10 ways to build and improve your client relationships... + Tony Robbins

How to Build & Improve Your Client Relationships

One thing is true for all consultants; if we have any work, we have clients! One of the most important parts of our work is maintaining and enhancing our relationships with our clients. Maintaining and growing these relationships makes the time spent on a project more enjoyable, satisfying and effective. Improved relationships also improves the chance that we will get referrals and future business. The following are ten things you can do to improve these important business relationships, and some suggestions on how to get started.

1. Have a clear contract with your client.
This is the number one guideline for a successful client engagement. Without a clear contract neither you nor your client can be clear on roles and responsibilities, deadlines and deliverables, methodologies and measures. Beyond the importance of the contract to the project itself, a clear contract also is a great aid to a good working relationship. The goal of a contract is clarity, not legalese - as such; it is a great aid to improved client relationships.

Your mutually agreed to contract should include the following as a minimum:

• What the roles and responsibilities are for you - and members of the client organization
  
• What methods you plan to use during the project
  
• The project time line
  
• A description of success
  

2. Get to know your client better.
All relationships are better when the individuals in the relationship take the time to get to know one another. Learn the client's interests. You will likely spend many hours with and around the client during the project. Knowing that they like gourmet French food or exotic candies or Oakland Raiders football is information you should know. This is more important to some clients than others, but all of us like to have conversations with others about our interests.

Make it a point to learn something new about each client in every meeting you have. Once you learn something new, keep track of that information in your contact manager, in your project notes, or wherever you can find it when needed.

3. Ask more questions.
When we ask questions we understand situations better. Take the time, make the time to ask your client how she feels, what she thinks, and try to understand her observations regarding the progress of the project and your performance. The skill of questioning is one of the most important we can develop to improve our consulting skills and our relationships.

4. Be willing to say "No."
In many cases, clients ask us to do things beyond our capabilities or interests. When these new requests are outside the contract agreement, be willing to say no. Take time to understand both the client's reason for asking as well as your ability to deliver. Don't automatically say yes, just because "the Customer is always right."

Saying "No" may mean keeping your project on track by not expanding the scope of the project. Saying "No" may also mean not accepting additional work that the client would like you to do. In either case, it is easier to say no when you have a clear focus on your personal objectives. Ask yourself "What is my business focus, both now and in the future - and how does this request fit into this picture?" More pragmatically, I have found myself asking if I would be excited by or interested in this new work. This is a great question to ponder and it helps me decide whether to say yes or no to a request.

5. Be willing to say "yes."
Sometimes yes is the right answer - and only you will know when. After weighing the opportunity the client offers you, the client will be grateful if you say yes! Saying yes often makes the client's job much easier. Saying yes can help strengthen your relationship with the client as well. The more work you do on the clients behalf, the more valuable you become. You know the systems, the people and the culture. These are good reasons for saying yes.

Taking on assignments that stretch your skills and comfort zones are another good reason to say yes. Remember the "getting out of bed in the morning test", ask yourself, "Would I be excited to do this piece of work?" If so, your best business decision might be to say, "We can do that!".

6. Be a problem solver - and a solution finder.
Clients hire us to help them solve problems. The more problems we can help them solve, the better. This advice is in line with saying "yes", and somewhat counter to saying "no", but worthy of singular discussion. Sometimes our activities allow us to see things that can be helpful to the client. Weigh these opportunities and when appropriate, help (or offer to help) the client solve the problem - even if they didn't know the problem existed.

This advice starts before you search for those problems. It starts with being observant, and understanding the big picture of the client's business objectives. Clients will generally be thrilled if you can identify areas for improvement - especially when you have suggestions on how to improve the situation.

7. Keep your distance.
Therapists say you can't help the family if you are part of the family. This is true for us as consultants as well. We do become more valuable the more we work in an organization, but we need to keep our role clearly defined within the organization. Even as we build the relationships that make us successful, we need to be diligent in keeping our distance so we can continue to provide valued and effective advice and expertise.
Refer to your contract to help you stay within role. Experience shows that letting the client know that you are concerned for this "distance" will be appreciated. Without such conversations, the client may read your behavior as a lack of interest in their organization. When they understand your concerns about maintaining this distance, your efforts will be seen for what they are.

8. Stay focused.
Staying focused on your contract and on your deliverables is the best thing you can do to maintain and build your client relationship. Talk about deliverables and deadlines in client meetings. Showing that focus and then delivering what we say when promised , we build our credibility and enhance our relationships.

