| | By Mick James
Do you have any
single friends? I’m not
asking for myself, I’m
just curious. I think we
all know a few of these
people. Attractive,
intelligent, solvent,
and yet perennially
without a mate and often
complaining loudly about
the situation.
The temptation for
the married couple with
such friends is to
attempt a bit of
matchmaking. And that’s
where the problem
starts. Would A like B?
What kind of a bloke
would Z like? And why
won’t these people tell
us their real names?
The crux of the
matter is that we don’t
know what these friends
of ours are looking for,
and still less do we
know what they have to
offer prospective
partners. And the reason
that we don’t know is
that they don’t know
themselves.
These thoughts were
running through my mind
as I attended the first
face-to-face meeting for
members of the
Partners' Circle. This
was a networking event
hosted by Top-Consultant
in association with
business coach John | |
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| | Niland of Success121.
Partners’ Circle is an
invitation-only network
for senior figures from
the world of consulting
– which already boasts
300+ members only two
months after launching.
It’s already held a
number of successful
“virtual seminars”, but
this was its first
face-to-face event.
As I’ve often
remarked before, there’s
a shocking lack of
networking opportunities
for consultants. It’s
partly a structural
weakness in the
industry, but – like
tigers – consultants are
also not social beasts,
often preferring to hunt
alone even when
technically in
“partnerships”. So it
was quite fun to watch
them sniffing around
each other and exploring
each other’s territory.
Networking and
complimentary drinks
over, the group settled
down to the prospecting
case study and the real
fun. It’s always been my
contention that
consultants are very bad
at articulating what
they do. Non-consultants
are constantly asking me
“what exactly is it that
consultants do” and | |
|
| | while it’s easy to
dismiss this as a naïve
response from people
who’ve never met one, it
can often still be at
the front of someone’s
mind after a long period
in the company of a
consultant, and in some
cases even at the end of
a project. Consultants,
as John Niland pointed
out at the start of the
session, are generally
poor at articulating
propositions (partly
because they are
insanely jealous of
their own IP, and don’t
want to give anything
away). To prove the
point, it’s quite common
for me to be asked to
remove the most basic
advice from articles we
write following
interviews with
consultants in case this
“gives the game away”.
The other problem is
that consultants are
terrified of defining
themselves too narrowly
in case it limits their
opportunities,
preferring to talk in
the vaguest terms about
“achieving outstanding
excellence”. Niland
attacked this first,
selecting a victim and
asking him to define
what his practice does,
not in the usual | |
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| | generalities, but in
terms of “we do this for
people like this”. The
next step was
interesting: by focusing
on the individuals you
consult to, you can then
begin to look at the
sort of world they move
in, the sort of people
they deal with on a
day-to-day basis. The
goal being to influence
these contact points
into recommending your
services.
“Networking is a
great start, but it’s
not sustainable,” says
Niland. “You need to
communicate in a
structured manner so you
don’t have to spend the
rest of your life
networking.”
What was interesting
about this exercise, and
the workshop format, was
as much the detailed
questions it raised as
the answers we came up
with: “Generalists can’t
do this kind of
analysis,” says Niland.
“That’s the price of
being a generalist.”
The full process has
eight steps and at this
networking event we only
got half way through the
full exercise. But the
final stage we got to in
the workshop was
figuring out what to do | |
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| | with the people we
identified as providing
potential routes into a
new client. The answer:
give something away.
Consultancies are mines
of data, most of it
highly sector specific,
most of it not in the
public domain. As a
journalist I’m keenly
aware of how much
information simply
circulates round the
system like London
water, while people
unknowingly sit on
goldmines of data. It’s
a simple mantra: deliver
some value, and people
will see you as a
valuable chap – and tell
others about you.
I’m only scratching
the surface here, and
Niland will be
continuing to develop
his insights in a series
of “laboratories” with
Partners’ Circle members
over the coming months.
I do recommend that you
get along if you can, as
this sort of thing
really only works when
done in conjunction with
other living bodies.
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