Commando Consulting, February 2011

18 Ways of Acquiring Higher Paying Clients Part 2

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur

Podcast version: MP3 Version

Have you heard the story of Tantalos?

According to Greek mythology, Tantalos, king of Sipylos, the son of Zeus and the father of Pelops and Niobe, was admitted to the society of the gods, but he had divulged some divine secrets and stolen the gods' sacred food.

Of course, Zeus and the other gods got really pissed off with Tantalos.

Tantalos tried to smooth the gods' anger by murdering one of his sons, Pelops and serving his body as food to the gods to test their omniscience.

Then the gods got even more pissed off with the poor bugger.

As a punishment, the gods condemned him to hanging from one of the larger branches of a fruit tree over a pool of water. When he bent down to drink, the water would recede. And when he reached up for a fruit, the wind would blow it from his reach.

To make Tantalos's situation more precarious, there was a huge stone hanging over his head threatening to fall on him at any time and end his wicked life.

The word tantalize originates from his name.

Sadly, many consulting firms are in similar situations.

They don't make conscious efforts to upgrade their clients, and often end up flooding their shops with low-end, sludge-dwellers.

Sludge-dwellers are clients from the lowest end of the quality continuum. The sort of crap of the crop, as opposed to cream of the crop.

And although these firms have never pissed off any kind of gods and have never served the bodies of their children as godly dinners, due to low quality clients, they voluntarily hang themselves on some proverbial fruit tree with both water and fruit out of their reach.

So, today we continue our journey to discover how to prevent the nasty situation of getting stuck with gutter-grade clients, and if we follow some of these ideas, with some luck, we can eventually die in a more pleasant way than good ol' Tantalos.

If this sounds like a better idea than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, then read on.

10. "No" Is A Great Answer

One of the main reasons why many consulting firms end up with inappropriate clients is that "No" in the lead conversion process is unacceptable. When buyers say "no" to something, consultants, instead of saying, "I'm afraid, it's not going to work for us", drop their dignity and start offering all sorts of concessions in order to land new clients at any cost, whatever it takes.

And this is the point where consultants, now operating in hard-core profit-chasing mode, offer anything to make the deal.

They often exaggerate the features, benefits and value of their services, and end up selling them way under their proper price; often way under their costs.

They make their money on the surface because in most firms they track gross revenue, but after all the costs are paid, the firm is often left in the red.

Of course, in a retarded "pay for performance" environment, people do their best to maximise their personal performance in any way they can. They are not bad people per se. They are just playing the company's idiotic "performance" game.

But in a good sales culture "No" should be a great answer. At least you know where you stand.

What you want to avoid like the plague is "maybe". Buyers know the answer right away, and "maybe" is really brush-offs. So, it is actually a pretty neat idea to go for "no", and move one as quickly as possible.

So, when you reach a "maybe", then you'd better pull out and move on. Real buyers will go after you, wanting to continue the conversation, but tyre-kickers get lost, which is a great outcome.

Also, investigate how a "maybe" suspects have managed to pass your prospect screening system, and make sure it doesn't happen again.

It's fine to have tyre-kickers in your automated system, but make sure no personal time and energy are wasted on them.

11. Learn To Stipulate The Value Of Your Services

Remember that just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, value is in the eye of the buyer.

And in my experience, some 60-70% of the total value is qualitative.

The quantitative value of a weight loss programme may be to lose 65 lbs, but the real value is to be able to go hiking with your grandkids in your 80s. While the 65 lbs can be measured, the ability to hike must be judged and discerned.

Nevertheless, both qualitative and quantitative values must be captured during your conversations with buyers.

And the good news is that, just as you can control your own beauty, so others can perceive it differently, you can control the value your prospects perceive in your services.

One way of doing this is by discovering which departments of the client's company will experience improvement as a result of hiring you. And what's the expected impact?

What strategies, business functions and individuals does your work affect?

The closer your consulting intervention is to the executive suite and the boardroom, the higher perceived value it has. But even the most "frontline" level intervention has a boardroom level impact. You just have to help your buyers to see and understand it, so they can perceive the boardroom-level impact of your frontline-level work.

You may work with telemarketers (frontline-level work), but the wrong telemarketers can destroy the company's reputation (boardroom-level impact). Hence I don't fully understand why so many companies hire borderline brain-damaged people for this job. Maybe because only they accept chickenfeed wages, exorbitant level of stress and galactic magnitudes of managerial abuse.

