Cracking Great Leaders Program
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    • About Human Energy
    • Attention all consultants
  • The Book
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  • The Programs
    • IP for sale
    • Who the Programs are for >
      • New consultants
      • CEOs wanting to change culture
      • HR & OD Specialists
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    • The benefits
    • 23 Modules (workshops) >
      • Summary 23 Modules
      • 23 Modules >
        • How to Liberate Human Energy at Work
        • The Power of the Subconscious Mind
        • Understanding Ourselves and Others Thinking Preferences (HBDI) >
          • Could You Be Missing Out On Three-quarters of Your Business Opportunities?
        • Making the Most of Your Genius Factor
        • Building Your Personal Brand
        • Cooperation, Collaboration and Connectedness
        • Colour Your Customers and Staff
        • The Power of Questions
        • Managing Your Manager
        • Confidence, Influence & Personal Power
        • Trust & How to be a trusted advisor
        • My Personal Power Program
        • Strategic Thinking
        • Strategic Execution
        • Organisational Architecture
        • Systems Thinking in Business
        • Increasing Innovation and Ideas
        • Customer Service Tools
        • Improving processes & Eliminating unnecessary work
        • Networks
        • Review & Dragon's Den
      • Pamphlet for 23 Modules
      • To buy the Modules
    • The 8 Programs >
      • Strategy Program >
        • Who it is for
        • To buy the Program
      • Cracking Great Leaders Program >
        • A typical program
        • Who it is for
        • Case study: The Correspondence School
        • Program Pamphlet
        • To buy the Program
      • Customer Intimate Program >
        • Who it is for
        • Program Pamphlet
        • Case Study - interview with Canary Industries
        • To buy the Program
      • Thought Leader Program >
        • Who it is for
        • Program Pamphlet
        • Case Study HTS-110
        • To buy the Program
  • Free Stuff
    • Introduction >
      • Why we give it free
      • The Business World Is Changing >
        • Doing Business in a Changing World
    • Free consulting advice >
      • Getting started >
        • Are You in a Corporate Cage?
        • Your Personal Power Program
        • Taking the plunge to go consulting
        • It took me 25 years but it doesn't have to!
        • Save Yourself the Cringe-factor
        • How Consultants can remain positive
        • Answer Your Calling >
          • Do you want to make money or be happy?
          • The difference between a ‘job’ and a ‘calling’:
      • Finding customers >
        • How to be top of mind!
        • 7 ways to identify your best customers
        • How to get an appointment next time you want to catch up with your client
        • Stand in your customers' shoes
        • Why Consultants Can’t “Sell” and Clients Won’t “Buy”
        • Stop Closing
        • How to develop strong relationships
        • How to get more sales more quickly!
        • Going consulting? It’s all about relationships.
        • Should consultant treat clients the same or differently? >
          • The secret great consultants know
        • What are you selling?
      • Building trust >
        • The worst advice I got
        • Why Trust Matters
        • Why Trust is important
        • Why You Must Build Trust
      • Free diagnostics process >
        • Why diagnostics is important
        • Become the expert they ask for, listen to and pay higher fees to
      • Developing Products/IP >
        • Cracking Great Leaders Program
      • Measuring a project >
        • Assessing a project
      • Success is Beyond the Conscious Mind >
        • Body Language
        • Talking without words
    • Free workshop advice >
      • 10 secrets to running successful workshops
      • Setting up folders for workshops
      • A great icebreaker
      • Rules of the workshop
      • Setting expectations for the Program
      • Ancient wisdom on facilitation
    • Free leadership advice >
      • Is Your Biggest Asset Under-utilised? >
        • Your belief in scarcity could sabotage your success
        • How to empower your frontline to be as committed as you are
      • Develop your leadership skills >
        • How to be a more powerful manager
        • Leadership boils down to 3 things. Forget all the rest of the guff!New Page
        • To Be Successful You Need To Know Your Core Of Greatness. Do you?
        • What is your Genius Factor?
        • Operate beyond the conscious mind
        • Work with Human Nature, Not Against it
      • The Business of Love >
        • ​Unbounded Human Energy
        • Manage Body, Head, Heart & Soul
        • Manage energy fields
        • Focus on the Whole Person
        • Are Leaders Mentors or Tormentors?
        • Rescuing hug
      • Do your people pull together?
      • ​Leadership Development is on the Wrong Track
      • A Glass Ball or a Mirror? >
        • The Power of Vulnerability
    • Free Strategy Advice >
      • How To Complete Your Strategy in Two Days Rather than Two Months
      • Why 76% of Strategies fail. How to do it successfully
      • Is your strategy being hijacked by numbers?
      • How to implement strategy and get it right in a fraction of the time
    • Free Organisational Development Advice >
      • Old Ways of Managing Don’t Work for Online Workers
      • Todays management challenge is to evolve the management model
      • A 30,000 year view of where business is going.
      • Will business be the Breaker of the world or the Maker of the world?
      • Creating Unbounded Human Energy
      • Emergence changes the way we think about scale
      • Sweet-spot - organisation without top-down control
      • Culture for new age
    • Free HR Advice >
      • 3 simple steps for H.R. success at Top Table
      • Getting Top Management Attention
      • 2 Secrets To Make Leadership Development More Successful
    • Free videos
    • Free blog
  • Bruce Holland
    • Bruce Holland
    • Bruce's confession
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  • Contact

​Going consulting? It’s all about relationships.

We are exiting the knowledge age and entering the relationship age. 

These days knowledge and information is cheap. You can look up just about everything in Google.  However relationships are time-consuming and expensive to develop and maintain.

Clients rarely select consultants based on rational thought. Time and time again research has shown that emotions drive our decisions and behaviours. According to the advertising research journal in the USA, researchers found that emotions are twice as important as any other consideration in the customers decision about what to purchase.

It's important that you think about how you want your customers to feel about you. I have found that I’m far more successful when I forget about how to make me more successful and think only about ways of making them more successful. I like to find ways to give something of value without any expectation of something coming back in return. Interestingly this sometimes makes the client more successful; but even more important it always improves the way I feel about myself.

I’ve found you have to work hard at relationships. Thirty years ago when I started consulting the best advice I got was from my brother-in-law: “It's a long funnel. You need to start pouring water in at the top. Eventually something will come out the bottom. But whatever you do, don't stop pouring.”

I work hard at relationships; but I’m not as dedicated as a fellow consultant who says she:
1. Sees 2 new prospects every week
2. Sees 5 existing clients each week
3. Sees 2 intermediaries each week
4. Organises a workshop once a month
5. Attends one network activity each week.

Summary. By all means give away your knowledge and expertise; but own, nurture and leverage your relationship with your clients. You don’t need all that many of them, but they are what matters.

​Written by Bruce Holland