Reviews of 2 Classic Mktg Books for Advisers & Consultants
The Trusted Advisor
By David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford
Touchstone (Div. of Simon & Schuster), New York, 2000
David H. Maister is "the world's leading authority on the management of professional service firms," according to his bio in The Trusted Advisor. Maybe so. His two coauthors, Green and Galford, have some pretty slick credentials too (see their bio's below).
Their theme in this book is that technical mastery of one’s discipline is not enough to develop strong, lasting relationships with clients. Also required is "the ability to work with clients in such a way as to earn their trust and gain their confidence." The authors have produced a terrific book on how to do that.
The book is organized around three basic skills: earning trust, giving advice effectively, and building relationships.
One key to earning clients' trust is believing in them – not believing that they're all wonderful people necessarily, but:
Having a willingness to focus on them with a blend of curiosity and equanimity
Listening to them without prejudice and without presupposing an answer or solution
Appreciating and supporting their strengths, and
Helping them compensate for their weaknesses.
Earning prospective clients' trust requires answering their questions directly and truthfully, even if it means losing a chance at their business.
Giving good advice well
When giving advice, it's not enough to be correct. An advisor's job is to make sure the client follows the advice (complies), so that the client (a) can achieve their goal or solve their problem, and (b) will be delighted with your advice because it achieved good results.
Clients may not comply because you convey and reinforce the advice ineffectively. Non-compliance is never the client's fault – it is yours. This book helps you give advice effectively.
Many advisors have a tendency to assume all clients are alike, and to treat one as they treat all others. This is "dangerous," say the authors. You must tailor your conversation to a client's personality and business style. The authors present nine "difficult client types," with sample dialog to demonstrate the right way and the wrong way to behave with them.
About the authors
David H. Maister has been advising professional firms on strategic and managerial issues for two decades. His practice spans North America, Western Europe, and other parts of the world. He is the author of nine books, including Managing the Professional Service Firm (1993) and True Professionalism (1997). Website: www.davidmaister.com.
Charles H. Green is a business strategy consultant to the professional services industry. He is the president of Trusted Advisor Associates (www.trustedadvisor.com).
Robert M. Galford is a managing partner of the Center for Executive Development in Cambridge, MA. He formerly practiced law with the firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle in New York and Washington.
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
By Harry Beckwith
Warner Books, New York, 1997
This book is on many marketers' short list of the best literature in the field of professional services marketing. The subtitle could have been "Chicken Soup for the Marketer of Services," as there are around 120 short chapters in 252 pages.
The main thrust is that effective services marketers focus on building relationships, rather than selling features and benefits:
"In most professional services, you are not really selling expertise--because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead, you are selling a relationship. And in most cases, that is where you need the most work. Before you try to satisfy 'the client,' understand and satisfy the person."
One way to satisfy the person is to "study every point at which your company makes contact with a prospect. Then ask: What are we doing to make a phenomenal impression at every point?"
A central message that might not sound appealing to professionals who are averse to big changes: Incredibly successful marketers like H&R Block, Charles Schwab, and Hyatt Legal Services "did not simply improve incrementally on existing ideas. They made radical departures."
Beckwith's First Rule of Marketing Planning: "Everyone should start at ground zero. They should ask, 'Is [the service we offer] viable anymore? Is this what the world wants?'"
On the other hand, "Don't just create what the market needs or wants. Create what it would love."
Beckwith devotes most of the book to the planning, research, and techniques needed to build and reinforce your relationships with clients. Some of his best stuff includes:
Creating a positioning statement (15 pages on this)
Branding (20 pages)
Conveying the message of quality: "Create the evidence of your service quality. Then communicate it. Make the invisible visible."
Improving your conversation skills: "You cannot bore someone into buying your product."
Here's something you might agree with wholeheartedly, after seeing so many lame mission statements posted on professional practitioners' websites: "Write a mission statement, but keep it private."
Not all his insight, opinions and advice are on target, so you have to read skeptically and critically. The choppy, short-chapter format is distracting. But it makes for great bathroom reading.
About the author
Harry Beckwith is the founder of Beckwith Advertising and Marketing in Minneapolis. He is also the author of What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business (Warner Books, 2003) and The Invisible Touch: The Four Keys to Modern Marketing (Warner, 2000).
About the reviewer
David M. Freedman is a Chicago-based journalist and media relations consultant, specializing in the fields of law and finance. He won a Your Honor Award in 2001 from the Legal Marketing Association for excellence in public relations.