12. Stop Believing That Your Target Market Can't Afford Your Fees

It may sound sweet for consultants to comfort themselves that their target markets should easily and conveniently afford their services, but that also positions them as convenience stores.

The other option is that when prospects hear consultants' fees they scream like stuck pigs.

In my experience, affordability is hardly ever the problem. If it really is, then it may be wise to find another target market with more money.

Just look at so many charities.

They are grossly mismanaged, spend most of their time crying about the lack of money (especially to consultants whose help they desperately need and the volunteers whose help they so often abuse), but just look at what sort of cars the top dogs drive.

Yes, some drive "only" Mercedes and BMW, but some drive something a tad higher in the car pecking order. Who can explain that?

So, lack of money is hardly ever the problem.

The problem is the lack of priority. If what you offer is important for buyers, they will act on it, and they will move heaven and hell to find the money to hire the appropriate expert to help.

But if there is no priority, no matter how low consultants go on their fees, they achieve precisely dick. Buyers won't buy.

Can you imagine buyers bragging to their boards of directors or other peers...

"After a long search and research, I have found a comfortably cheap firm to help us with our strategy formulation."

Unlikely story.

Also, if you keep bumping into this problem, your firm may have supply-demand imbalance. There is huge supply of your services and very limited demand. And these problems are usually caused by undifferentiated services, so the low demand is understandable.

I guess birds of the feather flock together. And consultants who provide cheap crap services ultimately find their matches: Cheap crap clients looking for cheap crap service.

13. Making It Too Easy For Prospects To Become Clients

In the engagement process, the last word should be yours as to decide whether or not you accept a prospect into your client roster. Prospects must realise that being accepted as a client is a privilege not a birthright, and that they will belong to a special group of businesses.

Now for some, this may sound arrogant, I know.

When I was teaching at Vancouver Community College, some students criticised me for being selective with clients. They said, as a professional it was my obligation to serve anyone who darkens my doorstep. They thought it was rather rotten of me to serve only those people who could pay for my services.

They went quiet only when I asked them if they would work for free.

They wouldn't, but it always feels great to criticise others.

From this incident I concluded that the less willing people are to do something, the more vehemently they criticise others for their unwillingness to do the same thing.

The lazier supervisors and managers are, the harder they push their people to work harder and longer.

The longer lunch breaks managers take, the louder they yell at their people when they come back from lunch 1 minute late.

The more incompetent managers are, the louder they scream at their people, "I pay for results and I don't tolerate mediocrity".

The more obscenely and undeservedly overpaid the boss is, the harder and louder he keeps reminding his subordinates how grossly overpaid they are relative to their pathetic contribution.

And the ultimate workplace maxim...

The more vehemently people fight for leadership positions, the more unsuitable they are for such positions, and the more vehemently they must be kept away from such positions.

There is one other thing to consider here. Be yourself right from the beginning. Don't put on a sweet facade to close the deal and then bear your teeth on clients. Show your bare teeth from the beginning. Let them decide if they want to work with the real you.

The other day I got an email from a referral. We had our normal value discussion on the phone, and then, being a local business, we agreed to meet. As usual, I emailed her the exact process, including a $1,000 cheque I always request prospects to bring to the first meeting, as a sign of being serious. Hey, that shows commitment. She was outraged and complained that my method was aggressive and covert.

Was it? After making some enquiries in the business community that she was a notorious tyre-kicker with a history of stiffing people. It seems my nasty process saved me some major headache.

I've been experimenting with this money thing for a good few years. I've asked solo start-up business owners to come to the meeting with as much as $5,000 cheques. The real players have never made a fuss about it. And I'm too old for losers anyway.

By the way, I don't take the cheque at the first meeting. It's merely a demonstration of commitment. And prospects know it, but losers still make a song and dance about it.

And then I make my songs and dance. I do the "fire their arses" dance.

14. Keep Your Proposals Very High Level And Pretty Short

Proposals are interesting beasts. If they are strategic, then top people read it. If they are "How to..." instruction manuals on your subject matter expertise, then they will get relegated to lower level managers who may enjoy your proposal but has no authority to make buying decisions.

