How To Increase Your Value in the Eyes of Your Prospective Clients

Here are a series of questions that you may want to know the answers to in order to differentiate you and your services and be a success with your clients:

• How do professionals increase their value in the eyes of their clients? 
• What is it that the best professionals do that allow them to grab the attention of prospective clients who are too busy to see anyone else?
• Why do clients prefer to do business with one firm over all the others?
• How do professionals turn onetime customers into lifelong clients?

These are questions I have been asking for years. I have been, in a word, obsessed. I have wanted to know the secret to why certain firms won a majority of clients business ever since I entered the workforce.

I am pleased to say, that I believe I have actually "discovered" the patterns of why clients choose one firm over all the others vying for their business.


I used to think clients bought products and solutions and services based on their advantages over competing products, solutions, and services. Then I thought it was advantages as well as costs.

Perhaps these aspects were reasons why clients bought at one time. But, as everything does with time, things change. Today clients are more sophisticated, have less time to just meet with vendors, and are walking the razor's edge because the people responsible for delivering client shareholder results, need ideas, solutions, and strategies to achieve their business objectives. And if you cannot help achieve their business objectives, you are noise.

Here is what clients want from you today--if you desire to become the best professional you can possibly be.

Enhancing Your Clients' Strategic Plans

The best professionals, the top people in their industry, have learned the value they bring is highest when it is aligned to their clients' strategic plans. This means your value comes from your ability to properly apply your services to the most critical aspects of your clients' strategic plans.

 

As a professional, you do not have to be a strategic planner for clients; it does mean that clients have to have strategic plans and do the strategic planning. Strategic plans are always the client's responsibility. The responsibility for strategic plans cannot be outsourced. Yes, strategic plans can be helped along with the likes of consulting firms like BCG, McKinsey, and Accenture. Accepting the plans and implementing them belongs to the responsibility of the client's stakeholders. Helping clients achieve their objectives is where you as a professional comes in.

Your Role and Responsibility as a Winning Professional

The best professionals understand their value comes in the execution of the strategy, and therefore this defines the professional's role and responsibility. The role and responsibility of the professional providing strategic services and solutions is to accelerate the objective of the client's strategic plan, ensure its success and the desired outcomes, and if possible, increase the overall measurable business results.

As a professional, you must understand the value you and your services bring to clients. You are able to reduce time, ensure the objectives are achieved and improved through your services. You apply your services to the client's business operations. In the end, to be of value, you, not your firm, not your colleagues, and certainly not your client, has to know how you and your services impact the following:

1. Reduce the time horizon to achieve the client's strategic objectives,
2. Ensure the objectives are achieved, and/or
3. Increase or improve the value of the client's objectives.

If you cannot address one or several or all of the criteria, you are not thinking strategically or your services are a commodity.

Action Exercises

1. Make a commitment to study your current clients' measurable business results that they have gained through the use of your services and solutions. Do this today. Tomorrow is too late.
2. Every project you begin needs to start with a baseline of the client's current achievements and operations. This means how is the client currently performing? How many widgets are being produced? How much does each widget cost to produce? How long does it take to produce one widget? Ten widgets? How much executive time and attention is devoted to the production of widgets? Could the time and attention be devoted elsewhere, somewhere more valuable? (the answer is always yes) Baseline, baseline, baseline. Always baseline. So many consultants, professionals, and technicians never think to baseline because they are too busy and are impatient to get started. Don't be one of them.
3. Be able to articulate your value in terms of the measurable business results (MBRs) using the criteria (one through three) above. Write the answers to these questions in as complex language as you desire. The point is do it--don't try to perfect your answers here or you will never get started. Perfection is your enemy at this point. Then, once your answers are written, rewrite and rewrite until you can boil all your technical jargon out of your statements to the point where your 16-year-old daughter or son can understand them (if you can get them to sit down long enough). Make your statements in plain English. Be able to say them articulately and clearly when writing and speaking.
4. Put your value where your mouth is. Your value is so crystal clear and you are so assured of the value you can bring to your clients that you are more than willing to place these terms in a statement of work or contract. Don't believe you can deliver? Then you are not going to compete the way you can and should and you will be relegated as a commodity competing on price and margin reductions for the remainder of your career (which may not be that long).
5. GO OUT and MEET as many prospective clients that have similar needs to the results you can deliver. Test your message--until you break through the noise and clutter that is preoccupying the client's mind and gain the client's attention through results rather than the superlatives all the other vendors are hawking--because now you stand out. You are different. You bring value and you have moved to the top of the heap, and you are in an entire different category of providers from the perspective of the client. You have moved to delivering value and achieving their strategic objectives, up from a vendor hawking features, feeds and speeds.

