{"id":4421,"date":"2016-08-15T13:20:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T11:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consocium.local\/en\/uncategorized\/profil-schaerfen\/"},"modified":"2021-11-07T14:15:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-07T13:15:27","slug":"sharpen-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.consocium.com\/en\/networking-exchange\/sharpen-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201eHow to Sharpen Your Profile \u2013 and Get into the Mental Short List of Clients\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The life of a decision maker is not easy: He leads his company or department in an uncertain environment, plans keep changing, projects are managed in an agile way, budgets are subject to change, vast amounts of information are available online, virtual and real teams require his attention, and on top of all this stress, several consultants want to introduce themselves and their service offerings each week.
Once the decision maker has a real need, he does not remember most of those consultants: too interchangeable, too similar, too uninteresting. However, one or two of them have sticked in his memory \u2013 and those are the ones he reaches out to. So how do they make it to his mental short list? Above all, through a clear value proposition!<\/p>\n

Your Value Proposition in One Sentence<\/h4>\n

We have heard it many times by now: Position yourself based on a clear specialization, use benefit-based wording, convey in one sentence what makes you different from all the others. However, the problem is: In practice, this is hardly feasible. Most consulting firms and freelancers have grown organically. Each client request was different, the consultant accepted the projects and got up to speed. The result was a broad spectrum of competencies, and it is not always sensible to change that. Of course, finding a niche makes sense, but there is a trade-off between a clearer positioning and the limitation of the business that needs to be checked carefully.
So: What to do if there is no niche? Explain your value proposition in one sentence. In many cases, your projects have one benefit in common. To find this out, proceed as follows:<\/p>\n

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  1. List all your project from the past few years. Yes, all of them!<\/li>\n
  2. Ask yourself: What was the benefit of the project for the client? Write down all benefits of all the projects.<\/li>\n
  3. For each benefit on the list, ask yourself again: What was the benefit for the client? Often, several deeper benefits are connected to a superficial one. E.g.: Your client has entered a new market segment successfully with your help. What could be deeper benefits behind this? He has caught on with his competitors. His Business Unit has become a front runner within his company. Or maybe his company has overcome a crisis that way.<\/li>\n
  4. You have listed this for all the projects? Good. Then look for a common denominator of all these benefits.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Seeming Banality<\/h4>\n

    The result is a punchy sentence:<\/p>\n