I have an insight I'd like to share with other consultants: your phone greeting can really help or hurt your reputation. I just revamped mine and have gotten positive comments from a lot of clients and colleagues.

Glad to hear you are in a continuous improvement mode. Every part of your business persona can reinforce or detract from your brand - whether it is your website, how you dress, your presentation template, your client interview process, and your voicemail greeting. Most of us record a functional "Not here. Leave a message" functional greeting when we get a new phone and never look back. For many, this may be the first, or only, impression they get of you. Shouldn't you make this as good as you can?

A couple of thoughts. First, your message should reinforce your brand. It should send a message, not just ask for the caller to leave theirs. Also, your office and mobile greetings should be consistent but don't have to be the same. Second, consider what you want the caller to think and feel after listening to your greeting. You should give them information or an impression they might not already have and a reason to want to do business with you. Third, change your message regularly. It could be a (short, repeat, short) mention of a new book, new service, or new area of interest.

Tip: Ask your colleagues to do you a favor and tell you what they learned, feel, are surprised by or understand about your brand from your greeting. Is your greeting distinctive or could it be on any consultant's phone? Finally, what other parts of your comprehensive brand are you overlooking.

© 2010 Institute of Management Consultants USA

Despite the increasing incidence of somewhat spectacular natural and intentional disasters, the evidence clearly shows we are poorly prepared - either as individuals or as communities (or nations). Aside from helping my clients become better prepared, is there something we should be doing as a consulting firm to prepare?

Most people are optimists, believing that the worst will not happen to them. However, ask anyone who has recently been through an earthquake, weather related disaster, flood, near-miss of a terrorism incident or the regional economic devastation of an oil spill (for example). They will tell you also that they didn't think they needed to be prepared - or as prepared as they later realized. Your consulting firm is no different. How ready are you to withstand the impact, and recover from, a similar unexpected event?

From the simple (power surge that fries your hard drives and on-site backup systems, or a flood of your facilities) to more complex (outbreak of flu that keeps you or your staff out of work for several weeks, or a lawsuit that prevents you from using a technology or IP on which your practice is built), you need to have thought these events through. No one thinks it will happen to them and neither do you. It is time to lay out the events from which you can currently recover and ones you are unprepared for.

Tip: Take a cue from Ready.gov for business. Use these checklist and suggestions to help your own business as well as those of your clients. Who knows, you might even develop a new practice area in managing risk and disasters for a new groups of organizations.

© 2010 Institute of Management Consultants USA