To Counsel Leaders, It Helps To Understand Leadership

I spent about 20 years searching for a master's degree program that would meet my needs as a public relations professional. Having worked in PR all my life, I wasn't interested in a straight PR or communication graduate program, and an MBA just didn't seem quite right for me either.

One day, I discovered Seton Hall University's Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leadership (MASCL) online program. The university has delivered this program to 25 Learning Teams in just over 10 years, and Seton Hall's experience in providing a rich and rigorous learning experience really shows. For me, it represented the perfect combination of strategic communication, leadership, organizational change, and a host of other disciplines that are so crucial to my clients' success. Now that I've completed the program and serve as one of its instructors, I would without hesitation recommend MASCL as an ideal master's program for the professional communicator, regardless of industry sector.

That said, I'm a firm believer that you can't be at your best counseling leaders if you don't understand the dynamics of leadership and the many challenges they face today. Since I've declared 2010 The Year of Client Service Excellence here at CSI, I thought: What better place to start than to explore what each of us can do to raise our respective games? How can we take our skills up a notch so that we can provide an even higher level of client service excellence in the year(s) ahead?

The best news is that you don't have to wait. Check out the MASCL link and learn how you can be part of the next Learning Team. I also invite alums to share their experiences with MASCL and for others to share programs they would recommend as well! A prosperous 2010 will begin with you!

2010: The Year of Client Service Excellence

Let me start 2010 with a brief but important reminder. For many of you, today is your first day of the new year back in the office. What better time to commit to client service excellence and its critical role to growing your business.

Back in 2006, Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company reported:

• Over a 5 year period, businesses may lose as many as 1/2 of their customers.
• Acquiring a new customer can cost 6 to 7 times more than retaining an existing customer.
• Businesses who boosted customer retention rates by as little as 5% saw increases in their profits ranging from 5% to a whopping 95%.

The math is fairly simple and the disruption of client churn is often much greater than just the hard costs incurred. In reviewing various sources, the cost of acquiring new clients ranges from 5 to 10 times more than keeping the ones you have. What's more, new clients want to work with agencies that will serve them better than their predecessors. Starting today, make client service excellence the centerpiece for your growth strategy. Make 2010 the year of client service excellence!

The Music Is All Around Us

For those of you who have seen the 2007 movie August Rush, you learned that "the music is all around us, you just have to listen." Well, life lessons (personal and professional) are all around us as well, you just have to pay attention.

As we wind down the year in celebration of the holidays, I've always found it a wonderful time to take stock of what we do and who we are both personally and professionally. So if you determine that client service excellence is a priority for you next year, then imagine what it will take to improve. Other than getting a tip or two from this blog, and other client service related sources throughout the year, keep in mind that the lessons are everywhere - they too are all around us if we listen and make the connections.

John Dewey once stated, "Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he is studying at the time. Collateral learning in the way of formation of enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be and is often much more important than the spelling lesson or lesson in geography or history that is learned."

This will be my last post for this year, as I take a break and enjoy the holiday season. So happy holidays and thank you for reading and offering your comments here at CSI. May next year bring you happiness, prosperity, and lots of collateral learning!

Measurement Problem Or Just Poor Communication?

As we prepare for the new year, it may be a good time to think about the importance of demonstrating value to our clients. To do so effectively, we have to agree on what we're measuring. While we as PR professionals can't always isolate or align a specific strategy to a company's business results, we can do a better job of working with our clients to devise measures specific to the relationship. Ambiguity in this area is, more often than not, a function of poor communication rather than an inability to measure results. Here are just a few examples of how communication can break down:

• Agency people who are trying to win a new piece of business will promise prospective clients the moon, the stars, you name it - whatever it takes to get them to agree to the xx thousand dollar a month retainer.
• Some agency people loathe to talk about money, let alone be pinned down to provide specifics regarding what a client can expect for a return on investment. They're so happy just to win the business that talks of finances and accountability somehow compromise the moment.
• Long ago, the agency world weakened the PR brand by suggesting that one can measure the value of media coverage based on a multiple of ad equivalencies. Three times the ad rate, five times the ad rate - just pick a number. It was not only arbitrary, but also defined PR value only in terms of media relations and editorial coverage. All other aspects of the discipline were left out in the cold. (Thanks for that!)
• Clients wanted to know what they were getting for their money, but were inconsistent about what they asked for. For example, does $5,000 per month get me x number of press releases or does $5,000 per month get me coverage in the New York Times, etc.? What CAN you tell me?
• Clients don't always understand what PR does, and we haven't exactly done a stellar job clarifying the matter. If your client isn't sure what PR is really supposed to do, then you certainly can't expect them to understand how it can be measured.
• Clients and PR people don't sit down and have honest talks about what motivates an organization's PR effort, the aspects of PR they seek to employ, or their definition of success and how to measure it.

