Image by Revolweb via Flickr I’ve brought up the subject of personal branding before, but I want to touch on it in a context most people don’t often consider. Usually you hear terms like personal branding in conjunction with entrepreneurship. Most business owners were employees once. And often these business leaders were actually planning and scheming their new business under the guise of a loyal employee at their former job. In such cases, personal branding is essential for surviving the transition from wage-earner to business leader. But what about the truly loyal employee who has no interest in leaving their firm? The answer to why this is important, is simple but often misunderstood: in today’s world, strong company branding is closely tied to the personalities behind the brand. Many companies see this as a liability not an asset, although the reverse is true. Let’s look at some examples: Apple & [Continue Reading...]

I’ve been quiet on the blogging and social media front recently as I have been busy with purchasing a condo, getting financing in the post-financial crisis world, and then packing, moving, settling in — all during a killer rash of hot weather. This…

Image by Paraflyer via Flickr Although I’m not sure how advantageous a roof deck meeting area will be in Chicago during the winter months, I still love this example of an innovative working environment. This sort of flexibility and creativity goes a long way to improve morale but may not be immediately quantifiable. Chicago lawyer Michael Childress conducted four meetings Wednesday on the rooftop deck of his law firm’s new offices. The outdoor deck on the 13th floor at 500 N. Dearborn Street also serves as a lunch spot for employees of Childress, Duffy, Goldblatt Ltd. “We had a happy hour up here kind of spontaneously,” Childress said, adding that a Friday night movie event on the deck is planned. During the coming months, a “tagging” event is expected. Teams of employees will be set loose with spray paint cans to cover sections of the deck in whatever designs they [Continue Reading...]

Image via Wikipedia This is an excellent post from Building Industry Relationships that highlights another aspect of presenting value when courting clients. For service industries, value is the main offering that successful companies provide. Often the term is used in reference to perceived value, or “the relationship between the consumer’s perceived benefits in relation to the perceived costs of receiving these benefits.” In this case, Karen Davis discusses the more conventional meaning of value – saving money. At a time when people are pinching pennies, let them know how you your services can save them money in the long run. Their time is money. Their research effort is money. Their mistakes – money. Show your prospect the financial benefit of choosing you. – The financial benefit of choosing you over your competition, whether you’re in a job interview or trying to sign a contract. – The financial benefit spending a [Continue Reading...]

This is an excellent list of marketing techniques that every firm should be implementing. Start a blog (but make sure your are committed to regular, weekly posts. Get other lawyers in the firm or practice group to agree to contribute on a schedule); Make sure marketing and business goals are aligned (too often they are not in sync and send a confused message to the outside world); Find out what is written online about you and your firm by monitoring your reputation online (one way to do that is set up Google Alerts on yourself and firm’s name); Ask “why this is important” before issuing press releases (and make sure that “newsy” items are just that. If no one outside the firm would really care, it ain’t news); and Don’t forget the importance of face-to-face meetings (this should really be listed No. 1. IMHO it is much more valuable than [Continue Reading...]

You don’t have to be a fan of me either. Due to Facebook’s privacy issues and other concerns, I’m disabling the Facebook page for BLHill.net. But if you like what’s here, please by all means head over to BLHill.net’s Facebook page. (And yes, I like Wolfe Law Group and I’m a fan.) When I logged onto the Wolfe Law Group page on Facebook this morning, I was greeted with a message that the page would no longer have “fans,” but instead would invite users to “like” our practice. It’s an effort to be more “lightweight” to users, and hopefully, increase a pages fan base. It just might work too. Before logging into our admin page, I stumbled upon another businesses FB page and saw the “become a fan” button replaced with “like.”. It confused me for a few seconds, but then I just passed it off as someone knowing a [Continue Reading...]

Some people think that marketing and business development is just advertising. I think that view is nearsighted and a recipe for disaster. Others think that the best way to develop business is through delivering proven results. I agree with that concept, but I disagree that it is the only way to market oneself. Some people feel that networking and lunches and golf are the only way to market. While I don’t deny the importance of such activities (see Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time), but again networking isn’t everything. Limiting marketing approaches to just one activity or type of activity is the realm of amateurs. And instead of putting the cart before the horse and adopting others’ views of how to market, the best approach is to learn what works for your clients/prospects. How does one find out what will work: if you’re [Continue Reading...]

Let me tell you, when what you teach and develop every day has the title “Innovation” attached to it, you reach a point where you tire of hearing about Apple. Without question, nearly everyone believes the equation Apple = Innovation is a fundamental truth—akin to the second law of thermodynamics, Boyle’s Law, or Moore’s Law. But ask these same people if they understand exactly how Apple comes up with their ideas and what approach the company uses to develop blockbuster products—whether it is a fluky phenomenon or based on a repeatable set of governing principles—and you mostly get a dumbfounded stare. This response is what frustrates me most, because people worship what they don’t understand. In this article, Alain Breillatt (Pragmatic Marketing) takes a long hard look at Apple’s product development and marketing approach from a somewhat objective perspective. Why is Apple innovative? Some key points: Apple “wraps great ideas [Continue Reading...]

The first test of a consultant: Ethics. I really had no idea what to expect, going in. In my mind, consulting was about answering business questions through analysis. It was supposed to be Excel sheets and models, sifting through data to discover profit and loss, and helping clients make decisions that would add the most value for themselves, and by extension, society. It was worrisome to enter a new job without any guarantee that I would be qualified. I assumed BCG would train me, and that as it had been with MIT, intelligence and hard work would prove sufficient. Still, I wondered what I would do if for some reason it turned out that I couldn’t get my head around the analysis? In hindsight, analytical skills should have been the least of my worries. The first clue that my mental picture of consulting was off came with “training” in Munich. [Continue Reading...]

Mark Buckshon, of Construction Marketing Ideas, recently commented on a blog post from Matt Handal, of Help EveryBody Everyday: In his Help EveryBody Everyday blog, Matt Handal tackles the question that should challenge AEC industry marketers:  Does our investment in time and resources on social media really provide a return on investment? Handal provides an indication that most marketers within this industry are having trouble tracking real business results from these initiatives.  There may be tantalizing indicators, for example, increased web traffic and perhaps some anecdotal positive feedback, but can we track and assess whether these initiatives actually bring business to our organizations?  (And you should not deceive yourself that social media is free even if you don’t write cheques or give credit card numbers to your industry providers — you still are investing time and energy and reallocating resources to handle the marketing initiatives.) Handal notes: Personal Strategy Some [Continue Reading...]