strategic consultant to:  

I was amazed the other day to receive a text message from one of my clients, that he needed the mobile number of another of my clients (they were meeting for the first time).  Turns out that neither of them had confirmed the meeting the day before, nor had they shared their mobile numbers.

And, the restaurant they had agreed to meet at, had closed two years before!

Whew!  They did find each other, on the corner on longer inhabited by the restaurant.  How?  One looked up the email message on his phone, called the main office number of the other (which was in his email signature), and got the mobile number from the office’s out-going message!

All was well that ended well.  But this sorry tale urged me to write one more list of tactics on business etiquette.  Here it is:

• When setting a meeting with someone you don’t know, request the mobile phone number in your first communication, and offer yours.
• When setting the location for the meeting, first verify that meeting place is available on the day you schedule (not closed for private function, not out of business, etc.)
• Keep the email or calendar alter live on your phone until after the meeting, and include all details (location address, parking options, mobile phone, and names of other attendees).
• Re-confirm all meetings the day before, no later than noon. Re-confirm your cell number.  This can be as simple as forwarding the email that set the meeting place, time and mobile phone number, with a note that says, “Re-confirming — still o.k. for you?  Please reconfirm.”
• Always include a signature on your emails:  it is only basic courtesy to leave your contact information.  Include at least your phone and/or mobile phone.  You can also include other ways you like to be reached when you are away from your office.
• Leave your cell phone number on your out-going message on your voice mail, if you have more than one phone.

In preparing for meetings, pre-select several places that you know that are good for meetings (that are: is quiet enough, allows you to sit long enough, has available parking) in various parts of town, especially if you live in a big city and you both must travel to meet up.  Keep a list of these places, with details on their location, their local phone number and their URL or Yelp link.  This will allow you to cut and paste the information into your email when suggesting a meeting place, as a courtesy to your guest.

Yes, this sounds like simple planning and administration, but it will smooth out your busy day and reduce your angst.  And it shows respect for your time and your guest’s time.

All of us have our unique demons that can undermine our confidence and erode our authority to stand up for our value, demand our pricing, and refuse scope creep from our clients.

Many of these creatures of the night snigger at us to create or sustain a context of scarcity and fear.  Maybe we learned it as children.  Perhaps in our early careers we over-reached and were rejected in our bid for work, or told to “learn your place.”

I hear the whispers of these demons from my clients — and every one of my clients is established and successful and making excellent revenues.  But the whispers are still there.  And they confide in me about the demons.

“Who is going to pay me that much money for this work?”  (The client never asked about the price).

“Don’t you think the total package-price of services is too high for this prospect?”  (You don’t know until you ask.  Trust your prospect to object to the price if it is too high, and negotiate with them if you want to, when you have more information.)

“What if we structure the program this way and they only want to do half of it?”  (That would be fine, as you will have protected your profit margins in the core pricing, and the client can increase the scope of work later.)

I understand better now, how much effort it takes to shift your context to one of deep self-value.  Quietening those demon whispers is a work of years of diligence.  It took years to embed that context into your world view, and it may take years to shift it.

But you can do it.  It takes courage to defend your value:  to say no to prospects that are not suitable as clients, to refuse speaking engagements that do not contain your target audience, to ask for more payment as the scope of work exceeds the boundaries of your agreement.

And if you consistently assert your value, and then notice what happens (and what does not happen), you will have new information about how the world sees you, and respects you.  Make a note of it every time — write down (briefly) the prospect or client, the situation, your dread, your handling of the issue, and the response you received.  Years ago, I wrote up a page on “What I learned from working with XXXXX” when a consultation had gone really wrong.  I learned a great deal from those notes about carefully screening my prospects before beginning, and about insisting on rational deadlines for deliverables.

So, take some care — with yourself first, and then with your prospects and their expectations.  And pay attention to the results of your standing up for yourself, your expertise, and your pricing.  It is the only way re-train your context for the future.

I broke my own rule again this week… I over-extended, over-promised and, in keeping all my commitments, I exhausted myself.

That made me mad (at myself).  Then two of my clients reported doing the same thing — focusing on the less-important promises and neglecting the more meaningful work deadlines, then rushing to catch up.

Bad stars?  Over-zealous networking?  Too-generous offers of favors?

