Client Magnet

Golden Nugget or Lead Balloon

Published on November 4, 2008 in Client Magnet Archives, business, marketing and strategy. 2 Comments

Golden Nuggets

One of the biggest mistakes I see consultative professionals make is to offer a solution during an initial conversation with a prospective client. You may not be aware of the damage you’re doing to your ability to be hired when you offer these “golden nuggets” of advice.

Let me explain. By a consultative professional I mean someone who offers customized advice, direction and solutions to a specific problem. Here are a few examples of consultative professionals: designer, physician, architect, engineer, business coach, consultant, ad agency, chiropractor, attorney, financial adviser, accountant, etc…

They people are very knowledgeable about their given trade. They typically have years of education and experience and often a few initials behind their name. They don’t just sell “what’s in their briefcase,” they uncover problems and issues for their clients and prescribe customized solutions to those problems. And they are very comfortable talking about their solutions. Herein lies the problem.

When asked to offer advice, a consultative professional often jumps right to their solution. They mentally cull through years of experience and similar situations and offer an amazing nugget of insight. Most of the time, their advice is spot on. But often that amazing advice is never acted upon by the recipient.

One of two things usually happens; if the other party acts upon your advice they are typically missing a few key ingredients to make the solution a success on their own because they do not possess your wealth of experience and knowledge. If they DO succeed, they often wonder why people would pay you if the solution was so simple that it came out of a 20 minute conversation.

But most of the time, they will not take action on your advice. And when you check on their progress the next time you meet, there’s often an awkward moment where they feel like they have to explain why they sat on your golden nugget of wisdom. Here’s why; you never took the time to fully understand the problem behind their request for advice. Solutions, unto themselves, are devoid of value without a problem to fix.

I talk to consultative professionals every week that feel like they give away golden nuggets of information only see them turn into lead balloons, because the prospective client’s problem was never truly analyzed.

As a consultative professional, it feels good to offer advice. It’s comfortable. It feels valuable. In fact, it’s what we do best. But advice not tethered to a problem often causes more harm than good.

Offering solutions is an easy trap to fall into. In fact, almost everything a client asks of us begs for a solution. “Help us do…; We need a…; We want a better…” Most professionals respond to these questions by offering a solution. And we wouldn’t just offer any solution; we offer a golden nugget because we perceive this as our chance to shine.

Most clients would like to believe that there is a magic bullet solution to their problem; but in reality it’s often much more complicated than that. It’s easy to jump right in with a solution (even one that would work); but you must dig to uncover the real issues behind the request. If you let the client get away with the original question, it puts all the pressure on you to come up with the magic bullet. As a consultative professional, you must get the client to fully describe the issue and its implications on their business.

Here are a few questions that I use to uncover & quantify the real issue:

How do you know this a problem?
Why hasn’t this issue been addressed yet?
How much is this challenge currently costing you in both hard dollars & soft dollars?
What kind of results would occur after fixing this problem?
Why is the future state better for you? What’s it worth to you?

It’s been proven that people (and organizations) move away from pain faster than they move towards a gain. Forget about your experience and solutions for a minute and take the time to fully understand the pain caused by the issue; or at least what type of gain they are expecting to see by engaging you.

If you continue immediately offer a solution,you’ll continue to see your golden nuggets sink like lead balloons. In these initial conversations, you will garner more respect by uncovering the pain behind the request before offering a solution. I know it’s difficult to put your knowledge and experience on the back burner for a little while, but if you’re able to do so, you will move into bigger projects and bigger fees; and you’ll be able to make a bigger impact–which is ultimately what we all want.

How 237 Of Us Are Helping Save Children

Published on October 30, 2008 in branding and marketing. 1 Comment Tags: age of conversation.

Yesterday, we announed the 2nd Edition of The Age of Conversation–a business book showcasing how authentic conversation can be a strategic component of your marketing efforts. Subtitled, “Why Don’t They Get It,” the book delves into social media, accidential marketing, evolving business models and how the power of conversation is changing the overall marketing/branding landscape.

