The Outstanding Professional
Programme Overview
The Outstanding Professional is an intensive programme for professionals who want to boost their career or business, reach a new level of clientele, fees and enjoyment.
In the 21st century economy, expertise alone is not enough. Professionals also need to be visible, to manage time effectively, to motivate others, to grow their reputation and that of their company.
Benefits include consistent enquiries, high financial rewards, better projects and rapid career progression. In summary it means More Income in Less Time.
Members of “The Outstanding Professional” can expect to see a solid line of achievement based on the following shifts.
Ten shifts in Twelve Months
As you read through this information, it is possible to feel like the farmer who said to the agent; "Don't tell me how to farm any better, I'm not farming as well as I know how now!" For this reason, the focus of our programme is action, rather than ideas.
So what do you need to take sustained action? The following twelve strategies structure the actions that have already helped over three hundred professionals to capture the attention of the people they need.
The ideal sequence to implement the strategies below varies from person to person. While the order here works for most people, some participants benefit from customising the sequence for themselves. For example, if time or confidence is a key issue for you, you may wish to work on those first.
- Living at the core of the client world
- Nurturing the power of trust
- Protecting the time to think and plan
- Perfecting the client journey
- Pricing according to value
- Creating a compelling vision with the team
- Delegating the prospecting
- Practicing new levels of confidence
- Developing a top reputation in a niche
- Creating a system to stay in touch
- Enjoying time for life
- Being a model among peers
Living at the core of the client world
Referrals are the best way to get clients, but what if your total network is made up of only a few people? Over the next three years, how can you capture the attention of five thousand people?
In this strategy we talk about defining our ideal clients, determining where they are already, and positioning ourselves at the crossroads through which they travel – rather than searching random highways and byways (e.g. networking events) for prospective clients.
Nurturing the power of trust
Why does trust take such a long time to establish? Might that simply be a consequence of not having a concrete plan to accelerate the trust-building process?
We never get to use our skills until someone trusts us enough to share a problem with us. They cannot trust us if they don’t know we exist. In this strategy, we measure and improve three dimensions of trust: credibility, reliability and the personal touch, so that we get through the protective layers around which others cocoon their attention.
Protecting the time to think and plan
We need time to bill and time to build; time for work, for rest and for play. Growing a quality professional business involves attending to many things, and most of us have found that traditional time-management is not enough.
This strategy involves learning some new habits to our days. If we cannot harness our own attention, how can we hope to capture the attention of others?
Perfecting the client journey
To cross the river from stranger to client, people need some stepping-stones. If there are not enough stepping-stones, we lose clients in-between. If there are too many, clients get distracted and confused by all the options.
On average, it takes 10-15 interactions for a stranger to become a client. If we can improve the throughput at each step by a modest 10%, that increases the finish rate by a whopping 380% - even before new strangers begin the journey.
Pricing according to value
The hourly or daily rate creates a prison for many professionals. What starts out as a strategy to place a floor under our earnings ends up imposing a ceiling.
Value-focused professionals capture attention. Pricing according to value doesn’t mean that we have to switch to contingency fees, but we do need to learn how (and when) to place our fees in the context of the value we offer.
Creating a compelling vision with a team
Many of the best professionals are natural problem-solvers, and value uninterrupted time alone. Nevertheless we cannot accomplish much in the twenty-first century without the active co-operation of other people.
Whether independents or in organisations, the support of others helps us to stay focused, to maximise our talents. This means that we need a team. A team needs a leader – and that is you. This strategy covers essential leadership skills for professional firms.
Delegating the prospecting
To earn more fees in less time, we need to focus our energy on our natural talent. For most of us, this means spending at least 80% of our time with high quality clients (or potentials). We simply cannot do this if half the week is spent prospecting.
In this strategy we look at how we delegate the prospecting to our best advocates: our clients and our strategic alliance partners.
Practicing new levels of confidence
What is the difference between a consultant who charges £500 per day, and one who charges £3,000? While there may be a difference of skill, or market, there will certainly be a difference of confidence.
Without some confidence, we cannot take the actions needed by this or any other programme. Paradoxically, confidence grows by taking action – it grows from the legs up rather than from the head down. This strategy (indeed, the whole programme) is about developing your confidence muscles. Shy entrants in previous years are now speaking at conferences – capturing the attention they need to be outstanding professionals.
Developing a top reputation in a niche
Who wants to earn an average wage? On average, professionals are lucky to charge for half of the hours actually worked. The average business has at least one month's fees locked up in accounts receivable. Being average is hard.
It's a lot easier to be at the top of a category than in the middle. By achieving a top reputation, we become sought-after rather than searching. We capture the attention of others, and build confidence in ourselves. When other professionals start copying what we do, the effect is to reinforce our position as leaders in our field.
Creating a system to stay in touch
When five thousand people know you, how will you stay in touch? One of the hardest limitations for professionals to accept is that no matter how we try, we simply cannot have all the one-to-one conversations we would really like to have with the people we meet.
During this strategy, we will compile a list of alternatives for common use, and discuss the pros and cons of each. We will also discuss how we manage our contacts for maximum benefit both for others and ourselves.
Enjoying time for life
Who wants to do business with someone who is tired, inattentive and boring? Do top-quality people want to work for somebody who is overwrought, and over-anxious?
When it comes to taking time off, responsibility often leads to guilt. In this strategy, we examine the psychology behind that. Most importantly, we do something about it!
Being a model among peers
Outstanding Professionals want more fees in less time. But they also want more than money; their values are driven by service and excellence. Professional life is more than a business to make money; it is a realisation of a deeper inner necessity.
Recognition and respect from one’s peers is therefore not just a sop for the ego. It is a crucial strategy for the growth of motivation, vision and purpose. The appreciative attention of our peers is an echo of that recognition for which we inwardly long … and which is increasingly absent in an attention-deficit world.
Only you will know what is best for you and your business. There is always so much to do and so many priorities to juggle, so why not have a free taster session to find out how this programme can help you achieve what you want from your business.
To book a taster session now, contact Zoe Yarker at Zoe@InspiredWorking.com
