Recently, I had a big ‘personal event’ in my life (I got married!) and for the week before and the week after the wedding, it was difficult to stay as focused on my work and my clients as I normally am.

I had every intention of working on client projects right up until the day before the wedding and to return to work the following Tuesday since we weren’t taking our honeymoon right away—I wanted to minimize the impact of my marriage on my clients. However the clients I had active projects with knew about my upcoming wedding and insisted on making adjustments to their expectations, meeting schedules, etc. so I could actually take off a few extra days to focus on entertaining out of town family, wedding prep details, etc.

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Tags: client management, client-focused business approach, consultant learning and development, consulting, consulting business, consulting career, Growing a Consulting Business, Top Consulting Tips, work-life balance

I’ve been a marketing and customer communication consultant full time since February 1999. Around March 2001, I redid my website, and that website remained in place, pretty much in the same format, until October 2009. I cringe as I write that. It’s not that the site was horrible, but it was sadly out of date. Instead of practicing what I preached, I fell into a doctor’s “do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do” syndrome — advising clients to do things that I was ignoring in my own business.
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Tags: Consulting Best Practices: Marketing

Whether you have an established Facebook business page or are planning to launch one soon, here are five tips to make your page more effective.

1. Provide content helpful to your audience

This sounds obvious, but I see many business pages that spew company messages that are not at all helpful to their fans. Don’t be one of those companies. Think about your audience.  Are they coming to you as a resource? Do they want special offers/discounts? Put yourself in their shoes. Or better yet, ask a few fans/potential fans. Links to other’s relevant information are ok, but try to provide as much original content (blog posts, tips, videos, etc.) as possible.

2. Post regularly, but not too often

There is a fine line between posting enough to satisfy fans and achieve viral benefits, and posting too much and annoying fans. You want to post enough that users see your content regularly and come to view your page as a helpful resource. And, you want to give them plenty of opportunities to see your content and comment, thus sharing with their friends. If you post too often, or with irrelevant content, users may decide to stop being a fan of your page. For a very small business/consultancy, I think 1-2 posts/day is a good rule of thumb.

3. Use images whenever possible

In very informal tests, I have found that posts with images elicit more interaction than posts without images. Use your own images, or grab images online.  Subscribe to sites including Shutterstock and iStockPhoto that offer free or low cost stock photos or search Google Images for images with Creative Common licenses (be sure to note that there are several licenses, and in some cases images can only be used in some circumstances, or require giving credit to the author). Try to use relevant and enticing images whenever possible. 

4. Manually post blog feeds

A blog can be your best source of original content. There are several ways to automate blog posts to your Facebook wall, which is certainly handy, but I think it is better to post manually at this point. The reason is that in my opinion you want to post an accompanying image (see tip 3), include a short summary/teaser (tip 5), post at opportune times (sometimes blog articles are posted late at night, but it might be better to hit the Facebook page during the day), and attain SEO benefits. None of the current solutions I have researched (Facebook Notes application, Networked Blogs, or Social RSS), can do everything mentioned. Every case is different. It may make sense for you to automate, but in general I recommend manually posting blog feeds at this point. 

5. Encourage fans to interact

Some audiences are very comfortable on Facebook, and to these audiences commenting and posting comes easily. Other audiences are not as used to interacting and need some prodding. If you are speaking to the latter, help them get more accustomed to interacting by posing questions, and letting the group know you value their thoughts and feedback. When you are just starting your page, it is also helpful to ask friends and colleagues to post to get the ball rolling.

I hope these tips are helpful. If you have comments or other tips, please share!

Tags: facebook, social media, social media success

Want to build a Wordpress blog or website, and have it match your company’s brand, without all the effort of designing and coding your own Wordpress template from scratch? Consider finding a template that you can then apply your brand to. You can find great templates that will allow you to edit the look considerably. Some tips:

1. Look for a template that allows for a header graphic.

2. Change the colors of headlines, links, backgrounds, etc. in the style sheet.

3. Consider a pattern for the background. It can change the look instantly.

4. Look at the navigation options. Make sure the navigation is roughly what you want, and then customize the fonts and colors to match your brand. You may also be able to edit the navigation image shapes – from ovals to rectangles, for example – depending on your template.

5. Change out the fonts in the style sheet to match your company’s fonts.

6. Change the colors of the template’s graphics in Photoshop using the Image >Adjustments > Hue/Saturation > Colorize command.

