consulting – Page 5 – Sales for Nerds

032 Michael Zipursky on the Elite Consulting Mind

Michael Zipursky

Michael Zipursky didn’t mean to start consulting with giant Japanese corporations in his early 20s. It just happened. Hear how he pulled it off, and how he started multiple businesses, including his most recent venture helping consultants learn from his mistakes (this should sound familiar to long time listeners). Plus, learn to improve your results by improving your mindset, from the author The Elite Consulting Mind. In this episode, learn how:

Michael set himself up for success in his early 20s before he got on a plane for Japan. (He found a niche for helping Japanese companies market to the North American market.)
Why he’s fascinated with languages and cultures.
Michael learned how to sell, sometimes the hard way.
- Why people try to rush sales before relationships, and what to do instead (and a time Michael made a bad mistake in this area).
- How many consultants make the opposite mistake, and never try to actually sell anything. (“No one buys consulting, unless someone makes an offer.”)
- No one wants to buy what we’ve created. They want to buy a solution to their problem.
- The only way to solve the problem is to understand it by asking questions.
- When you understand the problem, you can charge a lot more.
What’s holding people back? Usually fear. Fear of making a mistake, the unknown, and being rejected.
- The Catch-22 is that confidence and competence come from taking action, while people don’t take action because they’re afraid.
- Taking action gives you the only feedback that really matters– from the market.
When we do “take action”, a lot of the things that make you feel productive, because you’re spending time on them, are not actually moving your business forward. Drop those things, and spend more time on the smaller fraction of things that actually create lots of value. We often do things that are easy or comfortable, rather than the things that are hard and actually productive. For example, spend time to meet with people, or, at a minimum pick up the phone and have a two way conversation. Don’t fall into the trap of sending the quick email.
- Think you don’t have time? Follow the 80/20 rule. Document your process and pinpoint where you are really required. Offload repeated tasks (and your ego).
- What you can’t outsource— marketing! You have to define your audience and your message.
Bonus tip: If you really want to build a thriving practice, stay in touch and make introductions when you *don’t* have the solution they need right now. This is a great way to build trust.

Books

The Elite Consulting Mind: 16 Proven Mindsets to Attract More Clients, Increase Your Income and Achieve Meaningful Success, by Michael Zipursky.

Other books mentioned:

80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More, by Perry Marshall
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less, by Richard Koch

Other Tools:

The Consulting Blueprint from ConsultingSuccess.com.
The “Mad Libs” Marketing Message generator.

The wine

We were on a Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir kick for this discussion, without any coordination. Michael was drinking some Patz & Hall 2014 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (which is amazing, if you like Pinot like I do). I had the also delicious but less amazing (but much more affordable) Sean Minor 2014 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.

Patz and Hall

Sean Minor

Where to find Michael:

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com (the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients but would love some help getting more).

You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, Player.fm.

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

031: Rusty Shelton on Authority Marketing and Writing Books

Rusty Shelton

Rusty Shelton has written 2 books, and his latest one, Authority Marketing: How to Leverage the 7 Pillars of Thought Leadership to Make Competition Irrelevant, is about using books to help spread your message and grow your business.

I sat down with Rusty in his Hill Country office to talk about media, authority, marketing, and more. In this interview, learn…

How Rusty got into the publishing world, and how he got started on his first book.
The “why?” behind writing a book– it’s not about getting rich from selling a lot of copies. (“The worst way to make money from a book is buy selling it.”)
Why every company is a media company.
Why books are different than other forms of media, and why writing one is different for your brand than other forms of content.
3 types of media channels
- Rented media (Facebook, etc)
- Earned media (PR, speaking, referrals, etc)
- Owned media (this is the new channel that didn’t exist for most of human history, at least not a global scale)
3 types of audiences– the stadium analogy
- your customer and partners
- people who have a seat in the stadium, but haven’t bought yet.
- outside the stadium
The big marketing mistake companies make with the stadium
How to set up compelling Lead Magnets.
How to convert earned media to owned media.
Content strategy as your personal newspaper
- Don’t fill it with ads or op-eds
- Think like the media, not a marketer– focus on the needs of the audience
Why personal brands can be more powerful than big corporate brands
How to use visuals to promote your personal brand
How your personal brand is important, even for referral-based work
3 ways to publish
- Traditional publishing with a major publisher, an advance, etc. Takes about a year. Getting harder and harder to get this if you don’t already have a big stadium.
- Independent– you get the editor, design the cover, etc. You can sell these in bookstores, but there’s more work involved, and you shouldn’t expect to be on a lot of shelves.
- Assisted self publishing, or hybrid (like Greenleaf Books, Advantage | Forbes Books)
Doesn’t matter as much as it used to, but, the book has to be good, and it can’t look like it was “self-published”.
- You need to have an audio book if you’re trying to reach business audiences. (Joel Block here in Austin help us do our reading, which took 9 hours for 35,000 words, and yielded an 8 hour audio book.)
Do an online brand audit– type your name into Google. Are you there? Do the results line up with what you want your prospects to see?
What’s holding me back from writing a book?
- How to “eat the elephant”, and why you don’t need to write a 100,000 words.
Sales for Nerds the book– it’s coming. What have I done?!?!?! What would you like to see covered in the book? Let me know on Twitter.

