Consulting Pulse

Efficiency or Service

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:52:00 +0000

I really despise push button answering systems. It tells me, in no uncertain terms, that this company puts efficiency over customer service. Efficiency that doesn't reduce my costs, but increases their profits.

Banks are wonderful at this sort of "finger in the eye" approach to customer service, but today I came across the hands down champion.

Telstra is an Australian monopoly in the field of Telecommunications. So much so that they still get away with charging internet usage per downloaded information. (The restrictive practice that when abandoned by AT&T helped launch Web 2.0)

When you call these people there is no codes or sequences to press in. (Too easy) Here they use voice recognition software and you have to tell them what you need.

And when you are sitting in the middle of a crowded office, yelling out "Bill Payment! Bill Payment!" again and again, (because "they're sorry but they didn't quite get that") you start to wonder whether this company takes all of its business advice from knuckle head incompetents, or whether their ultimate ambition is to be entirely friendless in the world.

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Winding back the clock

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:10:00 +0000

At present we are watching the Australian Government try to turn the clock back at least 19 - 25 years in order to reconstitute union conditions and powers that they lost about a quarter of a century ago.

Unionism is the one big issue that Australia cannot put behind itself.

The USA has trouble getting beyond the slavery issue, even though the UK (The center of that movement) has moved on sometime ago.China has trouble getting beyond the "Japan" issue, yet France has moved well beyond the "German" issue.

Regardless of where you stand on this issue, the real problem is that tomorrow will look nothing like today. And is even less likely to look like yesterday.

After bouncing around the globe for a while I have seen some of the nations we are competing with. They are staffed with very smart, extremely hard working professionals who know as much as most people working in similar roles in this country... except they are far cheaper.

Not only are they cheaper, but they are exporting that high quality low cost internationally. The Middle East runs on the back of very competent low cost labor out of the sub continent and the Philippines. So too does Hong Kong and other Asian nations.

When we were fortress Australia we could implement extraordinary measures to make it harder to fire someone, we could live with rolling industrial unrest and we could afford to pay workers a living and decent wage.

Today... we just cannot.

If it cannot be done reliably for low cost then it will get done elsewhere. That is what happened when our manufacturing sector moved off shore and it is behind the transfer of white and blue collar jobs to the sub continent and outsource hubs.

The result? Work that used to support a lower middle class lifestyle now supports either a hand to mouth existence or even slave like conditions. And there is very little to no political will anywhere in the world to change this... no where.

All this misses the most important point.

We shouldn't be trying to protect workers in industries like these.

We need to be wondering why we are still in industries like these and how we can get out of them as quickly as possible.

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The Long Tail of Good Intentions

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:23:00 +0000

About ten years ago I used to run a website in Spanish for reliability engineering. I won't bore you with the details but basically that is a pretty niche area of engineering associated with maintenance and operations of companies with lots of equipment.

I wrote a lot back then, mostly in Spanish (not my mother tongue) about reliability engineering, leadership and getting big ideas into practice.

It's a bit of a long story but it started something of a phenomena. A group of people who were the bottom of the industrial heap were able to find a place that they could talk with others and realize the real value they added to their organizations.

Today... twelve years later... I received an email that said"

"The articles you published helped me a lot to enter the world of Reliability"

After starting out in Antofagasta Chile. A very remote, dry and inhospitable part of the world. This young man has forged a career that has landed him as the Chief Maintenance Engineer for a significant global mining firm, working and living in the USA.

Hard not to be humbled by emails like this.

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Linked In and new ways to leverage trust based networks

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:09:00 +0000

The impact on my professional career of becoming Linked In about two years ago has been phenomenal.

I landed in Australia in January after a decade away, with a network that was limited to say the least.

Today I regularly call on leaders of industry throughout Australia, New Zealand and correspond regularly with nearby Asian countries. As you can imagine, that means we have been able to generate a reasonable income as well.

Linked In was fundamental as a tool to enable that, but it is by no means a silver bullet.

Linked In is a phenomenal trust based asset, possibly one of the best ones there are, but it isn't Facebook and it definitely isn't Twitter.

Tricks like generic invitations, spamming groups with statements about your brilliance, or direct spamming to individuals within Linked In will probably get you ostracized.

There are a few Linked In "Trainers" and "Coaches" who seem to get a bit of attention. I find this amazing as you would think that a coach should have actually played at some time or other...but I digress...

Like all Trust Based assets Linked In will not work if you are not worth trusting. And that means both your character and your ability to deliver what you say you can. (What is says on the package!)

The good news is that Linked In is making it easier and easier for us to develop these assets.

Your first call is to develop a real profile. One that really states what you do for a living, along with your track record of achievement.

Second is to get recommendations. And without meaning to offend anybody, they need to be recommendations that count.

For example; if you work in the film industry then a recommendation from me means 2/3 of nothing. But if you have one from George Lucas.... you get my drift.

