Maverick Mastery®

In this Century we are faced with a sceptical buying audience especially when our services are high end, high value. This means we are faced with some choices; we can reduce our prices, alter our business offerings or find a way to be ‘attractive’ to our potential customers – a way where they find us for our services rather than we spend our time looking for them to buy.

In this day and age these can be tough choices.

If you choose to keep your prices and business offerings the same then you need to ensure that your potential clients see you as ‘attractive’. Being ‘attractive’ to our customers begins with ensuring that you have a business proposition that is clear and understandable. If you have more than one business proposition then you need to ensure that you only describe or explain your proposition to the right audience at the right time, and increasingly on the right online network. Unless you are speaking to your inner network describing all your propositions will be seen as confusing and condemn you as a generalist. Only very few generalists with high end, high value services are bought these days. Our sceptical buyers want to buy from ‘the’ expert. It provides a comfort factor and is more likely to reduce any potential buyer’s remorse. Below I have outlined two must do things that you need to achieve to ensure that potential clients buy your services.

How to have a winning proposition

There are a number of things that you need to do to ensure that your proposition has a chance in standing out. These include the following:

v  Be sure of what it is that you have to offer. This may sound like an obvious statement but I have found that clients who start my business accelerator session (whether they have just started up in business or who have been in business for a long time) can often miss exactly what it is that makes their business special and the magic ingredient that they bring to it. This is more than having a Unique Selling Proposition, this is about knowing the deep roots of your business and what it is that you bring to your clients that no one else can.

What is it that you bring to your business that makes it sing?

v  Get back to basics or first principles. When you have been running a business for awhile it is easy for you to divert away from your core proposition or to confuse your offering with industry jargon. A lot of business people first had a career in corporate land and then unwittingly use the same language when they describe their services. This doesn’t really work unless you have a well known brand and have been able to spend the time educating your potential audience on what you have to offer.

What does your service do – in plain compelling English?

v  Ensure that your offering has a market. It is very easy to get swept up in the service that you want to deliver and miss what it is that your customers want to buy. Often your proposition is close to what the market wants and a few people buy – a slight tweak can enable you to have mass appeal.

Listen to what your customers are telling you – and fish where the fish are

v  Learn how to articulate your proposition so that others understand. This is a key crux as to why it is hard to buy your services. One of the best ways to solve this is to work with a mentor that has experience in helping people like you that can solve this conundrum. Another way is to spend time asking your previous clients what they got from your service (there are always pleasant surprises there!), breaking down the core components and then crafting a compelling story that describes your service and how you help your clients.

Ensure that what you do fits your business strategy

Leveraging your reputation

Buying high end, high value, high cost services are considered purchases and in a recession one that a buyer cannot afford to make frivolously.  In which case before they buy your service they will check out your reputation first. Last century a lot of this checking would have been offline with people that you know well and by referencing paid for advertising. This century, offline referencing is still vital but online referencing of your reputation is becoming all important and essential first steps prior to a purchasing decision being made.

The first thing someone does when they are considering buying your services is to check you out on the web. Reputation and credibility is made up of trust, character, competence and track record. It is possible to leverage your reputation but first you must decide what you want to be known for.

What you are known for is essential for people to buy your services.

To leverage your reputation online you should include (amongst other things) the following:

v  Having a Networking Strategy. Your networking strategy should include your strategy for what you are going to do online and offline to integrate your Outer, Middle and Inner networks. You will have clear goals and objectives, and understand the messages that you will be articulating to each group. Demonstrating that you are networking for advocates rather than customers is likely to endear you to your audience. Being able to have cohesive and professional conversations across a number of platforms with diverse people will enhance your reputation as an expert in your field.

v  Having a reputation management strategy. Are you aware of what people are saying about you and your brand? Do you have a strategy in dealing with both supporters and detractors of your message? Are the things that you are doing adding value to your reputation and business?  These amongst others are important questions that your strategy should be answering.

