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Quickstart - Do You Have a Marketing Pie?
Quickstart
Grow a Profitable Consultancy and Still Have Time for a Life
In this issue
Note from Beverley - Spread The Word?
One Step Further - Do You Have A Marketing Pie?
What's Out There? - Your Business in Lights
Personal Reflections - I Had A Choice
Note from Beverley
I said last week that "Sometimes you just have to ask" and that I was having an article published in Top Consultant. Well it happened and I thought you might like to read it at Top Consultant Article. It's called "So You Want to Be a Consultant?" Let me know what you think.
I've also been asked to shorten it and make it into a condensed top 10 tips article for Training Journal so those of you that subscribe to that magazine look out for that too. The lesson - use your knowledge for a variety of channels to raise your profile.
Have you done the same? Let me know and I'll consider publishing your articles. In a new slot I'm considering called "Comments From The Floor"
Have a good week
Beverley
bev@onestepfurther.co.uk
+44 (0) 1344 625713
www.onestepfurther.co.uk
Author of Take Control of Your Time: 7 Straight Shooter Strategies for Success
One Step Further
Getting more clients. Finding new ways to attract clients. Improving my marketing and getting the right type of clients. These are all answers I get when I ask what is your single biggest question about being a successful consultant?
So this week, I'm going to share with you the concept of a marketing pie or as I call it, The Attraction Pie.
You'll know by now that I prefer attracting clients rather than selling to clients - semantics maybe but it does require a different mindset. So what is The Attraction Pie?
Simply it's a range of channels that you can use to attract people to you and your business so that they come to you or some people might call it "pull marketing" Whichever way you look at it the basic principle are
1. Focus on messages that wow and woo your ideal clients
2. Focus on specific problems that will grab your ideal clients attention making them think, "you really get me!"
3. Focus on solutions to your ideal client's problems (the "what" not the "how". If the what grabs them they'll be attracted enough to contact you for the how)
4. Spread your messages widely but keep the message narrow
5. Consistently and constantly "put your message out there"
Your clients have different ways of taking in information, different ways of learning and different ways that they view the world. This means you have to acknowledge these differences and cater for them in the messages you present and how and where you present them. Attraction is about communication and communication is a 2 way process.
That 2 way process can be active or passive, conscious or subconscious direct or indirect. You have to plan for and cater for whatever methods your ideal clients prefer. You cannot assume one way is the right way or the only way. The same core message can be interpreted or picked up through many mediums and channels and you need to cover as many as you can.
Download The Attraction Pie as a starting point to consider how you might use different channels to get your messages out there. These are just some of the options open to you. Try ones you haven't used, try ones you might NOT prefer yourself, try using a channel in a way you haven't before.
Attraction can happen when you least expect it to, so take your attraction efforts One Step Further and "put it our there"
BIG POINT TO NOTE - Monitor and review where, how and on what you are focusing your efforts and let the results you get inform your future efforts. If it isn't working, try it again (ad hoc marketing doesn't work so "I tried it once" is not a good enough measure), if it still doesn't give you a good return on effort, Stop it.
Do, Monitor, Check, Review, Continue or Change
What's Out There?
This week's showcase business is Escalator Marketing and there's also some info on a great project one of my friends/clients is passionately developing
Escalator Marketing is no nonsense, helpful and friendly marketing services company, specialising in delivering imaginative solutions designed to awaken interest in your company. Often it is possible to discover at least one previously unknown factor about your organisation which will make a fundamental difference in generating greater profit by giving you brand presence a simple boost.
For your FREE initial introduction and getting to know you meeting, contact Brian Smith on 01344 621825 or
brian.smith@escalatormarketing.com
.
Do you have experience or contacts in the field of musical theatre?
Project Glory is the working title of a new musical about love and forgiveness. It tells the story of Charlie, owner of a successful cocktail bar, and his 7 friends each happy with their London lifestyle. When unplanned pregnancy and threatened suicide affect the group, it's the arrival of a couple from Charlie's childhood days and a new love interest who save him from himself and give him hope for the future.
If this all sounds a bit heavy, it's not really! The show is full of contemporary music, sexy undertones, innovative cocktails, exciting staging and use of colour, great humour and a hopeful message. The creators of Project Glory intend to put on the musical (possibly 2/3 performances) to showcase it prior to taking it forward to a larger audience. We are now looking for other people to get involved.
It is worth noting that any profits from the workshops will be donated to various charities we want to support; a larger, commercial return to investors will come from the next stage.
So if: you are (or know of) actors, directors, choreographers with relevant experience or you would be interested in funding/part funding the workshops, Please get in touch to find out more. Linda Clark, Producer,
Linda.clark8@btinternet.com
Personal Reflections
Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at a local Chamber of Commerce Breakfast event. It was an early start at a location I'd not been to before so I was unsure what to expect
About 25 people turned up and after breakfast and an interesting logistics exercise trying to best position screen, laptop, projector and me, so that everyone could see and hear, I gave my presentation on Attract Your Ideal Clients.
It seemed to go well. People nodded and laughed in the right places and the questions were useful and interesting.
I am always keen to hear feedback on my talks - good and constructive so I asked the organiser if I could have a look at the feedback sheets.
Unfortunately the forms they use are not very helpful as they ask very generic questions only 1 of which is about the speaker "What did you think of the quality of the speaker?" rated on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent)
Anyway I was pleased to see that everyone that had completed the form rated me 4 (very good) or 5 (excellent) - except 1 person who had rated me 2 (average)
My immediate reaction was despair, my confidence dropped and I thought I wonder why?
I then looked down at the general comments section and read (I am paraphrasing)
"...the speaker was good but I had heard her before on exactly the same topic. You should have different speakers and different topics and why don't you give other people the chance to present?"
My immediate reaction was annoyance and irritation and I felt the need to justify myself.
I then caught myself thinking these things and thought hang on - you can react differently.
1. I hadn't given this talk before so she couldn't have heard it
2. If she had heard me before it had been on another topic
3. She hadn't listened to either talk
4. She has an issue with the organisers
5. She was looking for a problem
6. She could ask to presnt a talk herself (she hadn't - I checked)
7. It was little if anything to do with me
8. One person wasn't going to impact how I felt
9. I chose to accept the other feedback and ignore hers
10. I felt better and had a good day
I had a choice about how I reacted to and processed these comments and once I removed my own perceptions and assumptions and put it all into a different context, I saw things and felt differently.
Feedback is
* Someone else's opinion, which they are entitled to have
* An opportunity to learn and make choices.
Rgds
Bev
bev@onestepfurther.co.uk
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