delivering advice Archives

A Statement Of Advice should be a “statement”

by Tony Vidler When it comes to providing advice in writing to a client there is undoubtedly unnecessary complexity usually. In fact the proverbial “Statement Of Advice” has become anything but a “statement”. It generally takes the form of a tome… And a “tome is a scholarly work…usually large, heavy and laborious in its detail“. […]

How To Deliver Value During Prospect Engagement

by Tony Vidler Sometimes when professional advisers are struggling to engage meaningfully with prospective clients, or struggling to get them to engage at all, the solution is to go back to the very basics and question whether YOU are delivering value in their minds. In the continual battle to be relevant and valuable there […]

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How to challenge clients thinking without being confrontational

by Tony Vidler Perhaps the toughest task any adviser faces is to challenge clients’ own thinking, but without getting into a confrontation that threatens the entire relationship. Most of us find ourselves occasionally dealing with a client who already thinks they know the answers – they haven’t come to us for advice, they have […]

Describe Your Advice Services In Practical Terms To Get More Buy-In

by Tony Vidler Advice should, almost by definition, be “practical”. Your advice services should be practical in that can be applied in the real world to achieve real differences, and any advice in any of your areas of expertise should be a clear course of action that a client can use to achieve a […]

Best Practice Advice Means Meeting Client Expectations Too, doesn’t it?

by Tony Vidler What constitutes “Best Practice” advice process is a constant work in progress, but it does not develop as rapidly as either technology or client expectations do. In fact, there is a distinct probability that the gap between what professionals call best practice advice and what clients expectations of best practices are continue […]

The Words We Use Can Break Or Make The Sale

by Tony Vidler We can break a probable sale or make the sale in an instant. It can turn on a phrase or sometimes even a single word. The words we use matter. When it comes to the words we use in conversation we all have our own idiosyncracies and quirks of speech, and […]

Creating Happy Clients Is Not Enough

by Tony Vidler Creating and keeping happy clients IS essential for the success of a professional practice. There is no question about that. But is it enough to help a practice grow at a greater than industry average pace? I don’t believe so. Being a great practitioner and running an efficient & […]

Scope Creep: The Number 1 Problem In Fixed Fee Advice

by Tony Vidler “Scope Creep” is the killer for the Holy Grail of professional services business models: fixed fee advice. That ideal model which so many aspire to is having clients who agree to ongoing fixed fees, and the practice income just rolls in month after month. Fixed fee advice being delivered on […]

How To Make More Effective Advice Recommendations

by Tony Vidler If we can make more effective advice recommendations we increase comprehension and engagement and shorten the implementation timeframe. That’s good for everyone involved in the process. More people will follow our advice, we help more people get the outcomes they are looking for, and business is better for everyone. So […]

Professionals Have, And Use, Processes

by Tony Vidler True professionals don’t just HAVE processes, they have processes they use everywhere in their work. All the time. Professionals are in fact process-driven. We need to learn from those professions where the outcome of a poor day on the job is literally life or death. That isn’t generally the case […]

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