The WhIP Journal
March 2005 Power Your Practice – THE WhIP JOURNAL [What Helps In Practice]
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In This Issue:
MAKING YOUR PROFESSIONAL VALUE MORE MEANINGFUL -
How to ensure your firm will stand out in your crowded marketplace
THAT IS SUCH A GOOD THOUGHT…
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MAKING YOUR PROFESSIONAL VALUE MORE MEANINGFUL –
How to ensure your firm will stand out in your crowded marketplace
One of the biggest challenges for a professional service firm is to be unique and stand out in the crowded marketplace.
You must always ask the question “Why should a client choose you instead of any other professional who can perform the same functions?”
Answer: You must do more than perform the ‘functions’ of your profession.
Part of the answer is to create and pursue ‘niche’ markets. For an accounting firm perhaps that means you focus on financial planning or elder care. Maybe most of your advertising effort and money is spent telling prospects that you specialize in the manufacturing industry. However, this method of inferring ‘value’ will only take you so far. You need to create an experience that is meaningful for your clients.
I know some of you are already tuning me out. We don’t ‘do’ meaningful experiences in a professional service firm, some of you are thinking. We are highly skilled, trained professionals in our particular sector and not meaning-seekers. That’s for someone else to do.
There is a growing body of evidence that the way of the world is changing. What has been known as the Information Age is coming to an end. Not tomorrow perhaps. But soon enough. The changes will have a large impact on this working generation and certainly on our children. In the past 50 years we grew up being encouraged to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers and more recently computer programmers. However, these are some of the very jobs and industries that will face tremendous changes. Author Daniel Pink has written about his research and study in a compelling new book called “A Whole New Mind” due to be released in late March.
Do you know that Chartered Accountants in India make $200/month and can do a lot of the work a North American C.A. can do? Computer programmers in India with engineering degrees earn less than $12,000/year? Indian lawyers do research and Indian radiologists read CAT scans for North American companies for a fraction of the costs? Anything that can be considered routine and knowledge-based can now be automated and outsourced to many countries in Asia and Europe for significant cost savings. Currently it’s mostly the large companies that are taking advantage of these opportunities. However, it’s only a matter of time before it’s in widespread use.
I don’t write this to be a scare-monger. My WhIP Journal eNews readers are a dedicated, intelligent, progressive group of entrepreneurs. You need to know which way the winds of business are moving. You need to constantly re-assess how to manage and direct your own business strategies. You need to know how to stay competitive.
You need to know how to make your professional value more meaningful to your clients!
Do you ask your clients (not just the friendly, chatty ones) what their goals are? I mean really ask/discuss/pursue a dialogue about the goals and vision and meaning in their life and their work? Why do they do, what they do?
What do they want?
Is there something more they want?
What’s the big picture in their head?
Can you empathize with them?
Are there challenges they’re dealing with?
How do you relate?
Is there a way for you to help direct them and encourage them
by using your professional skills and newly honed empathy skills?
Do you know how powerful it is to help someone achieve their goals?
Very powerful! Meaningful! Compelling!
Performing functions like calculating tax, reporting on financial statements, and filing government compliance forms is simply not enough. These tasks are insufficient, uninspiring, unworthy of loyalty, and void of meaningful relationships. The professional down the street can perform these functions and so can the low-cost, outsource professional in another country.
You must focus on the things that they can’t do.
As Daniel Pink says, YOU MUST do things that a computer can’t do faster, and outsourcing can’t do cheaper or even at all.
Let’s begin to really follow this. If you haven’t thought about it or you’re resistant to it, let’s keep an open mind and see what develops. I’ll write about this in much more detail in the months to come. You may begin to see evidence of your own that confirms the new trends. If you’re uncomfortable with some of the ideas expressed here, perhaps you’ll allow them to ruminate and begin to think of ways of expressing them in your own style.
“THAT IS SUCH A GOOD THOUGHT”,
Thoughts worth reading, thinking, repeating and embracing.
“In an age of abundance, appealing simply to rational, logical and functional needs is insufficient. If those things, experiences or images aren't also pleasing to the eye or compelling to the soul, fewer people will buy them. Mastery of design—as well as empathy, play and other seemingly ‘soft’ aptitudes—is now a key way for individuals, firms and consumers to stand out in a crowded market.”
-Daniel Pink is the author of "Free Agent Nation" (Warner Books)
and the forthcoming "A Whole New Mind" (Riverhead Books)
I hope you’ve found value in this month’s copy of THE WhIP JOURNAL.
My best regards to you,
Debra Dowdell
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This is an Opt-in No-Fee monthly ezine/newsletter from Debra Dowdell. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to it. You may unsubscribe or change your information at any time at Details@PowerYourPractice.com. Your information will never be given away, sold, or rented. Ever. Thank you.
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