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Your Business: Get the View From 30,000 Feet

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If you operate a business, you know all too well that your work is never done. There is always a problem to solve, reports to run and statistics to analyze, emails to send, a customer to speak with (remember to take a break every now and again!). Along with the hands-on, task oriented items on your to-do list, there is another responsibility that business owners have, one that’s seldom discussed but is nevertheless a must-do—to think about the business entity and figure out how to make it grow and thrive.

Thinking about your company—where it is now, where it was a year go and where you’d like it to be in 12-24 months—demonstrates the difference between being a leader, who embodies the vision of the entity and a manager, who implements goals that enable the vision to be realized. Freelance solopreneurs must wear both hats—the manager, who prioritizes efficiency and gets things done and the forward-thinking leader, who engages in big picture thinking to contemplate the state of the business and looks to connect the dots between problems and their impact, recognize potential opportunities and plan for the future.

Ulyses Osuna, founder of the sizzling hot PR and personal branding firm Influencer Press https://influencerpress.com/ and protégé of marketing rock star Neil Patel, founder of both Kissmetrics and Crazy Egg https://www.crazyegg.com/ , recommends that business owners/leaders regularly examine your organization to assess what’s happening now and what might happen in the future. To effectively steward your business entity, it is critical that business leaders regularly devote time to think about your organization and observe how it functions in real time. Factors you may examine to supply relevant insights may include:

  • marketplace conditions, including the competitive landscape
  • how the company delivers its products and services
  • perceptions of the customer experience, including customer service, that the company presents
  • top-line and bottom-line sales revenues
  • the inbound marketing conversion rate
  • plans for growth and expansion

For companies large and small, including Freelance Consultants, Osuna feels that devoting an hour or two each week to studying the organization is needed to see and interpret the big picture view from 30,000 feet. Business leaders must do more than grind it out just to stay on top of (admittedly important) day-to-day responsibilities and keep things in motion. Remember what inspired you to create your entity; you want it to be all it can be. To maximize your organization’s potential, first get a warts-and-all understanding of where it is now, so you can recognize growth and expansion opportunities and decide how to prepare the company to pursue those opportunities. Neglect your business leader due diligence and fail to conduct frequent check-ins with the organization you created and you’ll eventually find yourself at the helm of a rudderless ship, tangled in the weeds, as you work hard but remain stuck and unable to achieve worthy goals that were once attainable.

Osuna says he gives his clients thought-provoking, sometimes edgy, questions to answer and you (and your team, if applicable) can do the same. It’s OK to address just a question or two in your brainstorming sessions, so long as you take a deep dive and keep it real. Osuna urges you to move forward and execute quickly when you have an ah-ha moment and discover something that might move the needle—do research thoroughly and plan carefully—because good ideas deserve immediate follow-up.

BTW, Freelance solopreneurs who doubt the wisdom of asking themselves questions and then answering themselves can refer to Consulting Drucker: Principles and Lessons from the World’s Leading Consultant, written by William Cohen, PhD (September 2018), to confirm that Osuna’s brainstorming method can produce useful results. Cohen’s book examines the influence that business consultant, educator and author Peter Drucker (1909-2005), who is known as the father of modern business management, has had on business practices. Cohen and his research team found that asking yourself questions and responding to them as if you are a separate entity, can produce credible answers. Your brain will supply answers, or attempt to, making the practice beneficial for a single individual to contemplate questions that require objective and big picture thinking.

Cohen at al. theorize that the primary reason for this phenomenon is that oftentimes, the facts needed to answer questions and resolve problems are already stored in your memory, even if some information cannot be easily accessed. Asking yourself questions, treating your brain as a separate entity and allowing it to find potentially useful answers, can eliminate many of the biases that may otherwise block you from identifying effective solutions. There is a limit to the phenomenon, however— if you are under a great deal of stress, or the problem is either too big or the situation is too demanding, the brain may not function well enough to identify a workable solution to the question or problem, even when you frame the query as if addressing someone other than yourself.

The list of questions below are written to help you successfully launch weekly or monthly business brainstorming sessions for your entity by focusing on three business functions that Drucker identified as vital: attraction of prospects, customer conversation rate and delivery of products or services. You can choose other questions to ponder, depending on your circumstances, and address them at your own pace. You may take on only two or three per week/month but devote an hour or two in each session to think about your business entity, it’s challenges and potential.

  1. Which systems improvements will make doing business easier, more efficient and/or less expensive?
  2. Which media outlets would best showcase the company and brand and has the company/or I been featured in one or more in the past 12 months?
  3. If I was able to hire one (or more) employees whose salary would be paid by a grant and cost me nothing, in what capacity would it make sense for the person(s) to work and would s/he work?
  4. Do my products/ services optimally fulfill the needs and aspirations of my customers? Should I add an upgrade or a simplified version or should I develop a new service or offer a new product?
  5. If I was given a no-strings gift of $300,000 to exclusively spend on the business, what would I spend it on?
  6. What do customers value most about the company? Where do customers feel the company falls short?
  7. Does the content produced for the company showcase me as a thought leader? In what categories have I (or can I) establish authority? This could involve guest articles, interviews, or speaking engagements.
  8. What do you want the company to look like in one year, two years, or five years?
  9. How do I provide solutions that solve client problems or achieve client goals?
  10. If I could do it over again, would I create this business in the way I have done—what, if anything, might change?
  11. What are the most common objection that prospects give to your sales pitch and what might be the best response?
  12. What is the biggest priority that the company faces now?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The Thinker created in 1904 by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) on display at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA 2016 exhibit, “Rodin: Transforming Sculpture.” 

