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Taking a Sharp Right

By Alan Weiss

You escape a rip tide by swimming perpendicular to it (and parallel to the beach). Swimming against a rip tide’s seaward current is likely to result in death—even lifeguards have been killed in rip tides.

Counter intuitively, if you swim at a 90° angle, in just a few yards, the water is calm and you can easily swim to shore. Fight it and you may die, but seek a new direction and you will easily live.

Clients Are Caught in the Tide

Rip tides aren’t even tidal. They are surface currents, the cause of which isn’t clearly understood. They are often impossible to detect from the land, and disappear as rapidly as they form.

I’ve found that many clients are caught in their own rip tides, and countless consultants drown trying to save them. The client insists that the beach directly ahead is the objective, and it takes an enlightened and brave consultant to say, “No, swim to open water, follow me!”

When clients attempt to overtake firmly entrenched competitors, they are swimming against the tide. Avis avoided this by pointing out that, as number two (to Hertz), they had to “try harder.” Enterprise, now the largest auto rental operation anywhere, provided for home pickup and delivery, off-airport locations convenient to population centers, and other distinct services. They didn’t try to “out-Hertz Hertz,” but established their own nature and direction in the business.

United and American Airlines are completely undifferentiated. Consequently, fares and commodities rule. USAir has tried to compete and merely matched the non-differentiation, by no means threatening either. But Southwest created a new approach to the airline business, with fun, no frills, identical aircraft, and rock bottom prices.

We have to be honest with our clients. Overcoming the lead runners is not going to happen if those runners can barely be seen over the horizon or they have better aerobics. It’s best to give up that race, and create your own course.

The Sharp Right

I call this “taking a sharp right turn,” because that’s how you escape the rip tide, and that’s how you similarly escape the competitor’s lead. (If you play in the opponent’s stadium, with the opponent’s equipment, opponent’s rules, and opponent’s fans, you’re most likely going to lose.) There is no loss of face in accepting that someone has an insurmountable lead in the national widget business, when you have decided that you are going to be the front runner in the specialized widget business (or the global widget business).

Yes, it can be that simple.

Years ago, in consulting with water treatment experts at Calgon, it was apparent that the two front-runners in the water treatment business were far around the bend. Number three Calgon had gone through a lot of strategies and a pride of consultants trying to decrease the lead, quite unsuccessfully. I suggested a “sharp right”: Why not become number one—virtually overnight—in the “plant effluent management” business?

And that’s what they did. Perceptions needed to be changed, conversations altered, and prospects re-educated, but there was no capital investment and no time lost.

Honeywell was annihilated by IBM every year because they were trying to overcome a monumental gap. But Apple has become startlingly successful by refusing to try to outrace Dell or Microsoft on their tracks.

Are You Accepting the Turn?

We have to suggest such courses of action to our clients, but also must apply these techniques to our own practices. I’ve written more books on consulting than any living author and run high-end developmental experiences throughout the year. It would be silly to try to “out-brand” me in terms of solo consultants. (I love the book Six Figure Consulting that came out, when Million Dollar Consulting seems a tad more attractive!) But it does make sense to position one’s self as an expert in the profession in cold calling, or the education market, or financial specialties, all areas in which I have little expertise and less interest.

Are you taking a “sharp right” to avoid comparisons with larger and/or better known consulting resources? Are you avoiding comparisons with those who are better known in a general field to become exceptions in a specific field (or an even broader one)?

If your clients can benefit, so can you. It’s easy to jump in the water, but hazards abound. Even staying close to shore, a rip tide can claim your life. You’ve got to be willing to not fight it, but escape it with a new direction.

And you probably can’t recommend that to your clients if you’ve never tried it yourself.

Want to read more by Alan Weiss? Visit his author page.

Alan Weiss, Ph.D. is the author of twenty-six books—including Million Dollar Consulting—which appear in eight languages. He runs the unique Million Dollar Consulting™ Colleges three times a year, and has a global mentoring program. You can reach him at www.summitconsulting.com. He has won dozens of writing and consulting awards and is a member of the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame®.

Visit his blog at www.contrarianconsulting.com.