How social technologies are extending the organization
One of the hot topics of conversation in business these days is how to effectively use social media for connecting with prospects and referral sources, and for promoting our work. We have all heard about companies leveraging social media as a tool to extend their networks, but how?
This article in McKinsey Quarterly, written by Jacques Bughin, Angela Hung Byers, and Michael Chui, deals with the benefits of planned and targeted enterprise-wide use of social media, we at IMPACT think it is extremely useful to start thinking about getting strategic about the social media game!
Three tips to improve your listening skills
Harvey Schachter's article in the Globe and Mail gives three great tips to improve your listening skills.
As coaches, we cannot emphasize enough how important it is to listen, at different levels, to what is said and what is not said. This listening is the key to asking powerful questions- which is the best way to develop people, and to develop business.
Take a minute to give this a read, and think about how you can show others you're listening.
Posted by Lisa Chandler on May 9, 2012
Business Development, Coaching, Communications, Engagement practice skills, Leadership, Leading in a Downturn, Leading Teams, Personal Effectiveness, Team Effectiveness, Workplace Issues
From Around the Web 
Five Simple Things
From profitguide.com, Greig Clark shares his discovery: there are five fundamentals of running a successful business, and they live where the rubber meets the road. None of them are earth-shattering, but they can be tricky to apply.
What do you get when you spend 40 years in and around entrepreneurship? In my case, 10 black, three-ring binders are an important part of the answer.
Let me explain. I lived my first 20 years of self-employment as an entrepreneur, building College Pro Painters. I spent the next 15 as a venture capitalist, with a few of those years at the helm of Arxx Building Products, one of the investments in our VC fund. Since stepping down as CEO of Arxx five years ago, I’ve worked as (or, at least, evolved into) a “trusted advisor” to entrepreneurial businesses. And for each of the companies I’ve worked with, I’ve compiled a synopsis of each business in a black, three-ring binder.
I recently leafed through those binders in search of the best business lessons of my past 40 years. My discovery: there are five fundamentals of running a successful business, and they live where the rubber meets the road. None of them are earth-shattering, but they can be tricky to apply.
1. Focus, focus, focus
It’s easy to say, yet so hard to do. I recently read a book on the Facebook story, and this principle leaps out above all else. Facebook placed relentless focus on building a user base, campus by campus, and continually making the program friendlier. As wild as I feel for saying this, Mark Zuckerberg was right not to put short-term focus on raising revenue.
To put the importance of focus into greater relief, consider Paul Martin: a superb finance minister but a weak prime minister. In the former role, Martin focused like a laser beam on reducing the deficit and building surpluses. As prime minister, he dared not disappoint any people, so he ended up disappointing most people.
A CEO I’ve known for a long time told me that his biggest job is to be Dr. No. Only by turning things down does he let people know what really is important.
My brother Paul, a longtime entrepreneur who is now a consultant in Vancouver, tells me that the biggest problem he sees in business is that people start many things but finish few. “I’ll get to that next week,” they say. Next week never comes. His advice? “Complete something.”
2. Time management
It’s the kissing cousin of #1. We have two finite resources in any business: time and money. We budget the heck out of money. Time is even scarcer, but we treat it more shabbily.
How a CEO spends his or her time is the biggest signal to staff of what is really important to the company. A good technique for aligning your actions with your priorities is colour-coding your time planner with those priorities in mind. One of the CEOs I work with, Jeremy Behar of Cirrus Consulting Group in Toronto, knows good people are the key to the growth of his business. So, he shades hours in his day planner green to denote the time he will spend recruiting people or developing his existing employees. That way the task stands out visually to him.
Another trick is to be proactive, applying Steven Covey’s “put the big rocks in first” principle. Go through your calendar months ahead and mark some “green space” in every week to block off time to tackle your most important priority.
3. Horses for courses
Or, as Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great: “Get the right people in the right seats on the bus.” But how can you tell when you have the “right people?” It’s never easy. My first boss, Scott MacDiarmid at General Foods, used to tell me the thing he liked about me was that when he asked me for “A,” he got A or A-plus, and on time; he never got a B or C with an explanation. In business, table stakes is understanding what is asked for and delivering it. Greatness is taking it one step beyond that, being proactive and what I call a “life force” in the business. Someone who is an “energy multiplier,” not a drain. It is so great for entrepreneurs when they feel that they are “not alone” in trying to grow the business or push the envelope.
