to them?” I asked.
“Because they want to be seen as world-class.” my client responded.
I continued peeling back some layers and said, “Great, and why do they want to be world-class?”
“Well, it will help them to attract more visibility and get more tourism and direct investment.”
Now we were making progress. “So their reputation is important to them because they want to be seen as world-class and that will allow them to attract more tourism to their country and increase their foreign direct investment, right?”
When you ask enough questions and dig deep you can uncover tangible value from what on the surface appears only to be intangible value.
“That’s right” my client said.
We went on to talk about the measurable value of tourism and direct investment for the buyer.
When you ask enough questions and dig deep you can uncover tangible value from what on the surface appears only to be intangible value.
The best way to identify both intangible and tangible value is to have a deep and meaningful conversation with the decision maker (aka. the buyer).
There is no replacement for this.
No shortcut.
If you skip or try to cut the conversation short without having a proper conversation you will leave money on the table 99% of the time.
That’s because to identify value and ROI you must take the time to ask the right questions.
The most important skill you can have as a consultant when you want to increase your fees and earn more with every project that you take on is to know how to ask great questions.
I’ve written more extensively about how to ask great consulting questions before. Here are some examples for you:
I teach my clients a formula and provide them with a script that takes them from start to finish and guides them through having a meaningful conversation with a buyer of consulting services by asking the right questions.
It sets them apart and allows them to earn significantly more with every project they take on.
Here are a couple of examples to show you the possibility and the opportunity for transformation when you make this shift.
If you’d like help to communicate greater value so you can earn higher fees consider applying for the Accelerator Coaching Program. In this program I personally work with clients to help them attract more high-value buyers, increase their fees and win more business.
Want feedback on a proposal? I’ll personally review it for you. Want help to ensure your marketing materials are up to par? We’ll get you that feedback. We do all that and a lot more for clients in the Accelerator Coaching Program. You can schedule a free 1-on-1 Planning Session to learn more about the program. Start by applying here
How to Establish Value in Your Consulting Fees is a post from: Consulting Success
Ray Dalio is a billionaire, a genius, a hedge-fund manager, and a “piece of work.” He is not your average guy in any sense. He is a super smart, opinionated “macro” investor who started Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds at the age of 26. (Great background story in the New Yorker here). Tony… Read More »
The post Who is Ray Dalio? appeared first on Consultant's Mind.
