Commando Consulting, May 2011

Nine Ways of Attracting and Retaining Loyal Rainmakers

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur

Podcast: MP3 Version

Do you know about the earth-shattering impact of the very first bomb that the Allies dropped on Berlin in World War II?

You don't. Hm. Neither do I.

Do you know why?

Because all it achieved was that it killed the one and only elephant of the Berlin Zoo?

And as a former gravedigger, I can offer my deepest sympathy to the guy who had to bury it. I had buried a few almost elephant-sized people, and even that's a big task. But burying a real elephant is a task to the power of quinquadecillion (10^90).

Considering the long preparation and the huge effort, it's fair to say the impact was rather dismal.

We can even say, the Allies had made a pig's ear of it.

So, why is this important to you?

It's important because when consulting firms hire new associates, although they may be amazing subject matter experts, they look down on sales and marketing, and as a result, they can't promote and sell your firm's services.

And the impact they create can be as dismal as the Allies' first' bomb's in Berlin.

The problem is that for many consultants sales is the slimy practice that used car salespeople do and marketing is despicable practice that late night TV infomercials do.

All in all, many people come to the consulting profession with an inherent resentment for the very functions that generate revenue.

Is it surprising that even if they lived longer than a geriatric turtle, they couldn't land one single client for the firm? No. Not at all. Not even with a gun to their heads.

So, what's waiting for these folks in consulting firms?

They go through life at the firm and eke out a living, but never reach their true potentials because their client acquisition capabilities are basically zero. They can work tucked away in the back office.

So, the firm's objective is to find consultants who have the ability to land new clients. And the funny thing is that it's not really so hard to learn it, but since by sales and marketing many consultants think of used car salespeople and late night TV infomercials, they resist learning the necessary skills.

Some resist is overtly, but many, while accepting it consciously, resist it subconsciously. And we know what happens.

When the conscious mind and the subconscious mind decide to battle it out, the conscious mind has less than a snowball's chance in hell to win. The subconscious will always crush it.

Of course, the argument is whether or not...

Consulting Firms Need Non-Rainmakers

That's right. They do. But only fat firms need them.

What are the fat firms? Firms that, on the top of their productive layers, have one or more unproductive layers, that is, subject matter experts without rainmaking capabilities. Pure implementers. They are just like layers of fat.

As the lean body moves, the fat waddles along without any purpose.

Typically, fat firms are the bloated accounting and consulting behemoths. Realistically, they are glorified subcontractors, hired hands to do the work as per their clients' specification and under their clients' close supervision.

Granted, they've built great brands and reputations over the years, but realistically, they are to real consulting what McDonald's is to fine dining.

By the way, McDonald's is a great brand too. But for what? Malnutrition? What else?

But since many of them operate under the demeaning (to self) and unethical (to clients) billable hour model, this way they can maximise their billing rates even if they don't contribute too much to the improvement in their clients' condition.

Fat adds to overall bodyweight, but, above and beyond the bare minimum that assures proper body functions, it's totally useless.

Your consulting firm is the same. If your firm has several rainmaking consultants, you need a very few non-rainmakers, like a receptionist and a very few admin folks to assist the consultants, but beyond that you need only rainmakers.

What about the kind of work for which your firm doesn't have the expertise?

The most lucrative option is strategic alliances.

And let's stop here for a moment. I'm not talking about subcontractors who work as your subordinates. I'm talking about full-blown strategic partners who you collaborate with to get the project done at the highest quality.

You may make a bit less money if you work with strategic partners, but you also get significantly higher level of engagement, dedication, accountability and commitment from them.

I've heard far too many consultants complain that subcontractors had walked out on them, but I haven't heard the same about strategic partners.

So, what can you do, as the practice leader, to make sure that your firm attracts and retains rainmaker calibre people?

1. When looking for new associates, look for great and passionate educators. In the Internet age, a large chunk of your sales and marketing activities are education and diagnosis. The typical peddler type selling of "handle objections and close, close, close!" doesn't work in consulting. It only irritates buyers and you can get kicked out of most offices you enter.

Passionate educators can develop valuable content and educate and inform their markets both in speech and writing. And great diagnosticians can sit down with buyers, diagnose their situations and facilitate their decision-making as to whether or not to work together to solve problems or seize opportunities.

And now the question is whether you need rainmakers with subject matter expertise or subject matter experts with rainmaking expertise. Interpretations differ, but in my dictionary a rainmaker is a subject matter expert who has the skills to facilitate buyer's decision-making processes.