On the other hand, when the person is not right, you will know. But, like most entrepreneurs, you might be “slow to fire.” Don’t be.
4. Clarify roles
This is all about getting the right seats on the bus. Everyone needs to know what they, and they alone, are responsible for. The “one throat to choke” philosophy is still a good one, although perhaps a bit graphic. At Cirrus, a little box appears under each person’s name on the org chart, containing that person’s top three deliverables and metrics. This allows strategies and plans to be quickly checked against principles #1 and #2: do the tasks reflect the focus of the business, who will perform those tasks and how will anyone know those tasks are being performed?
5. Measure, measure, measure
Make those top three deliverables the key performance indicators for each manager. Put them on a one-page “dashboard” and review it regularly and relentlessly. An example is the weekly RAG (results at a glance) at College Pro, which remains that company’s most read report. When my stepson Jon was a star manager there, he used to check the RAG every day to compare his performance to his targets and that of his peers. When you get the numbers right, the numbers don’t lie—and everyone knows it. Good people will self-manage to make their numbers.
Are these principles simple? Yes. Easy to stick to? Maybe not. Tack this page on your wall, and consult it frequently. If you can’t follow this diet, find a coach or advisor who can help you. It works.
In nearly 30 years of serving Canada's entrepreneurial business community, PROFIT has earned a position of prominence with growth companies, the entrepreneurs who run them and the businesses eager to serve them. Through its range of products and services, PROFIT delivers practical growth strategies, case studies and access to peer groups that help entrepreneurial companies get bigger and better… fast.
PROFIT magazine: Published six times per year and boasting circulation of 101,000 and readership of 373,000, PROFIT delivers the highest composition of business decision-makers and managers / owner / professionals amongst all PMB measured English-language magazines in Canada
PROFITguide.com: PROFIT powers the Entrepreneur channel of Canadian Business Online
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PROFIT Custom Publishing: Customized content targeting entrepreneurs with distribution opportunities through PROFIT or related Rogers Publishing vehicles
Posted by Claire Carver-Dias on May 8, 2012
Business Development, Career Management, Communications, Engagement practice skills, Influencing, Leadership, Networking, Personal Effectiveness, Goals, Perseverance, Time Management, Strategy Development & Execution, Workplace Issues
Blog Article 
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From Around the Web
Growing Your Book Of Business- Multiplying Scales
Accounting partners know how to multiply and divide. Unfortunately, they don’t always know what choice to make when it comes to growing their book of business.
Seth Godin’s simple example shows the clear choice. I will borrow his language and his logic and tailor my example to the professional services firm.
Let’s say you have a list of 30 prospects (made up of current clients and other potentials with whom you haven’t worked yet but would like to). You have a choice to make.
1) You can create stories and options and benefits that naturally spread from this group to people they know, and your core group can multiply with 30 growing to 60 and then 600 (Some partners succeed in building a name for themselves by becoming a subject matter expert and becoming known through speaking engagements, writing etc. It takes some great stories, options and benefits to make this work).
OR
2)
You can put the original group through a sales funnel, weed out the ones that don’t fit your
“ideal client” type and monetize the rest. A 30% conversion rate means you just turned 30 prospects into 9 new engagements.
Multiplying scales. Dividing helps you make this quarter’s numbers (and keep your equity partner status!). We know you are great at math but let us know if you need some coaching help on this equation.
What’s Your Business Development Dent?
What’s Your Business Development Dent?
Seth Godin (known for his knack at getting to the heart of the matter) just sent out a two line post called
Your Dent. He asks “Are you making a dent in the universe?” and then hints: “lots of random pokes in many different spots are unlikely to leave much of an impact”. And for a final kick, he adds “hiding out is surely not going to work at all”.
