Professionals often tell me that clients are too busy to take calls that aren’t made for urgent reasons. They worry that the clients will be annoyed. 

If you ask them why they feel this way, they will say that they would be annoyed if the call came to them.  Then ask them to think of a client they haven’t talked to for a couple of years.  How would they feel if she called them?  They say it would be nice, but different than a call they would initiate, because the client isn’t trying to sell them something. 

The answer to this concern is simple: Don’t try to sell her something. Call her because you like her and would like to know how she is doing.  Call her because you have useful information to share with her.  But . . . the argument drags on and isn’t satisfactory to anyone.

There is a better way to get at these concerns; suggest that the professionals take a client to lunch and ask her how she feels about getting such calls.  Get the straight dope from the horse’s mouth on the level, as it were.  Let the clients speak for themselves.  Here are some things clients have said when asked:
 
1>     Your competitors bring us ideas we find helpful. I always wondered why your people don’t.

2>     When we were doing business together you would call and talk with me regularly.  Now I never hear from you.  Don’t you like me anymore?
 
3>     Would it help you if I introduced you to other people in our firm who could use your services?

4>     I always pick up something from the occasional call.

So, if you have doubts about how a client will feel about your staying in touch, ask her.  If you listen to it, the market is a great teacher.

Yesterday I was reminded of a client I worked with some ten years ago, who needed to bring in more business.  I will call him Benchly, because the name just came to me and I like it. 

Benchly’s business was off, and the younger members of his practice weren’t fully utilized.  Unassigned talent creates a serious cash drain on a firm, so he was in a hurry to find a client.  In his late 50’s, Benchly had practiced his profession for a quarter century.  He had met a lot of people over those twenty plus years. But, he believed many of them were now retired. Like most of us, he had let many of the relationships lapse. 

Still, not all of them could be retired. Rekindling those old relationships was likely to be a faster route to finding business than starting with new ones, so I suggested he start there.

“What could I possibly have to say to someone I haven’t spoken with for ten years?” he asked.  We talked about how to approach these old contacts, and over the next few weeks, he called them.  Only one of them resulted in any new business.  Benchly billed $16 million to that client’s company over the next twelve months.

I was reminded of Benchly because I was recommending a similar effort to another client, in this case a recruiter.  Much younger than Benchly, he nevertheless had let relationships with some potentially valuable contacts go cold.

“What could I possibly have to say to someone I haven’t spoken to in so many years?” he asked.  We talked, and he went off to make some calls.  Half an hour later he was back, having scheduled a meeting with a former boss he hadn’t talked to for nine years.  He had spent the half hour on the phone catching up with the former boss, who wanted to talk to him about a search.

So, what can you possibly have to say to someone you haven’t talked to in so many years?  This is what I recommend:

• Write each cold contact’s name on a piece of paper.  Finding a reason to call them will be much less daunting in the concrete than in the abstract.
• Review the following reasons for calling and see if you can adapt one of them to each person:
  o        Something reminded me of you.
  o        I need your advice.
  o        There is something you should know.
  o        How are the results of our past work for you?
• Focus on them, not on you and definitely not on your need for business.  If you aren’t sincerely interested in them, you shouldn’t call in the first place.  This should be a case of networking making you a better friend (a subject for another day), rather than an indirect means of putting the touch on someone.
• Have a concise, clear elevator speech prepared so you can respond to the inevitable question about what you are doing now.
• Don’t rush things.  You have to earn the right to talk about more business and that may take months.  Of course, if the contact asks you for help, you can respond immediately.

Deb Owen learned of my posting on shallow relationships from mutual friend Gautam Ghosh.  She acknowledged that she had some problems with the concept, as I suspect many readers did.  Her thoughtful posting can be found here.

Because my response helped clarify my own thinking, here it is.

Deb:

Your comments on my posting about shallow relationships paralleled my own thinking as I learned how to network. Two additional thoughts have helped me network for personal benefit and retain piece of mind.

First, we make choices. We can use people for their help or we can go out and help people whom we think are honorable and with whom there is that necessary click with the sole expectation that we do the best we can for others and know most of them will do the same from us. Doing the best we can includes helping them when they hit a bad patch, even when we know they are unlikely to be in a position to help us ever again. That is our choice.