Books

Authority Marketing: How to Leverage the 7 Pillars of Thought Leadership to Make Competition Irrelevant

And Rusty’s previous book:

Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset

The wine

Monte Real Rioja 2009 from Spain. Delicious, a bit of BBQ and smoke. Feels right at home in the Texas summer.

Where to find Rusty:

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com (the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients but would love some help getting more).

You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, Player.fm.

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

030 David A. Fields on Building an Irresistible Consulting Business

DavidAFields

David A. Fields shares his journey from a teenager trying to save up money to buy a computer, to becoming a consultant, to helping other consultants with the business of consulting. He recently wrote one of the most useful books on consulting I’ve read, The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom. (Seriously, read this book, it’s not the typical 20 pages of content and 200 pages of filler.)

In this interview, David shares his story, and advice from his book, including:

The critical lesson he learned selling shoes: it’s not about the shoes, it’s about the feet. (This sound really simple, but it’s not easy to pull off in practice, even for some of the 8-figure firms David helps.)
How he “fell into” consulting, then got worried because his partner had to quit 4 weeks later, and how “on a lark” he started working with other consultants.
Why he loves consulting.
Why you don’t have to be super smart, innovative, or even better than the competition. (And why attempts at differentiation probably lose more business than anything else.)
You have to show the client that they can trust you to solve the problem without hurting them. (And what you have to do with your approach to build trust.)
Why consulting is bought, not sold.
How to perform “The Turn” from marketing and relationships (social norms) to an actual sales opportunity (market norms) with 7 simple words: “are you open to a separate conversation?”
How to structure and set fees, including using the “heart attack question” to bound the budget discussion.
Some encouragement on building a consulting practice: “This isn’t a business about doing things perfectly, it’s about doing the right things.”
Plus, David and Reuben get into details on structuring proposals.

A quick recap of the 6 Steps from David’s book:

Think “right side up” (client first)
Maximize impact with the prospects you have (the right people, the right problem, the right solution, at the right time, with the right fishing line) As consultants, “we don’t hunt, we fish”.
Build visibility, with 2 of the 5 channels (speaking, writing, networking, trade associations, digital presence). However, 1 of the channels must be networking.
Connect, connect, connect
Become the obvious choice (“Discovery” is the key here, and will be the title of one of David’s upcoming books)
Propose, negotiate, and close (including how to offer different options and how to handle price objections).

Books

Irrestible Consultants Guide to Winning Clients

The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom

The wine

Reuben had some Marquis de Calon (Bordeaux, Saint Estephe 2010) 53% Cabernet sauvignon, 38% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Plum, red current, coffee, earth. Yum.

David does not drink alcohol (despite trips to Bordeaux and Italy), but here’s his recipe for irresistible iced chocolate:

1 tbs cacao powder*
1 tbs carob powder*
1 handful unsalted cashews*
1 frozen, ripe banana for sweetener
20 oz water

Blend all ingredients in a high-power blender (Vitamix or Blendtec) for 50 seconds on high. Pour over glass of ice cubes.

*David uses raw, organic ingredients, but it’s not required.

Where to find David:

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.

You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, Player.fm.

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

Episode 9: Matthew Pollard on learning to sell

Matthew Pollard (“The Rapid Growth Guy”) comes on Sales for Nerds to talk about how he learned to sell and become one of the top sales reps in Australia, despite being extremely introverted. He took an approach that seems so simple after he mentions it, but I hadn’t heard of anyone else doing sales “self-training” this way.

In this episode, Matt discusses:

How he taught himself to sell, including the steps of the sale, how to turn features into benefits, and how to close.
How he taught his team to sell.
“People hate to be sold to, but people love to buy.”
Why if you’re doing too much “hard core selling”, your message isn’t right.
Why introverts have a long term advantage in sales versus most extraverts. (And how to take that advantage.)
Why he puts the message first, even before the audience.
Why you need to turn features into benefits, and benefits into stories.
Why stories are so important.
What can I do above and beyond the core functional skills/services/products to give my customer an amazing experience.
Why you don’t want to spend tons of time writing “educational” proposals– it not only wastes your time, it decreases your chances of winning.
If you confuse the customer, you lose the sale.
Practical steps on niching, including a real world example (and a meta-example of Matthew’s storytelling).
Why our brains are overwhelmed by input and we have to focus.
Focus on the people who love what you do– not the people you can never make happy.
Most people have been motivated by fear of not having enough money for most of their lives. They have a set of goals that are driven from here.
Why if you do what you love, there’s always more energy (as shown by Matthew in this interview after getting 4.5 hours of sleep).
The mistake people make in underestimating themselves.

Get the episode now on iTunes.

The Wine

Senorio de Barahonda Sin Madera 2012– lots of pepper and blackberry and some licorice, but not in a bad way. Opens up nicely — although, as we note, it could really do with a steak or a lamb chop. 😉

Where you can find Matthew: Web site, @MatthewPollard_, LinkedIn. And here’s his growth exercise.

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.

p.s. Here’s Sydney Road, where Matthew started his sales career:

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