You need to be recommended by people who others would see as a trusted source of information. People who themselves have a powerful brand, or whose title confers them a level of trust.

Not swapping recommendations, nor getting recommendations from people whop barely know you. But real ones, from trusted industry players.

Third, build your network. Again, you need to be discriminating here and understand a little bit about how the system actually works. For example, I can see the details of people in my network up to three degrees away. Not their contact or personal details, but their names, titles and so on.

So before you connect to anybody consider whether or not you are disclosing information that may be important to your own competitive advantage. (And if you don't think that relationships are a competitive advantage then you are in the wrong game)

Also think about whether the people you are connected to would like to be able to be contacted by this person. This is also another reason why I personally make sure my connections are private and hidden from view.

There are other reasons but I have blogged on that several times now and I'm pretty much done with it.

Using Linked In

I have a paid subscription to Linked In, and if you are a consultant or recruiter then I suggest that you cough up and do the same.

I use the system for electronic cold calls, or keeping in contact with old colleagues, and for improving visibility of my own personal brand.

The beauty of cold calling via LinkedIn is that immediately the recipient can see who you are, who you know, and more importantly - who knows you! THey can see your recommendations and if they wish to they can even reference check you before they even think about writing back.

Would they? Probably not to that extent...but they could...

Here are some of my own personal tactics.

I have 5 different searches set up on LinkedIn to send me an email whenever somebody new joins the system. That way I am alerted to other potential clients within my industries and geographies as soon as they appear.

I often search on different more specific statements, skill sets and types also, ensuring that my reach within my own disciplines is at a good level.

Recently I have been using it to source candidates for some roles I want to fill here in Australia. That means from advertising, through to reference checking. The results so far have been sensational.

Instead of sending an invitation first I always send an Inmail. Why? Because if they aren't interested they won't reply. If they aren't interested in the invitation then they could give you a black mark, which causes problems with the system.

Why is all of this important?

Here are some other titles of people presently on LinkedIn.

Group Vice President and General Manager JD Edwards Enterprise One at Oracle Corp
SVP Bank of America eCommerce
CEO, President and Board Member at Alpha Sintered Metals, Inc.
VP Synthetics at Exxon Mobil Corp
Vice-President at Exxon Mobil Russia
Senior Vice President at Saudi Chevron Phillips Co
CEO BHPBilliton-Mitsubishi Alliance
President and CEO at Rio Tinto Minerals
President & CEO at AIG Rail Services
VP Human Resources at Ford Motor
Vice President Francisco Partners (Venture Capital)

How many trade shows would you have to go to to get access to all of those people at once? How many books would you have to sell, or speeches would you have to give?

The value of LinkedIn should now be strikingly obvious, even to the most technology - phobic among us.

Good luck !

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The power of an incentive

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:08:00 +0000

I just got an email from one of our branch administrators saying:

We have received a notification from the Post Office in XXXX that future mail directed to our physical address will be sent back to sender.

The whole point being that if you don't use the exact PO Box address then the post office of this small town (who know where my companies branch office is) then they will send it back and that will teach you a lesson.

Could you imagine Fedex doing this?

While the rest of the world is surging forward and using competition to sharpen their focus on customer services, the Australian government run Aussie Post continues to work in a world where we exist to serve them.

(And more over we should be grateful for the privilege)

This is the difference that incentive makes. If there was a competitor who could offer similar products and better service you would go with them in a hearbeat. And the world would be that bit better off because of it.

The sooner governments get out of the business of business, and into the business of public service, the better off we will all be.

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Leading / Lagging Indicators

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:42:00 +0000

I generally refrain from writing "how to" posts because there are so many of them out there. But every now and then I get the urge to write about tactical delivery of consulting services.

Understanding metrics is, I think, an essential element for any consulting professional. THey assist in a number of ways.

1) They help establish your credibility as someone who is willing to take some risk and put their own credentials on the line. If you are first to suggest metrics then it shows a degree of honesty, a level of "Yes, I really can deliver this stuff."

2) They allow you to correct for bad strategies. Developing and implementing good metrics, not just generic ones, are vital to making sure the project is a failure or success before it finishes. (Not just in the wash up 6 months later)

3) They forecast, and ultimately report on - the value you have really created for your clients.

The last one is where the rubber meets the road. Where those who have been fluffing around talking about efficiencies and process improvements, and those who can deliver real cashable value.

Leading / Lagging Indicators

There are many classes of metrics, and it is all too easy to allow yourself to fall into the study of measurement rather than getting any real and achievable metrics out there. Some of these include; opposing metrics, direct performance metrics, indices and aggregates, operational / cost and so on. The range is pretty long as you could imagine.

However, one of the most useful is the range of Leading and Lagging indicators. When deployed well these are undeniably powerful in reporting and monitoring progress, but they are rarely deployed well sadly...

Lagging Indicators

Most people are inherently familiar with lagging indicators. They see them every day and use them in their day to day works.