And one more point here...

I'm not saying a rainmaker is someone who can force-sell anything to anyone, but someone who can facilitate the process that end in buy/not buy decision.

A "not buy" decision is not a reflection of the rainmaker's incompetence but the buyer's decision. Don't argue with it, but leave on a high note and friendly terms.

There is a good chance that someday you may do business with this buyer.

But also think about how that decision ended in a "No", and how much time and energy you've invested in that decision.

2. Allow your people to operate as valuable resources for prospects and clients without being paid for every single activity. When selling consulting services, there is a hell of a lot of courting to be done before landing new clients.

The real relationship starts after the first project is done. Now your people have to nurture client relationships for long-term collaborations.

Many consulting firms make the mistake that they expect their rainmakers to perform only activities that immediately generate revenue. So, when there is a choice between meeting a buyer for a small opportunity and having lunch with the Editor in Chief of a major trade publication of the firm's target market, then the lunch gets cancelled, and often not even re-scheduled.

Yes, the lunch with the Editor in Chief has the potential for millions of dollars of projects, but it's not instant money. By contrast, meeting a new buyer is always an adrenaline rush, and it can result in money by the end of the day.

Verasage founder, Ron Baker is fond of saying...

"Bad clients drive out good clients."

Paraphrasing Ron, mediocre opportunities with mediocre but instant payoff drive out great opportunities with gigantic but non-instant payoff.

3. Never condemn your people to dialling for dollars and pounding pavement for new business. When you do that, you inadvertently degrade your people to the category of street peddlers and bazaar hucksters. Not to mention that you mess up your firm's market position.

Now your firm appears to be hungry for business. And the market makes the translation from "hungry business" to "troubled business". And from that point on, the end is pretty near.

Your people too will soon notice that if they have to chase and hunt down each and every client, something is seriously wrong, and eventually they break camp and move to the competition.

So, what can be done?

Instead of chasing after the market more intensely, fine-tune your marketing, so the right buyers can come to you, ready to do business with you. Whores beat the pavement for new clients not professionals.

I've read somewhere that marketing is about getting people to the door, and selling is about getting them through the door.

My contention is that if you can attract enough people to your door that cheer you and sing your praises, there is a good chance that some are willing to get in the door, and you don't have to do much selling. Peter Drucker confirmed this notion when he said some years ago that...

"There is no doubt that if marketing were done perfectly, selling, in the actual sense of the world, would be unnecessary."

Yes, revenues lie in better selling, but margins lie in better marketing. And I've also heard somewhere that revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is reality. Then why are most consulting firms obsessed with revenue? Beats me.

So, all you have to do is to change your approach from hunting to farming.

4. Generate quality sales leads for your people. The kind of consultants you need in your firm are people who are good at nurturing relationships. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, why would you send these people to do what they are not good at: Chasing after strangers and begging them for attention and money?

You could have a partially automated lead generation system that furnishes you with pre-screened and pre-qualified buyers who want to do business with you on their own volition.

The moment you sit down with them, you know that they are wildly committed, as opposed to mildly interested, to work with you provided you can fulfil their buying criteria.

Oh, and in this scenario you're treated as a peer not as a supplicant. And this may be worth something. You're having a conversation under mutually beneficial circumstances.

If your client acquisition is based on a perfect client profile, the best way to make sure that your sales leads are consistently high calibre is by having a central sales lead generation system.

An automated lead generation and qualification system objectively selects leads for acceptance and rejection, so you can have consistently great clients.

5. Let your people think years ahead and cultivate prospects for the future. It takes time to turn interested prospects into buying clients. Give your prospects time and space without pushing them. However, use that time for educating prospects and facilitating their decision-making processes.

Again, the idea is not to sell everyone, but to use this lead nurturing process to further screen and qualify prospects, and if they decide to drop out of your lead nurturing process, then so be it. If they believe those are the best business decisions, then that's just fine. Let's not argue with them.

Well, to this notion, some old sales experts might add that it's easier use some manipulation to sell to any Tom, Dick and Harry than finding buyers who are really ready, willing and able to buy.

Personally, I believe in casting a wide net with your lead generation system, and let the system screen and filter the generated leads. So, by the time prospects request meetings with you (NOT the other way round), they are pretty committed to work with you. It just takes a bit of time, but as the saying goes, patience is a virtue.

Let's be virtuous then... and then wealthy.

It's a lot easier than chasing after the market and undersell projects to apathetic buyers... which seems to be the prevailing trend.