In business development coaching, a few of the partners I coach initially prefer to hide out and magically think enough business will keep coming. It might. Or it might not. A few fall into the random poking category. They can at least say they have activity. They will likely generate some modest results. Finally there are a few partners who strategize, focus and approach business development with discipline and an attitude of generosity and authenticity. They are the ones that make the dent. And because they approach their entire life this way, you can bet their dent is much bigger than the business bottom-line.
Selling to people who haven’t bought yet
This is a great little post from Guru Marketer Seth Godin on how you can avoid the “better-than-them pitch” and make it easy for prospects to make a new decision (to retain you!).
The portion of the population that haven't bought from you or your competition yet is not waiting for a better mousetrap.
They're not busy considering a, b and c and then waiting for d.
No, they're not in the market. They don't believe that they have a problem that's worth the time and money they think it's going to take to solve it.
As a result, smart marketers don't market to this audience by saying, "hey, ours is better than theirs!"
If this group thought that they had a solvable problem, the would have solved it already.
No, they won't respond to a better-than-them pitch. Instead, they're much more likely to respond to a new statement of their problem and a new statement of the solution. Don't ask them to announce that they were wrong when they decided that they didn't need a tablet, a survival kit or an anti-impotence drug. Instead, make it easy for them to make a new decision based on new information.
How to Keep Your Cool During a Performance Review
For the feedback providers among us, there is ample available advice on how best to proffer messages and to ensure their effective delivery. However, there's far less guidance to help us when we are on the receiving end of these "gifts" (after all, aren't we always hearing how feedback is a gift?).
The purpose of this post is to start a conversation among us, to consider how best to take in the feedback messages we receive — not just at this time of year, but all the time.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/how_to_receive_feedback.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-management_tip-_-tip041812&referral=00203&utm_source=newsletter_management_tip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tip041812Written by: ROBERT M. GALFORD
Written by: Robert Galford
Managing Partner of the Center for Leading Organizations, is a Leadership Fellow in Executive Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Posted by Sandra Oliver on April 18, 2012
Business Development, Career Management, Communications, Engagement practice skills, Managing Change, Personal Effectiveness, Learning, Strategy Development & Execution, Workplace Issues
Blog Article ,
From Around the Web
Flip Manifesto
Get rid of your vacation policy. Stop tying compensation to performance. Pay more to your people than the market demands. Drop the self affirmations and doubt yourself instead. Forget about annual performance reviews. And for goodness sake, pay more attention to your “To Don’t” list than your “To Do” list. Daniel Pink’s recently released Flip Manifesto (available gratis here) offers 16 pieces of advice that run counter to what you might have heard elsewhere and will certainly contradict how your own firm/ company is set up. This is precisely why it is worth the 30-45 minutes it will take you to read it. I liked it so much I have printed it out and highlighted it for a VP (R&D) I am coaching right now. I have chosen to use the paper and ink (85 whole pages worth) because I know he will never get to it if I send him the electronic version and I believe it is something he needs to read right now.
How about you? Is it time to flip some of your long held beliefs?
For more Daniel Pink, read his Pink Blog.
Posted by Lisa Chandler on April 13, 2012
Business Development, Engagement practice skills, Leadership, Managing Change, Personal Effectiveness, Goals, Initiative, Time Management, Strategy Development & Execution
Blog Article ,
From Around the Web
The Dirty Secrets of Effective Sales Coaching
Evidence that sales coaching works and works best with the middle 60%.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/01/the_dirty_secret_of_effective.html
From Harvard Business Review
4 Tips on How to Win New Work
To many professional service providers, the concept of finding new clients and winning work is intimidating. Even the very term “business development (BD)” strikes terror in the hearts of some professionals. Among my coaching clients, the fear often comes from a mistaken assumption that to succeed in BD one has to be an aggressive salesperson. This couldn’t be less true. So put away your fake smile and your clammy handshake. These tips will have you feeling comfortable and improving your BD results in no time:
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It’s a marathon, not a sprint: It may take multiple meetings and interactions via phone/email before you’re ready to propose your services or ask for work. Simply focus on advancing your relationship a little each time you interact. This takes the pressure off feeling like you have to land a big contract over lunch.
