Chapter 7
Hired Gun Skills—Part 2
“I found out there is more to me than I imagined.”
Ron Rael, Leadership Coach
Introduction
After completing this chapter you should be able to
Apply the Gap Analysis to uncover your client’s goals and deficiencies.
Use a defined process to sell someone on your ideas and suggestions.
Proactively manage the client’s expectations.
Find multiple ways to market yourself through social media, visibility, and networking.
Dual Service Skill Cluster
In this chapter, we will concentrate on four high-level skills that may be new to the person wanting to become a contract Controller or CFO. Yet, you will need these to be successful. Whether you decide to continue as a Hired Gun, this skill set will serve you well throughout your career.
Several of these skills—selling your ideas, marketing, and managing client expectations—are usually foreign to the typical Controller. A comment I receive when covering these speaks volumes about how accountants typically define themselves.
“If I wanted to sell something, I would have gone into marketing!”
Mastering these high-level skills takes time and practice.
More Special Skills the Hired Gun Needs
More special skills need by the Hired Gun include
Future visioning
Selling your solutions (convincing others about your ideas)
Managing a client’s expectations
Marketing professional services
Skill #5: Future Visioning
Many of the projects that you are hired for will be messes created by people who are visionary but lack the skills to bring their vision to fruition. American and European businesses would not exist without visionaries. American and European businesses would also not exist without people who can take a vision and convert this nebulous concept into tangible business plans and executable goals. The reason that you are a professional accountant is based on the fact that you have the skill to convert a vision into something tangible.
The following tool and best practice, titled the Gap Analysis, will enable you to convert someone’s vision into reality by finding the elements that will be necessary to go from where the client is today to where they want to be in 18 to 36 months. Once you have mastered using the Gap Analysis you will find that you can quickly create a specific Action Plan to get someone where they want to go.
Hired Gun Tool: The Gap Analysis
A Gap Analysis is a visual examination of the client’s current state compared to their desired state. A Gap Analysis starts with the honest assessment of where the client is today. A Gap Analysis captures a clear vision of the future. The outcome of your Gap Analysis is to show what is missing and required to reach this vision.
STEPS FOR PREPARING A GAP ANALYSIS
Steps for preparing a Gap Analysis include
Ask the client to describe the problem, issue, or area that they want to make progress on.
Ask the client to describe the benefits or reasons that they need to solve this problem and why they need to create an Action Plan for getting there.
If the client’s dream is broad, ask them to focus on a particular aspect or element of their desired state. If the goal is too broad, the Action Plan will be also.
Ask the client to define their deadline for achieving this desired end state. This is actually the point in time they expect to arrive at this destination. Stick with 18 to 36 months.
As the Facilitator, ask the client to describe their current state of affairs as it relates to this end state or dream. Make sure that there is a balance of both their assets or positives and the areas that they are deficient. Keep the focus of today’s status or reality on those things that contribute or detract from their desired end state. Work to keep them honest and grounded.
Again as Facilitator, ask the client to describe what their destination will look like. Ask questions such as “What will you have? What will it look like? How will it feel?” and “How will you know you have arrived?” Make sure to carry forward any assets or positives that they currently have into this future state.
Work with the client to fill in the middle section, called the missing links. As detailed as possible, identify specific actions or steps that must take place so they can go from today to tomorrow. If you completed your Gap Analysis correctly, these bridges will pop out clearly to both you and the client.
Use the information that you filled in as missing links to create a specific formalized Action Plan. Set a priority to each of the major action steps, asking this question often, “What needs to happen before you take this step?”
Review and update this Gap Analysis on a regular basis with your client. Use it to check their progress and to see if there were other items in the missing links that were overlooked.
Power in the Gap Tool
The Gap Analysis is a fantastic best practice that every Hired Gun, Consultant, Controller, and CFO needs in their toolkit. By getting into the habit of using it to set your own goals when you take on projects, you will quickly be able to grasp the items that are needed to get you from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow. It is a very powerful and insightful tool, which will help you to execute on your goals and achieve your vision.
Then you are able to assist your clients to do the same.
Skill #6: Selling Your Solutions
“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea if it is the only one you have.” Emile Chartier
You will spend a lot of time attempting to convince other people about the worth and validity of your ideas.
Remember your role is as an outsider who is brought in to solve a specific problem or cleanup a distasteful mess. As an outsider you will need to recruit the help and support of others that you do not supervise or work with on a daily basis. Therefore the skill of selling your ideas is of utmost importance to the contract Controller. As I have stated several times, even if you decide not to be a contractor this particular skill will be valuable in whatever endeavors you pursue. Except for people who sell for a living, such as sales personnel and CEOs, the average person does not understand that there is a defined process to selling ideas.
Before we get into the process, let us do a quick summary of the person who will engage you to work for their organization. Understanding this person’s mindset will enable you to do a good job of selling your ideas to that person.
The Mindset of the Risk-Taking Entrepreneur
Call it a genetic compulsion, a defensive reaction, or simple optimism, but the reality is that most business owners refuse to contemplate the possibility of failure. It is as if the word does not exist in their vocabulary. Failure is an option. The downside of this “never-say-die” attitude is that it can be ruinous, wasteful, costly, hurt people, and spoil opportunities for future success.
Most entrepreneurs see themselves as the type of person who put their heads down and charge full steam ahead. However you can badly injure yourself with that mindset. This person does not avoid risk, but ignores it at every opportunity. This person fails to recognize that failure is an option, and this is why risk can be mismanaged or unacknowledged.
In facing up to the possibility of failure in risk-taking, there is a very delicate line to walk. It is better to assume failure can occur than to resign yourself to it. It is okay to acknowledge our fear but not let ourselves be overcome by it. Walking that line requires courage.
