CHAPTER EIGHT Marketing OD Alan Weiss M ost OD practitioners fail to realize that they are in the marketing business. There are superb consultants in this area who cannot get work because they believe that marketing is beneath them. There are average consul- tants doing quite well because they recognize the importance of marketing and can do it. And then there are superb consultants who are also superb marketers who can name their own price. Which group would you rather be in? This chapter will enable you to: • Determine your value proposition. • Identify your buyer. • Establish routes to reach that buyer. • Achieve conceptual agreement. • Create a proposal which will close business. DETERMINING YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION There are three critical factors to embrace when attempting to market profes- sional services: (1) What’s the market need? (2) What are your competencies? and (3) What is your passion? 211 ∂ ∂ 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 211 What Is the Market Need? This is the essence of marketing. There must be a pre-existing need—for exam- ple, sales development or leadership improvement are always needed—or a need you can create such as satisfying employees before satisfying the customer. Since OD is an often nebulous and inexact concept, it is vital to create a clear value proposition. A value proposition is always a benefit for the potential client and never a description of your methodology. For example, here are good and bad value propositions: Good Poor • Improve retention of core talent • Perform exit interviews • Decrease time-to-market of new • Assess marketing/sales relations products • Merge acquisition and parent cultures • Run focus groups for new people • Improve customer response time • Create customer survey You can embrace existing market need or else create new market need (which is what Akio Morita did at Sony when he created the Walkman™ because no one knew they needed it until he educated them). You must become proficient in articulating your value proposition in terms of a client outcome. Here is mine: “We improve individual and organizational pro- ductivity and performance.” (The only legitimate response to this rather vague statement is, “What does that mean?” I reply: “Well, tell me something about your business, and I will be more specific.” You cannot learn while you are talking, and the more you talk, the more the other person will tend to “deselect” you.) What Are Your Competencies? Competencies are those combinations of skills, experiences, and behaviors that make you proficient in a given area. If you do not have sufficient competencies, then the good news is that you can always acquire more. But what are you good at, and what would you like to become good at? In terms of marketing (as opposed to content), Exhibit 8.1 lists the traits for a “rainmaker” (namely business developer/marketer) that I have discerned over the years. They may surprise you. What Is Your Passion? Without passion, there is nothing but tedious work. Market need and compe- tency must be fueled by passion. Isolate those competencies and needs you most favor and are most passionate about, and focus on them. 212 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 212 For example, I will not do any “downsizing” work whatsoever, because I am passionately against it, since I consider downsizing to be a heinous act imple- mented to compensate for executive error. I am passionate about developing leadership, so I actively seek out work in that area. If you refer to Figure 8.1, you will see four possibilities: 1. Need and capability without passion create drudgery. You are a hired hand with little motivation and no “ownership” of outcomes. 2. Market need and passion without competency makes you a snake oil salesperson, selling your potions but without the real medicine needed to cure the ills. 3. Capability and passion without market need make you a dilettante, offering aesthetic solutions to problems no one cares about unless you can convince them otherwise. 4. The combination of these elements makes you an effective marketer. MARKETING OD 213 Exhibit 8.1. The Rainmaker Attributes Strategies for Marketing The Rainmaker Attributes • Intellectual breadth – Able to discuss a wide variety of issues • Sense of humor – Able to ease tension, maintain perspective • Industry conversancy – Able to relate to and identify situational issues • Superb communication skills – Able to command a room or a meeting • Presence: Sogomi – Able to be accepted as a peer of the buyer • Framing skills – Able to quickly describe problems and opportunities • Innovation – Able and willing to raise the bar, seek new paths • Resilience – Able to accept rejection and reject acceptance • Life balance – Able to view life holistically 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 213 If you have these elements in place, then you need only respond to the follow- ing questions—and the good news is that marketing is difficult but not complex— to arrive at your market strategy: 1. What is my value proposition? What outcomes do you provide for the client? Consider another way to ask this question: After you walk away, how is the client better off? How has the client’s condition been improved? 2. Who is likely to write a check for that value? This is what I call the “economic buyer” or the “true buyer.” He or she has the budget to authorize, approve, and launch your project. In large organizations there are scores (or even hundreds) of economic buyers. In small organizations, there may be just one or two. 3. How do I reach that buyer? A key problem in marketing is that too many consultants go directly to point 3 without understanding the first two points. But the only way to arrive at point 3 is after establishing the first two realities. 214 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION Figure 8.1. Three Areas and Four Conditions for Value Market Need Capability Passion 4 1 23 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 214 IDENTIFYING AND REACHING THE ECONOMIC BUYER There are two types of “buyers” in organizational settings: 1. Economic buyer: Possesses the power and authority to approve a check for your services and to fund the project. 2. Feasibility buyer: Provides opinion and analysis of the project’s appro- priateness in terms of culture, scope, credentials, content, and other relative clients. Now hear this: Most consultants fail at marketing because they spend too much time with feasibility buyers—who cannot say “yes” but can say “no”—and not enough time (or no time at all) with economic buyers who can say “yes.” That is why the attributes mentioned above are so important. You must be able to relate to economic buyers on a peer basis. Your content and OD skills are not sufficient for that. You must have business acumen and conversancy. When you encounter feasibility buyers—”gatekeepers” and “filters”—you must endeavor to go around or through them to the economic buyer. You can do this in three ways, in descending order of effectiveness. 