Second “deep vs. shallow” is a false dichotomy, which we are tricked into by the language and our own, dare I say, shallow thinking. Relationships operate on many dimensions. The Mexican laborer, today probably pushing 80, who has come to help my now 93 year old mother for the past quarter century, I know to be decent, honest, kind, hard working and loyal. We do not have a deep relationship, but it would be a lie to call it shallow. I have profound respect for this man and would trust him without hesitation in ways I would not many people I know better. I do not know a word to describe our relationship, which cannot be called deep or shallow.

We must not let common usage trick us into thinking that relationships can be measured on a single line running from deep to shallow.

Sincerely,
Ford Harding

Karl Hockenbarger emailed me an interesting comment after reading my article Hindsight Isn’t Perfect When Selling Professional Services, which was published in Business KnowHow.

Here is Karl’s comment:

What is left out of the story is often more telling than the story itself, and relates precisely to the purpose of telling the story. 
 
I was executive director of a not-for-profit which assisted inmates in a state prison during their last year before parole eligibility to support their transition from “inside” to “outside” life (an unofficial precursor to today’s focus on re-entry).  The Chairman of my Board of Directors was a successful real-estate developer specializing in strip malls.  He totally disapproved of my wearing a cowboy hat and boots.  To make his point of how inappropriate my dress was for an executive position he told the story of one of his deals in which the loan officer of the bank they were approaching for funding opened the branch office on a Saturday morning to meet with my boss and his partner.  My boss showed up in a business suit, the banker in his golf shirt, and the builder partner in muddy work boots, blue jeans, and a T-shirt.  My boss was mortified.  (end of story)
 
I asked if they got the loan, which they did.  Suddenly his attitude toward my dress changed, although I did put the hat in its box in the closet, when he realized that his partner showing up straight from the work site gave credibility to their efforts instead of showing disrespect to the banker, just as my boots were part of the uniform of the corrections officials we worked with. 
 
Did John correct the perception that this one account was his sole pursuit?  Without feedback COmmunication becomes SOLOmunication.   
 

Here are six more rhetorical questions about selling. (See the first six questions.) Everyone in sales has asked themselves at least some of these questions at one time or another. Unanswered these questions can be demotivating.  It may be helpful to have a place where you can find the answer.

1>     Why bother asking a client what she needs when we already know from other sources and from work on related matters for other clients?

Why?  Because the information from other sources may be wrong or incomplete and the other matters we worked on may be less alike than we think.  Also, because the client wants to know that we have heard her.

2>     Why bother calling a client when it is easier for both of us if we simply exchange emails?

Why?  Because in the meanders of a conversation, you learn things when you talk with clients that you don’t learn in emails,

3>     Why bother sending a holiday card when the client gets so many that she is unlikely to remember whether I sent one or not?

Why?  Because if yours is one of the first ones she gets, she probably will notice it.

4>     Why bother calling a prospective client when we know that he is tied to our competitor?

Why?  Because we want to be first in line when the competitor messes up or is conflicted.

5>     Why bother getting to a client site early so I can drop by the offices of people I know there but am not scheduled to see?  They get there early so they can get some work done while it’s quiet, so they won’t like it when I interrupt them.

Why? Because that is when you can see them, and because you will ask them if this is an okay time for a brief hello.  If not, you will leave quickly, but you will still have shown them that you are interested in them.

6>        Why bother trying to get me to sell, when I really don’t want to do it?

Why? Well, actually that’s a good question; you may have me on that one.  I guess I do it because I want you to succeed in your profession and that will be much more likely if you can bring in business.  Also, because I believe your negative feelings about selling are based on misconceptions. It is not about lying, for example, if you are doing it right.  And in many respects it is more about giving than taking.

The Mistake Bank has just posted two podcasts with me. The first is a story that taught me there can be pitfalls in sharing the good side and bad side of things with a reporter.

The second is on the profound teachings I received from a prospect who simply wouldn’t call me back.

You can find them both on this Shoptalk post.