Tags: company brand, template, website, Wordpress blog

Recently, in a spurt of ‘abundance thinking’, where I was convinced that 2010 is going to be a MUCH better year than 2009 (I can’t afford to think otherwise, can you?!), I decided to do an inventory of people/resources I can turn to when my workload is too heavy to do it all myself.

Like many fellow consultants, I can perform every function needed to support most client projects myself, but have found it very wise to outsource certain portions of my research projects when I have a heavy client load in order to ensure that my time is spent on the things that are: 1) high value activities, worthy of my $100+ hourly rate and 2) things that only I can do based on my unique talents or the client relationship.

In an effort to streamline the process when I need to turn to other resources, I created a spreadsheet that provides me with a quick glance at the resources I’ve qualified and established relationships with over the past 10 years.  Some of the features of the spreadsheet:

• Every row is a different person/resource
• The first few columns include contact information, notes about the resource and their specialty
• The rest of the columns are categories of resources such as Interviewing, Analysis, Recruiting, Panels/Lists, etc.
• I put an X in each column/category that a given resource can help with

Having this quick reference allows me to rapidly scan a given column when I have the need for support in any given area.  When I meet/qualify new resources, I add them to the spreadsheet, which ensures that I think of them when the need arises.  This saves me a LOT of time and helps me make sure I make the right choice for each project, which helps ensure high quality results for my clients.

Let’s all think ‘abundance’ for 2010 and do a similar inventory of our resources…and if you don’t HAVE back-up resources, be sure to find some…WIC is a great source of qualified people who can partner with you to help in almost any element of your work.

Tags: collaboration, consulting work, Growing a Consulting Business, organize, organized, resources, Running a Consulting Business, secrets to a successful consulting business, subcontractors, successful virtual teams, Top Consulting Tips

I just finished reading an interesting post on Copyblogger by Sonia Simone. I love people who aren’t afraid to question the status quo or express an opposing viewpoint to acceptable practices. I love it even when I don’t agree with them, because it keeps the conversation going, ensures we don’t get complacent, and pushes us to explore all the avenues.

The mantra in social media is to invite feedback, engage in conversation. Sonia isn’t advocating ignoring comments. Rather, she suggests we should:

• Focus on where we want to go
• Develop a “red velvet rope policy”
• Ask ourselves “Is this person my customer?” whenever we receive a negative remark.

It’s an article worth the read.

“Are You Getting Dangerous Feedback from Your Readers and Prospects”

Tags: Running a Consulting Business, social media, social media lessons, Starting a Consulting Business, Top Consulting Tips

I read a nice article on Raintoday.com that deals with a scenario that most consultants face at one time or another: What to Say When a Client Claims Your Price Is too High” by Charles H. Green, Contributing Editor, Raintoday.com. It’s a good read, so make sure to check out the full article.

“If you’re like most professionals, you’re not comfortable with selling. It’s not easy fighting the feeling that hyping yourself is somehow inappropriate. And it’s worse when you have to deal with objections, doing presentations, and getting rejections—or waiting for the phone to ring.

“But little can compete for sheer discombobulation with the plain old, ‘We think your prices are too high.’ What do you say to that?”

• “Listen to your gut and ask yourself seriously, objectively, curiously, ‘What exactly do they mean when they say your prices are too high.’ And stay there for a minute. That’s because until you know what they mean, you are simply arguing with yourself. You presume to know what the client means and are answering the presumed objections you have invented.”

  According to Green, there’s more than one reason why customers may think this way (read the article for the details on each of these:) 

  • Sticker shock
  • Budget busting
  • Bazaar bargaining
  • Sucker punched

“Here’s the key point. If you try to guess which of those scenarios is operating behind the curtain of your client’s eyes, you have maybe one chance in four of getting it right. But if you choose to guess without confirming your guess with the client, you will lose—even if you guess correctly

“Therefore, the worst thing to do is defend against the attack you are imagining in your own head. The best thing to do is exactly what you don’t want to do—ask the client simply, ‘Can you help me understand what you mean by that?’”

(Blogger’s note: I love this point. It’s key to every client interaction. Don’t guess. Ask. Communicate.)

• “Asking the ‘help me understand’ question: explain that clients often mean widely varying things when they say the price is too high. The read off the list above.  
• “The intent behind the conversation: treat price concerns like any other objective piece of information: you explore its meaning and implications with the client until you have a share understanding.”