 

The Triple Filter Test - by Socrates

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met he great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything, I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "Actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”

Incentivizing Professionals to Sell the Value

In a recent article in HBR, Andris Zolters explains that many organizations are linking some part  of a professionals bonus structure to profitability.

Personally I have seen this turn into a disaster, but only because it was so complicated it looked like a punitive compensation plan rather than an incentive for good/strategic behavior. Professionals had a "what's the use" mentality shortly after the program was rolled out. They saluted the program after learning other who complained about it were placed in a penalty box for not "being part of the solution."

Incentives Should Be Tied to the Integrity of the Firm

Soon, however, the best professionals had their resumes out on the street, not so much because of the money, but because of the "integrity" or "lack of integrity" that was being messaged. The indirect message was: suck it up; but yes we are promoting an open dialogue, but  only when you agree with our opinions."

By the way, that firm had a disastrous year and subsequent year. The CEO was removed for poor performance and poor behavior in the corporate office, the firm's stock price dropped, and the firm was purchased by a much smaller firm. This was not necessarily a direct cause of the incentive program, but integrity was a direct link back to the thinking of executives.

Incentives Should Be Tied to the Strategy of the Firm

Zolter's points out that incentive plans should be linked to the strategy of the firm. In my words: Does the compensation program tie back to the strategy? Where are we going? What do we want? How do we incentivize performance in the direction of these questions?

As for profitability, there are some people who believe that sales and other professionals have little control over profitability. I do not agree with this statement. Ask any sales person who is out there selling, about their biggest challenges, and invariably price comes up. Ask them how they navigate price, and the reply will be, we need to beat the competition's price--so we discount.

Zolter's points out that some firms "pay a commission on the revenues salespeople generate or a bonus for achieving a territory sales quota. This proven 'pay for performance' approach motivates salespeople to work hard and drive sales results. But today, companies increasingly expect salespeople to deliver not just sales but profitable sales growth. Logically, it follows that a sales force can align salespeople’s effort with company profitability goals by linking incentives to profit, rather than sales metrics." (HBR Article: When Sales Incentives Should Be Based on Profit, Not Revenue)

Sell the Value of Your Services

I agree with this model and kicker for profits. Some professionals give away the farm to get a deal and therefore profits suffer. If you teach the professionals who are responsible for driving business how to sell the value of the services and products, you won't be reduced the most common denominator--price. 

Clients can't always determine what is best for them and their organization. Professionals have to "teach" and educate clients on the value their services and solutions bring. The value is all about translating solutions into measurable business results. The value is increased when the professionals then follow-through. Adding a kicker to profits in addition to teaching professionals how to sell the value is exactly what the best professionals and firms do. The net net: establish value with clients and reward professionals on their ability to establish that value.

The 25-Year Client Study of Why Clients Only Select Certain Providers As Partners

If you read the book Clientize, you will learn how to establish your value and be relevant with your clients. The book is available on Amazon. It is based on 25-years of asking clients the questions: How to do choose one provider over all the others?  And the second question: What is it about this firm that you only do business with them?  The answers with surprise you.

Sales Analytics and How Big Data Can Drive Toward the Wrong Conclusion

Andris Zolner published an interesting article on Harvard Business Review.  He talks about using big data for the sales force. First off. Zoltner is brilliant, his work is brilliant, his stuff is well, brilliant.