Here are some rhetorical questions about selling. Everyone in sales has asked themselves at least some of these questions at one time or another. Unanswered these questions can be demotivating.  It may be helpful to have a place where you can find the answer.
                                
I’ll answer the next six questions in an upcoming blog post.

1>     Why bother making long-term relationship development calls when the probability that any one of them will result in new work rounds to zero?

Why? Because, if you make enough of them, the cumulative probability that someone you talk to will hire you is high.

2>     Why bother calling an old client when our contact there knows what we do and where to find us?

Why? Because if we don’t, he may give his business to someone who talks to him from time to time and shows an interest in him and reminds this busy and sometimes distracted client of what her firm does.

3>     Why bother going to an association meeting when I hate doing it and am no good at small talk?

Why? Because it is a highly efficient way to meet and catch up with many market contacts.  Also, because networkers know that there is no such thing as small talk; there is only business talk and relationship talk.  And finally, because you don’t have to be good at small talk.  You need to listen to other people, so that you learn about them.

4>     Why bother inviting more than a couple of people to the firm open house, when most people don’t want to come and when no one decides to buy our kinds of services based on having attended a party?

Why? Because if they don’t want to come, they will decline, and then you can ask how they are doing, and who knows what you will learn?  Also because more people probably want to come than you imagine, but they can’t come unless invited.  And finally, because some will hire us if they know us and like us and trust us which will result from many small steps, such as this invitation.

5>     Why bother building a relationship beyond our current assignment with people my age in a client organization, when they don’t decide what firm to hire?

Why?  Because they will move up the organizational ladder over time, just as you hope to, and if you stay in touch with them with even one call a year, you will have a much better chance of doing business with than if you drop them for ten years and only show interest in them again when they have become important.

6>     Why bother calling former clients when we have so much work already that we couldn’t deal with another matter if one of them wanted us to.   Or, why bother calling former clients when we know that none of them will have any work for us until the economy improves?

Why?  Because when the economy turns down you will have a better chance of getting what little business there is, if you have shown an interest in them in good times.  Because we need to be first in line when they do have work to offer.

You have just delivered a speech on the effect of the new tax law on employment expenses that packed the emotional wallop of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Had a Dream speech. 

The association audience rose to clap, whistle and cheer, calling you back for an encore.  You gave them some quick insights into increasing deductions for charitable donations, which was followed by over five minutes of heartfelt applause, forcing you to the podium three times to wave and bow. 

Later, after the high from presenting had worn off, you asked one of the conference organizers for a list of people who had attended your session.  She told you that the organization didn’t keep track of attendance at the smaller breakout sessions.  During the following week you hoped for calls from members of the audience, but they never came.

You never knew it, but three of the attendees intended to call you, but didn’t get around to it.  Six months later, a fourth thought of calling after arguing with her tax advisor, but couldn’t remember your name.  The other sixteen people who attended the breakout session never thought of you again. 

Though the audience was smaller than you remembered it, had you actually talked with the four people who thought about calling you, you would have achieved an impressive twenty percent follow-up rate.

After giving a speech, if you don’t follow up with attendees, your chances of converting any of them into clients drops to low single digits.  But, you can’t follow up with them unless you know who they are.  That means you have to get their names and contact information and often, as in our example, the organizers of the event can’t tell you who was there.

Withhold Slides – Not Always a Good Idea

Speakers have developed a number of ways to get the information they need. Many withhold copies of their slides before and at the event and then offer to send them to anyone in the audience who provides a business card.  

Though easy and obvious, this approach has several drawbacks.  First, it frustrates those attendees who want to take notes on hard copy of your materials.  This clearly runs counter to your goals, and, lest you forget, the goals of the conference organizers who have given you this opportunity.  It will also be ineffective, if you allow the sponsoring organization to post your slides on its website, providing the attendees an alternative access.  Denying your hosts the use of your materials will frustrate them a second time.

Offer Additional Materials

You can avoid these problems by providing copies of your slides at the event and then offering additional materials, such as a whitepaper, to anyone who leaves a business card.  Of course, someone will have to develop the whitepaper—a big increase in the work required to prepare.  Most firms post such documents on their websites for all to see, anyway.