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Meaningful conversations: Sharing meals with prospective clients can help bring in good work. But the most effective business developers always make lunch more than a chit chat over chicken Caesar. Know what you want to achieve and plan some questions that will help you bring the conversation in that direction when the time is right. For example:
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What are you working on?
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What does success look like for you/your business?
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What gets in the way of achieving this success?
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What kind of help do you need?
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Talk less, listen more: In 2012, it’s no longer about the aggressive pitch. Instead, build a relationship and find common interests so you both win. Have your prepared questions and also let curiosity be your guide. When in front of the prospect, ask yourself what you’re most curious about and pose your questions from there. Your lunch date will find it refreshing.
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Let your prospect guide you when to ask for the work: It’s great to have lunches, drinks and conversations. It is also great to actually win work! Each time you interact with a prospect, check in with them. “What is the logical next step? Have I earned the right to propose on this work? Can we start on this small project so we can solve this problem with you?”
For more on effective BD, check out Get Clients Now by C.J. Hayden. Hayden provides an excellent 28 day plan that will get you into action and bring results. And remember: It doesn’t have to be hard. It could even be fun!
Don’t Let the Duds In!
If you are like many of the professional services firm partners I coach, you are under ever increasing pressure to bring new clients to the firm, to deepen relations with existing clients and to increase firm revenue. You likely excel in your professional domain and struggle with business development (BD). And even if you are good at it, you likely feel torn between logging billable hours and investing in BD.
A few years ago, I wrote a post on how I was defining my target market and my niche. To help me, I used a concept from Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid. Port recommends having a “red velvet rope policy” to help keep out unwanted clients and bring in only ideal clients. Defining your ideal client and your red velvet rope policy is a necessary step in laying a solid marketing foundation for your BD success. And it’s really quite easy (and arguably fun!):
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Describe your ideal client (be as detailed as possible):
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Who have you loved serving in the past? What kind of company? What kind of file? What kind of people were you dealing with? What did you like about the work?
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If you were bringing in only ideal clients (for your practice area or the firm in general), what characteristics would they need to possess in order for you to do your best work for them? Be selfish! Assume you will only work with the best of the best.
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Describe your dud clients (again be as detailed as possible):
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What kind of past clients have turned you off/ shut you down/ had behaviours or issues you couldn’t tolerate? What kind of clients/ files should not be getting past your “red velvet rope”?
Once you have a clear picture of your duds and your ideals, look at your current roster of clients and categorize them as ideals, duds or neutrals. Port challenges you to fire the duds to open you up to working with only ideal clients. In theory, I really like the notion. In practice, I believe most of my coaching clients would rather phase out the duds and target their BD efforts on bringing in ideal clients.
Well...your ideal clients are waiting. How about getting clear about who they are so you can find them?!
What I have learned about RFPs
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I will only do an RFP if I really know the organization well and have a reasonable chance of success due to my relationships.
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RFPs are a massive amount of work and are often not read by the senior decision makers.
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Understanding the decision process is key. You need to know who is reviewing and deciding at each stage.
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You have to work with all of your relationships as well as complete the paperwork or you will be wasting your time regardless of the quality of the submission.
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RFPs are counter to idea generation. If you want ideas, you need to start with an openness. RFPs by their nature are exceptionally defined.
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RFPs are slanted to big expensive consulting businesses who have teams dedicated to writing RFPs.
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If you are small, like us, and you want to respond to an RFP, you need to be innovative and take risks. Be prepared to give them what you think they need not what they ask for.
Selling to Corporates Telesummit
This online 'summit' is a series of 10 free teleseminars being broadcast 2 a day for 5 days from some of the world's leading experts in selling to corporate clients.
We think many of our clients would be interested in attending, so we thought we'd spread the word some more:
http://www.ianbrodie.com/selltocorporates
Videos for selling consulting services
Although Client Breakthrough is being retired, they are still keeping their videos!
There 6, which provide very good quick advice for selling consulting services.
http://goo.gl/mVQcF
How to prospect effectively
An article on how to ‘prospect” effectively for professional services. Start high. It takes more touch points then you think... 7,8,9 or more sometimes.
http://www.raintodayblog.com/6-keys-to-lead-generation-success/