CONVINCING THIS MINDSET
Selling your ideas to a business owner or anyone who is a chronic risk-taker requires you to speak in terms of possibilities. These folks are visionaries and they do not like people to diminish their dreams. While you speak about the real world, the risk-taker does not care about reality. They focus on what can occur and close themselves off from what cannot occur. They want to focus on a vision, but they do not sweat the details of how to make the impossible possible. Therefore, the way to sell your ideas is to also speak their language of possibilities.
Example: Your project is to make an accounting department more productive and reduce the time (from seven days to three) it takes for them to issue reports. You have done this before and now you must convince the CEO to support you and to understand the hard work that needs to occur to make this happen.
Wrong way: “Mr. Johnson, I know how to bring this accounting team up to a higher level of productivity. Within six weeks I will be able to reassign responsibilities, modernize the information flow, help people understand their jobs better, and get your reports out faster.”
Before you finish saying this, Mr. Johnson’s eyes have glazed over and his mind has moved on to the next thing. Your mistake was to speak about how you would do it.
Right way: “Mr. Johnson, within three months you will have reports on your desk that not only highlight what is working but also identify specific problem areas. These reports will be so easy to read that you can identify the major trends while drinking your first cup of coffee each morning.”
Mr. Johnson will ask you some questions. “Are you sure you can do this? What is this gonna cost us in terms of time, money, and confusion?” Now you can have a meaningful dialogue with Mr. Johnson about the changes that need to be made.
In the first scenario, you did not speak Mr. Johnson’s language of what is possible. In the second scenario, when you did paint a picture of the future to Mr. Johnson’s liking, you had his full attention so that you could talk to him about what you need to make it happen.
Their Pain
When I mention their pain, this refers to the fact that your client’s executives, managers, and employees have problems that are not getting resolved. As their problem solver, you are the logical choice and most qualified person they rely on to help them get rid of their pain. You understand how the business operates, you understand how the finances work, and you (hopefully) understand the key players (decision-makers and what makes them tick). One of the most rewarding aspects of the Hired Gun job is to be regarded as the resource that employees think of first when they need a solution which they are unable to find themselves.
Process for Selling Your Ideas
As stated earlier there is a defined process for selling your ideas. The starting point is to identify the pain. Here is why:
People and organizations will not change until the pain outgrows their tolerance.
If you do not fully understand their pain, the client’s tolerance level, or the cause of the pain you will not be successful in selling change to anyone. To be successful in selling your ideas, you must become masterful in quickly sizing up a situation to determine those three things. Once you have a handle on them, you will be able to sell anything to anyone who is in pain.
In figure 7-1 the process is shown graphically. The center of your diagram is your starting point. Then you go straight up and follow the diagram clockwise.
Figure 7-1
Warning! When speaking with your client, do not use the word pain. Use terms like possibilities and unexploited opportunities. The moment you say the word pain, you will scare people off. Everyone hates pain, or so they believe, yet the idea of making a change is more distasteful than putting up with the problem in the first place.
In the following steps, I use the phrase change plan to describe the work that you will be doing for them. This process works whenever you want to convince someone of any idea.
STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE PAIN
As a diagnostician, your first step is to get a quick understanding of what the client is worried about. To accomplish this you must have a list of specific probing questions that will help the client to explain to you what is really going on.
Sample questions you ask:
What keeps you awake at night about this issue?
How long has this problem been going on?
What attempts have been made to solve this particular problem in the past?
Why does this problem continue to crop up?
What has prevented you or the organization from doing something about this problem before now?
What happens if this problem does not get solved quickly?
STEP 2: IDENTIFY THE REAL ISSUE
The client will often only speak to you about the effects of the pain and not the cause of the pain. Like in our body when something starts hurting, we really notice it and pay strict attention to it. Over time, the pain seems to diminish and we only remember it at certain times. The problem that causes the pain is still there but we have numbed ourselves to its effect, at least temporarily.
Once the client has given you an understanding of what they think the problem is, it is incumbent on you to do some more investigation to find the root cause. With your wide experience and knowledge you should be able to identify initially what the source is or may be.
STEP 3: DETERMINE HOW YOUR SOLUTIONS SOLVE THE PROBLEM
Because you are a smart, talented person, you will quickly arrive at several solutions to the client’s problems. In order to sell the client on your change plan, you must be able to answer to their full satisfaction how your solutions will both solve the problem now and prevent it in the future.
The only way to make this happen is to understand the source of their pain. If you do not understand the true source, the problem will likely occur again and as the consultant you will be blamed for this.
STEP 4: DETERMINE THE COSTS AND BENEFITS
People only change when the benefits clearly outweigh the costs.
Inherent in solving the problem are the benefits which the client wants and the costs which the client does not want. In your cost and benefit analysis, never fail to overlook the soft intangible and emotional costs. The emotional and intangible costs of changing are more likely to prevent a client from acting on your suggestions than the hard measurable costs.
Yet the intangible benefits of making the change will almost always outweigh and outnumber the tangible and measurable benefits.
As a rule of thumb, your list of benefits should exceed the costs by a ratio of 2 to 1. If you are unable to define more benefits than costs, then you are either not seeing the problem clearly or you do not have sufficient experience in solving this type of problem.
This 2 to 1 ratio is important since the client will diminish or minimize about a third of your benefits because they are looking at their problem from the inside-out, while you are looking at the issue from the outside-in. Their judgment is clouded by the pain and, more importantly, by their own contributions to the problem. Ego and hubris prevent the client from seeing all the possible benefits.
