When I was just about ready to step out on my own, to start a business, I was looking for any materials I could find that would help me be better at my craft. Whether it was professional development, personal development, or topics related to change management and entrepreneurship, it was for me. That’s when I found the book “Consulting Success”, by Michael Zipursky.
If you are courageous enough to start a business, or perhaps you already own one, my guess is that you are also a little bit different then most people (non-business owners) in how you spend your time. While a lot of people read, I find that most people enjoy fiction, biographies, and topical content, more often for pleasure than for learning and understanding. Business owners, on the other hand, tend to be further reaching – looking for something that will improve their chances of success in the marketplace.
If that’s you, let me tell you a little bit about the book, and how it helped me. And then you can decide whether or not you want to pick up a copy.
What is “Consulting Success”
I stumbled upon Consulting Success as a book, and then as I finished the book, realized there was a whole program behind it. But as I quickly cover it here, I’ll discuss the Idea, the Book itself, and then the Program.
Consulting Success – The Idea
First of all, don’t throw the book out because it’s about “Consulting”. Every business owner is a “consultant” to some degree or another. If you remodel houses, your clients and customers consult with you on the best options, and the right approach. If you are a plumber, your clients want to know first, what’s wrong, then how you’re going to fix it, and at what cost.
If you own a merchandise store, you are considered by your customers as the “expert” for all of your merchandise – whether you like it or not. They come to you or your staff with questions about how something goes together, where it might be placed in a room, or what colors might go well with whatever the product is. So don’t glance over the book because you think it’s about “Consultants”. It is for consultants, and you are that to your customers and clients.
So what’s it about? Consulting Success is all about helping new entrepreneurs find success fast by helping them narrow their focus on both their customers, and their products and services, while taking the right next steps. I’ll cover these in more detail a bit later. But for now, the intent is to help you find success in your new venture.
Consulting Success – the Book
This was my introduction to them. I picked up a paperback copy from Amazon and started reading. It’s a fairly easy read, and covers a broad range of topics including marketing, branding, etc… It’s no “Patrick Lencioni” book (author of many professional development allegories, like The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team; also one of my favorite authors), but it’s still a really easy read.
I found the book extremely practical with tips and tricks, and many of the topics I hadn’t really considered. After all, starting a business is a big endeavor with all sorts of things to consider.
As you get to the end of the book, the last chapter is about their Consulting Success Program, which I immediately started researching and soon signed up.
Consulting Success – the Program
The Consulting Success Program was much like the book – practical, intuitive, and covered topics in ways I hadn’t really considered. When I signed up, a few years ago, they had a 10-week intro program for new consultants. If I recall it was about $1,000 to attend, and it provided twice-weekly calls with Michael or his brother, and then a weekly Q&A call with the rest of the participants.
I’ll tell you more about what I learned in the next section, but in short, it gave me opportunities to ask other business owners, including the authors, questions that I needed answers to. And it allowed me to hear the questions other business owners were asking that I hadn’t thought of.
Once the initial program is complete, you can continue with a monthly subscription. At that point, I didn’t have the cash-flow to continue, so I opted to exit stage left and continue to practice what I had learned. They were very helpful and gracious along the way, and I am interested in re-engaging them in the future, for sure.
What I learned from “Consulting Success”
In a nutshell, I learned who to focus on, what to work on, and what practical next steps were for me.
Who to Focus On
In the book, and in the program, there is an intense focus on identifying your “Ideal Client”. This is the person, or personality, your business is intended to serve. As a business owner, it’s easy to think, “I’ll just open my business doors, and all sorts of people will walk in and buy stuff.” Often that’s not the case. But having an intense focus on who specifically you want to walk through your front doors, as a customer, gives you great insight into how to advertise, what wording to use, how to identify their needs, and ultimately, how to craft solutions that your ideal client will want to purchase.
Think about it – no matter what your business does, whether it’s an ice-cream shop, a hair salon, or a lumber yard, you should know who your ideal client is, what problems they have, and be selling the products and atmosphere that solves their problems and makes them feel at home – better than anyone else.
Side note, that’s why 120 Web Design is so focused on business owners. We know the challenges you face, the frustrations you have with keeping your website up-to-date and running, and how much of a nag that can be while you have so many other things on your plate.
So spend some time thinking about who you want to walk into your business to buy your products and services, and think about how you can better meet their needs.
What to Work On
Not only does the book focus on the “who” (aka the ideal client), but it really focuses on practical steps to take as you start your business. One example was their focus on narrowing your services to a small niche. As a business owner, I want to meet the needs of as many customers as possible, and to me, that meant having many products and services. But if I’m focusing on an “ideal client”, my focus needs to be specifically on the products and services that ideal client needs. Which is far narrower than everything I could put on the menu.
