Barbara Walters Price

Are You Intentional?

My CEO, Chris Mercer, had an interesting post on his blog, Mercer on Value, containing a useful idea: The Rhino Principle.

As Chris relates in his blog, Paul Johnson, a British historian and author, wrote a column describing the Rhino Principle (subscription required) in the January 30th, 2006 issue of Forbes:

"Now, the rhino is not a particularly subtle or clever animal. It’s the last of the antediluvian quadrupeds to carry a great weight of body armor. And by all the rules of progressive design and the process of natural selection the rhino ought to have been eliminated. But it hasn’t been. Why not? Because the rhino is single-minded. When it perceives an object, it makes a decision – to charge. When the charge is over, the object is either flattened or has gone a long way into cover, whereupon the rhino instantly resumes browsing."

Chris adds:

"Johnson says that when he knows friends are stuck and cannot seem to get off the dime on a project, he will send them a “rhino card.” The rhino card has a painted watercolor of a rhinoceros on the front side of a postcard. He then writes a note suggesting that they simply “charge it”, whatever it is, and admonishes them to remember the Rhino Principle."

Stop and think about where you might be stuck?  Are you in need of a "rhino card"?  Or do you know someone who needs a "rhino card"?

Networking for the Person Who Hates Networking - Part II

In Part I of this post, I talked a bit about Thom Singer's book, Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships.  In this second post, I complete the list of those hidden jewels of advice from the book as well as discuss a recent networking seminar I attended. 

More helpful hints from Thom Singer's Some Assembly Required:

Networking for the Person Who Hates Networking - Part I

It seems as if the good Lord is telling me to pay attention to networking.  In late December, I bought Thom Singer's book, Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships.  I bought it out of curiosity because I very much enjoy Thom's blog.  The book is a fast and easy read with some hidden jewels of advice (hidden for me, at least).  After reading it on a plane ride from Memphis to Miami, I came away with a renewed commitment to be intentional about building and nurturing my network. 

In mid-January, I received an invitation to attend a "Purpose Driven Networking" seminar.  I signed up and while the information was geared more toward smaller businesses, I found it to be helpful.

Then, networking has been all over the blogs I follow so, as I said, the good Lord is speaking to me. If you've been reading this blog for any period of time, you know I hate "networking."  But with the right attitude and the right intentions, networking can be fun and rewarding.   

Here are a few truths that resonated with me and are hopefully helpful to you:

Creative Uses of RSS

As a professional marketer, I'm always interested in new ways to get information into the hands of our clients and prospects. 

I'm a big believer in "content"  -- or useful information that the client and prospect needs -- as a driver and differentiator for a professional services firm.   As such, my firm's website, while not the prettiest or most navigable, is updated often and is chock full of content which drives traffic -- a lot of traffic.  According to all the metrics I can find (and pay for), Mercer Capital's website is by far the most visited in our profession.  And it does a darn good job of turning visitors into buyers.  Yet, we don't use RSS in any way on the website.

Hat's off to Steve Rubel for pointing us to RSS Beyond the Headlines.  He links to Basement.org which provides a listing of creative uses of RSS.  I specifically liked the calendar idea given that we will have a pretty full calendar of teleseminars, webinars, and other speaking engagements for 2006.  We also have at least one book that will be published this year.  This calendar function might be a great way to leverage RSS and push content and reminders to our clients and prospects.  It's a beta right now but possibly worth a try.   

There are some seemingly useful ideas on the personal side too.  Check it out.

Two New Articles Added

Check out the Complimentary Articles section of this blog.  I've added the most recent article (written with Matthew G. Washburn) on podcasting, as well as an article I wrote for the Journal of Accountancy entitled "CPAs: Get Your Business Valuation Niche Out There."  They are linked here in a pdf format.  Enjoy!

One Minute a Genius, the Next an Idiot

The title of this post reflected a day in my life.  Early last week I was approached by a professional association to speak at their annual conference in Las Vegas.  The lady I spoke with seemed quite excited to add me to their program.  I was immensely flattered and a bit more proud of myself than I should have been.

Pride certainly does goeth before a fall ...

A mere few hours later as I and the good folks who work with me were going through the final details of a teleseminar we had scheduled for the next day, it occurred to me that I might have failed to actually secure a vendor to provide a bridge line.  Can you say "Oh My Gosh! ..."

Great Selling Tip

Great piece of selling advice via Keith's Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone blog:

"... shut up! Never sell beyond the close!"

Ask yourself: "once I've made the sale, do I keep on selling?"  If the answer is "yes," then stop. 

This is a powerful piece of advice from Keith via his old boss at Deloitte.  Remember it.

(The post it came from is an interesting read too.  It's nice to know that we're all insecure at times.)

Networking for the Right Reasons

I linked to this article in BusinessWeekOnline a week or so ago and do so again to highlight a wonderful, easy, and practice-building idea that is nothing but organization and intentionality.

An insurance agent highlighted in the article, John Dierolf, writes a letter or note to his customers once a quarter (once a month for his larger customers).  Then, and here's the take-a-way, he has an assistant create two more additional addressed envelopes that he places in a file folder for three and then six months later.  This file folder is his tickler file. 

So, if you get a letter from him on January 1, you can expect another one three months later and then a second one three months after that.  This obviously takes time.  So, why would he invest the time?  He does it because this systems causes him to intentionally think about his clients and make contact. 

Ask yourself, how much time do you spend actively thinking about your clients and how you can help them, i.e., being proactive?  Then ask yourself how much time you spend being reactive -- responding rather than creating?  If you're like most professionals, you spend the vast majority of your time in the latter category yet you know that it is self-limiting in terms of both growth and income.  So, do something today that begins to create a different future for you.

I advocate regular contact with existing clients and referral sources and one way to do that is via a newsletter and I like newsletters for a variety of reasons.  However, there is nothing better than a personal touch and a letter -- or better yet, a handwritten note -- is a wonderful and easy tactic. 

Action Steps

Your action step today is to go through your client list as well as your network of referral sources, friends, and colleagues and identify those people to contact.

Your next action step is to create the tickler system and alert those who provide administrative support to you (if you're lucky to have administrative support) of the system.

Your third action step is to begin writing the notes and/or letters to a few people at a time (don't overwhelm yourself or else this initiative will surely fail).  Create those two addressed envelopes and place them in your tickler file.

Then, repeat action step #3 on a daily or weekly basis. 

We'll be instituting this idea here at Mercer Capital and I'll keep you apprised of the results,

Podcasting Article - How to and Why

My associate, Matt Washburn, and I recently wrote an article on podcasting for business appraisers.  It was published in the American Society of Appraiser's BV (business valuation) E-Letter. 

While the audience for this article consists of business appraisers, the marketing leverage lessons are applicable to many, if not most, professional service firms.  The article also spells out the software and equipment you'll need to get started (and how much it currently costs).

Mercer Capital has only recently begun to produce podcasts yet they are an important part of our marketing strategy going forward.

If you are interested, see below.

Guy Kawasaki is Blogging

Check out Guy Kawasaki's new blog, Let the Good Times Roll.  Notice his definition of "blogger" too.