STEP 5: DEFINE THE MILESTONES AND PITFALLS
If you fail to take steps 5, 6, and 7, you will end up with egg on your face and with the blame for the problem lingering or growing.
In step 5 you must honestly tell the client what to expect in the future. As an experienced change agent you know that every time you change one thing at least one or more other things change as well. Some of these unplanned changes are not for the better. In selling your ideas to your client, you must be able to identify the milestones along the way.
What will things look like 30 days from now, 60 days from now, and one year from now?
You also must honestly talk about the pitfalls that the client will expect and need to start addressing now. For example, if you take on the responsibility for reorganizing an accounting department, you know intuitively that employees will resist the change. Angry employees will actually undermine your work. You must be honest and tell the client that this will happen and is expected. If you fail to make this disclosure, then when it happens the client will think that you are the one who messed up or caused it.
STEP 6: OBTAIN ACCEPTANCE FOR THE PLAN
In step 6, you must look for specific acceptance from the client for your ideas and suggestions. Being a seasoned veteran will benefit you here. The client may be nodding while saying, “Yes, I want you to proceed with this project.” However, you notice his body language says otherwise. You notice that he cannot look you straight in the eye. You notice that when you bring up certain subjects he looks very uneasy.
What you are witnessing is that the client has not accepted your plan. All too often in business, around seven times out of ten, the person you are asking for something will agree to it just to get you out of their face. They have no intention of doing whatever you ask, but it is far easier in their mind to say “yes” knowing that they do not intend to do it then to say “no” directly to your face. Sad but true.
This is why you must spend time making sure that you do have 100 percent acceptance of your change plan.
STEP 7: OBTAIN COMMITMENT TO THE PLAN
Just because you have acceptance of the plan does not guarantee that you have the client’s commitment. Acceptance is a mental process. Commitment is an emotional process. As a Hired Gun and their designated change agent, you must work to determine that the client has actually committed to your plan for change.
Your first commitment indicator is when the client gives you money. Money has such an emotional component to it that when we give someone money it usually means we are emotionally committed to whatever the money is given for.
Another key indicator of commitment is when the client takes the first few steps, which are often the hardest.
A third indicator of commitment is when you obtain the client’s signature to the change plan. This is why using an engagement letter along with the scope of work will help you to be very successful as a contract professional.
Over time you will find some other key indicators of commitment.
STEP 8: DO FOLLOW-UP AND COLLECT FEEDBACK
This last step is very easy for you to overlook because you are busy doing what the client asks. However, in your change plan you must build in specific methods for collecting feedback on how the change plan is going. Then on a regular basis, you share with your client the results of feedback—good and bad—and talk about the status of the plan.
As a contract Controller you should meet with your client at least once a week with status reports. This meeting is where you present your updates on the change plan or plans that you are leading for them.
In each of these follow-up sessions, check for the client’s continuing acceptance of the plan and commitment to it. Do not assume that just because you obtained acceptance and commitment once that the client will not change their mind. As a client discovers the amount of work and effort that it takes to change something, so may their decision to change.
When You Speak, Clients Will Listen
Always remember that you are selling your ideas to a person that never says die and failure is not in their vocabulary. Part of your overall strategy for selling your client on your ideas is to meld your suggestions into the client’s ideas, so that the clients feel they created the solution.
Skill #7: Managing Client Expectations
What you expect is not always what you get. What you get is always what you expect.
You, the Scapegoat?
This skill is allied with the previous one of selling your ideas. All too often for the inexperienced consultant—as well as for the experienced one—an implementation or project fails and the consultant is blamed. The failure can be directly traced to the client’s improper implementation or the client’s failure to take action and not on the soundness of the consultant’s advice. This blame event occurs because, as Hired Guns, we do a poor job of managing the client’s expectations.
Example: If your client, say the CEO of an emerging organization, really understood the accounting function, there would not be a problem for you to solve. Since they do not have this insider knowledge, the problem of a poorly organized accounting department was allowed to exist, grow, and create other problems in the organization.
If people on this team understood what it takes to prepare a realistic cost analysis, they would not need you.
POOR PROBLEM DEFINITION
What I am asking you to understand is that rarely does the client understand the full extent of the problem that they are asking you to solve. This lack of knowledge includes
The extent of the problem.
The byproducts of the problem.
The full cost to remove or solve the problem.
The time it takes to remove or solve the problem.
The conditions that created the problem in the first place.
The conditions that led to the problem being overlooked for such a long time.
What people are feeling and thinking about the problem.
Ways that employees have creatively found to get around the problem.
Specifics of what it will take to prevent the problem from reoccurring.
YOU, THE MAGICIAN?
For whatever reason, companies that engage a Hired Gun to solve a particular problem assume that you carry a magic wand. Somehow, they believe that with your experience and knowledge, a few incantations, and your mojo will save them from themselves.
Tactics to Manage Expectations
Armed with this information, to be successful as a contract Controller or CFO you must understand that a primary responsibility for your own success is to manage these unreasonable expectations. Doing so requires you to employ the following tactics:
Undersell and over-deliver.
Clearly define the client’s expectations up front and clarify them with the client often.
Clearly define your expectations up front and clarify them often.
Give the client regular status reports.
Invest significant hours at the beginning of the project to understand the politics that will be involved in getting the problem fixed.
Ask your client the tough questions.
Communicate and listen, then listen and communicate.
Be willing to be the scapegoat or bad guy if necessary.
Never rest on your laurels because there is always something that you have never seen before.
Use a sounding board of other Hired Guns.
Trust your intuition and check your facts.
Instill accountability in the people who are assisting you in making the change.
As soon as conditions change that affect the cost or scope, meet with the client immediately.
