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Luk’s Bi-Weekly 'Think Piece' For Consultants

Edition #21 - March 31, 2021

Dear reader,

Here's the latest Edition of 'The Authority', helping consultants grow their revenue by sharing intriguing educational stories.

It’s my ultimate aspiration to create a bubble of calmness with this bi-weekly ‘think piece’, a place of stillness in the face of everyday stress. A chance to reflect on what really matters in your consulting work.

The Big Question

Questions I get from consultants. And my answers.

In this newsletter, I will dive into the topic of the ‘Consulting Altitude of Involvement’ one more time, given all the questions I received in the past weeks. Great reader engagement, thanks all of you!

I am summarizing everything I wrote in the previous newsletters #19 & #20 and add a last piece of information, including my newest cool diagram/visual.

It all started with a discussion during a consultancy team workshop a few weeks ago. We discussed how to move from downstream ‘client activities’ to upstream, doing ‘client transformations’. It was a lively discussion and here’s what I wrote about it my previous newsletters:

Newsletter 19 (click here to go back to #19)

I introduced the principles of ‘downstream versus upstream consulting’ (inspired by author David C. Baker) and ‘altitude of involvement’ (inspired by author Jonathan Stark).

I’d say, it’s the ultimate ambition (or dream) of my clients to get to such an authoritative, upstream positioning where they are in control of their work (saying NO to all non-ideal clients) and time (working less at higher rates, having enough time to build/grow visibility and expertise), when they start to organically grow their consulting business based on their visible expert reputation (marketing turned to inbound), etc.

Newsletter 20 (click here to go back to #20)

In #20 I introduced the vicious ‘consulting default model’, starting with begging for projects and ending with begging again to get your invoice paid after a horrible long waiting period and toxic scope creep discussions.

I explained I never got into this malicious consulting default model (I added a visual of the model in #19) and I advised readers to move away from ‘doing activities’ to ‘doing client transformations’, being considered as a distinctive subject matter expert, difficult to replace, hard to get, working at high-end rates, in control of client and time management.

This newsletter, I’d like to end the altitude of involvement trilogy with my ‘Authority Grid’

I normally spend 2-3 hours discussing this grid in workshops, I will try to be as concise as possible here.

You can view the image below full-screen or download it here.

● The rows: the ‘altitude of positions’: from team workers at lower altitudes of consulting involvement to authorities at high altitude of involvement
● The columns: the consulting ‘business models’, from solo-consultant via small/medium-sized consultancies to large consultancy firms
● The two columns on the right: the role descriptions

Probably the easiest way to explain the grid is by explaining my own evolution as a consultant, starting back in 2007 as a solo consultant first, founding iNostix in 2008 with a business partner, becoming a small consultancy next and ending up in 2016 being a part of large consultancy firm Deloitte, post-acquisition. So, I ‘travelled’ from the left column to the right column.

Without going into too much detail, here are the key messages I’d like to share with you:

● Never changed my role. It didn’t really matter in which context I was working, my role as a ‘Visible Authority’ in all 3 stages never changed: 1) inspiring thinking shifts with the prospects, 2) showing the transformational potential to future and existing clients, 3) growing my visibility in the market (as a result: I never had to sell or persuade), 4) building trust by producing an abundance of valuable content and case studies and 5) being ‘The Trojan Horse’, the door opener for new projects.

● Freeing up time. Despite ‘traveling’ from left to right in the grid, I never ever left this Authority role, and I always managed to free up 25-30% of my time to grow my visibility and to deepen my expertise (learning, reading, studying like hell).

● Staying upstream. Freeing up my time was only possible by staying upstream, especially in the initial solo and small consultancy period. That’s why I painted it red in the solo column. Going downstream would have stopped me from investing enough time to grow.

● Avoiding going downstream. If you are a solo consultant (and even the small consultancy teams), my advice is to stay away as much as possible from downstream work as 1) you will never be able to compete with the ‘excess capacity’ of the larger consultancies and 2) you will have to work to death to earn a decent living (as your rates will be low in the downstream). Be ‘an upstreamer’!

● Assessing every opportunity. By moving up to a small consultancy with a team behind me, it became easier to use my upstream position to accept selected downstream work. I painted the middle- and downstream areas yellow and orange in the grid because it’s extremely important to ASSESS every opportunity against a narrow focus-zone. Don’t leave your lane! Never!
● Charging for upfront work. In this middle stage, it became possible for me, with my rapidly growing reputation in my markets, to start charging premium rates for (upstream) UPFRONT DISCOVERY, problem diagnosis, and roadmapping. Compared to what most other consultants do: charging for (downstream) implementation work and doing the upfront discovery and problem diagnosis for free (spending way too much unpaid time developing customized proposals).

● The need to specialize. I keep telling my clients: as a solo practitioner or small consulting team, the necessity to specialize and focus becomes more important to be able to stand-out in a crowded market.

● Beware of getting unfocused. Last but least, as part of a large consulting firm, I was able to create incredible opportunities, much broader, bigger, more impactful. But...my role didn’t change! The business model of the large consulting firm is to sell ‘excess capacity’ and that is often a risk to lose focus or to get too much into a managerial role. Watch out!