Lagging indicators are generally used to indicate performance after the event. Most financial and direct performance metrics are lagging indicators. For example, Availability of assets, utilization of staff, cost / unit of production and so on. All of these tell you what has happened after the event - hence Lagging Indicators.

Very powerful for monitoring results and prompting interventions. BUT (by definition) not the best for trying to ensure the undesirable situation never occurs in the first place. For this, you need Leading Indicators.

Leading Indicators

Leading indicators give us an idea of things that could be going wrong by measuring the processes and other influencing factorts.

For example, health and safety practitioners claim statistics that show a direct relationship between near misses, (almost accidents) and fatalities. Therefore a measurement of near misses can give you an indication of how likely you are to have a fatality.

Scheduling variance can highlight the possibility of profit loss prior to its occurrence, as can indicators of time inventory is on hand and so on.

For projects, schedule compliance and S curve monitoring is the obvious tools, but there are others such as training completed, pilots achieving over whatever the hurdle rate is and so on.

It is a little difficult to get into this deeply in a generic fashion, but if you leave a comment with specific issues and questions I am more than happy to try to work through them with you.

Good luck...!

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In the middle there is lots of room

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:59:00 +0000

On purchasing a subscription to a stock trading newsletter recently I was offered entry to their discount online brokerage. I couldn't help but laugh. "How on earth do you guys make money out of that?" I blurted out.

Stock broking used to be a highly lucrative profession. One where a licensed somebody could act as a go between for investors and the stock market. And, as it was scarce, they charged a heap for it also. (Of course)

Today, there are any number of discount brokerage sites online. Many, (most?) people actually take command of their own share portfolios and only use "professionals" as advisors and mentors.

Brokerage was scarce, today it is a commodity.

And so it goes...we see the same impact happening in many other industry sectors such as travel agents, being replaced by online booking sites for travel and hotels.

The newspaper industry was the attention broker in a range of areas. Classified ads, job ads, real estate postings and car sales.

Today, in Australia, we have Seek.com.au, RealEstate.com.au, CarSales.com.au and like everyone else, we also have Craig's List. A very expensive intermediary between us (the people) and these industries just got a lot cheaper and accessible.

Replacing the middleman with lower priced, more accessible and often more functional options is one of the enormous opportunities created by the Internet, and one that not enough of us are taking advantage of.

How can you cut out the mid step between your clients and the performance improvement they desire?

Have you seen Google Maps real estate search? (I think that all the real estate listing sites in the world just got put out of business.)

Or the way Simply Hired and Indeed are able to aggregate every job posting on the web no matter where it is posted. (Looks like the worlds big name job boards are also going out of business)

Whats next?

Can you automate the listings between all the grocery shops within your town / postcode and show which are cheaper? Could you use Force.com to build a package that would be cheaper and more accessible than the market leaders in your niche?

The role for the middle man isn't shrinking, it is just able to be done by far more people, far more effectively, and far cheaper. What can you do?

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How to bank trust

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:58:00 +0000

Once you have many relationships that are built on trust, then you have a lever large enough to move the world.

With advertising going very quickly the way of the dodo, and more and more examples emerging of brilliant "No Ads" marketing success stories, trust may well be the most valuable asset your company has.

Many times here we have reviewed the Amway case study. Amway is a company whose entire sales model is built upon leveraging trust. Getting people to sell to friends and family, or to those who are likely to think they are a) honest and decent people and b) competent.

From an older post:

Amway is a household name, and has at its core the leverage of trust. It has a model of direct selling vitamins to friends and family. In fact, according to Hoover's, Amway has a network of around 3 million independent business owners who sell around 450 products to their families and friends...

Thats a heck of a lot of trust to be leveraging! In fact Forbes put's its earnings at $5 Billion!

Being able to bank trust means you have to be able to build an asset that leverages trust. An asset that builds on the trusting relationship you, or other members of your company or team, have built int he market place.

It all sounds very complex, but it really isn't. Some great examples of trust based assets include:

A trusted blog
A trusted newsletter
Clientèle that are willing to refer you to their peers
Books, articles, videos, and podcasts
Interviews for news sites, magazines and even blogs.

All of these give you the potential to build multiple relationships based on trust. Trust that you, or your host (the interviewing magazine) is honest and decent, and that you can / will deliv3er what you say you will do.

But by far the greatest Trust Based Asset of our time has to be LinkedIn. LinkedIn combines many types of trust based assets and allows you to use all of them.

People visiting your profile can see.

a) Who you are linked to

b) Who has recommended you

c) Your track record of achievement

d) Any ancillary files, blog posts and links you have decided to include.

I wrote previously about how to really maximize LinkedIn for professional sales and marketing. My big claim at the time was that we (my company and I) had been able to leverage LinkedIn for about 7 figures.

We have now done that several times over. This year only. And we are still only in the early stages.

