Free Marketing Resources for OD and Change Management Consultants

In the competency research that I’ve done since 1974 with over 3,000 in countless countries, without doubt, marketing for the internal or the external change agent consultant is a number one weakness.

As with the rest of the authors for our fourth edition, I have located the best person to represent a key topic area. Dr. Weiss is the right person for Marketing OD. Contact to his online links are at the end of this submission.

Alan has inspired me. He is so positive. He has so high-energy. He does not take any BS from my fellow editors. He knows exactly what he wants. He knows how to communicate to others. He is a true giver.

He has incredible energy. In my intimate contact with him, I’ve come to learn that he really takes care of his physical health, his mental health and spiritual well-being. He is a man of high values. Most important for us, he has distilled the wisdom on how one markets consulting.

His inspiration has challenged me to reflect on who I am and who I want to be a daily basis. I expect 2015 to be the most incredible year of my life. How about you? What are you going to change about yourself? Start today. Reinforce tomorrow. Be and become greater and greater.

Becoming greater results in happiness. Who can argue about one wanting to be happy? Such was the answer my daughter gave me over and over in her elementary grades. I would say, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She would say, dad, I want to be happy!

May your happiness increase day by day.

The first few paragraphs:

CHAPTER EIGHT of our 4^th Edition of Practicing OD by Wiley – Fall 2015

Entry: Marketing and Positioning OD

Alan Weiss

Most OD practitioners fail to realize that they are in the marketing business. Superb consultants in this area cannot get work because they believe that marketing is not required. Average OD consultants are doing quite well because they recognize the importance of marketing and can do it. Consultants who are great marketers can name their fee. Which group would you rather be in?

This concept applies internally, as well, to OD specialists and change management professionals. You have clients and prospects, and you can’t rely on them coming to you for what they think they want. You have to approach them to suggest what they need if you want to prove your worth.

You are not a fire fighter. You are the fire marshal. This chapter will enable you to:

• Determine your value proposition;
• Identify your buyer;
• Establish routes to reach that buyer;
• Achieve conceptual agreement; and
• Create a proposal to close business.

DETERMINING YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION

There are three critical factors to embrace when attempting to market professional services: (1) What’s the market need? (2) What are your competencies? and (3) What is your passion? When Michelangelo was supposed asked how he could have envisioned and created the extraordinary David sculpture, he replied, “I simply cut away everything that didn’t look like David.” If you “cut away” all that you are not passionate about and terrific at doing, you’ll create an “art work” of your career.

What Is the Market Need?

This is the essence of marketing. There is sometimes a pre-existing need. These are “evergreen,” such as strategy, leadership, team building, and so forth. There is often need you create, such as pointing out that people working remotely require a different kind of motivation and affiliation approach. Finally, there is need you anticipate, such as the cultural melding of probably acquisitions. Those are three sources of needs, with only one not of your creation.

A value proposition is always a benefit for the potential client—an outcome, not an input—and never a description of your methodology. For example, here are good and poor value propositions:

Good                                                    Poor

• Improve retention of core talent            • Perform exit interviews
• Decrease time-to-market of new            • Assess marketing/sales relations
  products
• Cut customer response time in half • Buy new software
• Merge acquisition and parent cultures • Run focus groups for new people
• Improve customer response time            • Create customer survey

Recommended Resources

• Free articles and podcasts and videos:

http://www.summitconsulting.com

http://www.contrarianconsulting.com

• YouTube Channels

Www.alanweiss.tv

Www.contrarianconsulting.tv

• Discussion Groups:

http://www.alansforums.com

• Speech at Harvard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ztFJmapypw