It’s sort of like a restaurant. There is a reason restaurants are typically oriented toward a nationality or cuisine. It would be practically impossible to have a menu that serves both Lasagna and other Italian foods, along with authentic fried rice, and grilled hamburgers – and do all of them very well.
Instead, restaurants pick a cuisine, and focus in on that cuisine. A fun thing to consider is when you go to a restaurant that has few choices on the menu, versus a restaurant that has 5 pages of menu items, the one with few generally tastes better, and commands a higher price per item than the restaurant with a long menu. It’s generally because they are good at what they do, and their clientele know it.
So focus on narrowing your products and services to meet your customers needs. Side-note, one thing I hadn’t considered as I was learning this, was also the amount of work that goes into the marketing and standard operating procedures that are needed for so many services. When you provide few services, you can make the marketing and advertising, contracting, and procedures much more robust and effective, than if you are trying to do all of that for many products.
Practical Next Steps
The last thing that really stuck out to me was the practical next steps. One of the concepts they hammered into me, was this idea that as new business owners, it’s really easy to get caught up in doing work that keeps us busy, instead of work that brings us clients. This was true of me, and maybe something you should consider.
For example, if I’m a new business owner, focused on opening up a new hair salon, I might think I’d rather spend my time trying out multiple hair products to make sure I’m giving my customer the right ones, and can speak personally about their use. But trying out multiple hair products doesn’t bring in revenue. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to do, but it might not be the right thing to spend most of your time on.
Instead, the best thing to do might be to start communicating your availability and openings on social media. Cold-calling, or getting creative to get in front of you ideal client. It’s less convenient work, and probably more awkward, but it will lead to revenue faster than sitting at home trying hair products.
For me, I thought I had to build out a lengthy website with all of my services animated and visually appealing. I spent so much time on that, that I didn’t have time to actually get in front of my potential customers. I thought a good website was all I needed. It turned out that what I needed was to have conversations with ideal clients. The website is definitely needed, and it needs to look good, but the best thing for me to do was to interact with customers.
So make sure you aren’t focused on busy work, but rather focused on getting in front of your customer.
What you might learn from “Consulting Success”
You might still be on the fence about getting the book. That’s fine. I’m not here to sell you a book. In fact, I get nothing out of the Amazon link above, or this plug for Consulting Success. Well, that’s not entirely true. I get the satisfaction of knowing I helped a fellow business owner in some way, to become an even better business owner.
But here’s what I think will happen if you pick up the book.
About your Customers
You’ll learn more about the type of customer you want to serve, and how to better serve them. Hold the phone, what did you just read? That’s right, you’ll learn more about who you’ll serve. Now quickly think about the brands you love and use on a daily basis. Why do you love those brands? You love them because they “fit” you. Your lifestyle, your budget, you likes, etc…
That’s not on accident. You buy from the brands you love because to some degree, maybe even unconsciously, they know who you are, and what you want.
About your Products
Once you learn more about your customers, you’ll have a much better understanding of what problems they have and similarly important, better ways to solve them. If I know my customers are under the age of 65, there’s a good chance they are working full time, and maybe only available in the evenings.
If I know my ideal customers love to eat Pizza with pineapples, I can focus on making the best pizza with the best pineapple topping around. That also helps me hone in on better problems to solve. Do they like deep dish or thin crust. What about stuffed crust? Do they like their pizza sweet, like Papa Johns, or salty like Pizza Hut? Do they think Ham goes better with Pineapple, or pepperoni?
In other words, I can stop focusing on things that are not important to my ideal client, and really focus in on what is most important to them.
About your Brand
Lastly, once you have a good understanding of who your customers are, and what products or services meet their needs, you can double down on how you brand your business. Do you want to be known as a generalist, or a specialist. Is your brand rustic, or polished? Will your customers respond to bright colors, or darker shades. What about fonts? Cursive or plain text? Bold or thin, and should you use large typeface or small?
For a lumberyard, perhaps your brand might look a bit more rustic, catering to the hard-working carpenters who appreciate sweat and sawdust. For a ladies hair salon, perhaps it’s chic, and polished with a really classy appeal.
Either way, your brand matters, and it will impact who you attract.
Conclusion
Well, hopefully I’ve given you a lot to think about, regarding your business. Our goal at 120 Web Design is to make our customers more money then we cost them. We’ve done that successfully with many of our customers, and if the information above helps you know your customer better, so you can craft better products and services that meet their needs, I’m confident we’ve added a little bit of value – and perhaps a whole lot – to you and your business.
If there is ever anything we can do to help you be even more successful, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