There is absolutely no doubt that you can bank trust. And the more trust you are able to leverage, the more financial renumeration you are able to bank.

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The Lesson of Rio Tinto

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:28:00 +0000

In the past few days a senior executive of Mining giant Rio Tinto has been detained in China. The charges against him of course include the classic "stealing state secrets". The one thing they can accuse you of without needing to prove it. (Because that would reveal the secrets... get it?)

I have worked in, around and with Rio TInto in some form or other for the past twenty five years. They play hard; very hard. They love to win and often do.

But never once, in any country, in any culture, or in any industry, was there ever any hint of illegality or ethical inappropriateness.

Never...

Not once...

It just doesn't happen.... their business culture is about competing, being tough, and being the best. But it has never been about bending or breaking the rules. They are an Australian national treasure after all.

The lesson in this is not in what happened, but in our reaction to it.

"Surely he must have done something. Surely a great nation like China would not act so blatantly against international law, they would not be so childish or petty as to take action against this poor individual just because they have their nose out of joint on the Chinalco deal?"

Welcome to the real world...

Outside of the western nations their is an ever growing list of ex-pats and business people being detained inappropriately for expressing an opinion, offending the ego of someone in power, or running afoul of some childish and fear based cultural norm. (The list of breaches in Venezuela alone is enough for most people to get this point)

It is pathetic, frightening and very, very real.

The lesson is...do not believe the world will act in any way like you think they should do. If you are considering a post overseas, particularly into part of the developing world. Then go with eyes open, and normally with your mouth shut.

It is a great experience, it is career boosting and it can be exceptionally healthy for your bank balance. But it comes at a price, and that price is risk.

Don't let me talk you out of it. I am exceptionally glad I did it. But don't go naively thinking you can act and do business as you would here, but just with a different accent.

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Offline Free as a business model

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:01:00 +0000

I am not sure whether it was Malcolm Gladwell's review of Chris Andersons new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, in the New Yorker Magazine, or Seth Godin's swift rebuttal; but something has made the entire Internet light up with opinions and speculation about Free as a business model. (My 2c here)

The key to this model seems to be the low costs for production and distribution on the Internet. But personally I think there is a little more to it than that...

The basis is simple. Give away some, or most, of what you offer with a view to making a profit on the higher end or premium stuff. In one way or another his is the model for LinkedIn.com, The Aberdeen Group, DimDim.com, ProjectOffice.net and many others.

But can a similar thing work offline? I think so...but not quite the same.

I have a colleague in Canada who consults in engineering. His strategy has always been to put a guy on their site for free for the first month. Then at the end of the month if they didn't want to keep him there he would move on.

According to him he has rarely (he says never actually) had to take the consultant back after that first month.

I have similar experiences with subscription based services, which I really like. Th concept is that the client pays a flat fee every month, some months she uses a lot more than she pays for, other months she uses less. Not exactly free, but definitely lower cost.

"Free" is a good concept to include in the reports you write. Going that extra mile to deliver something a bit extra, a bit different, and a bit more value for the same cost.

I'm sure this concept has a long way to go in the offline world... any advice?

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Arrogance or Humility?

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:15:00 +0000

In my new favorite Audio book, Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads, there is a line that really hit home with me...

"Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no reason to change." - Frank Lloyd Wright

For me, this goes to the heart of Trust as a sales tool, and of the core of how to become a trusted advisor.

In one of the Street Smart Consulting newsletters I made the point that there is often a lot of pressure on consultants to omit details, keep quiet and tell the client what they want to hear rather than the facts.

This is just rampant sycophancy at its worst... honesty can sometimes be a career limiting move, but but definitely is not a business limiting move.

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A Technology or Consulting Company?

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:33:00 +0000

How many times have you come across this question in your career? Somewhere along the line someone in a company that makes software starts to have a battle with the concept of Technology versus Consulting.

It has always left me bewildered....

For me there is no dividing line. Microsoft delivers consultancy services on its products, and does a great job at it. So does IBM, Oracle and even the guys from the various verticals of Infor.

By sheltering in the safe confines of software development you are guaranteeing several things.

1) That your income streams will be lumpy, as all large software sales are.

2) That your development spend will be limited by the lumpiness of your revenue streams, and

3) That you will be leaving a lot of money on the table.

The last point is vital. leaving money on the table, in our profession, is just foolish. It limits revenues, limits potential growth, and worst of all it leaves a space for competitors to rush into.

And in the fast moving world of technology development you need to be pretty darn confident of your products before you let competitors into your space.

The advent of SaaS, the increasing commodity nature of the consulting market, and the inrush of low cost knowledge workers from low wage economies threatens anyone who thinks they can bunker down in technology only.

Today we cannot afford to be technology or consulting... merely services.

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Free is not a business model, it's a competitive advantage !

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Google is free. If you want to search, email, store files and pictures, analyze your web traffic, publish an RSS feed, write a blog or publish a website - Google is the free online option for you.