The other point is that your proposals should be the written as summaries of verbal agreements you've already made with buyers, not as discoveries of possibilities to be considered. What you want to avoid doing in proposals is proposing anything. The dictionary definition of "propose" is to suggest something for consideration. If your proposals are merely seeking consideration then you will end up with a pretty low proposal acceptance rate, and may well get beaten up on your fees later.

Not to mention that it positions consultants as fungible vendors.

Keep your proposals mainly outcome- and just a little bit process-focused. That way the proposal screams the value clients derive from the service you offer, not the price they have to pay.

Also, let's consider that, according to the International Association of Professional Organisers, the typical decision-maker has 59 hours of urgent work on her desk. It's very hard to get and keep her attention with lame proposals.

15. Start Presenting Your Solutions With The "Premium" Option

Many consulting firms make the mistake of offering "take it or leave it" type proposals to their buyers. And the end result is that their prospects often leave them. Or they may take the proposals as a sign of courtesy but have no intention to retain the firm.

The key is that as buyers start reading your proposals, they start nodding their heads in agreement to what they are reading.

So, option #1 is the "all bells and whistles" option, the proverbial-concierge grade service. This option offers the highest velocity and probability for clients to achieve the goals their projects contribute to. They offer two more options at lower price points and by stripping out valuable components from your services.

Option #1 will excite your buyers. Then as they read option #2 and #3, they realise they lose certain value components. But they want those components, and this "want" steer them back to the high option.

The effect is the same as test-driving a car before purchase. If you test-drive a CL class Mercedes ($135,000) first, then the Lexus GS ($54,000) and finally the Saturn Cruze LTZ ($21,000), you feel that, relative to the Mercedes, you're "losing" something both in the Lexus and the Saturn.

The Saturn may be a fine car, but after driving the Mercedes and the Lexus, it feels like cheap junk.

When you start with the Saturn and work your way up to the Mercedes, you don't get the same effect. Taking away value components is more effective than adding on new value components.

Oh, and the money, you may ask. Yes...

When the return on investment is sweet enough, buyers almost always find the money.

When I had the opportunity to defect from communist Hungary, I somehow found the money, although I had none. And this is why I don't believe when buyers give me the traditional "no money" bullshit. As a super-penniless refugee in England, I paid my own way through university. How?

Hell, I don't know. I guess education was important enough to me, so I just found the dough.

Was it hard? Yes, it was hard. I was living in a basement room (about 120 sqfeet) right behind Victoria station (Can you imagine the noise?) in London and shared that tiny room with another guy. I just stayed there because my education was more important than moving into better accommodation.

And education AND moving to a better place were out of the question. And I must say, the short-term sacrifice paid off in the long-run.

16. Replace Presentations With Diagnosis

Presentations are done by subordinates to their superiors. You and your buyers are peers, and peers meet to compare notes and discuss further actions. Stay away from sales pitches, well, sales presentations. Only peddlers do that.

So, what to do instead of presentations? Well, you can go in with your guitar a perform an acoustic version of Motorhead's Whorehouse Blues (By the way, the 7 Feb concert in Vancouver was brilliant), but, considering the special situation, there may be an even better option.

And instead of the presentation, do a diagnosis involving all key people.

Go to a meeting with as little stuff as you can; possibly with only a digital recorder, a notepad and a pen and leave all promotional materials behind in your office. Only peddlers carry brochures and free samples.

Make sure you record the discussion (with permission of course). I use recordings as qualification tools. If prospects make a fuss about the recording, in spite of my explanation of why I do it, I ditch them like hot potatoes. Clarity is important for me, and I may miss something during our discussion.

But the machine won't miss anything, and after the discussion I can listen to the recording over and over again to make sure I fully understand the situation. Most buyers respect my attention to details but not all.

17. Be Prepared To Walk Away From Business

For some moral support, watch a few episodes of Mad Men, and learn from Don Draper the art of ditching inappropriate clients and walking away from shitty business.

"Joe, this is not going to work out (reaching out for a handshake). Let me escort you out, so we both can get on with our lives. And the best of luck you to find the right consulting firm for your requirements."

This is psychologically huge. It is good for your self-confidence, and for the client this is plain rejection...

"I'm not interested in you, your project or your money".

Where does this become manipulative? When your intention is to get the client. If you truly want to abandon the client, then it's fine.

And my policy is that if clients give me one reason for firing them, I do it. I've made my mistakes in the past, and such mistakes landed me on the streets many years ago homeless and destitute. And one experience was enough.

