GET OFF THE DRAWING BOARD

10 unpleasant emotions frequently felt by a buyer during Professional Services purchasing process

How do you build a professional services firm? I think this question is more internally focused i.e. what skillsets do you hire, what is the career growth model for these professionals, what are the levers for profitability & revenue growth? As I started searching for answers to building a professional services firm, I landed on a book - “Maister, David H. (1997). Managing The Professional Service Firm”. One nugget that got my attention is list of feelings that every individual goes through whether you are purchasing Accounting, Law firm  or Technology consulting services. 

Buying professional services is rarely a comfortable experience (Kindle Locations 1847-1852).

1. I’m feeling insecure. I’m not sure I know how to detect which of the finalists is the genius, and which is just good. I’ve exhausted my abilities to make technical distinction. 
2. I’m feeling threatened. This is my area of responsibility, and even though intellectually I know I need outside expertise, emotionally it’s not comfortable to put my affairs in the hands of others. 
3. I’m taking a personal risk. By putting my affairs in the hands of someone else, I risk losing control. 
4. I’m impatient. I didn’t call in someone at the first sign of symptoms (or opportunity). I’ve been thinking about this for a while. 
5. I’m worried. By the very fact of suggesting improvements or changes, these people are going to be implying that I haven’t been doing it right up till now. Are these people going to be on my side? 
6.  I’m exposed. Whoever I hire, I’m going to have to reveal some proprietary secrets, not all of which are flattering. I will have to undress. 
7. I’m feeling ignorant, and don’t like the feeling. I don’t know if I’ve got a simple problem or a complex one. I’m not sure I can trust them to be honest about that: it’s in their interest to convince me its complex. 
8. I’m skeptical. I’ve been burned before by these kinds of people. You get a lot of promises: How do I know whose promise I should buy? 
9.  I’m concerned that they either can’t or won’t take the time to understand what makes my situation special. They’ll try to sell me what they’ve got rather than what I need. 
10. I’m suspicious. Will they be those typical professionals who are hard to get hold of, who are patronizing, who leave you out of the loop, who befuddle you with jargon, who don’t explain what they’re doing or why, who … , who … , who … ? In short, will these people deal with me in the way I want to be dealt with?

The key is empathy—the ability to enter customer’s world and see it through their eyes.

Making ideas happen to Get off the drawing board

I am still reading this book on my kindle. There are lots of ways to organize thoughts and ideas - Getting things Done (GTD) method by David Allen, or Behance.com’s The Action Method, but one primary tenet that I gathered from this book, and I relate to when getting ideas off the drawing board to execution is BIAS FOR ACTION with a STRUCTURE leads to tangible outcomes. I included one paragraph from the book below which is specific to Organization and Execution of ideas.

MAKING IDEAS HAPPEN = (THE IDEA) + ORGANIZATION AND EXECUTION + FORCES OF COMMUNITY + LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY

“ORGANIZATION IS ALL about applying order to the many elements of a creative project. There are concepts you hope to retain, resources you want to utilize, and then the components of the project itself—stuff that needs to get done and other stuff that needs to be referred back to. There are also external elements like deadlines, budgets, clients, and other constraints. All of these elements combine (or collide) as you seek to create, develop, and execute ideas. These elements exist in any creative project, but we don’t always acknowledge them. Often we try to work around them (or ignore them). Of course, doing so decreases the odds that our ideas will ever happen. The most important and most often neglected, organizational element is structure. We tend to shun structure as a way of protecting the free-flowing nature of ideas. But without structure, our ideas fail to build upon one another. Structure enables us to capture our ideas and arrange them in a way that helps us (and others) relate to them. Without structure, we can’t focus long enough on any particular idea to find its weaknesses. Ideas that should be killed will linger, and others that require development may be forgotten. Structure helps us achieve a tangible outcome from our ideas. Structure and organization are worthy of serious discussion because they provide a competitive advantage. Only through organization can we seize the benefits from bursts of creativity. If you develop the capacity to organize yourself and those around you, you can beat the odds.”