Read the full “What to Say When a Client Claims Your Price Is too High” article

Tags: pricing, Running a Consulting Business, starting a consultant business, Top Consulting Tips

Having to pick up the phone to follow-up with a client or potential client with the hopes of generating new business is a challenge that I’ve yet to master. What if I’m bothering them? What if they think I’m too pushy? Even worse, what if they think of me as a salesperson, and I lose their trust?

Kathleen Ronald, who presented “The fortune is in the follow-up” at a recent Women in Consulting (WIC) meeting, assured me that no one would ever mistake me for a salesperson. She said I came across trustworthy and sincere. She also said, in effect, that my problems were all in my head. The audience clapped in agreement. I took a deep breath.

In an attempt to relieve myself of negative thoughts when it came to making follow-up calls, I wanted to know what bothered people when others followed-up with them (so that I could avoid making those mistakes). I also wanted to know what others did that was effective for them. So, I posed two questions to the WIC Community:

1. What are your pet peeves when people follow up with you?
2. What tips can you share to help us be better follow-uppers?

With responses from over twenty women, here are the key pet peeves:

1. People who are really pushy
2. People who follow up too often
3. Follow-uppers who lack email etiquette
4. Follow-uppers who lack phone etiquette
5. People who “follow-up” when they don’t know me
6. People who don’t keep their commitments

So that we can learn from each other, I’ve included quotes from the respondents, as well as tips that will help us be better at following up. Perhaps if we were better at it, we’d also do it more often. (But, be sure to first review the tips for Pet Peeve #2.)

Pet Peeve #1: People who are really pushy. Unfortunately, some people don’t realize that they’re being pushy. How do we know when we’re guilty? Here are some clues:

• “They tend to ask if I’ve made a decision and not ask first if there’s any additional info that I need. Some vendors seem to be “intense” about follow-up (frequency, tone of voice), which makes me want to dodge their calls.”
• “It’s annoying when people follow up with an immediate hard sell unless I’ve specifically asked for it.”
• “Some people are relentless even when I say, “thanks, but not interested.””
• “Being too blunt. “Help me do X because I’ve met you.””

Tips:

• “Listen to what the potential customer wants rather than drone on about how great you are. Smile when you’re talking — it makes a difference. Don’t get offended if somebody says no or is too busy to deal with you.”
• “Ask the client/potential client when it would be a good time to follow up, versus giving them a timeframe they need to respond to. Don’t be pushy or intense. Call and ask if there’s any more information that you can provide, or proactively send or call with new information that you think the client might find useful.”
• “I prefer ’soft’ follow-ups — rather than a direct follow-up, instead sending an article of interest or something else helpful like that.”
• “Try to come up with something useful/interesting to share when following up, so you have two reasons to call — somehow makes it easier to then ask, ‘Oh, you mentioned the project, where is the approval?’ I remind myself that people are busy and it [the project] might actually be helping them.”

Pet Peeve #2: People who follow up too often. What’s too often? My guess is that when we call more often to “get” rather than to “give,” we’ll be perceived as following up too often. Here’s what others said:

• “When people follow up without a purpose or without bringing something of value to me.”
• “People who repeatedly follow up after being turned down. I’m ok with a single call to ask how the new vendor is doing, whether there’s any opportunity to reopen the decision, or someone who calls with an interesting new tidbit of information, but someone who just keeps calling to “check status” when I already told them that we selected someone else is just not tracking their correspondence well.”

Tips:

• “I sometimes follow up with a “just wanted to make sure you got my message, and see if I can answer any questions for you” — especially these days with the AT&T/iPhone issues, and the fact that sometimes emails get lost. I usually find people appreciate it.”
• “Consider the little things one can do to make someone remember you. I’m always very impressed when someone I met follows up in a few days with items they’d offered to send during our casual conversation — especially when it has nothing to do with their line of business and is just an interesting or helpful item to me, e.g., “Oh I saw an article on that topic recently, I’ll send it to you.” It’s the little things that build trust that make all the difference and literally little, nothing major nor too often.”
• “I love it when someone: sends me an article that they think I might be interested in; calls or emails to schedule more time together to explore how to work together; has looked at my web site and comments on it; asks me for more info about my services.”
• “Provide forthright, honest feedback. Respond to the person doing follow-up at the time committed to, so they don’t pester you.”
• “Establish a purpose for the follow-up meeting and be prepared when you follow up.”