But somebody pays..and today it is through their mammoth advertising coup with Adsense.

In fact, when the web history iof this epoch is written there will probably be some pretty large questions over how everyone thought that Adsense could just go on underwriting the entire Web 2.0 business models forever.

LinkedIn is free for most, but if you want a little extra then it costs you. Fair enough, I pay extra for that. DimDim.com is also free if you are happy with the basics, but if you want something a little more polished and powerful then that will cost extra. Again, no problem with that - I pay that too.

Free is not a business model, and unless you are Wikipedia neither is a model built on donations. Low cost is a business model, if it is backed by volume.

Exclusively expensive is a business model also, (The China White club in London for example) but thanks to places like Dubai it is a bit crowded in that space for anyone to make money these days.

It is a fascinating time to be working in the consulting arena. Knowledge and information is transforming from something that was once highly valued, to yet another commodity. Just check out what is happening to the news; once considered a scarce and valuable product.

At the same time the skills and technologies to develop software programs, from on premise to online, has never been more abundant.

So what is happening here? Can it all really be free?

No, not at all. Google is free for the end users but somebody pays for it. Namely the advertisers. In the process it locks Yahoo! and Bing out of the fierce competition to organize the worlds information.

LinkedIn has spurred many income streams from jobs, to increased access, through to sponsored ads also. By doing so it remains the only really financially viable networking portal for B2B networking. (We business types like to put our trust in "financially viable")

Salesforce.com has turned the 30 day demo into a highly-likely-to-convert sales pipeline that others are keen to follow. In doing so it locked itself into the online CRM Industry as the natural leader. A model that others such as ProjectOffice.net or DimDim.com are very VERY keen to follow.

Free may not be a viable business model, but if it is backed by one then it is a very sharp competitive edge.

If an organization like (say) LinkedIn can continue to offer something scarce and of value, like networking between the worlds B2B decision makers, then the free element of that will continue to create gravity for the funded part. The part that people like me and many recruiters will pay for.

How can you turn "free" into a competitive advantage for you and your company?

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Consultants and the Cold Call

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:44:00 +0000

There has been a lot said about the consulting profession and the cold call. Some are vociferous in their contempt of the practice. Tending instead for an approach to pre-meeting prospects in networking events such as trade shows, or to draw prospects to them via their brand.

Strangely, the people who repeatedly make statements like that are not actually in the B2B marketing game at all, instead they are selling their own books and seminars to the public, or a slice thereof.

Others are effusive in their defense of the cold call, employing telemarketing services to drive up attendance at public seminars and training courses. This does work, I have used it myself. Although it tends to convert into future work less than attendees who were found through more traditional marketing means.

I returned to Australia after over a decade working around the globe. (15 years if you skip over the short break) My network is essentially outside of Australia in Europe and the US in particular.

I have had no option but to use lots of different versions of the cold call to generate work. But (and this is important) I never cold call with the hope of closing a sale. Selling consulting services, as with everything else, is all about scarcity, value and principally about trust.

Trust that you are a decent human being, and that you can deliver what you say you can deliver. Sales will not happen without trust in the equation.

However I always cold call with the hope of starting a relationship.

Here are some versions of the cold calls I frequently use, listed in order of efgfectiveness. (Or maybe it is just my own preferences)

1) The LinkedIn cold call.

Directly to the person in question, or via an introduction by an intermediary. These have been exceptionally useful for me and I recommend you check out the article I wrote a while ago about generating revenue via your LinkedIn LogIn.

Always a humble Inmail. followed by a short email, followed by a phone call / visit or whatever. There are other ways, connecting first followed by a contact Inmail some weeks later is often very successful also.

2) The Book cold call.

I send a copy of one of my books on Engineering, accompanied with a brochure on the services and products our company offers, complete with client referrals. Always focused on the business sector associated with my prospects company.

I actually almost always get a reply from this approach. The combination of a trust based asset, the books and referrals, combined with the targeted information in the brochure is often enough to get me at least a hearing with the prospective clients.

Also works with unsolicited reports if they contain actionable and valuable data.

3)The Telephone cold call.

I love these. I really do enjoy making contact via the telephone, and particularly on cold calls. Call me masochistic....

Following up from a conference, chasing down information on a certain issue, reference checking or just to introduce your product. Once you have a good reason to speak to somebody, and they are willing to give you a hearing, you can often generate a lot of opportunities for near term discussions and to build a relationship.

4)The email cold call.

Less effective for me as their is so much garbage floating through everyones inbox every day. It is really hard to get noticed this way.

The times that I have it has been because my personal brand was already known to the prospect, making him or her at least interested in what this could be about. Not great unless you can back it up with some form of brand recognition. For me, only partly useful sometimes.

These are my methods of cold calling. Always personal, always to start a relationship - not to make a sale, and always done with the confidence that I am representing something that could fundamentally improve their lot in business life.

Good luck.

