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August 4, 2008
In reading a recent post on Bill's blog in his Monday Morning Motivation series, he offers the advice to chiropractors, or any doctor for that matter, that their highest calling is to help prevent what they treat.
...but what are you doing to help make yourself obsolete?...The highest calling of any doctor (of any ilk) is to help prevent what it is they treat.
That got me to thinking about my philosophy as a consultant and speaker. It's hard for those of us who work on the retainer system to hold the philosophy of "helping to make ourselves obsolete", but that's exactly what we need to do. There is such an abundance of opportunity out there and by working closely with our clients (whether our consultative calling is inside or outside the enterprise) to move them to a higher platform of strategic or digital marketing execution expertise, we're truly offering the service that they need (and not the service, that we need...)
ACTION REQUIRED:
Think about this in your interactions all week. What have we done to truly understand the client and share our wisdom on making them better marketers (or, whatever they are) so that you too can one day be obsolete to them and move on to helping clients help themselves? That is the highest calling of any consultant.
March 10, 2005
As I get more integrated with companies through my consulting role, I'm taking note of Rob Levinson's article in a recent StartupJournal on the role of the consultant within an organization.
Let me start out by stating an opinion. People who have hero complexes do not make good consultants. They need the credit when the project shines, and pass the blame when it fails. These type of people have worked for me, and they'd never make good consultants.
Good consultants are ambidexterous, in that they are both invisible and well branded at the same time.
Consultants are invisible, and should be, when the results of a client engagement hit the public eye (unless the customer chooses otherwise). On the flip, consultants need to be experts at personal branding and differentiation for the purposes of new business development.
How do you do this? Very carefully.
A close example of this are all of those web development companies that insist on putting their names at the bottom of their clients' websites. Are you kidding me people? You're not helping the client's brand and image by putting a link at the footer of the page back to yours. If I like your work, I'll ask the client who did it. They'll give you a referral, and I'll call you. How 1997...
February 4, 2005
Why 'Listen and Learn' Is a Consultant's Mantra (actually, for me, it's all about listen, learn, and then tell them how you're going to do something about what' you've learned...so you have to listen)
I know that some of you reading are consultants, so if I'm preaching to the choir, you can tune me out. However, for the rest of you, stay tuned.
At the end of the day, we're all consultants in some way. We advise our customers, we advise our boss, we advise our co-workers; the list goes on. At every turn, we can't damn well advise someone if we've not first asked - shutup - and then listened to what it is that they have to say. I find that in my consulting role (not the corporate gig) and in my corporate role, this ensuring that people feel that their input matters is a universal concern of both customers and associates, and that need cannot be taken lightly.
Here's seven reasons, from the article, why listening should be your top skill:
-- Listening demonstrates interest.
-- Listening streamlines the sales cycle.
-- Listening streamlines the sales cycle.
-- I can make a real-time course correction.
-- I can make more money.
-- It creates chemistry.
-- I might become a U.S. senator.
[via StartupJournal]
August 2008 (1) March 2005 (1) February 2005 (1)