I don't ever want to sleep with one eye open watching who's trying to sneak up on me with a knife trying to quiet me for good for a tin of beans of a loaf of bread. If you've been there, you know the scoop. If not, I can tell you it's a lot rougher than we can read about it in the papers or see it on TV.

Anyway, be careful with whom you accept as clients. Pick you battles carefully. Being self-employed gives you the privilege of cherry-picking your clients, and you don't need to accept people just because they offer you money.

18. Create A Hard-Arse, Tough-As-Nail Qualification System

In spite of the low pay, the military has never had serious recruitment problems. And many people want to step up from main military units to special units, like Army Rangers, Navy SEAL or Delta Force.

And every step-up requires the fulfilment of a new qualification process

For instance, soldiers must be airborne-qualified to apply to any special warfare units.

And after being accepted, they go through more training to graduate from their courses. And the attrition rate is very high. And over the years, these special "programmes" have been becoming more and more attractive to more and more young men.

In the mid 90s the US Army, the Navy and the Air Force kept coming short of their goals on recruiting new soldiers. They wanted to better appeal to people to join the military, so they decided to soften their standards. There was only one military division that decided to further toughen the already very tough training and in doing so to further improve the quality of recruits and the quality and the overall strength of the whole unit.

The Marine Corps, under the leadership of General Charles Krulak, introduced "The Crucible" concept to Marine training. The Marine Crucible is a 54-hour non-stop live fire exercise peppered with long forced marches, sleep deprivation and other survival exercises, marking the completion of basic Marine training. After completing the Crucible, candidates would receive their eagle-, globe-, and anchor emblems to formally become Marines.

As a result of increased demands, the number of new recruits has increased to unprecedented heights. It's not only that the very high standards, demands and expectations didn't turn off candidates; they attracted even more of them.

American writer, John Steinbeck, the author of "Of Mice And Men" put it this way...

"It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him."

Your qualification system must demand greatness from your prospects. And let them live up to your expectations.

And a thought about grandfathering in some sub-par prospects just because we like them.

Have you noticed that academia is full of honorary professors? Many African dictators, with lower IQs than the size of their shoes, hold honorary doctorates from Ivey League universities. It's a bit ridiculous.

Have you also noticed that there are no such people as honorary Navy SEALs or Green Berets? No one can become a Navy SEAL without successfully completing Hell Week. No one can become a Green Beret without completing the dreaded Q-course, including SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training.

And what is the result?

The education system is a shambles, whereas the Navy SEAL is one of the highest respected military units in the world.

Don't just meet prospects willy-nilly. Make sure the people that you meet actually show some signs of commitment. When you are the only one who goes to a meeting with a specific commitments, then you are in deep shit.

Why?

We are living in a society that is infested with losers, flakes, tyre-kickers and bargain hunters. You sell value. Hooray. But many people don't understand value, thanks to Wal-Mart and similar junk joints, only low prices. You must make sure to avoid them like the plague.

Summary

So, here you have it. These are only 18 methods to land better clients, but I believe there are many more. Take some time and discover your ways of finding better clients who play by your rules.

Interestingly, many consulting firms are convinced they need more clients. No. They need fewer but better clients.

Consulting is not a transactional business, and the end result is highly dependent on the client.

But some clients are not cut out for receiving advice, so if you end up with those clients, then you've lost the game even before starting it.

That's why these 18 ideas are so important.

You're not a production plant that makes more money by churning out more stuff. You sell customised intellectual property, and for that you need clients with a certain level of intelligence.

As Machiavelli said in the Prince...

"Only the Prince who himself is wise can be wisely advised".

That is, we can't consult with self-righteous idiots.

Yes, morons too have their places in society to make the world go round but not as our consulting clients.

And sometimes they try to hire consultants, mainly to give themselves bragging rights, to boss consultants around and act out their own insecurities on their advisors, but our job is to recognise these disturbed people and avoid them with amazing accuracy.

So, let's make sure we don't wait until it's too late before getting rid of them, so we can spend the rest of our lives in reasonably stress-fee prosperity working with great clients on sexy projects.

What do you think?

Come and let's discuss this newsletter issue on my blog...

"Dynamic Duo" Mentor Programme... ...has 0 openings for May and 2 for June 2012. Click here to continue to read the fiendish details.