Pet Peeve #3: Follow-uppers who lack email etiquette. While email is a convenient and timesaving tool, we can turn people off when we don’t apply good business etiquette. Here are some turn-offs:

• “My biggest pet peeve: follow-up does NOT mean put me on the distribution list for yet another email newsletter.”
• “When they automatically add me to one of their email lists.”
• “People who use automated follow up emails — especially if they then fail to “turn it off” once I’ve already responded with an update!”
• “A turn-off follow-up is an obvious impersonal, boilerplate message. Another is a direct pitch to sell services.”

Tips:

• “Always, always acknowledge an email or voicemail even if you can’t act on a request right away. Move an email to your outlook calendar with a reminder to follow up and/or respond.”
• Enable people to opt in before distributing email newsletters or marketing materials.

Pet Peeve #4: Follow-uppers who lack phone etiquette. I’d like to think that if you recognized yourself as the culprit in the quotes below, you’d quickly find a way to make a few adjustments — because you could be driving your clients/potential clients crazy. I hope they’re not talking about you:

• “When they’re calling me, but I’m busy and ask to talk another time, but they keep pressing.”
• “People calling early in the morning or multiple times within a couple of days and not leaving messages — sometimes it takes me a few days to get back to someone, and it can feel like they’re pestering me.”
• “Telemarketing sounds in the background after an initial delay of 2 to 5 seconds.”
• “Cell phone use in inappropriate places, e.g., while driving; in restaurants; while at another meeting; while in audience situations.”

Tips:

• If you call and leave a message, but they don’t return your call, it may be that “he’s just not that into you.” Or, he could be really busy. Perhaps you can use email to schedule a mutually convenient time to talk.

Pet Peeve #5: People who “follow-up” when they don’t know me. My definition of “follow-up” is reconnecting with people that I’ve already met whether in person, by phone, or through email. If we’ve not met before, you may have written “follow-up” on your calendar, but your name isn’t in my book. Here’s what other people said were their pet peeves:

• “Supper chummy stranger that wants to be your instant friend.”
• “When someone has no idea who I am or what I do; it’s obvious that they just have my card from a networking event.”

Tips:

• “If we didn’t make a meaningful connection at an event, don’t try to force it in a follow-up. I like Kathleen’s advice: wish them well and move on.”
• “A meaningful follow-up references something we discussed and/or offers further information that I can use.”

Pet Peeve #6: People who don’t keep their commitments. When you agree to do something for someone, you create expectations. When you follow through, you meet expectations and good things may follow. When you don’t follow through, you create disappointment and a negative impression that you’ll need to work extra hard to fix, that is, if you value the relationship. Here’s what others said:

• “Follow up with no follow through. They might follow up, make an appointment, then cancel and never follow through with another follow up meeting.”
• “People who offer to do something for you and then don’t do it. It’s better to not make an offer than to make one and not follow through.”

Tips:

• “Only promise what you can deliver.”
• “Be very clear about response time, when you can deliver, etc.”

Now, go ahead and make that phone call or send that email with confidence! Just don’t call too early or be too pushy. If they don’t have time to talk to you, just add them to your email newsletter list — not!

In this age of internet (in)security, it is now more than ever crucial to establish a system of password creation that is both safe and easy to remember. Following is one method that should help prevent you from falling into common mistakes when creating passwords, such as writing them down in order to remember them, or using easily recognizable words or word combinations.

Start with a favorite song lyric. For this example, we’ll use a line from the Beatles’ tune, ‘Blackbird’:

“Take these broken wings and learn to fly”

Now, take the first letter from each word of the lyric. In this case it will be:

TTBWALTF

Next, choose a random set of characters and/or numbers. For our example, we’ll use:

& 5 +

Insert the random characters/numbers into your letter set above, in any order or position. For our example, we’ll choose beginning, middle and end, to make it easy to remember where they go:

&TTBW5ALTF+

To make it a bit trickier, make a few of the letters lower case. You will now have a password that is difficult to crack or decipher.

&TTbW5aLTf+

Note: using upper and lower case can make it a bit harder to remember, but will increase your password security level.

