eTips 2009
Concerned about bad press ? |
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Threats of negative publicity have powerful effects on professionals! Right now, bad news about your practice or business may be an impending reality. |
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Competitive arousal |
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In the heat of competition, costly mistakes can be made in an adrenaline-induced state.
Decision errors, miscalculations, and overreactions can follow. Competitor animosities fuel chest-beating displays of machismo. |
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Marketing madness |
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Save time, money, and much angst by stepping into marketing ideas and plans long before they spiral out of control. Take the razor to grandiose schemes to avoid the cost and disappointment of flights of fancy which - so often - simply don't deliver.
Good marketing attracts and keeps clients and work you wouldn't otherwise have. It also helps you achieve more favourable prices and terms than you'd otherwise command. A marketing scheme or activity which doesn't has lost the plot. You can put a stop to marketing madness.
These questions are good examples and a great start. |
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Thriving on adversity |
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Why do some do well while others fall by the way ?
Some professionals revel in stepping up to challenges while others are exhausted by them.
The answer ? Resilience. You can decide to thrive on adversity. |
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Serious about selling your services |
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Depending on the state of the economy, business tastes and fashions, your firm's current positioning on the competitive landscape, and what's going on in your clients' businesses, you may be attracting lots of leads and opportunities. But, if you're really serious about selling your services, take stock: which activities and initiatives really generate the interest, connect you with prospective clients, and produce results ? |
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Pitching to procurement |
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Professionals looking to win work through competitive selection processes - tenders, expressions of interest, business proposals - must now run the gauntlet of procurement specialists in government and large corporates. |
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Databases don't build relationships |
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Managing information effectively and capturing data connected with client relationships is necessary. Selling high value professional services today takes more than socialising with the right people, slapping backs, and depending on well-worn connections. Databases, systems, and websites have an important role, but they don't build relationships: people do. |
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Making the right impression & establishing credibility |
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First impressions do count. No matter how competent a professional, you may not get the chance to show what you're made of unless you get through the critical first five minutes of contact with flying colours. |
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Unspoken questions |
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Before a client selects a new lawyer or other expert professional, s/he needs answers to several questions.
While it might be easier if these questions were clearly articulated, you’ll score high marks for anticipation by dealing effectively with “unspoken questions”. |
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Avoiding buyer's remorse |
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If you observe symptoms of buyer’s remorse in your client, take immediate action. (Better still, anticipate and proactively engage the issue and avoid the problem, rather than waiting to overcome it.) |
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Buyer's remorse |
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Do your clients ever suffer from buyer’s remorse ? |
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Building emotional connections |
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Clients buy on logical and emotional grounds. Often professional service firms have a great list of logical reasons for clients to buy there services. Here are some ideas to build on emotional connections. |
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How to murder a client relationship |
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An angry client is a problem to your professional practice. But consider for a moment: a disappointed client may be a much greater danger. |
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20,000 kilometre service on client relationships |
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We take out cars for routine service, long before they break down. Every 10,000 kilometres or 20,000 kilometres, the oil is changed, tyre pressure checked, wiper blades are replaced, and so on …
But have we built these same service rituals into our client relationships ? |
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Superstardom |
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Much like showbiz, in almost every legal and other professional field, there are a few superstars. If you want the benefits of superstardom – recognition, choice of work for the best clients, price premiums, handsome financial returns, and exceptional bargaining power – then “earn” it.
Here’s how to get on the superstar track. |
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Tender debriefing |
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If you've gone to the effort and expense of tendering be sure to debrief - win or lose - on the outcome. If there is an opportunity for face-to-face debriefing, take it - it's only fair that large legal consumers who invite tenders offer debriefing and feedback to tenderers, whatever the result. |
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Do things differently |
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Some of the greatest professional success stories are based on sustained commitment to breaking with tradition and doing things differently. |
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Business development through networking |
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Assuming that you've decided to take the plunge and improve your marketing effectiveness, networking is one good starting point, well within the comfort zone. Whatever your level - senior partner, or early-career professional - you can make a positive contribution to business development through network contacts. |
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Work on word-of-mouth |
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Good, old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing, now renamed "evangelism marketing", is being hyped as the tactic of today.
Fact is, it always worked - back then and now. |
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Crucial credentials |
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Prospective clients are sceptical - probably sensibly so. Claims about your services which amount to advertising or hyperbole - hype - are easily and quickly dismissed.
