How to Create A Financial Times Award-Winning Consultancy from Scratch
Beyond Philosophy won an award named one of the Best Management Consultancy Firms in the UK, by the Financial Times (FT). This was voted on by clients and peers, we couldn’t be more honored or proud.
This bonus episode podcast explores how you can take your idea and turn it into an Financial Times Award-Winning consultancy, too. We share our 10-Step Plan for Success and ask our listeners, what would you do if you weren’t afraid?
The 10-Step Plan for Creating Your Award-Winning Business:
- Recognize that you are an expert in something, and then tell everyone you are. When I started my Global Customer Experience consultancy, no one knew me or even what Customer Experience was. So, I told them, starting my marketing efforts with my first book, Building Great Customer Experiences (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). Then I began conference speaking. Eventually, other people began to recognize I was an expert in customer experience training, which was much better than me saying it.
- Have an original idea. If you aren’t original, then you aren’t really adding anything of value to the greater business community, or the reputation of marketing consultants in general. Be unique and useful.
- Be brave. It’s okay to be afraid, better than okay, actually. Fear is an excellent motivator.
- Focus on your skills. Determine what you are excellent at and what you aren’t. Then, build on those strong skills and focus on using them. Otherwise, you can get out of your area of expertise and lose your way.
- Give an opinion. Your opinion is why people come to you. You should always have one, even if it isn’t popular. Just be careful how you deliver that unpopular opinion; too much opinion can be as bad as not enough.
- Know what drives value for your customers. Produce or perish, as they say (do they say that?). If you aren’t getting your customers an outstanding return on investment (ROI), then why should they hire you?
- Accept when you make a mistake, fix it, and move on. Everyone blows it from time to time. Learn from it and move on. Whatever you do, don’t quit. Success is just around the corner.
- Appreciate the support you get from friends and family. You need it, so be sure to recognize and reward it as often as you can.
- Prepare for long hours. Starting your own company is hard work. Period.
- Remember that consultants are the first to go in a recession. Prepare for the inevitable so you can bounce back when it’s over.
Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about my ten-step plan and how it can help you do what you would do if you weren’t afraid.
We recommend you spend 5 minutes now and take a short CX Healthcheck self assessment to see how your organization is performing. https://beyondphilosophy.com/cx-assessment/survey/. It’s free and will benchmark how you against hundreds of other companies. By answering a few multiple choice questions, you will understand what you need to do to take your Customer Experience (CX) to the next level.
The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior.
If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization’s marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com.