So often I tell myself (and my clients),”You don’t have to raise your hand.”  Or, “when making an offer that is a favor, set a reasonable and extended timeline of expectation, to allow your priorities to be completed first.”

Of course, sometimes we just get into “administrivity head” and want to clear up our lists… even to the detriment of our real deadlines upon which our business depends.  The administrivity head is useful for those tasks you may despite (like filing, and handing insurance issues, and cleaning up your blogpost categories), or which pile up behind your desk and make a clutter you cannot escape, and which worries you that you have forgotten something important in the pile.

But, better to devote a half-day to cleaning up those messes, and fulfilling those favors, after the business-critical work is done, when you have no immediate deadlines.

One of my clients actually scheduled himself 3 hours next week to handle the “follow up” outreach he had missed doing this week.  Separate from his two-hour block of time he has on his calendar for end-of-week administration.

I bet this sounds really creepy at some level, scheduling in the miscellany that needs to be attended to.  But the miscellany needs to be done.  And the scheduling works.  And you can do it with a clear head, because the business deliverables are done.

I’m going to try it out, again.

Peter Drucker once wrote:  “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”

Steve Jobs once said:  “Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

Now, that customer may be your client (for your service business or consulting practice), or a consumer or enterprise purchasing your product lines, or your shareholders if you are heading up a public company, or some combination of all three (if you run a public company that offers both products and services).

Keeping your focus on these mandates will likely ensure that your business succeeds.  Why?  Because revenue “covers a multitude of sins” as my father (a successful entrepreneur) liked to say.  Profitability covers even more errors and experiments. Top line revenues and bottom line margins allow you to create new products, adapt to changing market wishes and demands (including product life-cycles and pricing), and hire the best minds and skills in your industry to carry the business into the future.

Erik Lidow (1912-2012), founder of International Rectifier, the first power semi-conductor company (founded 1947 and still going), used to tell me that the purpose of innovation was to build companies to create jobs for thousands of workers, and to build products that made a difference in the world.

This begins with keeping in touch with your customer(s) — all of them — and listening, and hearing, and adapting to what you are hearing, so you can build not just a business, but an enduring legacy.  Drucker, Jobs and Lidow did.

Your clients are busy, caught up in the pace of growing their business.  They have little down-time to reflect on what value you are bringing them.  They may appreciate your deliverables and your results — both very important — but this is an appreciation that is tactical in nature (as in “glad that is done!”).

For your clients to value you for the long-term, for you to become an essential trusted advisor retained to solve problem after problem, to support the company’s next transition and the next, you must embed your value as well as your results into the mind and memory of your client.

Value is rarely specified beyond deliverables.  In meetings with the teams you are supporting, no one tends to remember whose idea was pivotal and strategic.  Some consultants don’t concern themselves with getting the credit for that leap of judgement that moved the team to the solution, so long as the solution gets implemented.  Your client may not even be in these meetings to witness your expertise. And most folks will miss the subtleties of your contributions, even though these are very clear to you.

So it is important to blow your own horn a bit.  And you can be subtle in its delivery.  The entire team doesn’t need to applaud you, or even recognize your contribution.  But the person who signs your check and offers you the next consulting project needs to be aware of your contributions and your value, so you need to tell him or her.

One way to handle this is a simple, old-fashioned concept:  write a regular report on the work you have accomplished to the person who controls your contract and payment. Even if it is not expected or requested.  Many consultants, particularly those embedded in a team for part of their time, skip this step, as the team moves forward together.  But you are an outsider, and you are vulnerable to a shift in priorities or a new hire on the executive team, or a downward trend in revenues.  You will likely be the first to be terminated, before any employee.

The report can be a simple set of bullets identifying what you have accomplished and contributed in the last month, set against the goals of your contract.  In this format you can assert that you offered that strategic leap, and how that led the team to its next level.  You can remind your client of all the activities you commit to reach those goals.  Also, these reports will stand to defend you against any internal political hassles and external law suits, and will gain you the appreciation of the executive who must justify your fees to the compliance authorities.

Your client may appreciate your efforts and your presence.  But appreciation is not the same as a deep understanding of the value that you offer (and can continue to offer) to the team and the company.  And that value is the basis of your ongoing engagement with the client and the company.