The Audio Drama Show

Three tips for the event season

At the end of a summer that never really got started, many firms are now preparing for the autumn promotional season that runs up to Christmas.  These are the events such as seminars, workshops and other occasions designed to demonstrate expertise and make personal connections that can deliver important contacts and business.

From experience, there are some things to get right that can be…

Three tips for good performance feedback

Many are considering abolition of the dreaded annual appraisal – what could possibly go wrong? Microsoft, Adobe, Accenture and now a host of professional firms have decided to embrace the brave new world of continuous feedback – and not before time.  Too much has been vested in slow, cumbersome, infrequent, and often poorly implemented annual appraisal systems that leave a significant population…

Three ways to start making simple sense

  We all want to make a good impression – so why can we end up achieving the exact opposite? For example, I get to watch a lot of business presentations by professional people.  Good, knowledgeable folk who clearly want to show they can be of use to their clients, customers, or colleagues.  But they don’t.  Why?  because they forget the very simple things that help us start making sense to…

Three more plan tips

There are indeed a lot of cunning planners out there.  So for you, and having written or reviewed a lot of these docs (the good, bad and the ugly), here are three more guide points to help make them work to the max.  This is important.  Well-written ones get read and have a far better chance of being acted upon.  Bad and ugly ones get condemned to the (digital) closet. SWOTs that (again)?  Last…

Three tips to help your plans work

It seems that everybody is doing it now: from big ol’ firm, departmental or sector business plans all the way to personal business development ones.  More or less formal planning has become popular with professionals. But, as the saying goes, popularity does not equal success. Getting your plan right – by avoiding the major pitfalls – can make all the difference between achievement and…

Three tips to get that net working

So you are making connections in the firm to tap into the potential of its wider client base. What next? Unfortunately, some cannot see the wood for the trees when it comes to helping dig out more work for others. This may be down to issues of recognition and reward. But for many, it appears to be about having the confidence in colleagues and in their own ability to ‘do it’ well. Here are three…

Three tips to boost your internal network

Traditionally, a lot of attention has been given to encouraging professionals at all levels to “get out there” and make contacts in the market place – and why not? – but with a lesser focus on the internal side of such activity. No doubt, many assume that this will happen anyway: but often it doesn’t….or at least not enough of the right stuff. It has always been important to connect with…

Three ways to make more time for Business Development

Tougher times have created a bigger impetus and desire for business development in many firms – both in the pro-active targeting of new clients and defensive hard yards to “protect what we’ve got”.  However, the ability of some professionals to re-frame and re-orientate their time and efforts from an overweening ‘production’ or fee-earning emphasis can still be lacking. Holding pattern, treading…

Three tips to improve your lock-up

“Around £4 billion is owed to the top 50 law firms at any one time”* Lock-up as in….unpaid bills, debtors, or un-billed work in progress. Talk to many Finance heads in the professions about these issues and expect grimaces with much teeth-gnashing. In a recent survey by accountants Smith & Williamson, nearly 70% of firms think that performance improvement in this area will be an important source…

Three tips for getting more referrals

Life is nearly always tougher when it comes to landing new clients. Trying to do more business with or through existing ones makes much more sense, potentially, because taking risks with new suppliers is still tricky for a fair number of buyers. So why are so many professionals so meek when it comes to asking for referrals? Well, some people just don’t ‘get it’. What they don’t get is that they…

Three tips for keeping in touch

Thanks to social media, everybody is “in touch” these days….aren’t they? Well, sort of. Certainly there is now a burgeoning mass of communication – but it is conducted largely in one-way, remote broadcast mode. It is no substitute for meaningful dialogue and actual contact: this remains the best way to keep front-of-mind with clients and prospects so that business has a real chance to flow. So…

Three tips to improve feedback

“I don’t think partners are as good as they should be in giving praise and recognition”* There seems to be more trending than ever for the giving of proper feedback and recognition to staff: as an important plank in the edifice of employee engagement and a strategy to retain and grow better the Y Generation that is reaching maturity in the workforce.  Sadly, the picture is far from rosy when it…

Three things to help you delegate and be more productive

Delegation increases average professionals’ earnings by 20%  Almost anyone with a job and colleagues can delegate…..in theory.  In practice, the picture is not so rosy.  Those who can’t or won’t because they believe “it’s quicker to do it myself”, are overly insecure, or who enjoy ‘doing’ too much and the task of efficiently running their departments or work portfolios too little. Which is a…

Three ways to use the proper power of persuasion

“I don’t need to persuade anyone.  The quality of what I do is self-evident” So runs the mantra for a number of professional specialists we have met. Somehow, the world (which includes clients and prospects who may not be able to experience the intangibility of what they offer) will see the light. Of course, most often they don’t. Either this, or they associate persuasion with a stereotypical…

Three tips to keep your pipeline flowing

 How many initial contacts do you need to gain one new client? When asked, the answers of many professionals are often hopelessly optimistic. And they wonder why their Business Development efforts aren’t amounting to much. The fact is that moving prospects in our target markets from initial contact to converted client is usually a lengthy process with several stages, where at any point, we can be…

Three tips to make your sector plans work better

Most professional firms have a marketing and BD approach focused on business sectors – but are they getting the best out of them? Here are three things that could help. Business sectors are ‘de rigueur’ with firms proclaiming their expertise in and focus on clients or prospects who inhabit them. Plans are written, budgets committed, time allocated and money expended in furthering the collective…