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Great tools for work offline

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:47:00 +0000

With social media marketing I am now connected, often at a personal level, with more people in more places than my father could have ever dreamed of.

This sort of hyper connectedness of course, holds out great promise. promise that we spend a lot of time pursuing online...often at the expense of real possibilities offline.

Instead of relying totally on online order taking systems like Paypal, make sure you have a credit card machine handy in the office or on the road. Easy to forget that people actually have their credit cards with them when you talk to them. And they could probably pay for your course/ book / seminar (whatever) right then and there.

Instead of relying totally on Twitter and email type marketing, try using LinkedIn to make initial contacts, followed up with meetings shortly thereafter. (The higher the better.)

Instead of spending days and nights trying to build your Twitter following, try to build an offline following. It is more resilient, and it translates easily to your work on the web. And in case you missed it - those who enjoy real success on Twitter already have a very strong off-Twitter brand.

Cold calls, visits to clients, follow up meetings, public courses and seminars, speaking at conferences and tradeshows... you name it.

The world isn't all online... it just seems like that.

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The cream always rises

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:26:00 +0000

After 10 years working abroad there has been a lot to get used to when I returned to Australia.

One of the real eye openers has been that so many of the people I used to network with, and work with at times, have done exceptionally well for themselves.

From mid sized businesses, to extremely high level positions, through to influential roles throughout their chosen industries...it has been a very welcome surprise.

But...looking back, it doesn't surprise me.

They were always going to do exceedingly well. They were the people who always (ALWAYS) put in a bit extra. The fanatics who weren't really too sure where all this would lead, but they knew it would be somewhere better than if they didn't do it.

Sometimes intense, always driven, and always people with vision, high ethical standards, and who worked hard because they loved it - not because they feared what would happen if they didn't.

Anybody around you "obviously" on their way to achieve something great? Maybe you...?

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Don't trust me...

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:14:00 +0000

Ever worked for a company who started an engagement in a passionate love affair with the client.. and then was somehow able to turn that good will into loathing and contempt?

The sorts of consulting or software firms where repeat business is done begrudgingly because there is nowhere else to go, not because they want to do business with them.

What is wrong here? how can something so good turn so bad?

When you hold somebodies trust you have an awesome responsibility. A responsibility to not make them look bad. People hate to admit when they are wrong. They hate it even more because they will often not admit it very quickly.

When a client trusts you they will help you through the rough times, they will even defend you if you make a mistake. (Which we all do at sometime or other)

But if they finally decide that you are not worth trusting. If they come to believe that your character or abilities were not what they had been led to believe, then they feel betrayed and humiliated.

And they will not trust you so easily next time.

In fact, they will go out of their way to use their brand, their "trust account" with other people to ensure that others do not make the same mistake that they did.

So why does this happen? More often than not it is because somewhere along the line; between the hype, the close and the delivery...someone (or a group of people) acted in a dishonest way. Misrepresenting the deal, the skills, or the capabilities of whatever it was that they were selling.

This just screams "don't trust me"

And after a while of blaming the market, the clients, their workers or their products... the realization that something is rotten just has to sink in or whatever value you had to get them won't be enough to keep them.

In a world where trust is scarce and getting even more rare, it is vital to nurture the trust based assets that you have today...they won't be so easy to come by tomorrow.

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It is sometimes better left unsaid

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:45:00 +0000

Authenticity is like power. If you have to tell somebody you have it - then you don't.

Never trust anybody who says trust me = Never trust a company who has to put honesty as one of their values. (It is just a condition of entry, not something they have to strive for)

If you are the "leading (whatever)" then you don't need to lay claim to it. People know. Ever seen a Google ad telling you they were the leading search engine? (Okay, so there are no Google ads - but you get the point)

"We're excited to be..." - I (the consumer / prospect) don't really care about you, I care about me. Good luck with your excitement.

Unsurpassed - Sure... prove it.

We care - Great, we don't. We just want this problem fixed, this need met, this want delivered. YOur caring is great for Oprah, not so great for me. (The prospect) What I am interested in however, is the number of people willing to line up to praise your track record of achievement.

If you want your news release to create marketing blindness, then just use the terms above. Oh yeah, you can also include some timeless classics like "Win-Win", "Paradigm", "Synergy", and the ever present (but dangerous) "Value added". (So it had no value before huh?)

But if you want to write news releases that get read then give it an emotion inducing title. Questions or research outcomes are always good. Write a great story, telling of a great case of overcoming adversity, ("The Heroes Journey" courtesy of Dan Pink) and with something they can take away of value, as well as something they may have to do to find out more.

Or, you could just go back to being excited about the synergies offered for win-win agreements by your new unsurpassed service solution which is paradigm shifting. A great value added offering.

(See...garbage isn't it?)

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Fortunately we aren't cats !!

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:51:00 +0000

The bankers, traders and economists who were in part responsible for the economic crisis were as motivated, intelligent and hard working as you are.

