Barbados 2008

I was recently asked to speak at a conference in Barbados and have accepted. If you'd like a tax deductible reason to visit Barbados in the fall of 2008, while also learning how to increase margin and sales volume, stay tuned - I am planning special things for this conference.

The Episode in Which Cal Realizes Good Blogging is Hard Work

This blog is intended to share some insights and observations with other consultants but also to function as a test of blogging. This post combines both intentions. In very brief form....

Lesson One: I have realized that blogging requires more commitment than I have made to it.

Lesson Two: Blogs must be made more public than I have made this one.

More on this later....

Sales Effectiveness Report

I recently read about the Watson Wyatt 2008 Report on Sales Effectiveness and Compensation and it had some interesting information. Included was a finding that by shifting 2 hours per week from administrative tasks to selling related tasks an additional $90,000 - $120,000 could be realized by effective sales people.

I first found out about the study from the Top-Consultant.com e-newsletter. It's UK based and a great source of global consulting related information and services .

I suggest you subscribe to it if you are in the management consulting industry.

Good Branding Gone Bad

The title of the article in the February 2008 issue of Psychology Today caught my eye. “Becoming Your Own Brand” spoke directly to the advice I give many of my management consulting clients. As I read further I was enchanted by the words of Judith Sills, the author and PhD. “Your brand” she states “is the professional identity you create in the minds of others”. Perfect. An article I can forward to my clients.

But wait. There’s a hitch. A bit of sidebar advice has derailed her argument.

“Don’t make your niche of expertise too narrow” she suggests. As an example she suggests that describing your expertise as “business practices” leaves a lot of industries open while describing your expertise as “international shoe industry business practices” limits your options.

It certainly does limit your options. And that’s a good thing.

What she fails to recognize is the advantage that limiting your options offers the professional. By focussing on narrow areas of expertise and well-defined markets, it allows professionals to allocate their scarce marketing efforts in the most efficient manner possible. And more importantly, narrowly focussed experts are very attractive to clients who see that expertise as relevant and valuable to their firm.

This is why true, narrowly focussed experts, attract clients from around the world and command premium fees while generic business practice “experts” grind out reports for low margins and long nights, always struggling to chase the next client, rallying around their marketing mantra of “broad expertise”.

There is no such thing as “broad expertise” and the author makes the common undergrad mistake of attempting to position a generic skill set as a “distinctive and desirable” market position.

This critical flaw in an otherwise commendable article makes for another good start, and predictable bad finish, in the race to advise professionals on branding and market positioning.

Top Five Most Read Articles of 2007

Today I was sent an e-mail by the editor at Rain Today about their recent "Best Articles of 2007" special issue. Turns out their fifth most popular article on business development for management consultants was written by us at Beyond Referrals and deals with selling when you're too busy to sell (sound familiar?). It was the fifth most read out of about 250 articles they posted last year.

If you care to read it you can find it at Top Five Articles Issue.

"Everywhere Used To Be Like Alberta"

I am fortunate enough to speak to many consultants in varied practices across North America and what I began hearing as a whisper late in 2007 is now being discussed openly. Things are slowing down. Consultants are still working but the notion of actively seeking new engagements is now at the forefront, instead of the background.

As recently as early in 2007 everywhere I looked in North America, the consulting field was "just like Alberta" - Canada's larger than life, "boomingest" province. Busy, and no worries.

But in 2008, even before this week's stock market crash, and surprising semi-recovery, the consulting industry is starting to look a lot more modest. In case you were just thinking it, I can tell you that others are saying it.

So if you were "selling consulting while you were busy consulting" things will be fine. If you ignored your pipeline for the last few years you better get cracking.

Offshoring Professional Services

Local lawyer Harold Buchwald wrote an interesting article today for the Winnipeg Free Press on the use of lower cost offshore lawyers, by North American firms. You can read the article by clicking here.