1. Appeals to rational self-interest. Try to convince the feasibility buyer that it would be dangerous to proceed even with a tentative plan or preliminary proposal without hearing from the true buyer’s lips exactly what his or her expectations are. Explain that your experience about this is unequivocal: The buyer must be brought into the discussion, however briefly, as early as possible, and certainly preliminary to creat- ing a proposal. Attempt to form a partnership with the feasibility buyer to accomplish this. 2. Guile. Use some device to get past the feasibility buyer. Here is my favorite, and quite honest, alternative: “Ethically, I must see the person who has the fiduciary responsibility for the project, since I need to understand exactly what his or her expectations are before deciding whether to bid on this work.” Another: “It is unfair of me to expect you to market on my behalf, especially if there may be adverse reac- tions. Let me take that responsibility.” 3. Power. Ignore, circumvent, or blast through the gatekeeper. Although this will create bad relations, you are not going to get the business in any other way. Send a letter, email, fax, or phone message informing the buyer that you have enjoyed working with the gatekeeper but must have twenty minutes of his or her time before submitting a proposal. Provide your contact information and hope for the best. MARKETING OD 215 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 215 If you content yourself with people who are willing to see you but cannot help you (for example, cannot say “yes”), you will fail as a marketer. A strong value proposition will capture the ear and attention of an economic buyer if you can reach that person. When people are empowered only to say “no,” that is what they will inevitably say. Find the person who can say “yes” or “no,” which at least gives you a fighting chance. ESTABLISHING THE ROUTES TO THE ECONOMIC BUYER The best way to market is to create a “gravity” that draws people to you. This changes the entire buying dynamic. Instead of having to prove how good you are, you instead engage people who are interested in what you can do for them. This is why branding, repute, and word-of-mouth are so important. After all, no one enters a McDonald’s to browse. The buying decision has already been made before entering the store. Figure 8.2 lists a variety of ways to create grav- ity, and these are discussed in the following sections in more detail. 216 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION Figure 8.2. The “Gravity” Concept of Marketing OD Services Gravity Articles Columns Books Pro Bono Mailings Radio and TV Serendipity Newsletters Branding Speaking Community Service Interviews Leadership Networking Association Alliances Ads and Listings Products Internet Referrals 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 216 Pro Bono Work Pro bono work for marketing purposes should have the following characteristics: • A cause or objective in which you believe and wish to support; • Relatively high-profile non-profit or charity; • Public events and media coverage; • Significant potential buyers or influencers are volunteers and/or key exhibitors (for example, the editor of the local newspaper, the general manager of the electric company, the senior vice president of a major bank); and • Involvement will be interactive, and not individual. Seek out a leadership position or fill a difficult position in the organization. Typically, fund raising, managing volunteers, and publicity are vitally needed and tough to do well. You want a high-visibility position and one in which you can rub elbows with your potential buyers and influencers. Take on the dirty, dif- ficult, and desultory jobs, but do them extremely well. Make the reports at the meetings, give interviews to the media, and shower credit on your colleagues. When the time is right, suggest to the executive you have worked with or the publisher you have supported that it might make sense to have lunch some time and compare notes about your two organizations. Pro bono work like this auto- matically builds relationships and allows others to see your abilities on neutral turf. That is why you should do the tough jobs and do them well. Excellent organization ability, strategies, management of others, fiscal prudence, and sim- ilar traits translate well into the needs of your pro bono colleagues. Pro bono work is especially powerful for those living in fairly major markets and who wish to reduce their travel and work closer to home. I have done work for everyone from the League of Women Voters to a shelter for battered women to local theater groups. Basic Rule: You should be engaged in at least one pro bono activity each quarter. Commercial Publishing A commercially published book can provide a strong credibility statement. For successful consultants endeavoring to reach the next level, this may be the shortest route. Early in my career, I published books that addressed the issues I wanted to be hired to consult about: innovation, behavior and motivation, and strategy. Later in my career, I published books that capitalized on my established exper- tise: marketing, consulting, and speaking professionally. An entirely new career MARKETING OD 217 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 217 was launched for me when I published Million Dollar Consulting, which estab- lished me as a “consultant to consultants.” What part of your existing practice would you like to propel forward, or what new aspect would you like to create? Writing a business book is not like writing a novel. You need a topic, ten or twelve chapters, and a half dozen key points supported by facts, stories, and anecdotes in each chapter. If you do not believe me, pull any ten random busi- ness books off the shelf and take a look. Create a treatment for the book, which should take about a week or two, and get it off to an agent or a publisher. Another aspect of commercial publishing involves articles and interviews in the popular and trade press. You should be circulating article query letters and manuscripts regularly. Get used to the rejection. It happens to everyone. Suc- cessful consultants, in particular, with a raft of client experiences and case stud- ies, should be able to create powerful, vivid pieces that, in turn, will draw interested readers to want to know more. Try to include an offer to contact you in your articles of research studies, vis- its to your