Big Data Is One Thing--Understanding What It Means Is Quite Another Thing

His article discusses the use of big data and how its analytics helped change the course of selling for companies in different business sectors.  One point he made though is that one company found the better sales people had their field level managers spending more time with them in the field. He said, that these were the best-performing sales managers who were spending more time with their best sales people in the field. The correlation from the data, was that the worse-performing sales managers were spending less time with their sales people in the field.

The change that this company was going to make according to the company's executives was that the worst sales managers should spend more time in the field with their sales people.

The University Professor and The "A" Student Who Didn't Attend Class

I remember a story of a university professor who told his 30 students that class was not mandatory, but that if they wanted an "A" they should attend class every day because he was going to cover material that was not in the book. He said, there will be no quizzes, no mid-terms, just one big final. But he said, if you come to class, you should do very well on the final.

Everyone sat up and took notice. The next class, all 30 students showed up. The next class, however, only 29 students showed up.

The professor thought this was just an aberration, but for the next class only 29 students showed up again. The professor saw the familiar faces from the last class and began to wonder who it was that wasn't showing up. So he asked his teaching assistant (TA) to determine who it was who didn't show up, just in case.

The following class--only 29 students. The TA determined it was John Smith who was skipping classes. Well this went on until the last day of the class--the day of the finals.  All 30 students showed up. The professor saw the unfamiliar face and knew it had to be this John Smith fellow.

When John Smith came up to the front of the class to turn in his final--the professor just shook his head. He said, "You must be John Smith." The professor looked at the name on the test, saw that it was John Smith, and said, "I will save you time in having to wait. I will grade your test right now right here." And with that the professor started marking his test against the answers.

The professor went "Hmmmm....." and then went on some more. Obviously the professor was startled. He said, "This is impossible. You scored a 98 out of 100, and you didn't come to any of my classes."

The student replied, "Well on the first day of class, I thought I knew the subject, but I became confused. I could have made a 100 if I didn't come to that class."

The best don't need the help of those who are in positions of authority who don't know what they are doing. Bad sales managers do not want to be encouraged to go out in the filed to help their best sales people. You want to encourage bad sales managers to stay home and spend time with their families.

Six Objectives When Negotiating Contracts

In working with clients, contracts are necessary. Instead of looking at contracts from a negative light, you can look at them from a different perspective, a perspective of clarification and success for both parties.

The successful professional should always employ basic strategies when negotiating a contract with clients in order to achieve six major objectives:

1. avoidance of misunderstanding and clarification, 
2. maintenance of working independence and freedom to perform the work,
3. assurance of work and not giving away your expertise free of charge,
4. assurance of payment since you are not a bank,
5. avoidance of liability since you are human and do make honest errors as well as there are some things that are just beyond your control, and
6. prevention of litigation.

The purpose and meaning of the word “strategy” as it is used here is not to mislead the client or to be devious with him. Instead, a strategy is about how to assure both parties that these six goals, which are in your mutual interest, will be reached.

When working with clients, the biggest problem comes about from "soft" things, usually misunderstanding, missed expectations, and a differing of opinions. Your ability to define as much as you possibly can without approaching this from a blame-game perspective, the better off you will be. It’s always best to get everything you can on the table regarding your understanding, the client’s understanding, the objectives of the project, your approach to the project versus how the client wants you to approach the project, and making sure that the opinions of all parties involved have been voiced and addressed, is important but difficult to always achieve

Commitment

Commitment

The dictionary defines commitment as a decisive choice that involves a definite course of action. In life commitment is a proactive approach in which you promise a result and then conform your actions to that result. The commitment is a promise to yourself.

The promise creates a discrepancy in your mind. This discrepancy acts as a source of friction—a catalyst—because once you are committed, your mind sees the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in the future. The mind wants to close the gap between now, where you are and the future state, where you want to be.

The gap acts as a catalyst that propels you, motivates you, to bring that vision of your future state in alignment with your reality.  The gap is filled with a series of actions and efforts, which you create and establish, and lead you forward toward your objective.

Commitment is about focusing your energy on your daily efforts in order in order to be continuously striving for the attainment of that objective, and not drifting off course, back to what was once “normal” and “routine.” You are now steering your ship, through your efforts. Your efforts are those actions you have decided to take, that are in front you, and by taking these actions, you avoid drifting back to what was “comfortable” and “habitual.”