● My pricing? I get that question all the time: show us the numbers behind my ‘travel’ from right to left. Here you go (I've never given this info before): as solo consultant, projects varied from 30-50k; as a small consultancy, projects varied from 100-150k; as part of a large consultancy firm, projects varied from 250-500k.

I will continue to spend quite a bit of time helping consultancy teams in dealing with all the challenges of the grid, you can check out my newest team training via this link.

The Next Big Question: A Salesforce consultancy team contacted me for a high-level review of their market positioning. In the next newsletter, I will summarize my (anonymous, of course) review. Lots of learnings!

Would you like to send a question for one of the following newsletter editions? Please send it to me here.

The Disturbing Truth

Unsettling revelations from experts I admire. And from myself.

Every Monday morning, I am sharing a consulting-related advice on Linkedin to start the new week.

These advices reflect years of my passionate thinking about the consulting profession and span one year of writing. I've mixed my own quotes with carefully selected quotes from experts I admire and you may never have heard of.

Here are the quotes from the past 2 weeks. Let the inspiration be with you (if you let it).

Topic 22-3-2021: Authorities stay away from implementation!

Most consultants charge for (downstream) implementation work and do the upfront discovery and problem diagnosis for free.

As an authority in your expertise domain, you charge premium rates for (upstream) upfront discovery, problem diagnosis, and roadmapping and you stay away from doing the (downstream) implementation work yourself. (Luk Smeyers)

Topic 29-3-2021: Protect your expert reputation!

Every consultant I am talking to has some kind of (big or small) ambition/dream to be considered and recognized as an expert.

However, by accepting work outside of their acclaimed expertise zone, they are telling their existing clients as well as their prospects that they are NOT REALLY an expert.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of consultants accepting work outside of their acclaimed focus or expertise area. Because they are desperate to get the work. Or they have a big ego and believe they can crush everything as a consultant.

PROTECT your all-mighty expert reputation! (Luk Smeyers)

The Irresistible Content

I write a lot. Here's the update from the past 2 weeks.

🅾️ Webinar Summary: Fire your clients, you can't grow unless you specialize as a consultant

Last week I hosted a webinar on the importance of narrowing your field of expertise. Here are the main webinar takeaways:

● Always saying YES gets consultants in the Vicious-Loop-To-Hell

● Specialization means: I) a narrow focus of your consulting work

● Specialization means: II) specific audience, specific pains, specific pain resolution, specific process, specific thought leadership

● Evolve from ‘doing activities for your clients’ to ‘doing a pain-resolving transformation for your client’ (creating a value proposition)

● Narrow focus requires courage and discipline

● Move from generalist to specialist step-by-step, using lean principles

🅾️ Other content from the past weeks:

TVA blog: 2021 Consulting Trends

TVA blog: Don't Expect Clients To Find You: 6 Principles Consultants Need To Know

LinkedIn post: Are you accepting work outside of your focus area?

LinkedIn post: A consultant explained to me his prospect didn't need a consultant, they could do it themselves. Here's my take on it.

LinkedIn post: My brand new monthly TRAINING CALENDAR

The Authority, previous edition: Edition #20

The Inspiring Reading

I read a lot. Here's what I am reading right now.

I am reading between 30-50 books per year. I just finished reading:

'The Art of Impossible' - Steven Kotler

I started a new business from scratch, twice in the middle of a crisis period: in 2008 – in the midst of the financial crisis, and in 2020 – when the pandemic hit the world.

The reason why I chose this book is because I like the idea behind it so much: nothing is really impossible - even realizing your wildest dreams (or starting a business in a crisis period) - with the right mindset, a fanatic learning attitude, with a lot of ‘thinking outside the box’ and with trying to get in the flow quickly.

That happened to me twice and despite difficult times, I got traction quickly. You can do that too. This book can help you with that tremendously.

Kotler brilliantly presents his findings and learnings from studying how the most successful CEOs, athletes, scientists, and artists were able to push past what was considered “possible” and stretch their capabilities. He approached the subject from the neuroscience perspective, taking scientific interest in what allows some people achieve peak performance.

This book is a formula that any one of us can apply to our work to lead fulfilling, balanced professional lives and grow our consulting business.

My 4 biggest learnings:

1. Intrinsic motivators can drive us to the impossible. Steven Kotler describes the 5 most powerful intrinsic motivators and explains them with great detail: curiosity, passion, purpose, autonomy and mastery. The fact that Kotler mixes science with his personal and professional experiences, is really great and has uncovered a few great new learnings for me.

2. Find a niche that propels these intrinsic motivators. It’s definitely the number one discussion I am having with all my consulting clients: how to narrow the focus, how to niche down to become relevant for a specific audience with a specific pain? Kotler looks at this from a very different angle. His point of view - scientifically backed - is you will get more dopamine in your brain if you dive deep in a subject which, in turn, will give you more drive to achieve the impossible over the long-term.