Just a few options to song lyrics are:

• Affirmative phrases /mantras
• Names of favorite sports teams or players
• Birthday months of relatives
• Favorite flowers

The possibilities are endless, as long as you use the first letters only from each word. You could also try using the last letter only, although this might be a little harder to remember. Be sure to use a subject that is familiar to you and easy to remember. I like song titles and lyrics because it’s easy to Google them should you ever forget.

Once you’ve created your passwords, be sure to do the following:

1/ Never share them.
2/ Never write them down.
3/ Change them frequently, at least once a year.

Identity theft and internet security are world-wide, growing issues. Databases are hacked and personal information is stolen on a regular basis these days. And what you read about on the news is only a fraction of the actual amount; a lot more theft occurs than what is publicly reported. Keep yourself and your privacy out of the wrong hands!

How about you? Do you have any great password protection tips to share?

Tags: best practices, internet security, password creation

Suzanne Skyvara, a WIC member, sent a great email to the WIC Community list, sharing two articles about Twitter that she found interesting and thought other consultants might as well. Thanks Suzanne!

I thought I’d share her post here for three reasons: 1) it’s a timely topic that would make for a good conversation on the WIC blog (hint: please share your thoughts on and tips for using Twitter for business); 2) it’s an area that I’m interested in learning more about for both my business and WIC (I’m responsible for getting the word out about WIC); and 3) it’s a great way to show the value of the WIC Community list as an information resource and how open affiliates and members are to helping one another.

Suzanne’s Original Twitter Post

“In case some of you have time this Sunday, these two articles give a great intro to why it’s worth spending time on Twitter for professional reasons and how you can get started.

• Twitter: The How-To Get Started Guide For Business People by C.G. Lynch
• Socially Benefitting >From My Twitter Habits by Michael Gass

The key advice for new people comes from Jeremiah Owyang, a Forrester analyst and a great person to follow on Twitter:

‘The best way to make the most use of it is not just answer what are you doing now,” says Owyang. “Instead, answer: ‘What’s important to me?’ That changes the conversation and makes value. It takes away some of the minutia and shows you want to talk about something that’s more useful and interesting.’

I promise I’m not the PR person for Twitter!  I just enjoy using it and think it provides value in a business context.”

Another Key Twitter Nugget: The Web Has Big Ears So Be Mindful

I agree with Suzanne that the above is a key piece of advice. There are a couple of other nuggets that I found equally compelling. The first is found in Lynch’s article, and I gravitate towards it because how people communicate and communicating effectively are near and dear to my heart:

“‘What you say can affect your blog or business. Your boss, competitors, wife or future wife,’ Owyang says. ‘You need to remember, it’s publishing.’

Another caution: Because a Tweet is so short, it’s even harder than with say e-mail for people to pick up context or tell when you’re being sarcastic versus serious, [Laura] Fitton says.

‘You need to think carefully about how you put it and how it sounds,’ she says. ‘Think about not only your immediate followers but your potential audience, which is the whole Web. Tweets get googled pretty prominently.’”

I found this sage advice, because people often forget that social media is a very public conversation, one that search engines tend to follow closely. However, I recommend that we follow the advice Fitton offers in all of our electronic communication: email, blogging, twittering, etc.

As someone who has studied communication extensively, I’m intrigued by how the lack of nonverbal cues impacts how messages are received. People appear to interpret messages negatively in the absence of anything to the contrary. This makes character-limited conversations like Twitter all the more challenging, hence Fitton’s recommendation. But given our tendency to be brief whenever typing and the lack of context around e-messages, we need to imagine how audiences will receive our messages no matter the vehicle we’re using.

Conversely, I’m always amazed at what people will say electronically that they wouldn’t dream of saying in a more personal communication situation. You only need read one or two flame wars to understand what I mean. For some reason people seem to think it’s acceptable. However, the Web has big ears, and as Owyang states, what we say in the social media realm can have great impact on our reputation.

Another Key Twitter Nugget: Effective Twitter Habits

The last key piece of advice I’d like to highlight is the section in Gass’s post called “The Twitter habits that I have developed save me time,” which highlights several tools/programs/ideas that he uses to manage his tweets (found at the end of the article).

Happy Tweeting!

Tags: Consulting Training and Education, Growing a Consulting Business, Running a Consulting Business, social media, starting a consultant business, twitter, web 2.0, web 2.0 marketing strategy, WIC community list