It takes a lot of work in fact to generate a steady stream of good referrals and it’s no surprise that very few firms ever get to this place where the business is sustained and growing entirely by doing great work for good clients and systematically asking for and following up on referrals. It is however the highest form of “marketing” that we should all aspire to.
The closer a principal gets to his target exit age, the less risk he takes. At some point, within the five year window, the firm quits evolving altogether, and just when he should be building something strong that will survive the transition to new owners and therefore be easy to sell, the firm begins to deteriorate. The last few years in the business are poor ones. If it gets sold at all, it’s not at the price hoped for. The result is underfunded retirement for a burned out entrepreneur who put all his eggs into the end-game basket. The journey was unnecessarily painful and stressful because of the decisions deferred, and the payout wasn’t there in the end. Lose, lose.
I know everything looks bleak. You feel like things are so far gone that you wonder if the only avenue left to you is to shut it down. It’s difficult in times like this to have clarity on your situation and know what to do next, but if you still have the fight in you and want to make this business work, I can help by telling you what you need to do. Then it’s up to you to do it.
How well is your leadership team supporting the people on the new business development front lines? Find out by answering this eight-question quiz.
One of the things I am most fascinated by is how people become trapped in mental models, or ways of thinking, often in spite of overwhelming evidence that the model is flawed or, as is often the case, completely, absolutely 100% wrong. The perpetuation of falsehoods happens in individuals and groups, with intelligence seemingly no
The passing of Steve Jobs has left many of us contemplating his impact on our lives beyond the devices we now take for granted. Perhaps even more important than the technology itself, Jobs left behind some powerful business lessons for us. We’re all going to draw different lessons and inspirations from the man; here are
The difference between success and failure is often not in knowing what to do, but in doing it. One of the areas where the getting it done problem routinely arises is in living the firm’s positioning. When working with a firm I routinely see this pattern:
Nine years into advising creative people on how to sell their services I have come to see that the variability of our individual hard-wiring not only predicts our likelihood of success, but it helps to identify which business development strategy we will select in our pursuit of success. McLelland’s Theory of Needs postulates that people
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