9. Be a learner.
Being a learner means being open to new techniques and ideas and approaching each project with fresh eyes. Few things will turn off the client more than you immediately snapping to a solution, assuming that their situation is "just like" five others you have seen. There are always nuances that will make a difference. Take the time to inquire about them, and integrate them into your solution.

The Zen saying of "be a beginner always" applies here. If we approach a situation as "Been there, done that", our opportunity to meet and exceed the clients expectations is greatly diminished. At least as importantly, our attitude will show through, hurting our client relationships.

10. Work at it.
Recognize that the client relationship is part of the job! Thinking about and working on the relationship will make you more successful in the current project, enhance your chance for future work, and make the project much more enjoyable. Not only that you'll get to know and learn from your client. Overall, a great return on your investment.

source: Kevin Eikenberry

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It's John Lennon Birthday...

CLICK on images for great John Lennon tunes....

John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles and, with Paul McCartney, formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager, his first band, The Quarrymen, evolving into The Beatles in 1960. As the group began to undergo the disintegration that led to their break-up towards the end of that decade, Lennon launched a solo career that would span the next, punctuated by critically acclaimed albums, including John Lennon/Plastic Ono BandImagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". and

Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, his writing, on film, and in interviews, and became controversial through his work as a peace activist. He moved to New York City in 1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam WarRichard Nixon's administration to deport him, while his songs were adapted as anthems by the anti-war movement. Disengaging himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to his family, Lennon reemerged in 1980 with a comeback album, Double Fantasy, but was murdered resulted in a lengthy attempt by three weeks after its release.

Lennon's solo album sales in the United States alone stand at 14 million units,^[1]Hot 100 chart.^a In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth, and in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. and as performer, writer, or co-writer he is responsible for 27 number one singles on the US

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14 Amazing Skyscraper Designs: Cool Architecture Of The Future

What will the architecture of the future look like?

Imagine a world where skyscrapers can walk, entire buildings can shift their form, and even prisons can 'float.'

The innovative winners of the 2010 Skyscraper Competition, held annually by eVolo magazine, have designed amazing buildings that aim to 'change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.'

In judging the entries and selecting the winning forms, 'globalization, sustainability, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution, were some of the multi-layered elements taken into consideration,' eVolo explains.

Check out the designers' incredible skyscraper creations below:

The first place winner of eVolo's 2010 skyscraper competition was the team of Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, and Beh Ssi Cze from Malaysia.

Their "Vertical Prison" concept envisions a prison high above a city where inmates will live and work in factories and fields during their sentence. This will produce usable goods for the city below and the inmates will gain productive skills as a form of rehabilitation.

Rezza Rahdian, Erwin Setiawan, Ayu Diah Shanti, and Leonardus Chrisnantyo of Indonesia got second place in the eVolo contest with their "Water Purification Skyscraper."

As a response to Indonesia's increasingly polluted rivers and growing slums, the Water Purification Skyscraper will use a three-phase system to clean up the rivers. Furthermore, it will relocate the people living in the slums into the skyscraper and employ them at the purification plant.

Ryohei Koike and Jarod Poenisch's concept for a "Nested Skyscraper" placed third in the competition

Their design uses multiple layers of advanced materials and robotic construction to adapt and respond to solar and wind exposure. A series of robots will create the primary structure and a secondary set of robots will be programmable and change the structure as desired by thickening or shifting.

The "Double Stuffed Skyscraper" by Viktor Ramos and Richie Gelles of the United States takes inspiration from current trends in architecture that create multi-purpose structures--in this case orienting residential units above a shopping center housed below.

The Double Stuffed Skyscraper aims to maximize space to better service both the public and residents by breaking up, redistributing and sharing amenities.

"Vertical Street City" by Sergiy Prokof`yev, Arsenii Kuznetsov, and Oleksandr Garashchenko of the Ukraine is a response to the solid and static state of current skyscrapers.

The Vertical Street City will instead develop over time and take its form from the people living in it, molding to fit their needs. The design is not identified as apartment living, but each level was intended to function as an independent, individual house.

The team of Axel Cailteux, Céline Hautfenne, Julie Neuwels, and Delphine Termote from Belgium designed the Skyscraper Ecosystem in Manhattan to be self-sufficient.

The design creates another city above the current level of skyscrapers that will house the necessary infrastructures for self-sufficiency, including a "photovoltaic skin and wind turbines for the electricity production, lagooning for the waste water purification and recycling area."

The "Immaterial Skyscraper" was designed by Mikhail Belyakov, Vyacheslav Borisenko and Pavel Pechurkin of Russia.

