The Gengis Khan of Client Acquisition...

Larry Bodine has a brilliant post on his blog about client acquisition at law firms, entitled Gengis Khan Principle: Why 10% Generate 80% of the Business.

And the situation is pretty much the same in consulting firms. There are many content experts who refuse to get involved in client acquisition, so they're in the mercy of rainmakers as to what kind of work they get from them.

And while rainmaking is fine, I believe constant and consistent lead generation is even better. The aim is not to turn interested people into clients right away, but help them to climb into your funnel and the automated lead nurturing system guides them until they have projects and are ready to hire your firm.

But for now, follow the link to read Larry's article on the Gengis Khan Principle: Why 10% Generate 80% of the Business.

The Proverbial Grand Canyon Between Leadership And Talent

We all know that the smaller the gap between management and front-line consultants, the higher the overall morale and enthusiasm of people will be. Yet, we can see quite a few consulting firms that remind us of the disaster Bob Nardelli created at Home Depot, and for which he was eventually booted out.

Some details have recently appeared in the New York Times.

Nardelli created a great example of elitism at Home Depot. One aspect of this elitism was that he offered catered free lunches for top management in the executive lunch room, while the “grunts” would eat downstairs in the “grunts’ eatery” on their own dime.

In contrast to Nardelli’s pompous elitism, the new CEO, Frank Blake has already started changing the culture into one that appreciates talent and promotes company-wide relationships regardless of rank and position.

Read the New York Times article and learn from it. How many Nardellis do you have in your firm? How much longer are you willing to tolerate their behaviour just because it brings in money.

To Market or Not to Market... This is the Question

Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog has a new great post on marketing professional services. He uses it mainly for law firms, but the same concept applies to management consulting firms as well.

Realistically, just as many law firms are pretty poor at marketing their services, so are many consulting firms. And this poor marketing comes from two problems.

1. They don't believe that marketing is a significant part of operating the firm
2. Therefore, they never invest in hiring a good marketing person
   

And as a result of this negligence, many otherwise brilliant consulting firms suffer from the dreaded feast and famine cycle, and they seem to spend more time in the famine cycle.

So, read Larry's post, Can You Beat this 25-question Sales Training Quiz?