Commitment is about deciding. Your decision is your selection, your choice, and then committing to the effort in front of you. Commitment is not simply about psyching yourself up with daily doses of affirmations and positive thinking and working even harder. Commitment is about a willingness to review what you have been doing, what is not working, looking at where you want to go, and understanding that these two things, self-defeating actions coupled with no direction, are not what you want in your life any longer.

It means understanding the ramifications of just “going along,” like the tide, habitual, mindless, wasted energy, is no longer for you. You have committed to take a different course, a course of action aimed at something you prefer to become, and then by being that vision in your day-to-day activities.

You can start by establishing a clear foundation for your objective by asking yourself and answering the following questions:

• Where do I want to be in five years? Ten years? (It can be about money earned, position, books written, clients, weight, college degrees, or even a way of acting)
• When do I want to be there? (time, date, and a series of mini-objectives)
• What are the actions and efforts I am going to have to take? And which ones can I breakdown to smaller activities and incorporate into my daily and even hourly routine?
• What are the limiting beliefs and habits that I need to give up? (What things did my mother or father or others plant in my head that are based in falsehoods, which are holding me back? What things have others planted that I accepted are true that are not based in reality?)
• In numbers—How much do you need to accomplish your objective? (Can you convert your objectives into something you can count/measure?)
• In numbers—How much do you need to accomplish daily in order to achieve your vision?
• What things do you need to pay attention to that will derail your efforts (other people telling you that you can’t or yourself—old habitual negative voices telling you that you can’t)?
• What things do you need to pay attention to that will strengthen your resolve?
• What new picture can you form in your mind of what success looks like that you can clearly establish and carry around with you from this day forward and every day in your present moment?
• What new feeling can you form in your body, which resonates your resolve and commitment, knowing you are now the new person committed to this new vision you have for yourself?
• What is the new pleasant, encouraging voice inside your head whispering to you about your resolve and commitment?

Take action. Write out your answers to the questions above on paper. Learn to commitment and recommit to your vision on a daily, if not hourly basis, and to take daily and hourly actions and efforts that are in alignment with your future vision.

Feel the tension, the discomfort of where you are now and where you want to be, and act in a manner in alignment with your future positive state. How would the person I want to be act and behave and think? Then act, behave, and think in that same manner. Act and be at that new higher level today, now.

The gap between where you are and where you want to be doesn’t have to extraordinary, but it does have to be a stretch. It has to create enough creative tension inside your mind and body to propel you to want to close the gap. The creative tension helps you focus on the actions, the efforts you have to take. Remember, climbing Mount Everest is accomplished by starting with small efforts even before you land in Tibet. And even then, each step you take, is a step closer to the summit. It’s the effort, the steps, which allow you to attain your ultimate vision.

Without the efforts and seemingly mundane actions, that causes negative stress instead of creative tension. The important thing is to take action. Do something every day toward your vision. Commitment to taking the action, making action, do the one thing. Tomorrow make it two things. And the tomorrow after, commit to doing three. But every day, take at least one action. Focus your mind on the effort of doing that one thing and not focus your energies on the vision. The vision is the guide—the beacon. Your actions, the focus on the effort of those actions is where your resolve needs to be.

Hold your vision in front of you, look glance up at the peak of your Mount Everest every so often to make sure you are on track, but focus on each step you take and foot placement you make.

Your vision needs to be a source of inspiration, not punishment. Your daily actions and effort should be something achievable and not grueling or gruesome. It helps to write out your commitments daily and write out the actions you need to take before you start your day.

Watch and see if this little routine of writing by hand, onto a piece of paper, doesn’t provide a source of inspiration and result in a source of positive energy for you.

A Lesson from Tom Watson, Jr (former CEO of IBM)

Lessons from History
There are lessons in history. You all know that already, so I won't plow into quotes and metaphors to convince you of this. So, if we know this, why is it so hard to learn these lessons and incorporate them into our business practices?

The answer is, at least to me, we are looking for easy solutions or some of us are looking for the next best idea. And then there are some others who believe that if the idea or strategy is more complex, then it's gotta be better.