website, faxed responses to questions, and so on, enabling readers to continue to connect with you in more and more personal ways. Whether you enjoy writing or dread the thought of it, you are lax if, at this point in your career, you are not publishing on some regular basis. Basic Rule: You should set a goal to publish one article per quarter, meaning that you should be proposing four articles per quarter in different publications. (Another goal might be to create a book treatment in the next ninety days and send it to a publisher or agent.) Position Papers I often refer to these as “white papers.” These are powerful tools that can be used for: • Content in your press kit; • The basis for an article to be published; • The basis for booklets; • Web page content; • Handouts at speeches; and/or • Giveaways for inquiries. Position papers are two-to-six-page discussions of your philosophy, beliefs, findings, experiences, and/or approaches. They are not and should never be self- promotional. Instead, they should provide credibility through the impact of their ideas and the applicability of their techniques. 218 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 218 Try to provide as many pragmatic and immediately useful ideas as possible. The best position papers are applicable, not esoteric. The reader should come away from them saying, “I would like to apply this, and I would like to hear more from the author.” Position papers are one of the absolutely most economical, high-impact, and versatile aspects of the gravitational field. Right now, you probably have suffi- cient experience and ideas to create several dozen. Create some short ones that are “plain vanilla” and straightforward and some longer ones with graphs and charts. Basic Rule: Create one white paper every month. Radio and Television Interviews You should be doing radio and even television appearances at any point in your career. They are relatively easy to do, since there is a constant need for fresh voices and faces to provide expert commentary on issues ranging from man- agement fads to business etiquette to how to retain key talent. As with the entire gravitational field, do not evaluate media interviews in terms of number of “hits” or new business. Regard them strategically as an ongoing part of your major thrust to create recognition and higher levels of cred- ibility. Some radio appearances are worthless in terms of short-term business, but you never know who will hear you and pass your name on or what other media professional might then invite you to a more appropriate setting. Radio interviews should be done, with rare exception (for example, National Pubic Radio and some major syndicated shows), from your home and over the phone. Television shots are done in the nearest local affiliate. For a memorable interview (most TV shots are only five to eight minutes, while some radio inter- views can last for an hour), follow these rules: • Provide the interviewer and/or segment producer with detailed back- ground about you, including pronunciation of your name, and key “talk- ing points” or questions to ask. • Research the topic so that you can quote a few dramatic statistics and anecdotes. The media love pithy sound bites. In fact, practice short responses to all questions so that more questions can be accommodated. • Always have two or three points in mind that promote you that you can work into responses no matter what the question. Do not rely on the host to promote you, no matter what the promises. Example: If the question is, “Alan, what is your opinion of large scale downsizing and its impact on our society?” then answer this way, “One of the reasons I am asked to work with executives from top-performing organizations is that they want me to help them retain key talent, not throw it away. So MARKETING OD 219 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 219 let me answer from their perspective. . .” If you have written a book, then say, “As I point out in Chapter Four of my newest book, Good Enough Isn’t Enough. . .” • Obtain a tape. Usually, asking the station in advance will do it, but always back it up with another taken from the actual airing by a friend. Splice these tapes together for a “highlights” reel of your media work, which will sell more sophisticated media outlets and just might get you on national TV. The tape is also quite impressive with prospects. Radio and television work requires a promotional investment for ads and list- ing, but it is well worth it when you have reached the stage where your expe- rience and accomplishments make you an “authority.” Basic Rule: Appear in a minimum of one major listing source with at least a half-page ad annually. Advertising and Passive Listings “Passive listings” are those that appear in certain “buyer’s guides,” trade asso- ciation resource lists, and similar literature. They are relatively inexpensive, can be surprisingly effective, and can be startling in terms of calls coming out of the blue. For consultants who want to stay “in the neighborhood,” the local phone book’s business section is a viable tool because some people actually look under “management consultant” or “business consultant” for sources. Exhibit 8.2 lists some trade associations that produce listings that appeal to the human resources and training communities and that produce leads through- out the year. Basic Rule: Find the three or four listings that best reach your highest poten- tial buyers, and invest in a major presence annually. Speaking Early in people’s consulting careers, I advocate that they speak wherever and whenever they can to improve credibility and visibility. However, for the expe- rienced consultant, professional speaking is not only a key gravitational pull but is also extremely lucrative. Most consultants are lousy speakers because they become wrapped up in their methodology and the content of their message. But the fact is that audi- ences need to be captivated and even entertained a bit if they are to accept any message more easily and readily. 220 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 14_962384 ch08.qxd 2/3/05 12:17 AM Page 220 . marketing. There must be a pre-existing need for exam- ple, sales development or leadership improvement are always needed—or a need you can create such as satisfying employees before satisfying the customer. Since. need and compe- tency must be fueled by passion. Isolate those competencies and needs you most favor and are most passionate about, and focus on them. 212 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, . is after establishing the first two realities. 214 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION Figure 8.1. Three Areas and Four Conditions for Value Market Need Capability Passion 4 1 23 14_962384