The first edition was such a success, more influential bloggers asked to participate this time around. You can see a list of all co-authors below. For this edition, I wrote a chapter titled When Great Isn’t Enough, which discusses how entrepreneurs often put their business at great risk by choosing not to master the marketing component of their enterprise. Many professionals believe they can be great at their trade and profitable clients will simply form a line to work with them; but that just isn’t the case.

I encourage you to learn more and buy a book (you can choose between e-book, soft copy and hard copy editions) AND note that all proceeds go to Variety, the Children’s Charity.

Full Author List For Age of Conversation 2:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Think more advertising is the way to grow?

Published on October 27, 2008 in advertising and marketing. 2 Comments

One of the default responses that small business owners have when talking about growth is advertising. To a lot of them, advertising is synonymous with marketing.

Let’s all get on the same page with regards to definitions. Advertising is a marketing tactic; just like PR, special events, networking, speaking or writing. Marketing, on the other hand, is a core element of your business; much like finance, operations or HR.

You cannot run a business without some form of marketing. For a lot of companies, the default marketing strategy is word or mouth or referrals. You can, however, do a lot of marketing activities without spending a penny on advertising.

You see the big Fortune 500 companies spending hundreds of millions on advertising. Let’s look at an example of an Apple advertisement making fun of Microsoft hoping to fix it’s Vista problems through advertising:

Advertising is costly, hard to measure and is losing effectiveness faster than the Titantic sank. Thanks to Jeff Sexton, at Future Now, let’s look at a few companies that have made a national splash by focusing their efforts on the customer experience and viral word of mouth instead of advertising:

1) Zappos
2) Krispy Kreme
3) StonyField Yogurt
4) Silk (soy milk)
5) Smart Wool

and more…

Let me ask you a question that makes a lot of people open their eyes and think:

If advertising is such a wonderful business growth strategy, why don’t you see more ad agencies actually advertising to attract new clients?

Think about it. And trust me, it’s not that they don’t want/need the work.

You want a dose of passion+reality?

Published on October 22, 2008 in ROI, business, entrepreneur and marketing. 0 Comments

No one does it better than Gary Vaynerchuk. If you don’t know his story, do yourself and favor and read up on someone that’s truly learned to use web 2.0/social media for profit and fame. He’s gone from local NJ wine retailer to national personal branding powerhouse in just a few years–and he’s happy to tell you how to do the same.

Fair warning, there’s a bit of profanity but it’s just a side effect of letting your passions take the wheel for a little while. Watch, pay attention and do something different…

Keep digging to find gold

Published on September 9, 2008 in management and strategy. 0 Comments

Every day I get an email from the Institute for Management Consultants (IMC) and I must say, they worth reading–everyday. Today’s email focused on keeping people on track without letting them ramble down a tangent during the conversation.

They suggest using a technique called the “5 Why’s.”

Here’s an excerpt from their email that I felt needed to be passed along:

One tactic that comes to mind is to introduce a process in your discussions to keep focus in a solution space. This is known as the “five whys.” When you start with a solution to an identified problem, accept the first solution and then ask a series of “why” questions.

For example, someone suggests they should sell more products in the marine market (which is one of your strongest markets). Why? Because the marine market is underserved. Why? Because the market is growing and no new suppliers are entering. Why? Because the margins are poor for this highest growth segment of the market. Why? Because the new segment cares about price more than quality, which is your company’s strength. Why? Because these new customers are young consumers early in their earning careers.

What started out as a “good idea” to expand into a market area your company is already in, then swerved into a potentially bad idea (poor margins), then back into a good idea (future potential) but for different reasons. Before you asked the “whys” you might have entered the market quickly, but now you know to pace yourself and cultivate this customer base as their spending abilities grow.

Tip: It may take more or less than five “whys” to get to the bottom of an issue, but you will get your client into the habit of becoming very precise with their suggestions.

