Author Archives: malte

TNF #037: Let the client lead the talk!

Welcome Professionals…

…today I had a great client meeting with a surprising outcome. I met the CEO of an outsourcing provider that offered me in the end to promote my service to his clients. On my way back to the office, I was thinking why it went so well. From my point of view the main driver was that I let the client lead the talk.

I must confess that the temptation was very high to lead the conversation by myself. We met for the first time, until then we had only emailed and talked on the phone. I had initiated the meeting in order to sell my services to this company. I was pretty sure that I had a very compelling story, I had prepared thoroughly and I had great references to boast with.

When we started the conversation, he asked me: “So you are an engineer?” – “Yes, indeed”, I replied, then he already jumped in “Me too. You know, we have that in common!” And on he went. For the next 45 minutes I was only able to throw in a few words which were picked up by him as key words for his following elaborations.

It was fun listening, I learned a lot about him, the company, the strategy, his competitors, and so on. I think I managed to demonstrate by my body language and my few drop-ins on his topics that I was listening closely. Maybe he even heard about one of my references that I was squeezing in. Maybe not.

In the end, he thanked me for taking the time to come around. He concluded that it was a great and interesting conversation. Then he said: “You know, I get asked frequently by my clients if I can recommend somebody for these specific projects. I will refer to you next time now that I know that you have the expertise!” I was stunned.

This meeting served as a good reminder for me: Let the client lead the talk!

Wishing you fruitful conversations

Malte

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!

TNF #036: Focus on the core

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Welcome Professionals…

…it is hard for me to say “no”. Especially to clients. We all work hard to build our reputation, to generate trust and credentials. Receiving client inquiries is what we are all fighting for. When a potential client approaches me to place an assignment, I am automatically in acceptance mode. This can turn into a problem if it is out of my core.

Last week I was contacted by a branch manager of a bank. He wanted to place an executive search project. Like always, I was tempted to dive right into an assignment even though I hardly know anything about financial services. Luckily I was too busy with other work. Then I thought about passing the project on to a team member with a lower billability. But it was also not in her core area of expertise and would have kept her from building her reputation in areas she wanted to focus on.

I finally went to the potential client, told him that my team and I were very sorry, but could not provide the required service by ourselves. Instead, I recommended another external consultant for the job. The client thanked me for the connection, but in the next second turned down the external consultant. I felt miserable. I had missed on an opportunity and I had failed to solve a problem for a potential client.

Today I think, it was just another episode of the FoMO-syndrome. The typical fear of missing out (FoMO) on opportunities. I decided to establish two checkpoints for future opportunities:

Is this opportunity within the core of my target business (defined by industry, location, topic, profitability, etc.)?
Do I want to invest extra time, money, and hard work to make this opportunity part of my core business?

If the answer is “no” to both questions, I will turn it down. As simple as that. Makes it easier for me to say “no” and miss out without any fear!

TNF #035: Gentlemen of style

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Welcome Professionals…

…appearance and style are of high importance for the top management consultant. Since our services are generally hard to measure by objective and accessible performance indicators, the law of analogy applies. Our clients will build simple analogies. A sloppy outfit is linked to a sloppy analysis. A clumsy dress style is linked to a confused working style. We do not want this to get into our way.

There is not that one wardrobe that works for all consultants. In fact, dressing patterns vary heavily by region and by client industry and even company size. Whether you work in Milano or Detroit, whether you work in banking or fast moving consumer goods, the proper style will be relative to the one of your clients. In relation to the client, the top management consultant will always dress:

a bit more formal
a bit more smart
a bit more classic / conservative

Furthermore, our wardrobe should be fitting well, be in a good state and good shape, and project rather humble understatement than pretentious status symbols.

While these principles apply equally to men it women, it is usually the male species that is looking for a bit more practical advice and guidance. Here are some links to experts for you.

