Author Archives: malte

TNF #087: I love complicated clients

Welcome Professionals…

…Without complexity, there would be no need for top management consultants. This is why I stated “Complexity is your friend, my friend” in TNF #003. Sometimes, when it feels like we are drowning in complexity, it is helpful to relate back to that statement.

I would like to even go one step further. “I love complicated clients!” From an outside-in perspective, some clients seem to be complicated. They have lots of politics going on in their organizations, project tasks and timeline are issue to a lot of changes, they have side-problems that need to be resolved, they have a peculiar way of communication and so on. I think we all had clients like this.

Of course, I prefer when things are running smoothly, just as planned. When everything is just easy-going. But this might be a short-sighted view. If everything is easy, my service is at risk of being replaced by a competitor that is offering a lower price. Without complexity and challenge my added value is at risk of being commoditized.

All these clients out there who move time lines, change assignments on the go, complain a lot, are lost in details, have to succeed in political fights, or are just having a bad day – they need our help. This is where we can make a difference through our professional service and our positive mindset. Those who an deal with complicated clients have a USP.

At least thinking this way helps when someone complicated comes up….

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 #086: Building a platform

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Welcome Professionals…

…As top management consultants, we continuously strive to attract clients to our services and to build a strong reputation as an expert. Both can be enhanced by establishing your own platform.

A platform is a format to connect with your target audience and to share value. Typical formats are a regular lunch/dinner table, a blog/podcast/YouTube channel, an E-Mail newsletter, a conference/networking event, a service club. Note: a simple LinkedIn profile is not a platform!

The goal of a platform is to build relationships with a long-term focus. Value is shared generously to the target audience usually for free or for minor a subscription fee, but it is never transaction-based. You cannot pay directly for the value received. The value contribution of the platform builder needs to be different to the professional services that are provided for a fee. It needs to go beyond the typical scope of the business in order to stand out and attract the target audience. Then, a platform can be very powerful to reach and attract new potential clients.

In summary, here are the main success factors for building a platform:

Target a specific audience
Share relevant value generously
Stay persistent and establish a regular format
Foster multi-lateral relationships within the platform
Focus on building relationships, never transactions

A successful example for a platform was built by one of my friends, who is Partner at a leading strategy consultancy. He set up an expert circle for industrial service businesses about 8 years ago. Twice a year he organized a key note speech and discussion round for leaders of the service business. He has now reached a stage where the participants themselves suggest new members and funnel them into the circle. Members take a strong part in organizing events and even sponsoring the catering. Still, my friend is seen as the founder and chief curator of the platform and stands out as the expert for industrial service businesses which has finally led to many new assignments in that area.

Thursday Night Flight and the LinkedIn Group “Trusted Advisor – Success for Consultants” is a platform that was founded on the same building blocks, as you may have already noticed. We are well above 1’000 professional consultants now and for the future, I would like to see more interaction among members. So, feel free to connect and reach out.

What is your platform?

Malte

TNF #085: Get more sleep

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Welcome Professionals…

…deprivation of sleep is a common epidemic among top management consultants. We touched on that topic in issue TNF #004. Under the title “Get the most out of your sleep”, I argued that we must ensure the highest quality of our sleep, since we have little control over the quantity of sleep we get. Now guess what: Quality and quantity matter!

Our brain needs sleep, otherwise it cannot get rid of toxic by-products of our neural activity. For a comprehensive summary of negative side effects from sleep deprivation and some general advise to sleep more and better, I suggest the following article by Dr. Travis Bradberry: “Why sleep is key to success”.

In my blog post TNF #004 I already outlined some consultant-specific tips on raising the quality of our sleep. In this issue, I want to emphasize on quantity. For most of us, we need to sleep between 7 to 9 hours to be fully rested. There are actually only very few individuals who need less. I am not one of those and you most likely neither.

When we deprive our brain of our individually required level of rest, we will fall short on performance. If we want to work at the peak of our potential, we must ensure to get enough good sleep.

Here are some consultant-specific tips:

Reduce daily commute, live near by the office and choose a hotel very close to the client location
Consider traveling on Sunday night instead of Monday morning
Learn to meditate in order to fall asleep quicker after work (not having to drink alcohol to cool down or use other substances)
Streamline daily routines (body care, dressing, packing) to the minimum time
Do your physical work out with bodyweight exercise to skip the gym (learn how in TNF #012)
Among team mates and superiors, promote a high performance culture that relies on healthy lifestyle such as getting enough sleep

The last point is clearly the most difficult, but also the most important.

Have a good rest!

Malte

TNF #084: Small pain

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Welcome Professionals…

…I was at the dentist today. One of my inlays was broken and I decided to have it replaced as protection from potential further tooth decay. This preventive maintenance is costly, time consuming, and not really pleasant. As I was laying on the dentist chair, I thought about the analogies to our consulting profession.

What we would all agree to as a wise decision in dental care also applies to business. Accepting the smaller pain today in order to avoid the bigger pain in the future. Thinking through the various decisions within my 15+ years as a top management consultant, I can come up with many examples for the smaller pain:

admitting a mistake
asking an embarrassing question
changing staffing after a few days on the project
giving pushback on targets set by client/superior
scheduling a weekend shift before an important presentation

All these highly unpopular and sometimes painful actions have the potential to avoid a bigger and even more painful failure in the future. However, I sometimes had the idea that I might get away without any pain. I might get lucky, I thought. Well, very unlikely to get lucky on caries for the next 50 years with a broken inlay. Why not apply this wisdom to everyday business?

Welcome small pain!

Malte

TNF #083: Core values revisited

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Welcome Professionals…

…I am writing to you from Oslo, Norway, where I am meeting our international partner firms that we have in more than 30 countries. It is exciting to share best practices and learn from each other.