Lets think for a minute that most of these people were actually honest types, and most of them were, as you are, competent.

How then could this happen?

The answer comes from Warren Buffet and what he calls "Mindless imitation of your peers." Something that is worth thinking about.

Hard work, motivation intelligence and ambition are not the things that drive success.They are merely the price of entry. We are all hard working, motivated, ambitious and intelligent.

For me, the thing that separates the truly successful from the also-ran's is curiosity.

The ability of Marc Benioff to ask (so the story goes) "What if all business software was delivered like Amazon.com?"

Or the ability of Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder) to ask "How can I minimize the regret of missing the dot com boom?"

Or Larry Page to ask "How can we better organize the information scattered all over the internet?"

Why can't we run your business on a subscription based service? Why can't you cut costs by pushing stuff into the cloud? What would happen if you turned your small niche software package into a combined web based platform and service?

Curiosity is what makes people take the obvious (build something worth talking about) and turn it into the phenomena that Seth Godin launched with Purple Cow.

Curiosity killed the cat, fortunately we aren't cats!!

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Maximizing the value of your LinkedIn login

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:19:00 +0000

I have commented many times on Twitter that LinkedIn is probably the greatest trust based asset in the world today.

Your LinkedIn login gives you the ability to collect recommendations from industry leaders that others will see as a trusted source, the ability to hide your connections and the restrictions and control over connecting and establishing contact places it a world apart from other social tools.

Here are some of the posts I have written recently about the LinkedIn login, how to use it, and how it can add significant value to your bottom line.

Using your LinkedIn login to get around Gatekeepers. Another post that seemed to strike a chord with many consultants. Fortunately technology has given us another way to get around the gate keepers.

The newest Trust Based Asset - LinkedIn Recommendations. A look at how to use the recommendations function of LinkedIn in a way that is effective for generating trust.

Turn your LinkedIn login into a powerful revenue generator. Everything I have been using this year to generate seven figures in B2B sales from my network.

7 tips for success in todays job market - A look at some of the ways to use your LinkedIn login to increase your chances of getting the job you want.

And of course, some cautionary tales...

Why are people so stupid on LinkedIn. Really started off a firestorm with this post. People seem to come down hard on one side or the other.

Please don't accept all invites! A cautionary tale about why LinkedIn is not Facebook, and why the "Accept all invites" statements does far more harm than good.

LinkedIn, Virtual Handshakes and the danger of accepting all invites. Some more issues and thoughts on why your network needs to be kept safe. It is a valuable asset, don't allow it to be stolen from you!

And if all that isn't enough for you to start using your LinkedIn login to start generating real revenues and very real cash incomes, then maybe this post of 13 reasons for LinkedIn may help to inspire you to think how you can turn your profile into a powerful resource for job hunting or client hunting.

Good luck...

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Using your LinkedIn login to get around "Gatekeepers"

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:47:00 +0000

We all know who gatekeepers are right? They are the powerless middle managers who cannot say yes, but have many ways to say no.

The source of their minuscule influence is through restricting access to the people above them, controlling what they see and who they speak to. In short, they are the defenders of the status quo.

Defending their faint hold on what passes for power and curtailing any efforts of the organization to improve itself if they see it as a threat to them. They are an anathema...

Fortunately, technology had offered us a way around this...

As I have said many times here, LinkedIn is a 24/7 trade show that everyone came to. It's functionality allows you to use this as (probably) the most powerful trust based asset on the planet.

By building your network of trust based relationships, collecting references from people who others would see as a trusted source, and through backing this up in the offline world by developing a track record of achievement.

With this in place, your LinkedIn login becomes far (FAR) more than just an online CV...

With a long line of people willing to tell everyone how great your work is, you are more likely to get referrals and introductions. So if, say, you have a trust based contact who is connected with the CEO of a major organization, you can ask her for an introduction.

When the CEO checks your profile, and sees the recommendations from people he has heard of, or from other senior industry figures, then he is more likely to accept the introduction and risk giving you the time of day. (I say risk because time is exceptionally valuable commodity, it isn't given lightly)

Or, you can go the direct route and send an Inmail yourself. This has worked very well for me in the past.

A humble letter, asking for the opportunity to have a discussion with them, and stating clearly your ability to achieve results.

Remember - you are writing a letter, not a thesis, and you are writing it to a person with the power to write checks for millions of dollars. His time is valuable, and everyone wants to get a share of his magic pen.

So make the most of it.

The benefit? No more gatekeepers. You get to go straight to the decision makers. Staying at that level is another issue altogether, but getting there these days is far easier to achieve than it used to be...

And if you use these techniques on the back of your trust based assets you have spent years or months developing, then you start to appear like the obvious choice, a person with considerable momentum, and someone who they would welcome as a peer.

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What has value today??

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Produce and the land that produced them used to be very valuable. Back then land was scarce, and so was farmers who could produce what was needed by the population.

