Screw-ups are inevitable; it’s the recovery that counts
 
First things first: This is not a “we” story. This is an “I” story. I take full responsibility for every screw-up I’m about to describe.
 
I’m not perfect. I’m human. And while this article is a departure from the usual how-to’s I post here, perhaps it can help. Or give you a laugh. Or start a dialogue. Regardless, let’s dive into the cautionary tales.
 
You did what?!
 
Years ago, I was working long hours at an ad agency, and jumped in to help my artists on production as a print deadline approached. So I was building an ad, including doing the typesetting. I’d intended to help. It was a full-page ad, destined for one of the big New York tabloids, all about “The Sale You Can’t Afford To Miss!” Thing is, I’d inadvertently left off the “’t”. So it became the sale you can afford to miss. (Think of that: “The One Sale You Can Afford To Miss! Ignore it totally! Go shop someplace else! Don’t even read this ad—we know we’re wasting our money on it!”) And since I was also the person who signed off on the copy, I compounded the problem when I missed my own typo. The ad went out the door.
 
Someone discovered the error not long after. I don’t remember if it was me or not; regardless, the chest pains were the same. Fortunately, there was a last-ditch emergency procedure at my disposal; it’s called “pub set.” It means calling the publication (“pub”), and asking them to typeset (“set”) a little patch which they can paste over the offending verbiage. That’s what I did. The production people at the newspaper saved the ad. And the account. And probably my job. I’d have done the same for them, had the situation been reversed.
 
The lesson? Know your emergency procedures in advance. I knew about pub set back then, but never had to use it—like the ejection-seat handle in a fighter jet—until then.
 
You said what?!!
 
Yeah, this one deserves the extra exclamation point.
 
Again, a few years ago (but not long enough ago that the memory isn’t still vivid), I was called in by an ad agency to help them pitch a new account out of state. The account was worth about a million dollars a year—not huge, but a big deal for this small agency.
 
I flew down with two of the agency’s principals, to meet with the CEO of the prospective client, along with maybe four of his top people. We sat in a conference room for what felt like hours. No. It was hours. Hours and hours and hours. And hours.
 
I’m a guy who likes to get stuff done. I go nuts when I see people spin their wheels, or retread the same exact ground over and over again. I also get punchy if you lock me in a conference room for hours on end, doing exactly that.
 
We (the ad agency) pitched ads to the client. They (the client) gave us their feedback. Over and over again. Same stuff. And at one point, eons into the meeting, one of the client lieutenants dug out one of their old ads and showed it to us. He walked us through it, and upon reading us the headline, he said, “These are just our words. I’m sure you have better words you can use.”
 
“Oh, we have lots of words,” I said. “We’re professionals.”
 
The room went silent. Everyone looked at me. Then they looked at the owner of the ad agency. Then they looked at the client CEO. Oh man. I’d really stuck my foot in it. I was here to help the agency land the account, not get booted out the door for making a smartass remark in the middle of--
 
The CEO roared out laughing. “We have lots of words!” he cried. “We’re professionals! Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
 
All his lieutenants looked at him. Taking their cue, they all felt safe to laugh. And they did. It was like a fable. Or a bad movie. I just sat there and swallowed hard and forced a polite smile. The owner of the ad agency laughed, too—probably from relief.
 
The ending? We won the account. The client had us wait in an anteroom while they deliberated, and when they emerged about a half hour later, they gave us the good news, and were still laughing over my asinine quip. They slapped me on the back and welcomed me to the account team.
 
The lesson? Always assume your clients have a great sense of humor. Heck no! That wasn’t the case at all, and that would be horrible advice. I think the lesson here is: Sometimes you’re just lucky. Sure, I’ve since worked harder to rein in my impatience and tendency toward punchiness, but as I said, I’m only human.
 
What did you do?
 
Do you have a screw-up you’re not too humiliated to share? Post it here as a reply. I’d love to hear it. And so, I think, would everyone else reading this.

​Are you leveraging your strengths to build business?
 
Every consultant wants to bring in more work. But there’s a difference between those who do and those who simply want.
 
Business development is not a binary effort. It’s multifaceted. That is, you don’t “turn to it” one day, and “set it aside” another. Similarly, there’s no single “switch” to flip to drive in more traffic. (If only it were that easy!)
 