This skyscraper concept is a "skyscraper made of light." A large net would be suspended from a zepplin floating above the building, and lasers would be used to project images onto the net enshrouding the structure, to allowing for a myriad of images and forms to be projected onto the surface.

Anton Markus Pasing of Germany envisions this "Walking Skyscraper" as a walking plant museum that, in the future, could return greenery to cities by walking through it in.

The "Wind Tower" by Elena Batueva of Russia focuses on filling the need for medical service buildings. The design is for a modern, self-sufficient building that would harness wind power for its energy needs. There are also numerous locations where medical helicopters could land.

The "Freshwater Factory Skyscraper" is an eco-friendly structure designed by Nicolas Chausson, Gaël Desveaux, Jiao Yang Huang, and Thomas Jullien of France.

This series of 'bubbles' that make up the skyscraper use tidal-powered pumps, mangrove trees, condensation and gravity to do much of the purification and redistribution of water.

"Hermit Mountains" was designed by Hongjun Zhou and Lu Xiong and is designed to be a sustainable tower retreat for people seeking solitude and meditation.

Ayrat Khusnutdinov of Russia created the "Sky Table," a concept for a new kind of skyscraper and public space.

The building is made up of a number of interconnected cells and pillars that are meant to facilitate community and relations.

The "Strait of Messina Skyscraper" would bridge the gap between Messina and Reggio Calabria and will essentially become a vertical city.

Designed by Hong Wong and SheungHok Lim from the United Kingdom, Structural Cell Skyscraper explores the idea of a skyscraper made of a cell-structural system that would allow individual cells of the building to be moved and the building reshaped. This will allow flexibility to house the ever-expanding urban populations of the world's cities.

source: TheHuffingtonPost

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The 13 Skills of the Public Relations Pro of the Future

Marketing and public relations are coming together. PR is growing as an industry while "traditional" advertising - what ever that is - remains flat. Still, we have taken no new ground in 'measurement' and articulating the tremendous ROI of PR. (What happened to the tremendous affirmation and call to action from AG Lafley?)

As I suit up to take on the graduate students of Johns Hopkins Communications program again this fall, I am mapping out the skills sets needed by the communications expert of tomorrow. I started this in another post and needed to add and consolidate some thinking.

Over the past few years at Ogilvy, we have unleashed one of the most intensive training regimens I know of for our staff. While our focus is on digital and "digital influence," there are a lot of other skills that will help the next generation of communications experts (do we need to retire the "public relations" term?).

The next generation will need to get strong in the following. I have begun the process of drilling down into each to offer some practical "how-to's" for each. Look for more in the future or even create your own and link back here:

13 Skills of the PR Pro of the Future

1. Create integrated marketing and communications strategy
2. Deploy live 'listening posts' online and offline
3. Design and deploy an advanced search engine optimization program
4. Plan and run a new media relations program inclusive of head-of-the-tail and long tail "media"
5. Identify & engage with influencers online and offline
6. Manage communities
7. Integrate new technologies into their own lives
8. Model measurement and performance metrics including new "engagement" metrics
9. Run quick pilot programs and evaluate on-the-fly
10. Train staff and clients continuously
11. Participate in conversations, not just 'messaging'
12. Create and execute content strategy including video programming (hifi and lowfi)
13. Use digital crisis management

Thanks to Nate Pagel, Rohit Bhargava, Virginia Miracle, Kaitlyn Wilkins, Brian Giesen, Chris Brogan, Chi-chi Ekweozor, John D. , Phil M., Harro and Brendan Hodgson for ideas and insights on this list.

If you know #14 - please add it as the list will always be changing.

source: JohnBell

Timeline for Health Care Reform

By Claes Bell • Bankrate.com

After the tumultuous debate over health care reform ended, many Americans were surprised to find that key parts of the law won't take effect until years into the future.

In fact, many of the sweeping changes -- an end to insurance companies withholding coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, government-regulated insurance marketplaces and the individual requirement to buy coverage -- don't take place until 2014.

Some measures, such as closing the infamous Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" in prescription drug coverage, will come even later.

The law, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sets up a carefully choreographed order for how its different parts will take effect to minimize disruptions to the massive health care industry and the bill's impact on the federal deficit.

This road map will help you understand when the law's many parts will roll out. Read more and follow the changes by year:

source: BankRate.com

Design For Six Sigma (DFSS) Versus DMAIC

Troubled with the acronyms of Six Sigma? We'll help you figure out new product design (DFSS) from existing process improvement (DMAIC). Learn the many methodologies of Design For Six Sigma, and see how they compare to DMAIC.