6. Let your people realise that you work for them just as they work for you. Make sure they know you are creating the kind of cause they want to serve on a long-term basis and the kind of business environment and culture, which they want to work in.

This is pretty important. Just compare a trumpian (after Donald Trump) and a bransonian (after Richard Branson) working environment. The former is like a concentration camp while the latter is like a circus.

The two men have drastically different values, and have built their companies on those personal values.

Trump's company is all about him, trumpeting his name louder and louder year after year.

Branson's businesses are about serving different causes, and while Branson is the engine behind them, he's not the sole focus.

Some people love working in trumpian companies. Some prefer bransonian companies.

I firmly believe that in the consulting industry, you're better off by creating a bransonian culture: High level of enjoyment, innovation, self-expression, etc. By contrast, the trumpian organisation is cut-throat and highly egotistical.

If you watch NCIS, you may remember the end of the first season's first episode...

"Come and work FOR ME!"

By contrast, this is how Lieutenant Horatio Caine, in CSI: Miami, offered a job to Erik, when he was a tow truck driver helping out Horatio here and there...

"I'd like you to JOIN US."

These two types of job offers speak loud and clear about the two characters and the work environments they've created.

Gibbs, although an excellent agent, is an arrogant, egotistical workaholic. He keeps carrying the burden of the murder of his wife and daughter, and vents his frustration on his team members and anyone who happens to be near him. He moves heaven and earth to flaunt his power over his subordinates and intimidates them just to prove to the world that, as the NCIS's Supreme Being, he always has the last word.

His brownie point is that he treats the NCIS director the same contemptuous way, especially because he knows, that Vance, in spite of his raging incompetence, became NCIS's director due to his excellent ability to know whose arse to kick and, more importantly, whose arse to kiss. And he feels threatened by Gibbs's unique abilities.

By contrast, Horatio Caine, who is also excellent at his work, is the proverbial den mother to his team. And he cares about his people not only as subordinates but as human beings.

A recurring scene in the show is that one of the team members walks up to Horatio and tells him about a personal problem. And the recurring response is always the same...

"You know what? Just carry on with your work, and let me take care of this FOR YOU."

And the problem always get's solved.

While Gibbs is a loudmouth, Horatio is quiet.

Gibbs often yells at the people whom he interrogates. Horatio is soft-spoken, but his voice also carries a certain silent menace that in real life is much more fearsome than yelling.

When I was homeless in a previous life and lived on the streets, I saw how silent menace, especially when coupled with my trusting knife, overpowered and scared the shit out of the most aggressive-looking loudmouths. Of course, the military training helped too.

Yes, there is a side of street life that only those know who actually live there, and it's a lot darker than the media paints it.

Anyway I'm glad I'm out of it...

We have to decide what sort of organisational culture we want to create.

7. Involve as many of your people as you can in developing more effective marketing. Since it's your people who have to execute your marketing strategy, you might as well involve them in the formulation of both the strategy and the required tactical steps.

The problem is that people don't make serious commitments to accomplishing something ready-made that is handed down to them. They want to be involved in it creation.

Not to mention that a jointly designed strategy is likely to be more effective than a strategy developed in "executive isolation" in the corporate ivory tower by those folks who hardly ever go out to meet clients.

In an properly structured consulting firm, departments are non-compartmentalised. It means consultants do consulting work, hire new associates, deal with the plumber to take care of a flooded toilet, evaluate associates' performance, refill the staff kitchen or go out to get new clients.

It's like a small commando. People are cross-functional.

If, for instance, your people are introverts, there is no point in putting cold calling into your marketing plan. It just won't happen.

By the way, when you sell consulting services, I think being an introvert is a huge advantage.

8. Get rid of the commission payment structure for your people. If you try to bribe your people with some kind of pay for performance method, then get rid of it. The pay for performance pay structure repels the best people. No, not because they want unconditional security.

They are repelled because the firm leader doesn't have the guts to stand behind the firm's services and put skin in the effort of selling those services. The kind of top people you want to have in your firm are up to their eyeballs, or at least some other balls about three feet lower, with great career offers.

They have no reason to select a firm for their careers where they have to take 100% risk on the firm's services, while everyone gets paid regardless of performance.

Also, get rid of compensation based on individual performance because it kills team work.

In my experience, commissions attract people who are motivated by money, and there is a problem with that...

Anyone who is motivated by money is operating at the bottom rungs of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. As a premium firm, you may want to hire associates who operate high on that hierarchy.

