We tend to view the Internet and the global Web as a specialized phenomenon. As technological guru and Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Mossberg says, "If we don't talk about 'plugging into the electrical grid' when we turn the lights on, why are we constantly talking about 'going onto the Web'?"
Good question.
If you want to accelerate your start in consulting, consider the following:
Every day you are using combinations of cell phones, cable TV, satellite TV, desktop computers, laptop computers, PDAs, digital cameras, and the variations thereof (for example, both phone calls and paging.)
We are constantly recombining technology, sending blog entries by cell phone and photos from computers to cell phones, printing out emails, and scanning in hard copy letters.
Social media, from YouTube to Facebook, from LinkedIn to Twitter, are changing the way people communicate (for better or for worse). For the first time, consumers are talking directly to each other without going through the company providing them with products and services. (Hence, you can find many sites such as
rossde.com/UPS_sucks/.)Speed—getting there "firstest with the mostest," to quote (probably inaccurately) Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, is often the decisive factor in securing an engagement.
Thus, we'll take this mid-book digression or interlude to consolidate some of the essence of the leverage factor of technology.
You need to be serious about technology but not a zealot. (An old aphorism states, "There is no zealot like the converted.") Here are the guiding principles for using technology, in general, intelligently and efficiently:
Never use technology for the sake of technology.
Don't acquire software you'll never need. If you enjoy photography, by all means obtain the Photo12.8 device that allows you to create animation from still forms. (I made that up, please don't search for it.) But if you simply take photos for an electronic album or to use in simple publicity, you don't need that stuff. I tend to use only 25 percent of the capacity of my computers, but at about 90 percent efficiency. But I couldn't even guess at what ICal or PhotoBooth do.
Prudence trumps pomposity.
Walking around with a piece of metal in your ear which blinks a blue light is the nuttiest thing I have ever seen. I've actually observed this in meetings and at dinner, and had to tell a lawyer in a bar in Atlanta that I wasn't talking to him unless he pulled the metal out of his ear. (You can always tell the upgrades to first class on a plane because they a) drink as much liquor as they can, even in the early morning, and b) wear a belt holster for a cell phone.)
Be master of your own domain.
Never walk around with your cell phone turned on, unless you are expecting an urgent call, which means you're also expecting to have a baby or deliver a baby. Use your cell to check messages which allow you to return the messages on your terms at times best for you. A cell phone's real utility is that it allows you to time-shift your communications to your advantage. If you're a slave to the device, then you're going backward.
Don't check email constantly, nor allow alerts.
Plan to check your email twice a day while on the road (morning and evening) and three times when home (add mid-day). If you do so more than that you're going to bog yourself down in relatively unimportant matters too often. (Most of your e-mail isn't very important.) And never let the machine tell you that e-mail awaits, or you're back in the subordinate position to a machine.
Stop surfing.
Don't follow endless links, exchange jokes, participate in circular chat groups, and so on. The beauty of the Web is that it can be the repository of highly specialized information and content (for example, left-handed fishing rods, or electric forks, or strategy models). Bookmark the sites you will regularly need, and don't spend hours exploring seven billion pages of useless (for you) content.
Coordinate your stuff.
Use a cell phone, computer, PDA, camera, or whatever that are compatible with one another and can easily exchange data. Have an "airport" or infrared system in your home office to rapidly exchange files (or use file sharing). Use a flash drive to include important information or presentations when traveling, or to download client data to take back home. Apple is a great provider of all of this, and that's my bias.
Keep time zones apparent.
Use web-based sources (that is,
timeanddate.com/worldclock/) to track corresponding world times, dates, holidays, weather, and so forth. You'll know exactly when you can call someone in Sydney if you live in Orlando, or why no one will be available on a holiday in the United Kingdom. Place the onus on yourself to shift your schedule when you need personal communications beyond e-mail.I'm often asked what I would change if I started again, and it would be the acquisition and categorization of names. Even though we were using stone tablets when I began, I still could have arranged for better styluses and more rock. Today, any kind of elemental software (for example, FilemakerPro) can create dynamic lists, and most email programs can separate people into groups. For more extensive mailings, you can use a listserv (example:
databack.com). Develop, retain, nurture, and access key contacts of all kinds for prospecting, referrals, newsletter subscriptions, new product introductions—you name it—and you will be turbocharging your career.Create electronic templates of, well, everything.
Put your logo, artwork, and other graphics on the computer so that you can send highly professional letters, invoices, statements, and reports electronically. This not only eliminates labor-intensive hard copies, but greatly speeds your contacts, payments, follow-ups, and so on.
Reach out at the speed of light.
Your web site should be a credibility statement, since people will go there who have already heard something about you (true buyers in consulting do not trawl the Web, they ask for referrals from peers; low-level people surf the Web). Your blog should establish you as an expert and offer validation, creating you as a go-to person within that expertise. Keep these (and consequent newsletters, products, chat rooms, and so forth) state of the art, dynamic, and constantly changing.
You can't start with everything. Here are three levels of investment, which range from a young person entering the profession to someone who is retired and seeking a second career. In between is someone deciding to go out on her own and change careers.
$3,500 to invest in technology
Laptop computer and requisite software
Cell phone
Laser printer, black and white
Postage meter and scale (leased)
Digital recorde
$7,500 to invest in technology
The first list plus:
$15,000 to invest in technology
The first two lists plus:
International cell phone capability
Credit card terminal or computer access with merchant accounts
Fax machine that sends and receives color
Copier with color capability
Digital video camera
Photo printer
These are just ideas, but they do provide general direction. If you shop carefully on the Web, you can get great deals. Always buy new, never used.
Use a signature file.