For this conference I had to prepare a presentation on our company. When presenting to fellows who follow the same business model, I wanted to go beyond the typical slides that we normally show to our clients.

I started out with a summary on our brand awareness in Switzerland, the track record and reach of our marketing work, our specific approach to executive search, and some war stories in client development. When I discussed this with the founder and Senior Partner of our firm, we found the overarching theme that connected all these bits and pieces: our core values.

What we are trying to convey at the conference is: Why are we operating in this way and not another? What is it that clients value about our work? Why do we have a brand image like this and how did we create it? It all links back to our core values.

I realized how important it is to go through such an exercise from time to time. It helps to question the ongoing business and to focus on your strengths. It sharpens the key marketing messages around the USP. And by discussing this with other experts, it helps to challenge your own view about it.

So, enjoy your journey while revisiting the core

Malte

TNF #081: Unsubscribe – getting email right

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Welcome Professionals…

…With the long Easter weekend ahead of us, let me share a reading recommendation for you. Everyone of us writes and receives emails every day, usually a ton of emails. Statistics say that up to 28% of our active working time is dealing with email. To put an end to this waste of time and getting more done, I recommend you read “Unsubsribe”.

Author Jocelyn K. Glei has drawn together some great best practices around email. I am sure you have heard some of them already, but in this condensed form her book is worth reading. It is a quick read and full of tips and tricks. It even has some email scipts for everyday and advanced situations.

Quite insightful was the author’s statement why email checking is actually addictive. So check it out:

Send me an email when you finished reading the book…

Malte

TNF #080: Your blog can go viral!

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Welcome Professionals…

…to the 80th edition of “Thursday Night Flight”! Thank you so much for reading and sharing your thoughts and comments with me!

This blog has been published for 80 weeks in a row. Without a single week skipped. Taken aside my slippage in edition TNF #026.

Every week, I get a few of these messages, that say:

I was just looking at your Malte Mueller Professionals website and see that your website has the potential to become very popular. I just want to tell you, In case you didn’t already know… There is a website service which already has more than 16 million users, and the majority of the users are looking for websites like yours. By getting your website on this service…blah, blah, blah….

I delete these messages right away. I am not keen on pimping my SEO or attracting millions of fake readers to my blog. Let me tell you what drives me:

I said I would build a platform for best practice sharing among consultants. And so I continue doing it. I am just sticking to my plan.
I use this weekly writing as an exercise for sorting my own thoughts. By writing and publishing my perceptions of best practices, it helps me remembering and following these.
I do it for you professionals out there! From time to time I get a personal message with a comment or some ciritcism or a supportive statement. A few readers even share public comments on the web.

I don’t need 16 million readers. I am just looking forward to TNF #081 – next Thursday!

Thank you so much for your support!

Malte

TNF #079: Fun to work with

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Welcome Professionals…

…We have come across the importance of humour a couple of times in the series of Thursday Night Flight. When people share feedback about their co-workers or close supplier relationships, they sometimes use the term “this person is fun to work with”.

The importance of this feedback is very much underrated. We should all strive to be “fun to work with”! That does not mean that we are funny all the time. It rather refers to the general attitude when we show up. It refers to the emotional state of our clients when we work with them.

Of course, first and foremost we need to deliver outstanding results. But this is not enough. For an outstanding premium service we must also pay attention to the customer experience that we already discussed in TNF #039. Being “fun to work with” is creating a customer experience that relieves some of the heavy work load and makes the interaction more pleasant. In the best case, the interaction leaves the client in a better state than he/she was before.

Characteristics of “fun to work with” are:

approaching challenges with an optimistic mindset
acknowledging the client as a personality with specific needs and emotions
taking the positive perspective, rather seeing opportunities than risk, rather searching for solutions than describing problems
listening to personal stories of the client and reacting in an empathetic way
sharing personal stories in balance with the point above
occasionally making a jokingly remark or sharing an anecdote if appropriate

This list is not exhaustive, but it shows clearly that “fun to work with” goes much beyond being funny. Work can be hard. It is the way we approach it that makes a big difference to us and to our clients.

Wishing you lots of fun serving your clients

Malte

TNF #078: Moment of Truth

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Welcome Professionals…

…Every great client relationship has its root in a moment of truth. There are some good relationships that can do without such special opportunities. But all great client bonding typically links back to a moment of truth.

For this to happen, three things must come together. Firstly, a client with a rational task of high importance. Secondly, an emotionally intense situation, like a feeling under pressure. Thirdly and finally, a consultant who can help.

But as a consultant you need to be careful. Only if you help with generosity, you will win a client for a lifetime. If you exploit the situation, the client is likely not to call you again.

Here is one of my real life examples for illustration. One of my colleagues had recruited a candidate for a joint client of ours. He had charged the maximum fee for this mandate. But the candidate turned out not to be suited and was dismissed soon after. By this time, my colleague had already left our company and took all revenue credits with him. The client now turned to me and asked for a reparation. There was no guarantee clause within the contract and we all knew this.

The client was under high pressure. The responsible HR person had obviously made a bad deal. He had accepted a candidate which turned out to be a failure, paid a fortune as a success fee for a consultant who was not in business any more, and had overlooked to form a decent contract with a guarantee clause.

What could I have done? I could have insisted that it wasn’t my fault, which would have looked silly. I could have negotiated to charge a fraction of the original fee for my help which would have been unsatisfying for both of us. I decided to make a generous investment.

I said I would make it a guarantee case on my own. I would do the full mandate again for free and guarantee full satisfaction. The client was stunned. I had not yet finished the work, when an additional assignment came. Since then, we have been partners on many further projects. I am really glad we had this moment of truth.

Yours truly

Malte