v  Dominate your niche – be the only person considered the best in your niche. Do your online profiles demonstrate your expertise in your chosen field? When you are ‘googled’, what will people find? If people are searching for your expertise are you easily found? To be able to leverage your reputation so that you are ‘attractive’ to your potential customers you need to be seen to dominate your niche. That means using the appropriate Social Media tools in your arsenal and being the only person who other people talk about when discussing your area of expertise. It is a lot easier to do this than you imagine!

v  Have a clear and consistent online/offline message. A great way to destroy reputation is to be inconsistent. People do not trust inconsistency so if you say ‘you help your clients by providing conflict training’ don’t be seen having an online argument with a group of people on an internet forum! You should never assume that something that is said negatively or ‘robustly’ in a private forum will not have an impact on your public persona. In this century your personal and business personas are explicitly linked.

Wondering why it seems so hard for potential clients to buy your services, especially in this climate is a question that is being asked constantly by business people every way. The key to solving this dilemma is to have a clear understanding of what you do and how you add value, providing a clear and consistent message and finally leveraging your reputation as an expert in your field.

Consultants and small business owners are being given the opportunity to learn the secrets of a successful networking strategy thanks to a new teleclass seminar from reputation specialist Judith Germain.

During the one hour teleclass which takes place on 22^nd July at 10.30am, Judith Germain, managing director of Dynamic Transitions, will be revealing how to leverage your personal brand and understand, define and design a networking strategy which gains more advocates and referrals.

Germain, who has over 15000 members in her network which spans Twitter, Ecademy, LinkedIn and as well as various offline networks, is also the Vice President of Blackstar Life Members Community of popular business social networking site Ecademy and has delivered networking strategy training to hundreds of businesses across the globe.

Recruitment Consultant David Shirley has taken one of Germain’s networking courses and says, “Jude covered a fair amount of ground in a short time and I have picked up several pointers around defining your circles of contacts (outer, middle, inner) and who populates those circles, linking together sites such as LinkedIn, Ecademy, Twitter etc, uses for Tweet Later and on, and on. This session was so useful to me as a newcomer to online networking.”

Germain believes that, many consultants and SME business owners forget that people increasingly buy from those that they know, like and trust and being credible and having a good reputational (personal) brand is essential in enabling the buyer’s decision making process to choose them over a competitor time and time again.

“Conducting business in the 21^st Century is substantially different than in the last century and brand perception and delivery is becoming all important. Many consultants and SME business owners dismiss this as a trend that affects big business only but to do so can mean the difference between winning and losing a sale. Brand reputation is becoming the ultimate decision maker and to ignore this trend will put your business and earning capacity in peril,” says Germain.

The Networking Essentials teleclass takes placed on 22^nd July 2009 from 10.30am to 11.30am. There are just 20 places on the course, which costs from just £20. For more details or to book your place visit www.networking-strategy.eventbrite.com/ or call 0208 208 288 0512.

Judith Germain is managing director Dynamic Transitions a leadership company specialising in working with Troublesome Talent ® and improving leadership performance within organisations. Judith provides strategic and network strategy mentoring for senior executives and business leaders and delivers innovative leadership programmes, leadership consultancy, training, coaching and mentoring to corporate clients. For more information visit www.developing-leadership.com or email jude@dynamic-transitions.co.uk

This morning I was taking advantage of the quiet of New Year’s day to browse the Internet. I came across the site Social Mention. The purpose of the site is to show you how often you are mentioned on the Internet.

When you are running a business and have decided that a good business strategy is to employ in part, an ‘attraction policy’ then being mentioned frequently on the internet can be advantageous to your business. How relevant (and accurate) such a tool as Social Mention is, is still to be determined but it does at least let you see where your content is being mentioned on the net, including the comments made by others about you.

According to Social Mention my social rank is 36/100 which means I’m mentioned once every 4 hours. Thomas Power founder of Ecademy Social Rank is 66.14/100 which according to Social mention means that he is mentioned on the Internet once every 30 minutes! Ivan Misner founder of BNI social rank is 26.71/100 which means he is mentioned once every 2hours.