Smart consumers examine available facts, evidence, and indicators to size up your credentials against their requirements and preferences.
Make it easy for them to decide that you have the crucial credentials by putting before them relevant and compelling facts, evidence, and indicators. |
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Getting more than your "fair share" of a client's work |
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Because so many corporate and government clients appoint multiple firms to provide their professional services, winning a place on a formal “panel” is only a preliminary to getting the work you really want.
When multi-provider appointments are informal, it’s even more important to drive work flow in your direction. |
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What you know or who you know ? |
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When a competitor's business development efforts succeed, they're frequently dismissed with "it's who they knew, not what they knew" while we tend to attribute our own wins to substantive knowledge rather than connections or networks.
So, which is more important: what you know, or who you know, and why ? |
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Eyes bigger than tummy |
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You may remember that old warning from your childhood: "beware - your eyes are bigger than your tummy". This was occasionally uttered when someone wanted more on their plate than they could possibly finish, but more often when someone took on too large or challenging a task to maintain interest to completion. |
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Management musts - for superior results |
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Recently, we analysed management practices of the most effective, strategically healthy, and successful professional services firms with which Julian Midwinter & Associates works. |
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Time for a tough talk ? |
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Even when things are going extra well, there are times when a problem or issue must be taken head on and tough talking is essential. Delivering tough and sometimes unpopular messages effectively is not only about what you say, but also how you say it. |
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Camping out with clients |
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Wherever possible and feasible, spend time "camping out" in the offices and facilities of your business clients. |
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Marketing minutes |
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Many lawyers and expert professionals juggling lots of competing tasks struggle to allocate significant chunks of time to business development as often as they'd like.
But all of us - no matter how busy - can take "marketing minutes" just about every day. |
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Reassess your pitching process |
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If you are less than 100% successful in winning business - whether through personal pitch, informal proposal, formal tender, or other open competition - then it may be time to review your approach and process. Here are some tips to help you re-evaluate. |
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Put more power in your proposal |
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We all want our proposals, tenders, pitches, and presentations to produce results. Power up your proposal with these proven techniques: |
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When referrals stop |
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From most sources, referrals are intermittent - they ebb and flow with the cycle of business, busy-ness, and contact. But sometimes referrals slow down - or worse, stop completely - and you are left wondering why. |
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Earn the right to ask questions |
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At the foundation of effective professional services selling is understanding needs, objectives, and aspirations of a prospective client. Doing this well mostly means asking lots of questions. Sadly, professionals and their marketing helpers too often take questioning as their right. |
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More than 15 minutes of fame from your award |
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Professional service firms invest enormous efforts - and expense - in award competitions in the quest for a recognisable edge. As Andy Warhol observed, we all get 15 minutes of fame - don’t squander the promotional opportunities an award win affords you and your firm. |
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Competing for new work is a fact of contemporary professional life |
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I recently took an informal poll of a handful of truly impressive lawyers, each a leader in their specialist domain. When asked their toughest challenge for the year, three out of ten nominated "competing for new work". Another nominated "keeping clients in the face of intense competition". Two more of the ten cited "being put into competition by established clients". |
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Coming under fire ? |
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All professionals face the prospect of coming under fire - mostly from clients, but also from regulators, media, the public, and government. Perhaps scrutiny or criticism is deserved. Perhaps it's even long overdue. But maybe it's unfair, unbalanced, or even hypocritical. |
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Size up each opportunity before you decide to bid |
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We observe an increase in the amount and quality of work available through open competitions and tender processes. But, before you decide to bid, size up the opportunity. |
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Nothing is so complex that it cannot be explained simply |
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Albert Einstein was spot-on when he said "nothing is so complex that it cannot be explained simply". |
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Risky business in tricky times |
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You don't need to be reminded that we're living and working through extraordinary and turbulent times. One tempting response to the tough business climate is to become excessively risk averse and tighten controls to a point where they stifle business development - another is to go on a "risk binge". Right now, among professional practices, we see both these responses in play. |
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Public sector tender trends |
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With financial markets turmoil and economic uncertainty come plenty of problems as well as real opportunities. Impacts on tendering are already discernable.
Here's our analysis of trends in tenders and competitive proposals this year. |
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