Copyright (c) 2008, Institute for Management Consultants

Social Media Bandwagon

Published on September 2, 2008 in Client Magnet Archives and social media. 1 Comment

By now everyone’s heard of blogging, MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn; but I still see that a lot of my clients are hesitant to jump into the social marketing/media foray. They think it’s only a bunch of college kids chatting about frat parties and drinking games. And to be honest, social media’s beginnings aren’t too far from that.

But times have changed.

Social media tools are a global phenomenon that are happening in all markets regardless of social, economic and cultural boundaries. One of the primary drivers behind this shift is that “consumers” are no longer consuming what advertising agencies have thrown at them for years. In the old days, you could actually increase sales with TV and magazine advertising, but that’s when we all watched the same five TV channels and were glued to the nightly news to see what happened in the world.

Today, we have 500+ channels, satellite radio and access to immediate information on any topic you can imagine via the internet. Consumers are no longer consuming advertising, they are consuming content. And social media tools (like blogs, Twitter and Facebook) make it easy and free to create and distribute valuable content.

Just look at some of the latest stats:

73% of online users read a blog
57% join social networks
45% have started a blog
83% have viewed a video online
39% subscribe to RSS feeds
36% think more positively about companies that have blogs

Do you match up with any (or most) of these?

How many social media tools are you taking advantage of?

It’s not enough to simply have a website today. You must be engaged in social media to gain credibility and awareness for your brand, products and services.

There are 184 million bloggers worldwide. 34% of them post opinions about products and services on their blog. Are they talking about you; your products/services; your industry? Yes they are, but more importantly, what are they saying?

Social media is all about authenticity and transparency. Since the barriers to publishing content are virtually nil, people do not pay attention to or respect overly glossy corporate messages. They no longer have to. Before we were basically forced to watch the final episode of M.A.S.H.–not any longer. In fact, right now, Millenials are watching more video online than traditional television.

Times have changed. Where are you in relation to adopting and participating in social media?

If you’re not sure where to start, let me throw out a couple of suggestions:

Add a blog to your website. But make sure you host it on your website to take advantage of all of the search engine goodness that comes with a blog. When you sign up with Blogger or another hosted service, they get all of the search engine benefits. Make a new directory on your website called “blog” and install it there. If you’re confused by doing this give me a call–or your web person–to help. Wordpress makes this very easy. BUT YOU CANNOT INSTALL IT AND NOT USE IT. You have to start publishing content to leverage social media for business growth.
Sign up for a free Facebook account. It’s easy and you’ll be surprised how many people you know are already on there. Start making connections. Add me as a “friend”. Start using social media to cultivate relationships. After all that’s what it’s all about.

Publishing valuable content is the #1 way to be recognized as an expert in your field. When you combine publishing with an expanding network of connections, your business is sure to grow.

Social media is here to stay. Will the tools change and evolve over time, sure, but as a communications and business platform, it’s here to stay. Are you coming with us?

Roadmap to Success

Published on August 29, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I’ve recently been on a Napoleon Hill kick. For those that have not read his classic writings on wealth, I highly suggest it. The more time I spend thinking about the future I want, the more I can see the elements beginning to align. I’m consistently surprised at the number of clients that I’ve worked with who have never thought about their future. They never sat down to determine what type of life they wanted; or how their business venture would help them get there. I’ve had clients in tears once they see the connection between their desired lifestyle and how their business can be a vehicle to deliver it. Talk about motivation and power!

Today, I got an email from the Napoleon Hill Foundation with a roadmap to success that I felt needed to be shared.

Model these behaviors and success will follow–I’m not sure how it couldn’t if you stick to the principles.

The successful person has a plan for getting what he wants, has faith in his ability to acquire it, and works his plan.
The successful person is obliging and friendly. He encourages others through his positive mental attitude to assist him in achieving his goals.
The successful person is tactful. He thinks before he speaks and anticipates the reaction of his audience as he engages their cooperation.
The successful person keeps his opinions to himself for the most part, and only expresses those that he has researched and can be backed by facts.
The successful person budgets his time and money wisely.
The successful person is genuinely interested in all people.
The successful person is open-minded and tolerant of others.
The successful person remains current and knows what is occurring locally, nationally, and internationally.
The successful person focuses on the positive and eliminates the negative.
The successful person is a giver first and a receiver second. His primary focus is on the service he renders.
The successful person respects the Creator and acknowledges Him for all the gifts he has been given and is yet to receive.