Ivan and Thomas are established and effective offline and online networkers which may explain why they have such impressive Social Ranks. They are also talented and different displaying wilful independence from those that share the same space in the ‘Networking Industry’.

Are they good examples of mavericks that have understood and mastered their Industy specifics? If so should we be trying to follow their example and increase our Social Rank?

Judith Germain – Maverick Comment

If you liked this post you may wish to share it on Twitter by clicking here.

One of the biggest challenges facing businesses right now is a crisis of leadership. There is a need to ensure that the company will remain profitable, employees remain engaged and customers satisfied for the company to survive the current economic downturn. The second biggest challenge for businesses is to truly understanding what leadership is and how to ensure that it permeates throughout the company. This is, for many companies, much harder than it appears as this desire can often manifest itself as an increase in command and control management rather than a genuine improvement in leadership. Good talent management is hard to come by.

A true leader is trusted

The best way to distinguish management from leadership is to understand that management is generally concerned with controlling complex processes; and leadership is about managing and facilitating change. This manifests itself in the leader challenging the status quo and acting and thinking in a strategic way. Whilst management tends to be restricted to those in a management role, leadership is demonstrated by individuals regardless of any formal role with the company. By encouraging leadership by all employees is the key to a company’s success. Management and leadership is integral to each other and those that hold management roles need to have a good grasp and execution in both of these disciplines.

Leadership is getting things done through trusted influence. This implies two things, that the leader inspires trusts in his followers and he has the ability to influence others. To inspire trust the leader needs to be credible and have a good reputation. When deploying talent management strategies it is important to remember that employees are loyal to their leaders not to the organisation that employs them. With this in mind it is essential then that the development of leaders in the organisation, regardless of formal role, is planned, controlled and nurtured.

Good leaders are role models and have strong empathic characters that demonstrate high social intelligence. Social intelligence differs from emotional intelligence in so much as it focuses on the impact that an individual has on others. If you have high social intelligence then it is implied that you have high emotional intelligence as well.

How to develop trust

Trust = reputation and credibility; therefore to develop trust the leader must concern himself with having the right reputation and being credible in what they do. Employees need to believe in their manager and be able to consistently predict how their manager is likely to react in any given situation. This provides them with comfort and increases the chances that they will remain loyal to their manager. The basis of trust is character and competence. Questions to consider are:

• How much integrity does the leader have?
• Is the leader egotistical or humble?
• Is the leader’s intention honourable?
• How capable is the leader in his role?
• How does the leader’s track record stack up?

To develop trust the leader must provide the right level of autonomy to their employees. A leader that has an inappropriate command and control style of leadership demonstrates a breathtaking level of distrust in the employee’s abilities. This will encourage the employees to reduce their work performance and be less likely to be loyal to the manager or their company. Leaders in management positions need to be able to tell the truth at all times as this encourages trust in the relationship between the manager and the employee. The most effective leaders acknowledge other people’s contributions and not take a disproportionate level of credit for a job well done. They should be proud of an employee’s achievement and not feel threatened by their success. A leader that selectively shows their vulnerability to their employees, thus demonstrating that they are ‘real’ is more likely to engender trust. People find it hard to relate to individuals who seem strong all the time. The reverse is not true however, those that appear weak the majority of the time tend to engender distrust and contempt by those that should be following.

Credible leaders will be an expert in what they do, demonstrating a track record of competence that enables others to have confidence in their ability. They will treat others with respect and extend trust to others on a regular basis.

Trusted leaders are more likely to be able to influence their employees. With flatter structures and more matrix organisations it is increasingly likely that leaders are expected to manage employees that are not direct management reports. They are not responsible for their pay and cannot hire or fire them – they are, however, accountable for their performance.

With the credit crunch showing no immediate signs of ending, it will be imperative for leaders to work on cementing their credibility and trustworthiness, if they are to engage with their teams and encourage them to buy-in to the organisations plans for survival. Good staff are hard to come by and even harder to keep. In tougher times, a good leader will be fundamental in retaining and motivating the organisations top talent and preparing them for future succession. Equipping them the true qualities of leadership excellence is vital to securing the continuing success of the business in years to come.