Knowledge Base
Why accountants and lawyers now need to fix the roof
The recent heatwave and the rapidly arriving recession made us think about that wise saying: 'the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining'. Here's what this means for your Firm. By Kevin Vaughan-Smith and Stuart Maister, Joint MDs, Mutual Value As we all...
The myth of One Firm and what to do about it
25 senior people in a beautiful room in London sat down to dinner. The discussion focused on the cost of poor internal collaboration and what to do about it. This is what we heard... By Stuart Maister, Joint MD, Mutual Value How much does it cost your firm when...
Break the silos – 3 steps to collaboration heaven
“Working in collaboration with suppliers to drive efficiency and improvement, to innovate and create more value add, has been talked about a lot. However, it’s clear in practice we are not as strong as some other clients of our suppliers.”Stephen Duckworth, Head of...
How to build trust: start with yourself
If you've ever done any kind of personal development or spiritual exploration, there is always the same core message. Start with yourself. Look inside. When you get yourself right you are better able to have a positive impact on the world. Our conclusion is that...
Always be the buyer, and so be a professional
“Act like a true professional, aiming for true excellence, and the money will follow." David Maister,'True Professionalism', FreePress 1997By Stuart Maister, Joint MD, Mutual Value Always be the buyer I want to talk today about a concept developed by supercoach Dan...
Trust isn’t easy to achieve. Here’s what to do.
In a recent article my colleague, Stuart Maister, challenged the concept of a Trusted Advisor first suggested by David Maister (his cousin) and suggested that success in building relationships should be based on a desire to become Trusted Partners. In this article I...
How often have you heard from Clients that you were brilliant, but in a close fought contest you just came second and you lost on price?
In this video Kevin explores the reality behind Clients selection criteria, and why this should make us think differently about how we choose to behave.
They are buying my expertise aren’t they? In a world where technical ability and expertise can be found so easily on the web and from software, the thing that will be most valuable to a Client is our ability to build broad understanding of their business and the value they are trying to create. Our focus has to switch to building these kind of relationships.
Transformation is the wrong word to use to drive change. We believe the focus should be on PEP – Permanent Evolution at Pace. Here’s 2 minutes on why that’s the case and how it impacts commercial relationships.
Many Clients have a budget, but this may or may not be rooted in a well articulated business case. In this video Kevin talks about the Mutual Value approach to discussing the topic with a Client. By both parties understanding the business case they have clarity about how they can contribute to it, or indeed whether they agree with it.
Do we know what the Client actually means when they say what they want?
This briefing looks at how to be really inquisitive in such situations. Kevin provides a brilliant and simple way to get to the truth, and help the Client consider more carefully what they really want, while ensuring both sides share the same definition of what this actually means.
We bid to achieve a certain margin – why are we so often disappointed by what we achieve?
Kevin explores how operating within a transactional world, but wanting to do great work and please Clients, can often lead to us delivering lower margins than we should, and we deserve, and points to an alternative approach.
Traditional sales techniques don’t work in a modern world – perhaps its time to move on.
In this video Kevin talks about how the old paradigm is dying. People will no longer put up with being sold at and demand much more from their long term suppliers. Ultimately they wish to move to a relationship build on trust and Mutual Value.
For further information get in touch now...
SOPHIE@MUTUAL-VALUE.COM
MUTUAL VALUE HELPS YOU BUILD TRUST.
Let's have an open conversation about the value this can bring to your organisation. Contact sophie@mutual-value.com to arrange a free video call with Stuart Maister or Kevin Vaughan-Smith.