Use a signature file with all your contact information so that people know how to reach you, mail to you conventionally, and so forth. You can also include a brief promo piece in there. You're sending out thousands of e-mails a year, so this is a free, quick, and effective way to reach people in addition to your message. Every time I see merely a name at the end of an e-mail, I think "amateur." Here is a signature file (which requires you use HTML in your outgoing mail to accommodate the graphic):
Alan Weiss, Ph.D.
President
Summit Consulting Group, Inc.
Box 1009
401/884-2778 Fax: 401/884-5068
summitconsulting.comMember:
Professional Speaking Hall of Fame
Recipient:
American Press Institute Lifetime Achievement Award
Recipient:
New England Institute of Management Consultants
Lifetime Contribution Award
"One of the most highly respected independent consultants in the country." — The New York Post
"One of the top motivational speakers in the country."
— The Providence Journal
Visit Alan's Blog:
ContrarianConsulting.com
Align contacts in groups.
Your e-mail software will allow you to group people (for example, clients, prospects, friends, racquetball team, editors and media, and so forth). By merely clicking on the appropriate group you can send a relevant e-mail to everyone on it.
Spread testimonials around.
As you acquire testimonials, place them at various places on your web site, blog, and newsletters. Don't restrict them to one page someplace. Even better: Have your web designer arrange for them to alternate and change every seven seconds or so at the top of your home page.
Use macros as much as possible.
Form text passages that you may use frequently and establish a key on your computer (and cell phone and PDA) that will allow you to enter the text with one single effort. Here's an example of a paragraph I include at the end of all responses to reporter inquiries (for example, to
PRLeads.com, which you'll find in the appendix):I am an organizational development consultant and executive coach who has written 27 books appearing in 8 languages. My clients have included Mercedes-Benz, Hewlett-Packard, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times, JPMorgan Chase, and 300 others all over the world. I'm the only nonjournalist to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Press Institute. Feel free to call.
Here's another I use with many e-mails when I want to try to protect myself from a private reply being used publicly (very common on blogs, so I call the practice "blambushing"):
THIS COMMUNICATION IS INTENDED FOR THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE USE OF THE RECIPIENT, AND IT MAY NOT BE USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE OF ANY KIND WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE WRITER.
Get in the press release habit.
On membership sites such as
Expertclick.com(see the appendix) you can send a press release every day at no additional charge to the membership of ten thousand reporters, talk show producers, assignment editors, and so on. Only a small fraction might be relevant for you, and only a portion of those interested, but you can actually track how many hits you get and media people can subscribe to your press releases. This is great publicity.Keep a separate list (see e-mail groups discussed earlier) of local editors and promotional sources to which you also send press releases. These can be about your speaking appearances, new methodology, client work, travels, awards, and so on. If you include a photo, you have even a better shot at getting the piece published. All of this should be done electronically.
Create a professional voice mail response.
Mine is professionally recorded. Whether you do it yourself or hire someone, keep these facts in mind:
No one cares why you're not answering the phone. The fact that you're attending a hot air balloon convention in Topeka is irrelevant to everyone but yourself.
No one cares about your sorrow that you can't answer the phone. It's obvious that you can't (or are choosing not to) and we'll assume there's a good reason for it. We won't be crushed.
No one cares about your philosophy. Don't leave people any saying of the day, or excerpts from your latest booklet, or a metaphor about waves washing over them on hot sands.
No one wants to spend a lot of time leaving a message. If you're a solo practitioner, having them hit four buttons for different messages as if you're the phone company is absurd.
Thus: "You've reached the voice mail of John Steinway. Please leave your message and phone number at the prompt, and I'll return your call within four hours during the normal business day. Thank you."
Simple as that. Oh, yeah: No one wants to hear an advertisement, either.
Promote your brand.
On your web site, in your e-mail, within all of your communications, always try to promote your brand, whether it's a phrase (the All Star Coach) or your name. It should be apparent on your home page, mentioned in your signature file, and used for lists and samples. Instead of "Ten Techniques to Close Sales Faster," use "The All Star Coach's Sales Techniques."
Provide downloadable material.
If the Web is a repository of specialized content, what is your role in it? Make sure that you provide forms, position papers, directions, techniques, tips, resources, and so forth, which visitors can readily and easily download. If you add just one thing each week, you'll create a very valuable commodity: the return reader, and a very valuable offshoot: that person's recommendation to others. Never worry about giving away too much intellectual property. It will never be as good as you, in person.
If you visit my site (
summitconsulting.com) or a site such as David Maister's (davidmaister.com/videocast/) you'll find a wide range of videos that do not automatically load, since that is intrusive, but which provide, at the visitor's selection, a great assortment and variety of content and value. These are inexpensive to create (keep them brief) and can also involve client testimonials, which are even more powerful on video than in writing.Maximize your web presence.
People will tell you to buy search positions and to use mega-tags and all sorts of things under SEO—search engine optimization. Most of these people are trying to sell you SEO; caveat emptor.
Here's all you really need to know: The more you publish, appear, and participate on the web, the more your name will be known. I remember googling my name once and finding the sale notice for my Aston Martin in an auto magazine. These things will find you, just keep publishing.
Finally, use Google Alerts or a similar source.
You can put in a name or subject and each day receive a list of where it newly appears. I use it to see where my name and my brands are quoted, but also to find out if anyone is plagiarizing my stuff. You can also put in a resource you want to track for the latest developments, and find things that way.
A similar feature is to use RSS on blogs and similar sites so that new postings will prompt you to be quickly alerted about your favorite topics and authors. These are great ways to learn expeditiously and quickly in the great worldwide, always on, Web.