The Question Most People Get Wrong
Let's start with a simple question. What is the purpose of a business?

Many people answer, "To make a profit."

I don't think this is the correct answer. It is the correct answer to many analysts on Wall Street.  However, the truly great analysts will tell you that for the short-term this answer may be true, but the long-term? No way. These analyst look at the long-term. They want to see long recurring revenue streams and good margins.

I like Drucker's answer to this question. Drucker said, "The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer." I think this is the right answer, in spite of what some executives think about profits and orders and meeting quarterly pressures.

Keeping a Customer--The 25-Year Study: Clientize

The keeping part of "keeping of a customer" is the main theme behind a study I have been conducting for the past twenty-five years. This work has culminated in the book titled "Clientize."

My study started with the simple question to executives, "What is it about this firm (the one you have chosen to be your long-term partner) that you chose them over all the others?" I found clients' buy from certain providers and vendors because of the professionals handling their account and the concern they had for their clients' business and professional interests.

Winning Professionals: Winners Buy From Winners
First rate businesses buy from first rate winning professionals. Winning professionals are those who are looking out for the client's interests. How the professionals demonstrate that they are looking out for their clients is what clients revealed to me in my face-to-face discussions. I took a lot of notes and taught these ideas to other professionals who worked with me. This study and the clients answers are captured in the book Clientize. You can get it from Amazon or through the link on my website which is over the left of this post--just click on the book.

Here is what Thomas Watson, Jr., the former CEO of IBM said about what IBM does, "We make computers. But we sell improved profits that our computers can make for our customers."

In the day, sales people used "features and benefits" type sales techniques. It went like this, "We have a faster processor (feature), which allows you to get your work done in a shorter amount of time (benefit)." And so this is how almost all of IBM's competitors sold. It was easy to point out that IBM's products were inferior in terms of feature based technology to prospective customers. And yet, IBM dominated the industry. In the hallowed halls of corporate boardrooms and government agencies, the message that everyone heard in their heads was, "Nobody ever got fired from buying IBM." And so they did.

Winning Professionals Focus on the Client's Interests
Why was this? Why did executives buy from IBM? Why did IBM dominate the computer industry? Because IBM got it right. IBM focused on the customer and their needs. The customers' needs were and oh-by-the-way, still are, profits. IBM sales people didn't focus on their own profits, they focused on the customers profits. IBM got it right years ago, while the other smaller players, focused on the speeds, and the latest technology, IBM focused on what mattered to their customers--and the safe bet became "buy IBM."

Focus on your customers needs--not yours--and you will turn customers into longtime clients. And maybe, you will be as successful as IBM.
 

The Use of Superlatives and Hyperbole

In my business I am wrestling with the use of superlatives. My friend Merriam-Webster defines a superlative as "of, relating to, or constituting the degree of grammatical comparison that denotes an extreme or unsurpassed level or extent."

I define superlatives better than Merriam. I define a superlative as lazy thinking that makes the person use words that makes the person sound arrogant and abrasive.

Here is one I run into a lot: we are "uniquely positioned."  I am a little concerned that we sound like a contortionist or worse: a sexual acrobat. I am not sure a client wants to do business with an organization that is "uniquely positioned to provide the best services to meet the needs of XYZ-client organization."

Here is another: "we are best-in-class." Are we at the Westminister Dog Kennel Show?

Think twice when you write hyperbolic superlatives. And at the end of thinking twice, realize you are not selling your services, yourself or your firm. Find the real reason the client should use you.

Office Etiquette Rule Number 14: Stop Using Your Speaker Phone

Office Etiquette Rule Number 14: Stop Using Your Speaker Phone

Why is it that so many people at work are using their speakerphones when talking to other people? It seems like the phenomenon has become a rage, except the rage should have been over twenty years ago when people received desk phones with speakers built in. And to call the speakerphone a phenomenon is ridiculous as the speakerphone seems to be a little archaic.

So why is it people can't pick up the handset (that's what it's called you know) and place the phone against their ear? I think I know why . . .

