How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession: Powerful Techniques for the Successful Practitioner / Edition 1 available in Paperback
How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession: Powerful Techniques for the Successful Practitioner / Edition 1
- ISBN-10:
- 0470433949
- ISBN-13:
- 9780470433942
- Pub. Date:
- 12/05/2001
- Publisher:
- Wiley
How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession: Powerful Techniques for the Successful Practitioner / Edition 1
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Overview
How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession will help you create a brand that will make you "Number One" in your particular areas of excellence, no matter how broad or narrow. And, perhaps worth the price alone, the book offers a glimpse into the important trends that are shaping the future of branding.
"Alan Weiss should be branded as The Consultant's Consultant! His new book, How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession, is another proof of the value of his insights into the marketing and strategy of the consulting profession. He's right on the mark in terms of what consultants typically don't do and certainly need to do to succeed."—William C. Byham, chairman and CEO, Development Dimensions International, Inc. (DDI)
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780470433942 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| Publication date: | 12/05/2001 |
| Pages: | 228 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
No one in his right mind places investments with the obnoxious caller at 8: 30 in the evening who barges into his home life to announce that there awaits him rare titanium futures for a mere $40,000 investment sent to a post office box in Hoboken, New Jersey. No one in her right mind would buy consulting services in that manner, either, yet that's how most consultants insist on selling them.
Look at almost any consulting firm's promotional literature or website, and you'll find one of two approaches. There will be unrelenting claims of tremendous competence and capabilities, and exhaustive descriptions of methodologies, approaches, technologies, and models. Or the approach will be so "soft" and generic--and otherwise vague--as to produce confusion as to whether this is a consulting operation or a storm door company. In either case, what's in it for the potential client is largely conspicuous by its absence.
But this book isn't for those consultants. It is for the successful professionals who understand that acquiring business is about convincing the prospect that a partnership will improve the latter's condition by a huge multiple of whatever investment is required. I would hope that the reader has already completed the keystone book in this series, The Ultimate Consultant. But, in any case, whether you are a large firm partner, a small firm owner, or a solo practitioner, you should be someone constantly searching for a better way to attract customers to you, to develop a word of mouth about your expertise, and to create the "gravity" that draws others to your firm.
No one cruises the highways to read billboards, and no one seeks out consultants in order to read their promotional materials or glorified self-praise. George Odiorne wrote once that "the successful man is one who has objective interests which absorb him, thus making him an object of interest to others." This book is for men and women who want others to seek them out because they have created a great interest in who they are and what they do.
Alan Weiss, Ph. D.
East Greenwich, RI
July 2001
Table of Contents
Introduction xiAcknowledgements xiii
Chapter 1 A Brand by Any Other Name: Why Consultants Desperately Need Brands to Thrive (Survival Isn't Enough) 1
Marque My Words: Perception Is Reality 3
Real World Lessons 4
Positioning a Brand so that the Brand Positions You 8
Why Consultants Need to Get Their Hands Dirty in the Branding Business 11
The Payoff of a Strong Brand in Consulting 13
The Ultimate Secret of Branding 14
Brand New Lessons 18
Chapter 2 You Don't Start at the Beginning: You Have the Makings of a Brand at Hand 21
Identifying the Ingredients of Your Brands 21
Recipe: Finding the Right Raw Materials and Mixtures 22
Magnifying Your Existing Repute 26
Re-Energizing Your Brand for Maximum Impact 32
Five Ways to Ensure Brand Freshness 35
The Critical Case for Strategic Branding 36
Brand New Lessons 39
Chapter 3 The Gravity of Brands: Creating Irresistible Attraction: Using Brands to Draw Buyers to You 41
The Elements That Create Gravitational Attraction 44
Brand New Lessons 70
Chapter 4 How to Write a Book, Even If You've Never Written Your Mother: The Best Branding Technique of Them All 71
Early Preparation Is Better Than the Best Editor 73
Creating and Selling a Brilliant Proposal 77
Writing a Book and Living to Tell About It 81
Marketing Your Book Because the Publisher Really Won't 84
Some Other Very Important Issues 86
Brand New Lessons 88
Chapter 5 How to Conquer the Lecture Circuit: Using the Platform to Raise Your Brand 89
Why Professional Speaking Is Brand-Effective (the "Reach" of the Speech) 90
Preparing Your Message: Insider Tips on Outstanding Speaking 91
The Elements of a Powerful Delivery 97
Turbo-Marketing Your Speaking Efforts 100
The Magic of Setting High Fees (the Good Stuff) 104
Exploiting Success 106
Brand New Lessons 108
Chapter 6 The Twelve Myths of 21st Century Branding: I Didn't Walk in Here and I'm Not Leaving 109
The Myths 110
Brand New Lessons 127
Chapter 7 Publicizing Your Brand Within Your "Environment": Expanding Fifteen Minutes of Fame into a Month of Sundays 129
Understanding the Brand Environment 130
Creating the New Environment 133
Ten Guidelines for Influencing the Environment 136
Twenty-Five Ways to Foster Publicity in Any Environment 139
Brand New Lessons 147
Chapter 8 Creating Products to Boost Your Brand: The Wonderful Combination of Passive Income and Active Promotion 149
The Ironclad Case for Products in the Consulting Profession 151
Alan's Favorite Methods to Boost Your Brand 154
Brand New Lessons 166
Chapter 9 Where Are We Heading and How Do We Capitalize?: A Dozen Trends That Close the Case for Branding 169
The Trends 170
Brand New Lessons 186
Chapter 10 Leapfrogging: How to Take Your Brands and Your Plans to New Heights 187
Multiple Brands 188
Abandoning Brands 190
Protecting your Brands: The Principle of Adaptive Uniqueness 193
Keeping Brands Revitalized 197
Final Thoughts 200
Action Checklist 201
Index 205
What People are Saying About This
"Alan Weiss's new book, How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession, is another in his marvelous series designed to help establish successful consulting practices. As a member of our visiting graduate faculty in the College of Business, Alan's seminars are among our most popular because they combine sound theory with good practice. I wish all the consultants we hire would take to heart his sound advice"
—Robert L. Carothers, president, The University of Rhode Island
"Alan Weiss should be branded as The Consultant's Consultant! His new book, How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession, is another proof of the value of his insights into the marketing and strategy of the consulting profession. He's right on the mark in terms of what consultants typically don't do and certainly need to do to succeed."
—William C. Byham, chairman and CEO, Development Dimensions International, Inc. (DDI)
"Alan provides practical advice on how to build a brand from someone who's done it over and over again. He provides useful guides for practitioners to successfully create their own brand. It's a refreshing and stimulating read with high payoff for those who take his advice and then deliver!"
—Marilyn Martiny, Hewlett-Packard Company