One of the most confusing issues associated with someone saying "I'm using Six Sigma" has to do with what methodology they are actually using. A majority of the time they are using the DMAIC methodology, because they have existing processes that are wasting resources (hence the big savings you've heard about at GE, Honeywell and others over the past years). The remaining minority of Six Sigma practitioners are using a Design For Six Sigma (DFSS) approach to design a new product for Six Sigma quality.

What Is DMAIC?
When most people refer to Six Sigma, they are in fact referring to the DMAIC methodology. The DMAIC methodology should be used when a product or process is in existence at your company but is not meeting customer specification or is not performing adequately.

The DMAIC methodology is almost universally recognized and defined as comprising of the following five phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. In some businesses, only four phases (Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) are used; in this case the Define deliverables are then considered pre-work for the project or are included within the Measure phase. I have even heard of DMAIIC, where the first I stands for Improve and the second I stands for Implement.

The DMAIC methodology breaks down as follows:
Define the project goals and customer (internal and external) requirements.
Measure the process to determine current performance.
Analyze and determine the root cause(s) of the defects.
Improve the process by eliminating defect root causes.
Control future process performance.

What Is DFSS?
DFSS is the acronym for Design For Six Sigma. Unlike the DMAIC methodology, the phases or steps of DFSS are not universally recognized or defined -- almost every company or training organization will define DFSS differently. Many times a company will implement DFSS to suit their business, industry and culture; other times they will implement the version of DFSS used by the consulting company assisting in the deployment. Because of this, DFSS is more of an approach than a defined methodology.

DFSS is used to design or re-design a product or service from the ground up. The expected process Sigma level for a DFSS product or service is at least 4.5 (no more than approximately 1 defect per thousand opportunities), but can be 6 Sigma or higher depending the product. Producing such a low defect level from product or service launch means that customer expectations and needs (CTQs) must be completely understood before a design can be completed and implemented.

One popular Design for Six Sigma methodology is called DMADV, and retains the same number of letters, number of phases, and general feel as the DMAIC acronym. It rolls off the tongue (duh-mad-vee) in the same fashion as DMAIC (duh-may-ick). The five phases of DMADV are defined as: Define, Measure, Analyze, Design and Verify.
Define the project goals and customer (internal and external) requirements.
Measure and determine customer needs and specifications; benchmark competitors and industry.
Analyze the process options to meet the customer needs.
Design (detailed) the process to meet the customer needs.
Verify the design performance and ability to meet customer needs.

A slight modification on the DMADV methodology is DMADOV (see Discussion Forum sidebar): Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Optimize and Verify.

There are a few other "flavors" of DFSS that you might be interested to know about: DCCDI, IDOV and DMEDI.

DCCDI is being popularized by Geoff Tennant and is defined as Define, Customer Concept, Design and Implement. You can see that there are many similarities between these phases and the DMADV phases.
Define the project goals.
Customer analysis is completed.
Concept ideas are developed, reviewed and selected.
Design is performed to meet the customer and business specifications.
Implementation is completed to develop and commercialize the product/service.

IDOV is a well known design methodology, especially in the manufacturing world. The IDOV acronym is defined as Identify, Design, Optimize and Validate.
Identify the customer and specifications (CTQs).
Design translates the customer CTQs into functional requirements and into solution alternatives. A selection process whittles down the list of solutions to the "best" solution.
Optimize uses advanced statistical tools and modeling to predict and optimize the design and performance.
Validate makes sure that the design you've developed will meet the customer CTQs.

DMEDI is being taught by PricewaterhouseCoopers and stands for Define, Measure, Explore, Develop and Implement. I'm sure you won't have much trouble identifying the main objectives in each of these phases based on the title of each phase.

As you can see, the DFSS approach can utilize any of the many possible methodologies. The fact is that all of these DFSS methodologies use the same advanced design tools (Quality Function Deployment, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, benchmarking, Design of Experiments, simulation, statistical optimization, error proofing, Robust Design, etc.). Each methodology primarily differs in the name of each phase and the number of phases (and, of course, the acronym).

How do you decide which DFSS methodology to use? If you're hiring a consulting company to help with your deployment, use their methodology as their training materials will be tailored around it. If you are implementing DFSS on your own, any of the DFSS books available should get you moving in the right direction. In any case, following a detailed DFSS methodology will help you achieve high quality levels for new products and services. If you are interested in improving your existing products or services, DMAIC is a more appropriate methodology to use.

source: isixsigma.com