Aaron Marino is the pioneer of men style blogs and one of the most successful contributors in this areas. His videos cover everything from casual and formal clothing across fitness and grooming to even communication. Blessed with a good sense of humour, he is also quite entertaining. (http://www.iamalpham.com)

Sven Raphael Schneider from the Gentleman’s Gazette promotes a very elegant style that is in most cases much too dapper and dandy for any top management consultant. However, he has the best collection of background information on how to judge quality of garments, how to bind a proper necktie with a dimple, how to even tie your shoelaces and much more. Some fashion advice is clearly over the top, but some is quite practical. (http://www.gentlemansgazette.com)

A good entertaining and inspiring blog can also be found by Brian Sacawa, a professional musician and former elite-level bicycle racer. His page “he spoke style” is a playful explanation of core principles in menswear. (http://hespokestyle.com)

Of course, there are many more addresses for tips and tricks. Hope you like that one and curious to learn your additions to this topic.

Malte

TNF #034: Do you have a prescription?

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Welcome Professionals…

…as top management consultants, we are selling cures to management problems. We are literally selling a project or mandate and in a figurative sense, we are selling our ideas, concepts, approaches and so on. Our client needs to buy into it. Our client needs to apply our product to make a change.

Someone made me aware of an interesting analogy. A physician is someone curing health problems. Just like a consultant, this professional also needs clients (called patients) to buy into his/her concepts and to apply solutions (called medicine) in order to make a change. The difference is, that in most cases, the medical practitioner does not even make the attempt to sell something.

Think of your own experience when consulting a physician. In most cases, he/she will listen to the problem, make a diagnosis and write a prescription. And – in most cases – the patient will accept it and thankfully apply it. Why is this the case? I came to the following observation:

The physician addresses a very important if not existential problem of the client which came to see him/her for this
The physician suggest’s in most cases only one solution
The physician acts with a natural authority

Wouldn’t it be great if we could move our clients by writing a prescription to them? What in our process do we have to change if we wanted to act with the same persuasiveness as a physician? The problem that we address? The argumentation on the solution? Our communication style?

Let’s think about this for a week!

Malte

TNF #033: What’s your USP?

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Welcome Professionals…

…such a simple question, isn’t it? What’s your USP? Do you have an answer for it?

I sat with the founder and CEO of a consulting company today. He has been running the company for 7 years now and they are quite successful. They have a cooperation with one of the Big 4 accounting firms and have clients among Fortune 500 companies.

When I asked him: “What’s your USP?”, I received a lengthy answer that sounded rather like the company’s history. “We started with…, then we did that project…, then we discovered that…, and I think we are pretty good at…”

It is of utmost importance that every one of us has a crisp and convincing answer to this elementary question! Right after the meeting I went to stand in front of the mirror and said loudly to myself: What’s your USP?

To be honest: It was worth practicing. I thought I would have had a better spontaneous answer. Finally, I wrote it down in my notebook. Not to forget my personal USP and to review it from time to time.

Try it by yourself: What’s your USP?

TNF #032: Easy like Sunday morning

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Welcome Professionals…

…our job as top management consultants is to solve problems for our clients. We do that usually by applying rigorous analytics. However, sometimes I get stuck on a problem. I am ruminating about a certain task and actually turning in circles. With a bit of distance, I can see that I am out of balance.

What helps then is when I go home and pick up my guitar. I play around and sing along which is bringing me back to balance. My interpretation is that I am sometimes getting a bit too left brained, focusing almost all my brain power on analytics. Playing guitar and singing is activating the right side of the brain. It stimulates the creativity.

And yes, it works. A few moments later, I usually find a creative solution to the analytical problem I was thinking of before.

What are your ways of getting into analytical/creative balance? I see more and more people around me drawing, for instance while they are sitting in a plane. What are your Thursday Night Flight activies?

Anyways, next thing in our office kitchen I found myself singing: easy like Sunday morning…

Malte

TNF #031: Did you bring some cookies?