Give the client multiple options and, once chosen, stick to them.
Use empathy and see the issue through the client’s eyes.
Be flexible and firm.
Put services before fees.
Be willing to terminate the relationship if the client plays games.
Bad Karma for a Hired Gun
You never want to be in a position where you are blamed for your client’s blunders. Yet, you will be if you fail to manage the client’s expectations of you. This skill goes hand-in-hand with selling your ideas.
Practice this skill often.
Skill #8: Marketing Professional Services
Every new client is the start of a new relationship—similar to dating.
Marketing Yourself as a Part-Time or Contract Controller
As mentioned earlier, marketing yourself as a part-time or contract Controller can be a pain or a delight. Marketing may not come naturally to you. Marketing takes a tremendous amount of time, energy, and self-assurance to do it successfully. In addition, there is no centralized marketplace for the job, as there is for the full-time Controller (regular employee) position.
Companies in transition are the usual customers for a contract Controller!
Visibility and networking are the keys to marketing!
This chapter will give you a variety of ideas on where to turn, whom to target, and tools to use. In the end, it will be your own ingenuity, tenacity, courage, and self-promotional skills that determine the amount of work you will attract.
FIRST, ADOPT A MARKETING MINDSET
To be a successful marketer of your own services, you must change how you view yourself and view marketing. With rare exception, accountants are not comfortable wearing the sales hat. If you were comfortable in marketing and selling—which are two different functions—you would have chosen a different career path.
In addition, studies have shown that it is easier for a person to sell someone else’s product or service rather than their own. We will not go into the reasons, but it has to do with our self-image.
Now that you understand this, the next part is easy. You must commit to seeing yourself as an Accountant Who Markets. Adopting this mindset relieves a lot of pressure that you may have about needing to market your services to people that you do not know. The statement: “I am an accountant who markets” reminds you that you are a financial professional first and foremost.
Over the years, many people have extolled this truism, which still rings true today.
Everyone has something to sell, so we are always selling something.
To understand this marketing mindset that you must maintain, we will take a quick review of the difference between marketing and selling. People who do not understand this difference lump the two concepts together, or they think that selling is trying to convince someone to buy something that they do not need. The image we accountants often carry in our head of the typical salesperson is someone selling us either Amway or used cars. Nothing about marketing can be further from the truth.
SECOND, MARKETING AND SELLING HAVE DIFFERENT AIMS
Objectives of Marketing
Objectives of marketing include
To position your services in a way that potential users see the need for them
To convince potential users why they need to buy from you
To be easy to find and contact
Objectives of Selling
Objectives of selling include
To determine if the buyer’s (clients) needs match your services and if your products fulfill the buyer’s specific needs
To convince the buyer (client) that your services and products will add value in ways that exceeds their investment
To deliver no less than what was promised
To be easy to work with
Now that you understand the difference, most of your efforts in gaining new clients will be to meet the objectives of marketing, which include positioning, branding, and being accessible.
The difference is in your attitude! You control your attitude, always!
The rest of this section is designed to offer you many ideas on how to best market your services. All of them work. Your task is to select the one or ones that you feel comfortable with. If you start each day with dread because you must spend time selling yourself to strangers, you will not be successful as a Hired Gun. If you start each day looking forward to telling people about how you can help them, you will be successful.
Ways to Market Your Services
Sorry, there is no magic or secret to selling a product or service.
There are, however, things that you can do consistently that will help you create a brand or reputation that will increase the likelihood that engagement and projects will come your way, without too much stress and strain. These include
Create Visibility
Networking
Social Media
Partnering or Joint Venturing
Exploit a Niche
1. HOW TO CREATE VISIBILITY TO POTENTIAL CLIENTS
Marketing Through Visibility
To obtain new clients, you must stay visible to both past clients and potential ones. So, you must make the most of your opportunities because visibility takes time away from doing the work.
Contact a client between 12 and 18 times a year—Keeping up with clients helps prevent them from looking elsewhere for new solutions to their financial or operational problems. People’s lives and their businesses change quickly, and reminding clients (potential and actual) of your existence helps them remember you when they need help.
Use a variety of approaches in your touches, so that you reach the potential clients in different ways throughout the year—Examples: send an article, e-mail a newsletter, send an invitation, send a gift, drop-off a checklist, e-mail a website link, call to say hello, contact them with a referral.
Send something of interest or value—Expand beyond their business or industry. Consider sending information on the client or prospect’s interest or desires. Create a specialty e-zine that covers their personal interests.
Stand out from the crowd—Do creative and fun things in your market to grab attention. Do not let your materials look generic or like anyone else’s. Keep them unique but not outrageous. Examples:
Golf tees taped to your business card
Whimsical postcards
A crossword puzzle with insider terminology
A cartoon with an on-target punch line
Take advantage of e-mail, but do not overdo it—People get so much e-mail that they tend to ignore it, trash it, or never take time to read it. Limit your e-mailing. Instead, send written notes and make phone calls.
Consider doing a joint promotion with other professionals—Very often your client has a multitude of needs. Align yourself with another service provider to offer an integrated solution.
Companies to Target with Visibility
Companies to target with visibility include
Where recent layoffs occurred
Newly relocated to your area
Currently experiencing downsizing
Recently obtained a new, significant contract
In major transition—merger, consolidation, sale
Start-up companies
Firms in bankruptcy or liquidation
Where transactions are still done manually
Firms that use Quicken or QuickBooks
Places or People to Make Yourself Visible To
Places or people to make yourself visible to include
Lending officers
CPA firms with larger clients
Corporate and bankruptcy attorneys
Venture capital firms
Management firms
Management consultants
Accounting specialist temporary agencies
CFO service firms
Contract CEOs and CFOs
Finance recruiters
Startup advisors
Executive recruiters
Young entrepreneurs
Develop Tools for Market Visibility
Tools to develop for market visibility include
Create a resume that is more like an advertisement piece.
