Issue #65 it’s a sad way to die
Death by PowerPoint.
It’s real, it’s sad, and it’s completely avoidable.
And if you break the death by PowerPoint-habit, there is good money to be made.
More on that in a minute…
In today’s newsletter:
- 🗣 Amazing Announcements: learn more about factories on our podcast!
- 💸 Back to Business: Jeff will discuss why SBRs are a powerful sales tool.
- 💖 Community Corner: Showcasing our clients Yanique and David, who met up in person after meeting weekly on Thrivers.
💛 Carla
Amazing Announcements
🎙 It’s Time for a Reality Check: Jeff and Joe talk about how businesses operate in a constantly changing and challenging market. And how you can ensure that your business can adapt and thrive.
- ➡️ View our podcast on YouTube.
- 💚 Listen to our podcast on Spotify.
👥 How Defining Your Avatar Can Grow Your Business: If you have five minutes to spare, then watch as Jeff discusses the power of niching down your market.
Back to Business
60 minutes, 209 slides
I once sat down for a strategic technical review that was supposed to take an hour.
The person in charge fired up the projector and went to slide one; squinting to read the fine print-sized headline, I also caught the slide number.
1 of 209.
The presentation would take longer than 60 minutes. My brain began clawing for anything else to think about.
If you are providing long-term retained services to a client, the strategic business review is an opportunity to:
- Deepen the relationship and show you are doing valuable work.
- Understand your client’s business needs so that you can better serve them.
- Agreement on increased scope of work.
If that is, it’s done right.
Done wrong, it is an opportunity to turn raving fans into passionate detractors.
Unfortunately, 93% of the time, service providers with the best of intentions do business reviews wrong. They provide too much data and too much information. They talk about their concerns rather than their clients’ concerns.
They end up with a 209-page slide deck crammed full of information nobody will ever digest.
The key to a successful business review (whether technical, strategic, or quarterly) is to make it about them and their needs. Instead of leading with what you want, ask them what is working, what isn’t working, and what they need to change for their business to thrive.
Get them talking about their needs, and they will think you are a genius.
We put together a strategic review playbook which you can find here. The language is geared toward MSPs, but the concept truly works for any service provider.
Just please, don’t show up with a 209 slide deck written in 8-point font.
Oh, and if you say the meeting will be 60 minutes, keep it to 60 minutes.
Enjoy,
Jeff
Community Corner
🗣 Client Shoutout: Platinum (and Thriver) Clients Yanique DaCosta and David Maayani!
- Yanique and David recently met up in person for breakfast and were kind enough to share this picture with our group!
- We love it when members of our community network and meet up. So, feel free to let us know if you do!
🦃 Thanksgiving Game Plan: Jeff shared his Thanksgiving cooking plan in our newsletter last year. Feel free to access the Google spreadsheet here.
- And if you want to read the newsletter for the full story, go here!
📋 Tally, the create forms for free: If you have ever considered using a service such as Typeform, then perhaps you can try Tally.