Texting While Driving Become Texting While Working when in the Office

We are obsessed with doing two or three things at once. Are we bored with what others are saying? Or is it we can't stand the idea of sitting still while someone else is talking?

Do you think I am wrong about texting while working? Then the next time you have a conference call in a room full of people who have gathered together for the camaraderie, look around and see how many people have their iPhone or Android out and looking at emails, texts, and just surfing eBay. You may want to check yourself first, oh by the way.

Who's the Client?

Certainly you are having a call with someone important, or else why take the call? This person or group of people could be (and probably are to some extent) your customer. These so-called "customers" are the people you support. These are the people that allow you to keep your smartphone device and not go into debt.  In other words, these are the people who support your and your family's existence. 

Your attention or lack there of, or boredom is not of importance to anyone. It does show a lack of courtesy by not paying attention to the call. And it certainly embarrassing to everyone when you are called out for a question and you were not paying attention. Even in spite of your attempt to hide the fact by mumbling something after searching your brain for the smallest crumb of information of what the question was. 

Pay Attention or Pay Dearly

It's a scientific fact that we cannot do two things at the same time. And some of us barely can do one thing at a time. You lack of attention and your bragging about it doesn't really make sense. But because we have been trained and conditioned to display false bravado (hey look at me, I am working until 7PM tonight, skipped lunch, and I had eight conference calls today) is probably a chief culprit. 

Out minds can only think one-thing-at-a-time. Because our minds process information faster than people can talk, we become trained to do something else. We say "got it" in our minds, but we can't digest the context of the conversation. So we may not miss the words, but we miss the meaning and symbolism that the words don't always express.

Solution

Never get on a call and never go down the hallway without a pen and notebook. Note that I did not say paper. I said notebook. Write the date at the top of page, the topic of the conversation, who is attending, write out the agenda, and write out questions or points you want to make regarding the agenda. Do this before the meeting! BUT, if you have to, that is you are unprepared, you should at least do this at the start of the meeting.

In that notebook, take notes, when you are talking to someone on the phone. Catch the nuances. Write down a question in the margin to be asked later if the person doesn't address it. Jot down bullets around the causes, the effects, who was impacted, when it occurred and when it will be addressed. But don't type your conversation as the client or the other person is talking. People hear the click click click of the keyboard.

What writing does, it forces you to pay attention, to think. When you write, you are focusing your mind to stay focused on the conversation. The notes become a forcing mechanism to listen and capture the key ideas, messages, and actions. From here, this little exercise, you become a better attention payer. 

Office Etiquette Rule Number 13: Avoid Go No Where People (Like the plague)

Office Etiquette Rule Number 13: Avoid Go No Where People (Like the plague) 

I have heard very smart people, people who have Masters and PhDs, who were very negative and distrustful and looked for ways to screw others. These people at one point worked in areas that were involved in helping others who were indigent. I guess these people saw a lot of things and became very distrusting of mankind (don't tell me womankind or people kind--it doesn't work as a word here).

One senior-level woman said to me after a meeting with another person she didn't like, "We learned how paranoid she is. You should use that against her." I looked at her with as much unemotion as I possibly could, because I was floored that anyone actually thought that way. Now that must suck to live life like that, because it means you are thinking that others have found something out about you and you are constantly on guard.

Now, I am not all daisies and buttercups. But I do think positive things. I believe I am this way most the time. I expect the best from others. Maybe they disappoint me, but my rationalization for thinking this way is that if I am negative and expect the worst from people, I am setting myself up for failure and most importantly, having an attitude and a way of seeing the world that contributes to promoting a miserable life.

Let's get into office etiquette. I believe what is missing in many environments is a code of conduct. Office etiquette rules and guidelines can serve as a backdrop to a code of office conduct. Office etiquette rules are things your mother never probably taught you, but if she could, these are rules she would have used and taught you if she had worked in such an office.

In the end, the organization becomes goes from myopic to me-opic.  And eventually implodes.

You have to be on the lookout for organizations like this. And if there isn't any leadership, get the hell out of Dodge. And be in a hurry. Tomorrow isn't soon enough. Why?  Because you soon pick up the traits of others--usually the bad others. And these are traits you don't ever want to pick up.