Pass out an Attendance Sheet

More artful speakers prepare an attendance sheet, with columns for each attendee’s name, company, email address and phone number.  A few minutes before the session is scheduled to start, the speaker or her colleague gives the sheet on a clipboard to someone in the front row and asks him to sign in and pass it on.  At the end of the session, she collects the sheet from wherever it has been left in the back of the room.  If you ask, the sponsors of the event may discourage this tactic.  It doesn’t work well for large audiences.

Pass out a Survey

During my days as a location consultant; helping companies select places for factories, offices, and research labs; I gave a presentation to a group of human resource officers on labor markets.  It was at the peak of an economic boom with labor shortages in many areas.  At the beginning of the presentation, I passed out a ten question survey of how companies were dealing with tight labor markets.  There was a place at the bottom for participants to provide contact information to which I could send the survey results.  That information was what I was after.

Better still, Question #3 asked how the respondents’ companies would address the labor shortage.  They were asked to mark all the things they would do from a list that included raising wages, lowering hiring standards, advertising more heavily and other tactics.  Among the tactics was move operations to a new location.  Everyone who indicated that her firm was planning to use that tactic was a potential user of our services.  I still feel a bit smug about that one.

Q:      In earlier postings you have described formulas professionals can use to write an article efficiently.  Are there any others?

A:      An interview format can be effective.
                                                                                             
Q:      But don’t you have to wait around for a journalist to find and then interview you or convince some journalist to?  And even then don’t you sacrifice a lot of control over the piece?

A:      Not necessarily. In my experience, though the journalist sometimes seeks out the expert, as likely as not it was the subject of the interview who sought out the journal.  Three times I have interviewed colleagues and once wrote out a series of questions and silently interviewed myself, typing my answers into my laptop.  All four interviews were published in reputable journals.

Q:      Is there an ethical issue here?

A:      I don’t think so.  As long as the answers are honest, I’m not sure it matters who asked the questions.  The publications didn’t name someone else as the interviewer.  The format does imply that you have some authority on a subject—a good thing—but so does a bylined article.  And most likely, you do have some authority on the subject of the interview

Q:      Are there advantages to the interview format?

A:      It’s engages the reader who can scan the questions and dip in to read the answers that interest her.  Its loose structure allows you to wander across an array of topics not possible within the development of a theme required in bylined pieces.  The questions can change the direction of the piece more abruptly than is possible in an article.

Q:      What about the time commitment?

A:      It usually takes less time to write than a traditional article.   

Q:      How does one go about writing one?

A:      It’s quite simple.  You sit down alone or with colleagues and develop a list of questions.  Include both those the clients frequently ask and some of those you wish they would ask.  Sort them by subject.  Winnow them down and then write down your answers.

Q:      Are there any disadvantages?

A:      Yes.  Many journals won’t accept a piece in this format.  Those that do are amazingly diverse, from blogs to trade journals to large circulation publications.

Q:      Do you have an example of another blog posting or other electronic media use of this format?
 
A:      Yes.  Take a look at my posting, He Talks Too Much.  Suzanne Lowe uses this format in her newsletter The Marketplace Master™.  Michael McLaughlin does, too in Management Consulting News.  It’s a flexible format enhances your reputation, and that allows you to put something together fast.  What more could you ask for?

For more advice like this, please see Ford Hardings’ new book: Rain Making, Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field, 2nd Edition

“Rain Making, in its new edition demonstrates its position as the single most sensible, accessible guide to building a professional practice…”
David Maister, author of Strategy and the Fat Smoker and co-author of The Trusted Advisor (with Charles Green and Robert Galford)

 Many thanks for two people who reviewed the new edition of Rain Making.

First, to Emily Granstaff-Rice of the Young Architects Forum , which is organized to address issues of particular importance to recently licensed architects (licensed 10 years or fewer). You may read her review here, and learn more about the Young Architect’s Forum here.

And second, thanks to Tim Klabunde, whose review is in this recent issue of the Society for Marketing Professional Services of DC book club. Tim also posted the review in his blog, cofebuz.com.