3. Break up the impossible into large and small goals. Kotler describes HHG’s: High, Hard Goals, the major steps on our way to achieving the impossible. But he also explains we need smaller, in-between goals, to reach the major steps. Achieving those smaller goals will provide us more dopamine and will give us the grid to pursue the HHG’s. In fact, no rocket science but great to read and learn from Kotler’s point of view.

4. The five-step process to learn almost anything. Kotler explains a great process of deepening your expertise by learning in a specific five-step process: 1) reading about your subject (lots of reading), 2) Writing down plenty of notes, 3) Filling in the gaps in your knowledge, 4) Asking 100-s of questions to other experts about your subject matter expertise and last but not least, 5) Finding the narrative, the overarching story linking together everything you learned.

The Inconvenient Number

Evidence-based learning for consultants.

COVID-19 has accelerated the need for thought leadership content

At the beginning of the year, I published the 10 trends that I see as inevitable in 2021. Among them is my belief that: 1) Digital marketing will run the show, and 2) Content is your key asset. Grist’s annual research on thought leadership backs up my statements:

45% of decision makers started consuming “a little more” or “a lot more” thought leadership content during the pandemic than previously. And it looks like this pattern is sticking, even after people ‘go back to offices’.

The pandemic has shifted some of our foundational habits. Your clients are not looking to be sold. They are looking for proof of expertise. They are looking for stability and guarantees. Thought leadership is the only way to consistently build up the brand of true expertise.

And, as I always say, not every piece of content hits the mark. Your clients are looking for content that’s personalized to their industry, region, and company size. The only way to consistently produce relevant content is through specialization. Here are the stats:

55% of respondents want thought leadership tailored to their region. 60% to their company size, 63% to their job role, and 71% to their sector.

Your clients want to make educated decisions. In order to do that, they need to know what they are buying. How do you intend to show them the level of your expertise?

I would like to once again refer you to grist’s latest edition of thought leadership trends and this time Helen Foord’s summary of it.

The Secret Backstage

A sneak peek behind the curtains of my business. Luk's lab.

Automation is your greatest time-saving asset!

Almost every consultant I meet has some kind of (big or small) ambition to become considered an expert, but most of them also consider business development as ‘something they will do in between two projects’ (or something to ‘delegate’ to marketing in larger consultancy firms). Unfortunately, if you want to be serious about growing your consulting business and starting to attract your ideal clients in a more consistent and predictable way, you will have to get comfortable with online marketing. There’s no escape!

When it comes to growing your business, there’s never a lack of work. If you don’t create a system to keep track of everything that needs to be done and prioritize your time, you will not be able to develop and stick to a strategy that will yield results.

While certain things can’t be automated – you do need to sit down and write that thought leadership article, for example – many can and should be.

Automation is saving me a lot of time in my business. Yes, it took a lot of time to learn the ins and outs and to set it up. But once it was done, I was able to pour back the time into my business development and my personal life.

Setting up automations will take some learning and practice, but it will save you countless hours down the line. Here are just a few examples of what I have automated to become more productive:

● Welcome emails. I’ve set up customized welcome emails that are sent out automatically to incoming requests. I segment my audience (based on company size or the source of the request, for example) and set up personalized welcome messages.

● Reminder emails. As you know, I regularly send out a newsletter. So I set up an automated workflow where those who do not open my original email get the newsletter re-sent in a couple of days. This is actually a subject I discussed in the 19th edition of my newsletter.

● Webinar follow-up. This year I launched a webinar series. I’m currently in the process of setting up a chain of follow-up emails to send out to the participants.

● Automated social media sharing. Do you share content on social media? It’s all automated in my Hubspot platform, see also my newsletter edition #3.

I utilize the ‘workflows’ functionality of Hubspot to set up my automations, see screenshot below. However, there are plenty of user-friendly highly customizable tools out there. If you don’t have a single platform to host your website, take care of your social media posts, track analytics, etc., you can use Zapier – a neat tool that allows you to set up connections and automations between various applications – and set up as many workflows as your heart desires.

The Inevitable Learning

The programs I am teaching. To become a better consultant.

🅾️ My next free webinar: If you don't like selling in consulting, you are doing it the wrong way.

What you will learn in the webinar on April 14 at 2 pm CET:

● Marketing in consulting is not about selling but about sharing your expertise
● As a consultant, you are always the marketer of your expertise
● It's all in the mind, how you can adopt an 'anti-selling' mindset
● The new consultant archetype and how it will impact your consulting growth

Claim your seat here!

🅾️ My private training program, limited slots for 2021

I have A LIMITED NUMBER OF SLOTS in 2021 for senior consultants eager to attract their ideal customers and grow their consulting business consistently.

This individual training program starts with a full audit of your market positioning and covers the necessary advice for long-term improvements and quick wins. The number of participants for this 1-2-1 virtual training is limited. Access on a first-come-first-served basis.

Here's the link to the info page with the program content. You can book a call on this info page to discuss your participation.

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Previous 'The Authority' edition: Edition #20

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