| A monthly newsletter from the Rochester Professional Consultants Network. |
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Steve Royal
Rochester Professional Consultants Network (RPCN) was very fortunate to have Steve Royal as a member since 1992. For 32 years, Steve participated in meetings and contributed his time and expertise to us. Steve's contributions included:
- Being a member of the RPCN Board of Directors
- Facilitating the Technical Forum for 25 years
- Being the Secretary for the Board of Directors for 15 years
- Being RPCN Webmaster, and all its associated duties, for approximately 12 years
- Being a contributor to the RPCN/Eastman Business Park Blogging Program
- Being an integral part of the RPCN monthly Newsletter Team, including a monthly column titled, "Did You Know," which covered various topics associated with RPCN and/or our website.
The RPCN Board knew that Steve was having some health problems for the last several months because Steve was open about it in one of the Operations meetings. He also mentioned that he was acquiring in-home help, due to his recent issues.
Steve was hospitalized in the beginning of April 2024. We sent him flowers, kept in touch, and found out he was sent home. Unfortunately, Steve's health issues were more serious than we knew, and we received word that he had passed away on Thursday, April 11, 2024.
Steve had many friends within our organization. Some knew him longer and were much closer friends, than others. We are saddened by his loss to us individually and as an organization.
We have heard from Steve's daughter, Karen. Per Steve's wishes, there are no plans for a funeral or memorial service. She has also expressed a desire that no flowers be sent.
We will individually express our condolences to Steve's daughter and family. In fact, I plan to include a copy of this article in my condolence card.
—Sandra Glanton
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Discover Your Value to Clients by Testing Your Assumptions
Building a consulting business is a trial-and-error process (with lots of error). It's like ramming your head against a wall until the wall surrenders and buys your service. As you start up, you:
- Define your service with educated assumptions about prospective/target clients who need you, and the value you'll deliver.
- Build a business plan (marketing strategy, financials, etc.).
- Market yourself, meet prospects, and ask them about their problems and needs.
- Pitch your service.
- Ask them to engage you (propose and negotiate). Hopefully, enough say "yes" before you give up and go out of business.
Customer Discovery
Testing your assumptions early in the startup process can increase your chances of success. One method is to interview target clients about their needs and the value they seek and then, adapt your service and marketing to match. Some call this Customer Discovery. Consultants may call it Client Discovery.
Customer Discovery is not to be confused with written customer surveys. Discovery interviews are one-on-one live interchanges with you asking probing questions. In-person is best, but phone or online via Zoom can suffice. Observing body language yields better information.
Discovery Interviewing Rules
These might seem contrary to your urge to make a sale (because they are!).
- Discovery Interviewing isn't a sales session. Don't do a sales pitch.
- It's not a critique of your service by the interviewee.
- It is information-gathering about a prospect's problems in your area of business.
- The method and motto are, "Ask don't sell."
Results
Discovery interviews can be enlightening. You may find that your service and its value match your target clients' needs if you are lucky. You may discover that you need minor tweaks to your plans. You may need major changes in your assumptions about who needs your service and the value you offer. (Tip: During interviews, stay alert for surprises and new opportunities.)
Action
Use Discovery Interviews and other market information to refine your consulting approach. Adapt your service to match your target clients' needs, then go out and sell. Keep adapting that ramming wall surrenders and you're successful.
—Bob Lurz
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Enhancing Human CapitalTM (EHCTM)
Deep Dive Updates
Last Month's Lunch-n-Learn
We held another RPCN EHC Lunch-n-Learn on Thursday, April 18th, at 11:30 AM on Zoom and discussed Leadership's Role in Enhancing Human Capital. We discussed how several leadership experts (Stephen R. Covey, Stephen M.R. Covey, Major General Robert W. Mixon, Jr., Ken Blanchard, and Marcus Buckingham) view the leader's role in ensuring those that they lead are being the best they can be. A couple of very interesting observations from the discussion were noticed.
- First, it was interesting how often similar themes were used by all these experts from servant leadership to empowering those around you while still maintaining responsibility for the results of the team's efforts.
- Second, it was pointed out by several participants how RPCN itself exhibits these traits as we look for the potential in our members and how to help them reach that potential.
It was a very lively discussion and we hope to have you join us at next month's session.
Upcoming Deep Dive (Note: Lunch-n-Learns will now be called Deep Dives)
May 16th, 2024
From Solopreneur to Entrepreneur - Scaling via Synergy
Facilitated by Bob Manard
Are you ready to make the move from being a solopreneur to being an entrepreneur who can build a team capable of scaling a business?
We will discuss:
- The benefits of solopreneurship and why it's so difficult to overcome the inertia that comes from being in control of everything in your business.
- What synergy is and how it can be discovered and leveraged.
- Strategies for assembling a team to maximize synergy and generate optimal outcomes for everyone involved.
RPCN's Enhancing Human CapitalTM Deep Dives are held via Zoom on the third Thursday of every month, 11:30 am – 1 pm ET. Please join us for the next event FREE of charge. To get more information about EHCTM, please see https://RochesterConsultants.org/EHC , or email the EHC team.
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