Read the Business Journal and similar local publications.
Establish a formal network with other contract Controllers.
Develop a needs assessment survey and offer to conduct for free.
Develop your marketing message or 10-second commercial.
Get involved in an accounting or finance association.
Volunteer where you can work with CEOs.
Use your telephone to make networking calls daily.
Have a website with full information and diagnostic tools.
An ongoing online dialogue with potential clients.
Create Visibility by Giving It Away
Today, several successful business models believe that making money later is more important than making money today.
Things You Can Give Away Easily
Things you can give away easily include
Book chapters
Articles
Partial checklists
White papers
Case studies
Simple diagnostics tools
Brown bag presentations
Free hour of consultation
Sample reports
2. HOW TO CREATE OPPORTUNITIES VIA NETWORKING
Market by Taking Advantage of Networking Opportunities
Develop and fine-tune your marketing message or 10-second commercial.
What do you say if you have to deliver a message in 10 seconds or less?
Today, with everybody on Internet time, we give each person from three to ten seconds to determine if they are worth our time.
Let us say you meet someone at a networking event, and you want them to notice you so you can see if they might need a contract Controller or your expertise.
How do you do that besides offering to buy a drink for a complete stranger?
Use a marketing message that intrigues them!
Example 1:
Hi Ron. Nice to meet you. What do you do?
I am in the human jumper cable business.
Really?! Tell me more.
I work for Never Die Technology and it is our mission to get portable defibrillator units in every school and company.
I work for a school and we have been thinking about buying one. Got a few minutes to tell me more?
Message sent, received, and understood!
How do I get my marketing message across briefly?
Engage the person who you are talking to.
Determine if continuing the conversation on a professional level is worthwhile.
If the person you are meeting and greeting knows that you are a valid supplier of something they need, that person will usually want to hear more. Therefore, your ability to communicate verbally (and in written form) a powerful message succinctly is absolutely necessary to maximize your networking and marketing opportunities.
Example 2:
Ron, my name is Naomi. I am the CEO of Raelco. Who do you work for?
I help CEOs sleep better at night... but I’m not in the mattress business. Naomi, could you specifically identify who will be leading Raelco in 2012?
No. I do not think I could.
If you had that answer, I could bet you could sleep easier. I work with CEOs and boards who are concerned about who will be leading their organization five and even ten years from now. We work with you to identify and retain the people who will be there to make the tough decisions of tomorrow.
How do you go about doing that?
I engaged Naomi, whom I had never met before, with a question. My message was tailored to her as a CEO. CEOs worry about retaining their key personnel. CEOs also are concerned about the leaders who will be retiring soon and who will replace them. Naomi also liked the “sleep better at night” reference.
What do I communicate in my marketing message?
The true value that you deliver through your products and services. This means stressing the benefits and value instead of the products themselves.
Who you best serve. Define in simple terms the niche or sort of client that you serve.
How do I keep my listener’s attention when networking?
Keep your message short—Deliver your message or main point in 10 seconds.
Use simple language—Omit technical jargon and lofty language. Make yourself understood by anyone from a CEO to an eighth grader.
Make the person think—Cause the person to decide if they fit within the group you serve.
Put your message to use—The purpose of your marketing message is to use it in networking situations. Practice it until it feels right and then use it as your core message.
Whenever someone asks—“What do you do?” instead of saying, “I am an accountant,” or “I am a CPA,” give them your marketing message.
Consider creating a second or third message—Do this when you serve more than one market or provide more than one sort of value.
If they ask you, “How do you do that?” you made an impact on them.
Example 3:
Hello Ron. Tell us what you do.
I put valuable business intelligence into the hands of decision-makers who must meet their customers’ changing needs. My clients receive real-time information about what has happened, what is happening and most critical, what could happen. All of this wisdom on one page!
Really? Timely information is something that plagues me now. How do you go about doing this, Ron?
I explained that value to them: business intelligence that tells of the past, present, and future. They listened to my marketing message and then qualified themselves because they had a problem that I know how to solve. Marketing messages are valuable, powerful, and free.
3. HOW TO CREATE VISIBILITY AND EXPERTISE USING SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media Is Here to Stay
This “thing” called Social Media feels like it suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Yet, Social Media and our reliance on it are in its early stages, and it will continue to evolve. For example, within the next two years, a majority of people and companies will use Facebook to send and receive e-mail!
Though Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg did not officially declare e-mail to be dead, he sees the four-decade-old technology as secondary to more seamless, faster ways of communicating, such as text messages and chats. In other words, Facebook is betting that today’s high school students are on to something. “We don’t think a modern messaging system is going to be e-mail,” Mr Zuckerberg said at a special event in San Francisco.1
Social Media Is Permanent
Yes, the importance and impact of Social Media is difficult for anyone older than 30 to understand, yet it is revolutionizing the way we communicate and interact, in both the personal and the business setting. As a Hired Gun, you must be prepared to adapt your work and marketing to this technology, and do so sooner rather than later. Other Hired Guns that you are competing against for part-time jobs or consulting opportunities have already adopted Social Media, and use it to create visibility and to find meaningful work.
Social Media is defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” This definition comes from “Users of the World Unite: the Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media” in Business Horizons, written by Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein.
Process of Social Media
An easy way to understand Social Media is to see what it can deliver for individuals, as well as organizations.