Before you start crunching the numbers and breaking out the excel spreadsheets, talk to your clients first. Really talk. Find out what it is they'd like to achieve through public relations. Outline the objectives, agree on the strategies, and define the measurement tools. Understand what success looks like to your clients and be clear about what you can do to help them realize that success.

That's the measure of a true PR professional.

Giving More Than You're Getting?

Ask most employees if they're giving more to their organizations than they are getting in return, and they'll proudly say, "Of course. I'm working 80 hour weeks and responsible for adding millions of dollars of extra top-line revenue to my firm." They hear the question in terms of justifying the company's investment in them and then unabashedly, if not defensively, touting their worth. But as I learned recently, there's another way to look at this question.

Pepperdine University professor Vance Caesar told us the story of when he was once asked the same question earlier in his career and how he provided an answer similar to what I described above. Instead of Vance's supervisor beaming with appreciation, he was furious at his response. Vance was at a loss, wondering what he said that was so wrong. Just before the weekend, his supervisor posed the question again. Vance offered the same reply and received an even more enraged reaction. The supervisor told Vance if he didn't have a better answer by Monday morning, then he should be prepared to clean out his desk.

Totally perplexed, and extremely worried about Monday's meeting, he called one of his mentors and asked why his answer was so wrong. His mentor replied, that it was highly unlikely that Vance was giving more than he was getting. As Vance began to defend his position, the mentor stopped him and asked, " Are you developing professionally? Are you building relationships that can help you grow? etc, etc... He continued to ask questions that defined all the currencies besides salary and bonus that Vance was receiving because of his work at the firm. Vance quickly realized he was getting much more than he was giving.

On Monday morning, Vance met with his supervisor who was waiting, with Vance's resignation letter in hand. When he asked the question for a third time, Vance answered, "No, I'm getting more than I'm giving." "Why?," replied the supervisor. Vance then explained all of the ways he benefits from being an employee. Pleased with Vance's answer, the supervisor explained that Vance was being groomed for a leadership position in the company and that when employees believe they are giving more than they are getting, the seeds of resentment are planted and begin to grow. He said he would keep the resignation letter in his desk drawer, and that if Vance ever felt he was giving more than he was getting, he would ask Vance to sign the letter and leave the company.

Whether it's an employee relationship or a client relationship, both sides should be getting more than they are giving. The key is making sure everyone is aware of all the currencies being exchanged. Imagine if your client understood that (s)he was getting more than giving, and that you were realizing that dynamic as well. Why would such an agency/client relationship ever end?

So during this holiday season, with all this talk about it being "better to give than to receive," you should know that investing in the right relationships (giving more), means that everyone receives MUCH more.

The Integration Imperative

I had the pleasure of reading Suzanne C. Lowe's book, The Integration Imperative: Erasing Marketing and Business Development Silos - Once and for All - in Professional Service Firms. Before reading it, I was struck by David Maister's endorsement, "An amazing blend of insight and in-depth real world examples. All professional firm marketers and managers should read this book." I figured if David put his name to it, it must be valuable. Needless to say, it really is.

While the title suggests a concept with which most of us would agree, there's a difference between agreeing with it and being able to execute it in your organization. Marketing and business development should serve the organization, not the other way around. And they'll be most effective when their efforts are at a minimum, congruous and at best, synergistic. In many organizations, they are neither. Thus the need for such a book.

As I mentioned in my last post, Lowe has written more than a book that one reads and puts back on the shelf. It's a valuable resource, grounded in extensive research, worthy of constant reference for the professional services firm seeking to maximize its marketing and business development efforts. (By the way, its utility extends to any type organization). Lowe reminds us of the importance of believing and pursuing a mission and vision for our organization that's larger than ourselves. I can't think of a more valuable resource for the professional services firm - particularly during these tough economic times.

It reminds me of a book called The Customer Comes Second by Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters in that the concept is so simple, one wonders what the rest of the book could be about. I was amazed at the extent to which Rosenbluth's firm so consistently and completely delivered on its philosophy. As a result, I kept the book on my desk, constantly referring to it for new ideas and insights. The more I looked at it, the more I discovered. From my perspective, The Integration Imperative achieves the same result.

I'd recommend getting a copy and keeping it close at hand. Mine sits right next to Hal's book.

Happy Thanksgiving

While Lincoln was immersed in a war to save our Union, he found time to ensure that Thanksgiving would be celebrated annually on the last Thursday of November as a national holiday. The proclamation and a column by John Burbank that ran on HeraldNet offer greater insights into the story.

Work and doctoral studies have interrupted my usual posting flow, so I look forward to contributing to this blog more regularly after the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll begin by reviewing a terrific book by Suzanne Lowe called The Integration Imperative - a must read for anyone leading a professional services firm and an important and relevant book for other professionals as well. It's the rare book that's more than a book, but a practical resource from which you can draw upon on an ongoing basis. I look forward to sharing more with you next week.

In the meantime, be sure to propose a toast to our 16th president and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!