Like an engine, your business development needs all its parts in order to work. True, you could yank out a spark-plug cable and a V-8 will keep sputtering along, but—to play out the “engine” analogy—let’s pare this down to its most important components.
 
1. Finish with a flourish.
 
Whatever you’re working on now is an opportunity to generate more work. We’ve written about this before, but here’s a twist on that theme: Go for the standing ovation. That imagery was chosen on purpose. You don’t want to simply (!) check off all your deliverables as “done” and then submit your invoice. Leave them wanting more.
 
This is very doable. Of course, it’s a rare project that accomplishes everything a client would ever need; that’s why reports usually (read: “should”!) conclude with a “Next Steps” section. That’s a sell.
 
But you can also think of the order in which you deliver your deliverables. If there are, say, five things you’re required to hand in, ask yourself: “Which is the sexiest?” Which one will really interest the client the most? That’s the one you save for last, if you can. That’s the one you finish with. That’s the one that will leave them wanting more. Create the opportunity for yourself—and then seize it.
 
2. Don’t fish when you’re hungry.
 
While this may be the most obvious precept, it’s probably the hardest to hew to. You don’t—you can’t—compromise the quality of your work when you’re “in the black hole,” yet you still need to replenish that pipeline at all the time. So how do you do it?
 
Here’s one way to think about it: Exercise. While, ostensibly, there’s never any time in the day for that workout, you still manage to squeeze it in, don’t you? Why? It may feel good. It may burn off stress. But most likely, you simply know that it’s something you need to do. So while “there’s no time” to do it… you still do it. You create the time for it.
 
If the “physical exercise” analogy doesn’t hit close to home for you, there are others. Think of things you do that you simply need to do, all the time. Like eating. Keeping your car fueled. Brushing your teeth. Yes, these all take time, but you make time for them. Treat your biz-dev as equally essential.
 
3. Be sociable.
 
Social media is an essential element of your business-building efforts. Some people enjoy this aspect more than others; some people leave fingernail marks as they’re dragged into it. But from the “minimum-effort-to-maximize-the-system” standpoint, you don’t have to do all that much. See what kinds of groups your clients belong to on LinkedIn, then join those same groups. Chime in on a conversation that piques your interest. Post a link to a news story you found interesting.
 
Don’t expect instant or overwhelming results. But stay with it; the effect is cumulative. And the web is, well, big. You might be surprised, pleasantly, by how many people listen to what you have to say.
 
4. Build a backlog.
 
This is sort of a riff on Point 2 above, but it’s tuned to blogs. Case in point: We wrote this blog post only about an hour before you clicked on it. Or did we write it a month before you clicked on it? The answer is: You can’t tell. While we’ve written before about how to create an editorial calendar for your blogs, it’s nice to know that you can, more often than not, pre-fill it. Unless your blog is about a just-breaking news story, you can craft it during your down time, and no reader will know. Indeed, they’ll tacitly appreciate the extra time you had to give it that extra layer of polish.
 
5. Do low-tech CRM.
 
While we’re certainly fans of cutting-edge/SaaS-enabled solutions like Salesforce.com, we also believe there’s a viable old-school way to keep those leads from growing cold, especially if you’re a solopractitioner or are working in a boutique shop. It may sound embarrassingly simple, but all you need to do is select an interval at which you think it’s appropriate to “shake the trees,” and then make contact accordingly.
 
Just populate your calendar. If Client A said, “Check back with me this summer,” add that to-do for June 1st. If Client B said, “We’re going to be going crazy when that trade show comes up,” hit them up early and offer to help. For the others who haven’t provided business for a while but are still good leads regardless, touch base with them on, say, a quarterly basis. Drop them an email. Forward them a link to an article they may like. Depending upon your relationship with them and the geography, there’s even (gasp!) the phone and (double gasp!) lunch. Think of it this way: What’s the worst that could happen if you take that approach? You could either 1) have a nice conversation, or 2) a nice meal. How horrible is that?
 
6. There’s a “6”?
 
Of course. Tips 1 - 5 assume you’re doing all this yourself. Tip 6 is “Get help.” If you’re wondering how we know so much about all these precepts, it’s because we help our clients succeed at them all the time. Contact us and we can help you build your business, too.