Fearless Business Advising?

What is the ONE tool with the most profound impact on building your thriving advisory business? [3 min read]

You’re going to expect me to say it’s the CLARITY Strategic Capacity Analysis software. Yes, that’s a great tool... but nope.

The ONE tool you need is facilitation. Less sexy, to be sure. But critical.

Ask yourself: what is the glue binding all of your engagement milestones?

• Qualifying clients (you’d prefer to work with folks who can get it done, right?)
• Leading the Growth Conversation and triggering your client to take action
• Creating Senior Team alignment around goals and strategic capacity
• Leading the CEO and her team and collaboratively designing strategy
• Promoting accountability and collaboration in the execution phase
• Maintaining the tempo and focus needed to deliver wins

If you want to be a Fearless Business Advisor then the glue binding all of these together is your ability to lead and guide a group of people through a discussion or process in a productive and collaborative way. Think Wonder Woman with the Lasso of Truth - meetings will run to your command.

“Fearless” because after learning these skills you will confidently handle all of your client interactions, from the initial interview through what we all know can be dysfunctional and even confrontational team meetings as they build strategic capacity, growing profits and value.

So: do you want to be confident - dare we say FEARLESS - running marketing events, strategy development retreats, senior leadership alignment workshops, and the critical meeting tempo that literally makes the difference between business victory and defeat? 

WELL THEN KIDS, you might want to consider investing a little time participating in a new course being offered by Growth-Drive. You already know about the outstanding Launch Course, folks rave about it. This is different, and as always valuable and fun. You’ll gain specific tools you can apply in your advisory business immediately - here’s why:

Fearless Business Advising: Skills for Achieving Extraordinary Results

After completing this course, senior professionals will have learned key tools and techniques with a proven track record for engaging clients and their teams as they develop and execute strategies that deliver growing profits and value. Participants will gain specific expertise for confidently leading growth engagements, acting as both the trusted advisor and growth consultant.

You need six skills and the tools to deploy them - and these are exactly what the course delivers:

1. Roles: when and how to advise, when and how to consult (hint: they’re not the same) - plus working with the 4 communication styles of senior leaders
2. The secrets of leading through questions
3. Preparing: maximizing the impact of meetings, workshops and executive retreats
4. Successfully launching the meeting so it can punch above its weight class
5. Maintaining focus and momentum
6. Closing techniques that automatically create commitment and accountability

Sounds pretty good, right? OK, here are some of the questions your colleagues are asking:

Q: Who can participate in the course? 

Anyone can participate - you do NOT need to subscribe to the software or be a Growth-Driver.

Q: What are people charging for services that harness these skills? 

You should target a 1/2 day Senior Leadership Workshop at $3,000-$5,000; add the CLARITY deep analysis and the fee goes to $7,500-$10,000 including the report. An Executive Strategic Retreat is worth $10,000-$20,000 depending on company size and duration. Monthly retainers to facilitate meetings and maintain accountability typically bill at $3,000-$5000 depending again on scope. This, for middle market and pre-middle market clients. The course delivers a profit from the first client.

Q: Will the course take a lot of time? 

The course is designed for busy pros like you and delivered as a live webinar. Miss a class, no worries: grab it at your own pace though the online academy. Classes run from 10-12 and 2-4 on July 19-20-21 - easy, leaving plenty of time for your day job (or shooting a bucket of golf balls, we won’t tell).

Q: Can this course benefit my advisory business regardless of my current process or methodology? 

Yes, anyone will benefit - you may be a Exit Planner, or a Value Builder; have a copy of Traction or Scaling Up under your arm... whatever you use, these tools will drive your confidence and make you better at delivering wins.

Q: What comes with my registration?  

You’ll get the course textbook and additional resources (which are super cool), plus 10 days unlimited free use of the CLARITY Strategic Capacity Analysis so you can win an engagement using your new skills.

Bottom line: if you want to sharpen your skills in a way that impacts all that you already do, this course is for you.

So what are you waiting for? There’s no better time than the dog days of summer to sharpen your skills. Right now the course is only $1,000 - that’s an introductory price, a significant savings from the $3,000 you'd pay for future sessions. There are only a few seats left: click this link, and take the step that will help you take your advisory business to a higher level. After you register you’ll get the course resources by FedEx, plus login links and be registered in the community.

And you can always ping George directly.

What else would you like to see in this course? What other training would help you build your advisory business? We’d love to know what you think, please comment here or email blog@growth-drive.com. 

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George Sandmann's new book The Growth-Driving Advisor: Leading Clients from Stuck to Best-in-Class is scheduled for publication by Forbes Books in early September. To join the pre-publication list please click here.