“Give it away give it away give it away now” – The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Anthony Kiedis sang in Give it Away, “to rock a little know how.” With best practices research you want to give away your know how to your client.
The purpose of this post is to provide a process for creating best practices. The process will help make creating best practices repeatable, efficient and effective so you and your client can gain the benefits.
Best practices research can help you:
- Build trust with customers
- Grow your partnership by showing your client you want to help improve their business
- Get your client up to speed on the latest trends, thinking and techniques
Best practices offer you and your client time to think about what you are doing now with your program and how you can do it better. You can grow together by conducting strategic planning from the findings and implementing programs to align with the best practices.
You show your client you can be counted on as an advisor.
Let’s take a look at how to get started:
1. Understand the Customer’s Problem
Review the client’s best practices request in detail. Taking time to be clear on what the customer wants to find out will help you align your research with the customer’s question and make your search more efficient.
Also think about the bigger picture of the assignment. Understand how your best practices research will help improve the client’s business.
2. Plan Your Research Approach
Think through how you will conduct your research and what your final deliverable will look like. Consider the following:
- The sources you will review
- How long your recommendation will be
- What presentation format is appropriate
- The types of media you’ll reference like articles, videos, podcasts or books
- The keywords and phrases you’ll use to find your content
3. See What’s Out There
Begin your research. Take a harvest approach by collecting a range of information. Skim the content you find at this stage and see if it seems to meet your research needs for further evaluation later. Collect enough information to give your client a complete answer to their question.
Pro tip: Compile your research in one place so you can easily reference it later.
4. See What You’ve Got
Now it’s time to evaluate your research in detail. Read through the materials and see if the research answers the client’s question. Identify open areas and repeat your search for any gaps.
You’ll know when you have your topic covered when you start to see the main themes repeated across your sources and you are no longer uncovering important details.
5. Map Out Your Story
Create an outline of the important themes. The outline will be your guideposts for your research summary.
What are the major points you see in the research? What’s most important for the client to know?
Select points that are actionable so your client can use your research to benefit their business.
6. Assemble
Flesh out your outline. Pull out support points from your research to fit under your main themes. Add detail that will help the client gain more understanding.
Pro tip: Feature case studies in your presentation. Clients appreciate seeing how other companies put the research into action.
7. Edit
Make your research reader friendly for client review.
- Edit your material into a consistent voice
- Make sure the points flow in an order that makes sense
- Streamline the content and remove any unnecessary facts
- Check your research against the client’s objective to make sure you’re answering their question
- Add research sources throughout
8. Refine
Take a break from your presentation. Then come back and do another pass at editing.
Focus on making the presentation easy for the client to understand. Add an executive summary and key takeaways to give your client the highlights they need to know.
9. Check It Over
Check your presentation over before you make it final for client presentation.
Review your work against the original request. Make sure the research shows you understand the client’s problem and see if it conveys that you are an expert in this content. Aim to give your client a feeling or relief or delight that you’ve helped answer their question and build their business.
10. Present!
Demonstrate your expertise to the client. Explain your thinking. Gather the client’s feedback and collect follow-up questions. After you present look for ways the research can support your work together. You can translate the research into strategic planning and projects to help build the client’s business.
Never Been a Better Time Than Right Now
Best practices research will help you become a trusted advisor for your client. You and your client will feel more certain, prepared and educated on your initiatives.
Best practices show that you’ve done your homework and give you the direction for a clear path forward. Give best practices a try with your clients, there’s “never been a better time than right now.”