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Welcome Professionals…

…yesterday, I have been a judge in the jury of Business@School. This is a pro-bono initiative from the Boston Consulting Group, teaching highschool kids at the age of 14 about business. Three groups of students presented their business business plan for a new commercial idea they had worked out. An interesting and fun event. The striking experience I want to share with you relates to the cookies.

One group had the idea of founding a cookie gift service. They would prepare a jar with all cookie ingredients and a recipe that can be purchased as a gift and will be delivered to the recipient. Now comes the interesting element: At the end of the presentation they presented one jar with the ingredients and one jar with the freshly made cookies. They offered a cookie to each of the jury members. What a difference this made!

Up to this point, it had just been a usual business case presentation. The moment we tasted the cookies, the relationship between the jury and the presenting team was taken to a new level. The presentation received a new dimension, a sensual attachment.

The same was true earlier this week, when I met the partner of an IT consultancy. Instead of describing his product portfolio, he pulled out a little booklet that was so small, he was carrying it in his suit pocket all the time. I immediately had a deeper connection to his offering than before.

We usually present our concepts and talk about them the consulting-way. We shall think of means to add a bit more flavour and sensual product experience to it. It will make a great difference!

Enjoy your cookies!

Malte

TNF #030: Just do it!

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Welcome Professionals…

…This blog remains free of commercials and I hope I am not getting into trouble when using a branded tagline such as: “Just do it!”

This edition today is dedicated to a common phenomenon called “procrastination”. That is a noble description for avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished.

It is a very familiar problem to me. My mind forms excuses, why it is not the right time to perform this task right now or why I have to get something else out of the way first in order to do what I originally planned. In my view, even the word “procrastination” is just another excuse.

With all the struggling going on, I always come to the same conclusion: Just do it!

Let’s assume the task really needs to be accomplished and there is no other way to delegate, outsource or eliminate this task, than there is no other way than just doing it. Waiting, postponing, procrastinating usually only makes this task less desireable and increases the pressure. There is certainly a strong link to Parkinson’s law (see this edition 25 for further details).

When something needs to be done, I schedule it on my calendar. If it is on my calendar, I just do it. Simple as that.

What is your way? Let me know. Just do it!

Malte

TNF #029: Showing interest

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Welcome Professionals…

…who is the most important person in the room? – Sure, it is our client!

The client deserves our full attention and we want to show our interest into our client. Many times, we get carried away by the interesting results of our analysis, the interesting product we have to offer, the interest in our own agenda.

Much more importantly, we need to understand what the interest of our client is, need to understand the client’s agenda and present the interesting facts and findings through our client’s perspective.

Even if we think we understood our client already, we need to show that we actually care. We must not stop asking questions, asking for our client’s view, asking for a judgement, asking how our client feels about this idea or what he/she would prefer as a next step.

Only if we show this interest we can hope that our client also takes interest in us and what we have to offer.

Just a reminder,

Malte

TNF #028: Dig your well before you’re thirsty

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Welcome Professionals…

…imagine an unknown person, a stranger, who approaches you the first time with a product you do not know, that you may never have heard of. Will you buy? Most likely not. You might ask, what a ridiculous question. What a setup for failure you might say.

Yet, it happens all the time.

In my profession as executive search consultant I get unsolicited requests by email, phone and social networks all the time, many per day. Which is completely fine because I am even asking for it. The misconception is for some candidates to believe that I will immediately drop everything I am doing in order to promote their CV to my key contacts although I do not even know them, yet. Some of the candidates get a bit more pushy, few of them get angry if they do not get what they expect.

Why am I telling this? Because I made the same foolish assumptions. I met target clients for the first time, jumped into the meeting, told them – unsolicited – about my credentials and expected them to buy on the spot.

It takes a lot of time to build a brand, a reputation, and finally a relationship to the individual that will become our client. So we better start digging our well before we become thirsty!

Dig deep!

Malte