Conversing—Communication using Social Media is about open dialogue. There is a public nature about the sharing of information, but the important aspect of it is that you can easily use tools to engage with the public at large. The old method was to send out spam and hope someone responded to you.
Listening—With Social Media, you can tap into what your prospects or clients are doing and saying. The cost to do so is negligible. Prior to Social Media, it was very expensive to conduct a formal survey of prospects, but now, when a specific group or industry is using Social Media, you can tap into it easily to hear their conversations, concerns, pains, and the solutions they seek. When you have an understanding of your prospects’ needs, you may be able to satisfy those needs for a single company or for an entire industry (community).
Channeling a Two-Way Dialogue—A major aspect of Social Media, when compared to other forms of media, is that it can become an ongoing dialogue. To engage others using Social Media, you must be able to respond to their requests for information or comment. As you reach out to meet a prospect’s needs, the engagement process begins. It is possible to develop a reputation as an expert in one particular area, and once you are recognized as one, others may proactively seek you out.
Providing Products—Using Social Media you are able to quickly prepare digital or intellectual products and provide them to prospects at low cost. With the implementation and adoption of the Internet, however, many people expect stuff on the Web to be free. Therefore, in your business model as a Hired Gun, you can easily create digital versions of white papers, tools, checklists, or other value adding items that you must be willing to give away. Doing so can position you as an expert while opening the door for you to be invited in for a conversation about doing paid work.
On the Web, individuals and companies that drive to immediately charge for their intellectual property will be shunned! In most interest-specific communities, members flock to participants who provide valuable free services. By providing simple products for free, you will have the opportunity to market other products on a fee basis.Sharing Resources—Sharing hard-to-obtain information is one of the most important aspects of Social Media. You add value by sharing condensed information or brainstorming with other members of the community. You provide prospects and clients with informational links to such things as
Pertinent websites.
Book reviews.
Opinion pieces.
News articles.
Research data.
Videos.
Sites where you are highlighted as the expert.
Goals of Social Media for the Hired Gun
The main point as Hired Gun for using Social Media is to establish thought leadership and credibility in a specific industry or among your peers. With it, you build relationships and loyalty of the target community toward your services or your brand. A Hired Gun like you can use Social Media as a tool to gather data and insights about your target market.
The Many Applications of Social Media
The tools to use for Social Media continue to expand each day. However, here is a short list of what exists currently. You must understand and feel confident using each one. Some of them you are using, but maybe not in context of how to employ Social Media to market yourself broadly and easily as a Hired Gun and expert.
Social Media is found on tools and electronic platforms that serve as a hosting or routing source. Many of these can be found when you focusing on narrow interests, which allows you to hone in on a specific targeted group or community.
Social Content—These are blogs and micro-blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, and video sharing sites.
If you use or are familiar with Twitter, Flickr, or play games with other players remotely, then you are using this aspect of Social Media
Social Platforms—These are communities, forums, or virtual worlds where people tune in to connect with their friends or other community members.
If you have played any of the various SIMS games or use Facebook, Linked-In, My Space, Ning, Second Life, or Plaxo, then you are already using this form of Social Media.
Content Education—These sites collect the syndicated web content and aggregate data into one location for you to easily review and access. This aspect also includes how-to and informational videos.
If you have used or tapped into an RSS or feed reader, then you have used this form of Social Media. If you have searched for medical advice on WebMD, then you are familiar with its impact. Check out BillShrink, which is a source that people turn to for financial advice.
Reviews or Ratings—Nearly every form of Social Media allows you to provide reviews or feedback on how well you liked the service or product. This tool is designed to provide other users with information to determine whether or not to follow your lead.
One method of making a name for yourself is to be a regular reviewer of a particular product or type of services, such as restaurants, movies, hotels, or business books.
Resources—This aspect of Social Media grows every day because of the growth in reference materials and tools.
A few of the more common tools are Aardvark, Scribd, Slideshare, and Vimeo.
Media Management Tools—Because the amount of tools and Social Media grow and expand exponentially, a whole new set of sites are developed to help you manage your personal Social Media easily.
Ping.fm is one that I use, because with it, I can post one short message and the site is connected to 30 different Social Media formats. Check out these: Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and Filtrbox.
Expertise Establishment—Have you ever craved for media attention? You can create this attention, with persistence and effort, by subscribing to HARO, which stands for Help a Reporter Out. Similarly, Pitchrate allows you to make pitches, using your expertise. Subscribing to the The Huffington Post and commenting on articles positions you as “someone in the know.” You can also post articles to Associated Content. Finally, check out how experts are positioned on JustAnswer.
Trend Spotting—There is a plethora of sites that people use to make their opinion known. Beware: much of these sites contain the rants and raves of people with more time than sense. But, if you need to spot trends or need examples of what people think, you can tap into what is on people’s minds.
Reddit is one such site.
Seeking Out Contractor Type Work—These sites come and go. But if you need cash or like to stay busy, check out Fiverr for very small projects. More formal bidding or project referral sites include Sologig, Consulting-Project, IFreelance, Freelancer, and FreelanceJobs.org.
A Firm-Wide Strategy for Social Media
The first rule of using Social Media is to develop a goal and to incorporate it into your existing marketing objectives and strategies. For example, if you are trying to position yourself as an expert in venture financing or streamlined accounting, and currently write articles and partner with niche consultants, then your Social Media strategy should easily fit into your marketing efforts.
If you are an expert in not-for-profits, then you could use Social Media to continue to extend your brand and reputation, and even give back to your pet causes.
Credibility
Social Media can be either a credibility killer or builder.
Today, if someone wants to find out something about you, they do not pay attention to your tri-fold brochure or your business card or other printed material. The first thing a potential client does is to Google or Bing your name and check out your website. If you lack a website that describes what you can do for the prospect, then you will likely not get many inquiries.