Science and the free market turned agriculture on its head. It is no longer scarce, in fact it is abindant. Sure there are quibbles about quality and so on, but farm produce today is essentially a commodity item.

Then it was the turn of products, and factories became the wealth creators that would drive forward several generations. Free market strikes again and suddenly there are billions of people in low wage economies who can be exploited for a tenth of the cost of those who originated the technology.

No longer scarce, no longer valued, no longer market controlling..

As we entered the information age we saw that information would be the new currency, the new engine of wealth generation. But alas, all too quickly the internet has put an end to that. I can find out pretty much anything I need to know, on a regular basis, with a few taps of a keyboard. And I can do it almost anywhere on the face of the plant...

A lot has been written about the idea economy. "Ideas that spread" etcetera...While this is true, there is nowhere near the level of IP control that used to exist when markets were closed. Drugs, software, music, films... all of these can be knocked off within days of appearing if not sooner.

So it's not IP either... what then is valued in todays economies?

For me, with all of the hyper connected people in the world, it is personal relationships. Sincere people who are able to build and hold relationships built on trust.

This is what is valued, what sells books, supports a brand or destroys a nation.

Ideas that spread do win it is true.... but if you have many relationships built on trust, you have a lever big enough to move the world.

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One bite at a time...

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:23:00 +0000

I just read another excellent post from Seth on Dominoes and how this applies to building a brand and building a business. As always it was very short, very concise, and very relevant to what I am doing right now.

And of course he is right. Instead of going out there and taking on the big players in your field, you need to be beavering away at developing a very powerful track record of results. Instead of pitching your Message to steal all of SAP's clients, you need to be working away finding your own niche clients and building good will and word of mouth.

And instead of trying to outdo TechCrunch you want to try to reach the next person who is going to be willing to subscribe to your blog or newsletter.

One bite at a time. Win the work, deliver the work, get a referral, win a bigger portion of work...and so on.

Wise character our Seth...

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Tricks of the Mind

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:19:00 +0000

I am a big fan of Derren Brown. A "mentalist" performer from the UK. He is always very open stating that there is science behind everything that he does, and in explaining that his tricks and marvels are the result of psychology, science and slight of hand.

So when I found his book Memory: Tricks of the Mind on Audible.com, I couldn't resist. I am in a state of continual experimentation. With this blog, my newsletters, my sales approach and my consulting. Each experiment is researched, results recorded, and success factors learned quickly.

This has been no different. The book is very straight forward, less than an hour, and holds three really powerful little techniques. I was memorizing stuff within the hour. And I am pretty impressed with it.

So far I have applied this as a party trick, (to much applause) to recall bullet points on a long list from a presentation, and to recall a presentation given by one of my colleagues.

I have't gone to the point of memorizing shopping lists yet... but thats next.

I am not sure how it made me appear...but it was an incredible momentum booster for me to be able to recall points without struggling, I felt as if I had greater mastery over the events.

I am still working out the bumps on this one. Few things to perfect, and then I am going to move into this a little more. I think it is going to be an invaluable skill.

I fully recommend Memory: Tricks of the Mind as a tool for increasing your consulting skills if you are the sort of person who regularly buys and listens to audio books.

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The rise of non traditional media

daryl.mather@gmail.com (Daryl Mather) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:33:00 +0000

This has been an extraodrinary week for the rise of non traditional media.

We started off the week with the Daily Show's classic question of the New York Times, "Why do you think aged news is better than real news." Within days we saw Twitter, and other social media sites, absolutely wipe the floor with CNN, BBC and all the traditional media sources.

Throughout the week the social media space hummed with breaking news out of Iran, traditional news outlets seemed more and more to be narrating from the sidelines instead of bringing us bold new facts.

Then came the end of the week, and an event that really stood out for me. All the mainstream guys were confined to barracks in their hotels - but the news continued to stream out.

Videos, Facebook pages, blogs and of course, Twitter as an epicenter.

Every time we hear of one of the newspapers in trouble the standard refrain is that they are an "institution". They play an important role, they are essential to democracy and they shine a light on the darkest corners of business and society ensuring that true justice is done...

Ah... no they don't... (still stinging over their role in the Iraq debacle) and even if they did - do we still need to be passed our information by an institution?

We've been talking about it for years, and now it is finally starting to become a reality.

News is passing from the hands of the few to the hands of the many. A many-to-many world of communication where you cannot hide. Where everyone is Bob Woodward and you had better be playing it straight... or we'll find out.

A world where everyone is armed, via their telephone, with the means of getting the story, and the facts, direct to you within moments of it occurring.

The race is now on to provide the centers for these masses to send their stuff to. When CNN launched their I Report news service (Unfiltered, Unedited etc...) I really saw it as a "me too", type of initiative. Like your Dad trying to show your friends how cool he still is...

Now, it is starting to look like Iran is to their I Report service what Iraq was to them and cable news in general.

Fascinating time to be around...

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