Our mission is to spark new thinking and ideas for creating a thriving business and rewarding life.

Uncertainties

What I’m hearing—and experiencing—is that business owners in particular aren’t sure whether to invest or not, and if so, where to invest.

Crypto has crashed. Foreign relations are uncertain. Supply chains appear to continue to be precarious. Inflation seems to be abating. Covid variants don’t even make the front pages any more. Hacking and data theft continue.

Just as the best possible investment for you is in yourself, the same applies to your clients. They should invest in the best value for their best customers and best prospects. They should be fearless in triaging their customers and either eliminating or reducing services to the least productive, the least loyal.

Sometimes the best thing for the family is not to involve the family. That’s difficult, but third generations in particular are notorious for either disinterest or incompetence (in the business content). Business owners more than ever need an external, objective, trusted advisor.

That means you have to be highly acquainted with the issues likely to challenge your customers and clients. That’s the challenge for you.

Q&A
(send me your questions for future issues)

“A Director of Operations contacted me on LinkedIn and we spoke on the phone. They are located outside my home base of New York. Should I insist for an onsite meeting with them so I can make better assessments of the feasibility of the project before giving them a proposal?”

—Maria Abiera

I prefer onsite meetings, but this would depend on the size of the operation and the potential project. When I DO decide to visit, I request (demand) 90 uninterrupted minutes with the buyer. That makes it worthwhile to invest the time and money. Of course, these days remote meetings are common, but they are also tedious and easily interrupted. So “with them” in your inquiry MUST be the buyer, one way or the other. You may want a 15-minute Zoom meeting to decide if a personal meeting is merited. If this is a large organization with a large need, I’d want to meet the buyer onsite. If the buyer requests that, ask, “What would be the arrangements?” and they will sometimes pay your travel expenses.

“We were approached by a firm larger than ours (there are two of us) which is non-competitive with us and feels we can fill a need which they don’t address with certain of their clients. They’re suggesting we create a financial agreement on such business and that we put the affiliation and their materials on our web site. Is this a good idea?”

—Raymond Gullespie

This reminds me of the old Wendy’s commercial from 40 years ago. Where’s the beef? We tend to get into intellectual mind-games about collaboration which is conceptual and lofty—and useless. Tell the firm that the most pragmatic way to handle this is when they have a real piece of business on the table (the beef) and then you can talk substantively. Otherwise, save your breath and DO NOT advertise for them on your site.

Send your questions to me at [email protected]

Developmental Stuff

NEW: Building Self-Worth

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Million Dollar Consulting® for the World

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New: Million Dollar Consulting® for the World ADVANCED

The new program is available in March, you can order now, and it contains over 60 videos and has 15 modules focusing on what to do in the buyer’s office, overcoming crises, financial planning, and much, much more.

NEW: MASTER MASTER CLASS

On March 21-23 (2.5 days) I’m offering a unique session into my own success and techniques, and how I see things that others don’t, enabling rapid agreements and high-fee, low-labor projects. Can you identify patterns and contradictions in others’ behavior? Can you respond “in the moment” with a pithy example or quote? Can you produce social proof immediately for your ideas and approaches? Can you readily identify the most likely influence on a prospect? I can, and I’ll show you how in this intense session that’s going to be one-time only. You can attend this in person or virtually! $5,000, includes most meals (but not virtually!).

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SENTIENT STRATEGY

SENTIENT STRATEGY, my new book, will be released in March. It’s a revolutionary approach being facilitated by over 70 people in five countries. Here’s how you can reserve advanced copies of the book and gain bonuses for doing so.