Beyond that, however, the main reason that people (who search your name or company on the Internet) do this is to check out your expertise. That is why having blogs, offering downloadable tools, and posting testimonials from previous clients pays off in establishing your credibility. If you fail to have a website, I guarantee that you will usually lack credibility.
That being said, a few of the successful Hired Guns I have met over the years did not have one, but they usually had a name or solid reputation in a specific industry or city, and they obtained leads and referrals solely based on their past accomplishments, exposure, or reputation.
Benefits of Using Social Media
Besides the obvious win for you of lasting credibility, there are other benefits to adding Social Media in your marketing efforts. Here are a few:
Becoming a Thought Leader through your expertise
Client service
Creating or increasing brand awareness
Immediate comment or feedback
Increased online identity
Job or Opportunity Postings
Market research
Networking opportunities with other Hired Guns
Relationships with traditional media outlets
Search engine optimization
Sources of revenue or opportunities to sell services
Mistakes to Avoid
Here are some major blunders that companies and individuals make when employing Social Media:
Believing Social Media is a fad and will go away
Ignoring the power and impact of Social Media
Failure to stay in tune with changes and the direction of Social Media
Failure to listen to their target audience
Giving up on Social Media campaigns prematurely
Not knowing where their target audience is or how to engage this audience
Not measuring the results of their efforts
Putting marketing ahead of providing information or creating dialogue
Using Social Media without having a overall strategy
Creating and Using a Blog for Visibility
Each day over 10,000 new blogs are launched.
Business culture works on influence, authority, and relationships. People who have a strong and well-informed opinion command respect and become influencers.
The thirst for high-end business information, the kind that makes people feel like they are up-to-speed, created a $15 billion professional publishing market in the United States.
In business, being out of the loop means death.
John Battelle, Columnist for Business 2.0 says, “Blogs will become a staple in the information diet of every serious business person. Not because they are cool but because those who do not read them will fail. Blogs offer an accelerated and efficient approach to acquiring and understanding the kind of information all of us need to make business decisions.”
Technology in Marketing
Time is one of our most critical resources as a Hired Gun. Use technology only if it leverages your use of time, not usurps it. Remember, your objective is getting business. Examine whether your contact management system is helping you follow up and secure business or leaving you with less time to market.
Use your PDA for what it is best at:
Tracking expenses,
Recording contact data,
Reminding you of tasks and due dates, and
Giving necessary data on a prospect or clients.
Use your website for three purposes:
Tell visitors of the value that you provide.
Tell who said so through testimonials.
Provide visitors with something of value for free.
How to Perform Anywhere Marketing
Focus on
Mobility.
Agility.
Rapid response.
Access to resources to solve problems and get business.
Suggested Tools for Anywhere Marketing
Tools for anywhere marketing include
Mobile device with full Internet access
PDA with contact management system
Notebook (or smaller) computer able to perform word processing, spreadsheets, and sending faxes
Powerful cell phone
Web-based off-site storage for file sharing
4. HOW TO PARTNER WITH YOUR CLIENT FOR MORE OPPORTUNITIES
To successfully be seen as your client’s equal partner in addressing their issues you need to manage and value these five qualities.
Trust
This is the glue of long-term profitable relationships. Be consistent in what you do and say. Doing so will allow your client partner to feel comfortable with you, because they know or can predict what you will do. Consistency engenders trust.
Are you trustworthy? Are you consistent?
Responsibility
This consists of two key words: response and ability. You must respond quickly to your clients’ needs. You must have the ability to respond timely and appropriately.
Are you able to respond and deliver what you said you could?
Sacrifice
When you sacrifice for others, they lose the mindset that you are just out to take their money. Be willing to give something extra without looking for remuneration or reciprocation. The client took a risk in hiring you. Make sure their risk pays off in multiple ways.
What little extras are you giving the client?
Mindfulness
The basis for being a true professional is being mindful of others and their needs. A true partner thinks first of the partnership.
Do you value and honor your partnership and your partner?
Passion
You must have a passion for helping your client to be successful. Your passion needs to inspire them to take action.
What impact do you want to have on your clients? Are you passionate about what you do? Does your passion show?
Examples of Joint Venturing include
You design accounting processes and team up with a Quick Books expert who does not do processes.
Your prospective client has a complex tax situation that needs constant monitoring, so you partner with a CPA who sticks to taxes.
You cooperate with a consultant who consults with CEOs on strategy but does not provide services such as budget preparation or scenario planning.
5. HOW A NICHE CAN ATTRACT OPPORTUNITIES
By positioning yourself or your firm into a discrete niche, you will always be guaranteed to have the highest rates, because when someone is in desperate need of the expert, they rarely question the amount the expert charges.
Niching Efforts that Pay Dividends
Take the following steps to ensure that you make the most of your efforts to make yourself the expert at something.
Step 1: Tie Yourself to a Popular Cause
Examples:
Consult on
Leadership succession planning.
SOX compliance.
Outsourcing.
Distressed companies.
Startups.
Lean accounting.
CEO roundtables.
Step 2: Play Up to Your Targets
Have ongoing dialogue with potential clients.
Example:
Create and use a blog.
Step 3: Spend Time Where Your Target Customers Are
Example:
Attend events where entrepreneurs are likely to be, then join and participate in organizations that your ideal client belongs to.
Step 4: Tailor Your Message for Specific Groups
Examples:
Industry-specific newsletters; custom mailings; tailored checklists; “Do you measure up?” pain tests.
Step 5: Listen and Adopt
Keep researching your target market to understand their changing needs.