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So Why Should They Hire You?

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Congratulations! A client with a big budget and a need for your kind of services has called you back for a second talk. You’re excited and a little nervous, too. There’s a lot riding on this interview—maybe this is a prestige client who will help you attract still more prestige clients? Maybe you have bills to pay and this assignment is your ticket to solvency?

Whatever your motive, acing the interview and signing the contract are paramount. Then the client throws this last-ditch, totally common and yet potentially flummoxing question at you–“Why should I hire you for this project?”

Most of us will flap our jaws aimlessly, talking about the value-added we bring, our work ethic, excellent customer service or deep expertise. All of these benefits are positive but in today’s hyper-competitive economy, a Freelancer must make a stronger case. We need to make the client salivate to have us on board.

As luck would have it, there are some good stock answers available and they will make you shine. These templates give the prospect the confidence to open the door and bring you onto the team. You maximize the impact by replying in a relaxed tone, keeping your answer clear and simple and avoiding the use of jargon.

Interview coach and author of Convince Them in 90 Seconds (2010) Nicholas Boothman suggests that you try something like this… “You know how an outside specialist has to be flexible and ready for the unpredictable? Well, I know how to adapt to changes, I have initiative and I can cover a lot of bases, so your team members will be able to concentrate on what they do best and I can take care of the other stuff that needs to get done.”

You might also try something suggested by business journalist Geoffrey James, author of Business Without the Bull (2014)…. ” You know how sometimes you can’t find top talent to bring on when you need them most? Well, I have ( x amount of) years experience in (whatever field) that will let me solve your (problem or need) and get the right solution up and running in a short time frame. When you hire my organization, you won’t have to spin your wheels searching for talent and you’ll avoid the risk of hiring the wrong person.”

Here’s a cool little retort for the Freelancer who has not seen age 35 in a few decades and it works whether one is speaking to a Baby Boomer, Gen X, or Millennial…”You know how sometimes people can get into emotional battles over how to approach a problem? One of the most important things I’ve learned over the years is how to bring these kind of conflicts to a quick resolution. If I’m on your team, you’ll not only get an experienced (name the specialty), but also someone with perspective, who can guide a team away from butting heads and toward getting the work done.”

Note that your answer positions you as the solution to the client’s problem or need and that is precisely how you want to be perceived, for that is why you will get hired. You may devise other answers that more closely reflect the circumstances of your field. Anticipate the question in advance of your next client meeting and think of scenarios that will help you answer the “Why should I hire you” question in a way that focuses on the client and how you can make his/her life easier.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Finesse Tough Questions Like a Pro

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An important ingredient in the recipe for success in life and business is the ability to effectively resolve objections.  Nothing takes the wind out of your sails faster than getting blindsided by a thorny question about your intentions,  abilities,  products or services.

The silver-tongued devils among us,  being natural planners (OK, schemers),  always anticipate and prepare for the likely push-back that their caper of the moment might receive.  But because they take a few minutes to consider how the other side might react to their idea,  perfectly pitched and expertly crafted answers land like rose petals,  as they have their way again and again.

You’ve gotta  admire those folks.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,  so let’s bestow a silver-tongued compliment and borrow a  few of their tricks,  so we can have our way with a few clients.

Identify the questions and objections that are most likely to be raised.

Organize what you’ve identified into basic  categories.  Your objective is to simplify the process by reducing the amount of preparation you must do and give clarity and focus to your responses.  You will feel more relaxed and in control because it will be easier to remember what to say.

Formulate and rehearse simple,  succinct and rational answers for each category.  Your answers should make sense separately or collectively and nothing can contradict.  In some cases,  your response may not precisely answer the question/objection,  but it must appear to do so (listen to politicians).  Think of one-size-fits-all answers for each category you’ve identified.  Ideally,  you will create a cohesive and convincing narrative that can add additional support to whatever it is you’re trying to advance or sell.

Listen carefully to questions and find the  “trigger”  word that reveals the heart of what  you must convincingly address.  Repeat the question,  to ensure that you’ve understood it and to give yourself time to reach into the right  “bucket”  and pull out a well-designed and rehearsed answer.

Project confidence as you look the questioner in the eye and respond with authority (but never defensiveness).  Jury consultants say that much of witness credibility involves body language.  Jurors apparently trust those who give good eye contact,  have good posture and do not fidget and squirm.

Respect the questioner by showing empathy for his/her viewpoint.  When I worked in sales,  I learned the  “feel,  felt,  found”  method and it goes like this: 

I understand how you might feel this way…

Occasionally,  others have also felt this way when initially evaluating…

Here’s what I’ve (or those who’ve successfully used this product) found…

As every silver-tongued devil knows,  questions or objections will eventually arise.  It’s not all bad,  actually.  The opposite of love is not hate,  but indifference.  If your client has an objection to some aspect of your concept or product,  it signals that he/she has paid attention to what you’ve said and is thinking about how your offering compares to what is being done now and if it could better meet the organizations’ needs.  The quality of your response will go a long way in either building or breaking the client’s trust in your brand.

Thanks for reading,

Kim