Using the Seven Elements as a Diagnostic Tool

Aug 8, 2018

Discover the Seven Elements critical for winning client trust and engagement. Elements like awareness, respect, and timing are key ingredients for successful business development. The hosts emphasize the importance of a solid value proposition and personal branding for growth. Conduct a self-assessment to identify your strengths and weaknesses, urging honesty in evaluation. It’s a practical guide to enhancing your services and achieving professional success.

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ADVICE

Focus on Weaknesses

Use the seven elements as a diagnostic tool to assess business development strengths and weaknesses.
Address the weakest link, not the strongest, for the most effective go-to-market strategy.

ANECDOTE

New York Consulting Firm

A financial services consulting firm in New York struggled with business development despite having expertise and strong awareness.
Their lack of focus in their value proposition made it difficult for potential clients to understand their services.

ADVICE

Individual Application

Individuals can use the seven elements framework for career development by assessing their strengths and weaknesses.
For example, someone with strong awareness and a niche might focus on building trust and proximity to potential clients.

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Using the Seven Elements as a Diagnostic Tool

In How Clients Buy, Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher present seven elements that must be present before a prospect will be ready to buy a professional service. They must

be aware of you
understand what you do
be interested in your services
respect your work
deem you worthy of their trust
have the ability to make a decision, and
be ready—the timing must be right.

Like the essential ingredients for making bread, Tom asserts these Seven Elements represent a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (“MECE”). Consequently, they constitute a list of essential ingredients for business development success. Using the Seven Elements, you can conduct a self-assessment at the firm, practice, or personal level to gauge your relative strengths and weaknesses.

The Seven Elements Assessment

Take this self-assessment to identify your relative strengths and weaknesses and benchmark your results against peer firms. Complete the survey, and we’ll send you two free copies of How Clients Buy.

Take the Assessment

There are no tricks to translating the results into remedial action. However, discipline is required.

Unlike the children of Lake Wobegon, not all professional services firms are above average across all Seven Elements. Be honest with yourself.
Focus on your weaknesses. I know, it’s hard—most of us would rather double-down on our demonstrated strengths.

Expertise and integrity don’t translate into business success unless there is sufficient awareness among those you wish to serve. Similarly, improving on already strong awareness will be for naught unless prospective clients understand how you can help.

Using the Seven Elements as a Diagnostic Tool

by Tom McMakin

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