Examples:
E-mail real-time articles; bookmark topic-specific sites; search through topic-specific directories to get an overview of what is available.
Use Tools to Keep Informed about Your Niche or Expertise
For up-to-date information on your area of expertise, try the following sites:
www.xanga.com (formerly Feedstar)
For free blog service, try this site:
Niche Services You Could Provide
Over the years I have met Hired Guns who built sustainable (and I assume profitable) businesses serving as
Expert witness.
Contract COO.
Forensic accounting or auditing.
CEO coach.
Spreadsheet maven.
Expert in HR manuals.
Development expert for NFPs.
Receivership consultant.
Developer or author of business plans.
CFO who attracts venture capital.
Author or columnist.
Seminar or webcast presenter.
And one dear to my heart,
facilitator.
Viable Niche—Facilitator
CPAs have a golden opportunity to be of service as a facilitator to their clients, because the work you do exposes you to many sorts of people, problems, and business situations. According to a 2003 AICPA survey, 90 percent of business decision-makers said that their accountant was competent, reliable, and demonstrated sound business judgment. Your CPA designation is a great piece of advertisement that shows you understand a business’s needs for crafting real solutions.
Keys to Being a Good Facilitator
Keys to being a good facilitator include
Meetings—Every business meeting needs a leader, but not every leader is a good facilitator. Most executives are terrible facilitators because they lack the skills and because they have a stake in the outcome. There is a truism in business meetings: Once the CEO speaks, everyone stops sharing their thoughts and ideas.
Objective—The facilitator’s role is to be an objective third party in any group setting. The facilitator lacks an emotional investment in the outcomes or decisions. Your purpose is to ensure that the meeting’s objectives get accomplished.
Involvement—The facilitator’s involvement can range from heavy to light. Your main responsibility is to foster dialogue among the participants so they share ideas, stay open to new possibilities, and make smart decisions.
Meeting Environment—The facilitator’s role is to create a meeting environment that is conducive to generating ideas for brainstorming and for honing those ideas with specific narrowing activities.
Fees—Fees can range from a flat fee per meeting, to an hourly rate, and to a fee per attendee. You can bill on a project basis. Better yet, you can tie a fee for facilitation into your advisory, accounting, or compliance services.
Facilitative Situations—The mere presence of an unbiased yet knowledgeable party helps to defuse negativity and prevents hurt feelings while encouraging involvement. As a facilitator, you can also challenge the status quo, prevent group think, or deter domination by one person or a minority.
Facilitators can be useful in any situation where people are called together to accomplish the tasks such as
Generating ideas.
Finding solutions.
Allocating resources.
Problem solving.
Vendor selection.
Retreats.
Annual meetings.
Budget or marketing strategy sessions.
Budget resource allocation meetings.
Company reorganization discussions.
All these require and benefit from an objective facilitator.
How to be Successful as a Facilitator
Upfront Skills
Facilitators need to enjoy being in front of a group, and need to have emotional maturity. You must be able to think on your feet, because you will often need to improvise when problems arise or people get off-track.
Emotional Intelligence
The facilitator must also be unafraid of emotional issues that crop-up in group dynamics. Your goal is to remove emotion out of a conflict and use it as a learning point. You help the attendees remain adults through their decision-making process.
Minimal Ego
The facilitator must use minimal ego. The meeting is not about you, it is about them. You are their process facilitator and are less important than the decisions and meeting outcomes. Naturally, as facilitator, you do not contribute to the ideas of the meeting. Instead, you keep the group on track to meet their goals.
CPAs who like to give advice and provide answers will not be successful as facilitators. Sharing your opinions—especially if you are highly regarded—will hinder your objectivity. Everyone loses when your ideas turn into their ideas.
To be successful in a retreat or brainstorming session, the ideas must originate from the group’s attendees and not be introduced from the outside. This is another reason why most business executives make terrible facilitators.
Shepherding the Group
The facilitator walks a fine line between letting the group explore and create and keeping the group on task. As facilitator, you must shepherd the group through the process and remove the barriers to their successful completion. If you drive them, they may not get to the most viable solution or stay accountable for the outcomes.
Interaction
You must play well with others.
How to Get Started as a Facilitator
Take a course or get a certification.
Offer your services pro bono to get the experience you need. Not-for-profits, homeowners associations, and local government units need but cannot afford professional facilitators. This effort creates visibility and cost-free-marketing.
Add Facilitator to your business card, website, and promotional material.
Co-facilitate with an experienced facilitator to practice and obtain feedback on your skills.
Conclusion
Stick to familiar turf.
As the statement above suggests, stick to those things that you are familiar with when it comes to marketing your services. To successfully market yourself you do not need to change who you are. You do need to see yourself just a little bit differently. The selling of professional services is one of the hardest things for anyone to do because you are putting your reputation on the line. And, if you do not deliver what you promise, it will be difficult to convince others that you are good.
Therefore, in marketing professional services, you must be good at what you do. The mindset that you are an expert accounting professional who is looking for organizations that require your expertise will go a long way in helping you create opportunities and, more importantly, big fees.
The phrase stick to familiar turf reminds you to focus on the areas that you know best. If you have worked with small businesses, market yourself to small businesses. If you are an expert in cash flow management, market that service to organizations that need to manage their cash flow carefully. If you have a long successful track record of helping not-for-profits, then your reputation in the NFP community will help you gain clients. Most importantly, if you helped others to be successful, then you have the right to ask them to introduce you to their friends and colleagues.
Of all the skills that we cover in this book, the marketing of professional services will be the hardest to master. Do not let this discourage or stop you from being of service to others. With time and practice this skill becomes easier and easier.
1 NPR November 23, 2010.