David McClelland of Harvard is most noted for describing three types of motivational need, which he identified in his 1961 book, The Achieving Society:

1) Achievement motivation (n-ach), 2) Authority/power motivation (n-pow) and 3) Affiliation motivation (n-affil).

N-ach people are achievement motivated, thus seek achievement, attainment of realistic but challenging goals and advancement in their careers. There is a strong need for feedback, and a need for a sense of accomplishment.

N-pow people are authority motivated by power, money and authority. There is also a strong need for prestige and image. They have a strong urge to elbow themselves to the front of any group and become leaders to make an impact. And when it comes to taking credits, they make sure they are in the centre... if possible all by themselves.

N-affil people are motivated by affiliation. They need to be liked through friendly relationships, and are motivated towards interactions with other people. Affiliation drivers produce motivation and need to be liked and be popular. These people are some of the best team players.

Some other interesting observations about achievement-motivated people...

• Achievement is more important to them than material or financial reward. Yet, they seem to make the most money


• Accomplishing a task gives them greater pride and personal satisfaction than receiving praise or recognition. They have a strong inner drive to achieve and are secure enough in themselves to do all this without external recognition


• Financial reward is regarded as a measurement of success, a means to a much bigger end


• They don't give a rat's arse about security or status


• Feedback is essential, because it enables them to measure their progress. Here we're talking about honest feedback not sugar-coated bullshit. They value honesty over politeness


• They constantly seek better ways of doing things


• They hate being micro-managed

McClelland believed that achievement-motivated people are generally the ones who make things happen and get results, and that this extends to getting results through the organisation of other people and resources, although as stated earlier, they often demand too much of their staff because they prioritise achieving the goal above the many varied interests and needs of their people.

Of course, your ideal associate is a combination of all three. The question is what percentage of each motivational character you want in your people.

9. Steer clear of assembling a dedicated sales force. In a well-structured consulting firm every single associate must be able to land new business. Get rid of your geeks and anal retentive number crunchers if they are not willing to learn the art and science of client acquisition.

Relegating client acquisition to a specific group to advance your business is the same as relegating the future of your marriage to your marriage counsellor, and asking that expert to regularly have sex with your spouse on your behalf to advance your marriage. Yes, the concept can work in theory, but in practice, well, I have my doubts.

But don't believe me. I'm single. What do I know about marriages?

In your romantic life you end up in the divorce court, and in business, your best people leave your firm.

Subject matter expertise can be outsourced at competitive rates, and there are lots of firms out there that know how to do their stuff, but can't sell their services.

I also maintain that only core competency subject matter experts should be on your payroll. All others should be on the strategic alliance or subcontractor roster.

Summary

Just as human beings are attracted to the physically attractive species of the opposite sex, great talents are attracted to physically attractive, that is, lean firms with very little organisational fat... flunkies and bureaucrats.

These talents know that in fat firms, the corporate fat eats up most of the money these talents generate, and there is not much left for them.

Have you ever thought about why so many start-ups magnetically attract great talents. Well, it's the freedom, the opportunity to create something amazing and the opportunity to have a say in the firm's future.

And for these three factors achievement-motivated people willingly forego money and the obscene perks fat slob firms could offer them.

As the saying goes, like attracts like. So, depending on the kind of associates you want to attract, you set up the same kind of culture.

If you prefer to attract super-aggressive, hyper-competitive bulldog-type people, with testosterone oozing from their ears, then you create a cutthroat, backstabbing trumpian culture, where, short of killing each other, people do anything to drive their personal productivity, and they don't care who they crush in the process.

But if you prefer a more collegial environment, you tweak the culture accordingly.

Although we've addressed 9 ways of attracting and retaining great rainmakers more effectively, but if you implement only one or two, you have a much better chance to see your firm succeed and run a much smaller risk of having it end up in the entrepreneurial cemetery where the orchestra is about to start playing the last requiem in your firm's loving memory.

My contention is that buyer-seller interactions are like romantic relationships. By the time guys ask their girlfriends to marry them, the answer is "yes" about 99.9% of the time.

And the positive answer is so high because there is sufficient romance before asking for commitment.

Salespeople, especially the ones on straight commissions, ask to soon without much romancing. And in their vocabularies, walking away doesn't exist.

Subject matter experts keep romancing, dazzling buyers with the latest technology, but never ask for commitment.

One of the great attributes of rainmakers is that they know when and how much to romance, when to ask for commitment and when, if necessary, to walk away.

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

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