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Thanks
for Helping Us Win
Thanks to everyone who helped make
the Guerrilla
Consulting blog the #1 B2B marketing
blog in Marketing Sherpa's Reader's
Choice blog awards.
Should
you add blogging to your marketing
mix? Marketing Angel interviewed
Mike McLaughlin to answer this question
and more. June 2005
#1
Don't toot your own horn. Listen to
Brain Brew Radio's interview with
Mike McLaughlin to hear about this
and the other two
secrets of writing about your business.
June 2005
See
tip #9 of our 25 Tips to Become
a Great Consultant:
- Mediocrity
is the Kiss of Death
Guerrilla Consulting Blog,
June 2005
Choose
the "A" team for your
consulting projects. Surely, Mr. T
would agree. Guerrilla Consulting
Blog, 6/29/05
A
meme
has the power to communicate a complete
thought in a flash, and revolutionize
your marketing. Guerrilla Consulting
Blog, 6/28/05
Is
patience part of your marketing strategy?
Guerrilla Consulting Blog,
6/27/05
Enough
with the chit-chat. Meet
first, chat later. Guerrilla
Consulting Blog, 6/15/05
The
best
client references substantiate,
in a quantifiable way, the results
you helped achieve. Guerrilla
Consulting Blog, 6/9/05
|
|
The
Guerrilla Consultant –
a newsletter dedicated to applying the principles
of Guerrilla Marketing to the work and lives of
consultants.
A
Lesson from the Dentist
Not
long ago, I was blissfully unaware of endodontics.
Then I learned that I needed root canal “therapy”
and my ignorance ended.
I
bought the line that “a root canal would
be pain-free.” Well, it wasn’t.
But
what was painless was the total experience. The
specialist made one of the most invasive dental
procedures as positive as possible with a step-by-step
explanation, careful preparation, and the choice
of medications, movies, and music. She even kept
those barbaric looking tools out of my line of
sight.
In
spite of the fact that I hated every second of
the procedure, I’d refer anyone to this
specialist. This dentist understands the importance
of evoking a positive emotional response from
patients.
There’s a lesson here for consultants. We’ll
focus on that subject this month.
Enjoy
the article, and let
me know what you think.
Mike
McLaughlin
Co-Author, Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants
No
More Root Canals
You
don’t need to be around the consulting business
long before you’ll hear a client refer to
a consultant (or an entire firm) as difficult,
arrogant, condescending, or just plain snooty.
Not all projects go exactly as planned,
so it’s not surprising that some clients
grouse about their consultants. Such barbs come
with the territory.
And
some projects call for consultants to “break
glass” to achieve the client’s desired
outcome, in which case, a certain amount of pain
is expected. But what if, as one client put it,
working with consultants is like having a root
canal? No firm in its right mind wants a reputation
for being that hard to work with.
Do
you even know what your clients experience in
working with you?
Too
many consultants measure a client’s satisfaction
postmortem, based on the effectiveness of the
transaction. If the project delivers the desired
outcome, on time, on budget, and the client pays
the bill, the project is deemed a winner. Rarely
does the client’s experience enter
into the satisfaction equation.
Now
is the time for consultants to make the client’s
experience an integral part of the business.
In
their 1999 book, The Experience Economy,
Joseph Pine and James Gilmore advise executives
to battle the onslaught of commoditized goods
and services by managing the customer’s
total experience: "Businesses that relegate
themselves to the diminishing world of goods and
services will be rendered irrelevant. To avoid
this fate, you must learn to stage a rich, compelling
experience."
|
“Every consultant/client interaction
evokes emotions, whether it’s a presentation,
a meeting or even a voicemail message.” |
Every
consultant/client interaction evokes emotions,
whether it’s a presentation, a meeting or
even a voicemail message. Consultants can encourage
a positive response by adding experiential elements
to traditional, transaction-based consulting processes.
The resulting emotional reaction will help establish
a connection between you and the client that helps
build the relationship.
What do I mean by adding experiential elements
to the consulting process? Think Southwest Airlines,
Las Vegas, or Disneyland. OK, maybe it’s
over the top to think a consulting project could
be “the happiest place on earth.”
But you get the idea. Those businesses attempt
to create memorable, emotional, and positive encounters
for their customers. The experience is a big part
of the service.
This
idea isn’t a stretch for most consultants.
After all, delivering top-flight client service
is in the mission statement of every consulting
firm on the planet. Of course, consultants aren’t
in the entertainment business, like Disney or
the Las Vegas casinos. But why not tear a page
from their book and apply it to the marketing,
selling and delivery of consulting services?
Some
consultants already focus on the client’s
emotional experience. Ask Doug Hall, author, consultant,
and founder of the Eureka Ranch. The “ranch”
is a colorful, energetic environment where clients
attend facilitated sessions to experience the
“Aha!” of new ideas, whether that’s
imagining new products or breathing new life into
old ones.
Hall’s
team never loses sight of its objective, which
is to deliver extraordinary value. But they use
an intense, challenging, creative process to shake
loose their clients’ best ideas. This isn’t
a style-over-substance approach to consulting.
The consulting team conducts rigorous fact-gathering,
analysis, and solution development—just
like every other consulting firm.
This
trend is picking up steam among other consulting
firms, as they apply experiential elements to
their visual identity, marketing communication,
business development, and consulting offerings.
Suzanne
Lowe, author of Marketplace Masters,
believes that creating a positive emotional experience
for clients can be a real market differentiator.
That’s because your client’s specific
experience is very hard for competitors to copy.
The
opportunities for experiential consulting are
enormous. Dump the stuffy status meetings, staid
group sessions, and boring presentations. Take
a look at your own consulting approach and products.
You’ll find specific areas where you can
tweak your consulting services to create memorable
experiences for your clients. And there’s
no reason why you can’t adopt a systematic,
experiential approach to marketing and selling
too.
Raytheon
CEO Bill Swanson, in his unpublished manuscript,
Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of
Management, makes this observation
about human nature: “You remember 1/3 of
what you read, 1/2 of what people tell you, but
100 percent of what you feel.” What clients
are most likely to remember about you is their
emotional reaction to working with you.
Consulting
is a high-touch business, and one bad experience
can pull the roof in on a client relationship.
As one consultant said to me, “If you mess
up a client’s experience with your firm—even
just a little—it takes a lot of white paint
to cover that black mark.” Fortunately,
the converse is also true. One great experience
can cement a relationship for the long-term.
Consultants
who bring a cold-fish, know-it-all approach to
the table, even if they have talent and skill,
may find success in the short-term but will stumble
eventually. There are simply too many great choices
out there. Clients will turn their backs on “root
canal” consultants, and go with the firms
that deliver results and a great personal
experience.
What
do you do to ensure a positive experience for
your clients? Join
the discussion over at the Guerrilla Consulting
blog and let me know. |
