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CHAD CLINEHENS, from page 9

ganization breeds mediocrity. When the market is hot, we are all fighting for the same talent, often settling for any “warm body” we can get to help handle the work load. Our resistance to authentic strategic planning and organizational investment sets the table for the feast and famine cycles from which so many firms suffer. The solution here is to use the plan men- tioned above to drive investment in staff and resources with particular attention toward marketing, recruiting, and IT. Those three areas are shown to drive growth in professional service firms. Research shows that firms that sustain 20 per- cent growth rates for three or more years all invest more in marketing, recruiting, and IT than average performing firms. The idealistic notion we have of ourselves combined with the resistance to change contributes to the romanticism of mediocrity. Nobody wants to be average, but that is the playground of the majority. The tendencies of your peers spell opportunity for you if you can simply spend the needed time to become more than just mediocre. To outperform the market, you must take extraordinary measures and look different in everything you do and say. Make long-term oriented investments in marketing, recruiting, and IT to set the stage for becoming a firm of the future versus a firm of the past. The dangerous romanticism of mediocrity shields us from the reality that we are allowing the market to dictate our success. Create your market and create your success with intensive planning and investments, and start celebrating true achievements. CHAD CLINEHENS is Zweig Group’s executive vice president. Contact him at cclinehens@zweiggroup.com. The second was a blank book that I created myself and had printed, cut, and spiral bound. The book was approximately 8”x 8” in size. When opened flat, one side was totally blank. The other side had a light-grey, 1/8” x 1/8” grid, to allow sketching to scale. My engineering clients loved the book and often asked for another when the first was full. One caution: “Bang for the buck” is about the recipient seeing the give-away item often, for a long time. So you want an item that someone will keep on his/her desk and see all the time. Even better, you want an item they can actually use, like a great pen, the most amazing coffee mug, the best leather binder, etc. But if you give away an item the person will take home for their child, it won’t have the “bang for the buck” you want. The child may love the item, but the prospective client will rarely see it. And yes, the light-up yo-yo mentioned above falls into this category; while it might be remembered by the recipient, its most frequent user would be the child to whom it was passed. Just like you have to present the facts a client needs to hear rather than just what you want to tell him or her, you must have give-away items that the client will need or want to use daily and not just something you think is “great” or attractive. A pen passed to the receptionist doesn’t improve your marketing results, nor does an ordinary coffee mug that gets stuck on a shelf with a dozen other ordinary coffee mugs. BERNIE SIBEN, CPSM, is owner and principal consultant with the Siben Consult, LLC. He can be reached at 559.901.9596 or bernie@ sibenconsult.com.

z Growth plans. Another area that suffers from mediocrity is growth plans. Firms do not set high enough goals and then pursue those goals with an aggressive effort. Instead, we say we want to grow, but then we stay busy getting work done when the market is hot. When the market cools, we look back and wish we had done more to make that growth sustainable. I also run into firms that say they don’t want to grow for fear that it will change them into something they are not. When it comes to growth, we just don’t get serious about it. The fact is, you either grow or you die. Which side of that equation do you want to be on? If you don’t evolve and change in a grow- ing way, you will certainly become somebody else – a nobody. “Nobody wants to be average, but that is the playground of the majority.” The solution here usually starts with an authentic strategic planning process that is driven by research as opposed to philosophy. After you have a growth oriented vision and plan in place, you must work daily to execute it. Every operational decision must be done with the overall plan in mind, and the incremental steps taken that are necessary for ultimate suc- cess. z Organizational structure. Another huge problem is firms’ organizational structure. Investment in staff in this indus- try is highly reactive. Furthermore, there is an inherent resistance to adding “overhead” or support staff until we are beyond crisis level. This reactive approach to building the or-

BERNIE SIBEN, from page 11

key chains, mouse pads, etc. If you can find an inexpensive item that won’t be on every other table, that’s even better. For a fun item, one of my employers gave away colored, clear plastic yo-yos with lights that came on when the yo-yo rolled up and down the string. Everyone wanted one, but we knew they were going home to the kids. Whether someone is just going table to table collecting “stuff,” or sees someone else with the item and asks where they got it, these items get people to your booth. The more expensive item – which might even be custom made – is kept under the table, out of sight, and given only to those who stick around for some real discussion. Anyone who tells you what their firm needs and lets you talk about how you could help them has earned the more expensive item. I think the important thing is to have some giveaway item(s) that people will want and use when they get back to work. When I started my business, I had two favorite items. The first was a leather bookmark. I found that senior people are always reading, and don’t want to dog-ear pages. I had someone make me a great leather bookmark with my company information embossed into the leather. Given the size – approximately 1”x 7” – the item was made from scraps that would otherwise have been trashed, so it was inexpensive and available in many colors.

THE ZWEIG LETTER July 25, 2016, ISSUE 1161

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