I encourage you to sign up for the email newsletter from the Foundation. Each issue is full of motivational tips and techniques to create the life you dream of.

5 Ways to Leverage Technology In Your Marketing

Published on August 5, 2008 in marketing and social marketing. 3 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I gave a talk to a group of technology firms about leveraging technology in their marketing efforts. I figured what better group to jump on the tech bandwagon than a group of people used to selling technology. My talk went over great. They, just like most professional firms, struggle filling the marketing funnel. And even though most were aware of these technologies, the vast majority was not using them to grow their business.

My talk was titled, “5 Ways to Pump Up Your Marketing With Technology,” and here are the five key points:

Stop stressing about your marketing message
Grow your professional network
Keep in touch consistently
Measure your progress
Never forget a big idea

Let me speak to each one briefly.

1. Stop Stressing About Your Marketing Message

I see a lot of clients wringing their hands over what to say to their prospective clients.

Unfortunately, we sit in our offices thinking about these things we tend to go a little crazy over it. My suggestion was simple; stop stressing over it and ASK. Sign up for a free online survey tool, like SurveyMonkey or QuestionPro, and send out the following questions to your last 10 clients:

What’s the biggest challenge we helped you overcome?
How did that issue manifest itself? or How did you know it was a real problem?
How would you describe our company to your colleagues and friends?
If you owned a business like ours, what would you change?
What groups or associations are you a member of?

In five little questions you’ve determined how they see your firm and the value you bring to the table. You’ve also tapped into what they would like to see you change about your services or offerings. And you’ve learned where other people like them congregate for future marketing efforts. Not too shabby for a free survey.

You can stop worrying about your message because your clients help write it. It doesn’t get any better than that.

2. Grow Your Professional Network

Pretty much everyone agrees that networking is a critical element of any marketing plan. But once you’ve gotten to really know everyone in your Chamber or Rotary or Country Club; how to you continue to meet new prospects?

I’ve had great success meeting and strengthening relationships with prospects all over the country using LinkedIn and Facebook. When I ask the question, “Who has a LinkedIn profile?”, typically one third to half of the room raises their hands.

But very few actually take advantage of the built in credibility tools within LinkedIn. Very few people use the “Recommend” feature to capture testimonials from clients and colleagues. Very few people also actively participate in the Q&A section LinkedIn. The “Recommendations” are a great way to highlight how you’ve helped others (in their own words); while the Q&A section is a great platform for you to share your expert knowledge with others. Like any good social marketing platform, LinkedIn shows the other members in your network what you’re up to.

Facebook is more “social” than LinkedIn, but don’t let that scare you. After all, people do business with people, not businesses. And if you still think LinkedIn is only for the college crowd, then listen up. The largest–and fastest growing–segment of Facebook users is over 25 years old. Everyone I’ve helped register with Facebook is amazed at how many of their friends, college buddies, colleagues and relatives are already on there.

My advice: if you’re not already on Facebook and LinkedIn, sign up. If you are, then start using the systems more actively. Ask people for introductions, find common ground, strike up a conversation. But fair warning, you do have to be careful what you post. No one wants to see your party pics or the drunken lake photos. Skip the things that are too personal and ignore all the silly games on Facebook and you’ll be fine.

Don’t forget to “Add Me as friend” on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/people/Nick_Rice/663866368

and Connect with me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/nickrice

3. Keep In Touch Consistently

This may be the #1 faux pas in business today–we never keep in regular contact with our past, current and prospective clients. There are two cycles running constantly in business; your selling cycle and their buying cycle. Chances of those two cycles being in alignment when you first meet are slim to none. So how can you easily keep in touch? It’s what I’m doing right now.

Start an email newsletter. If you provide valuable information (at least monthly), when their buying cycle comes around to your service, you will already be in front of them. There’s no better way to demonstrate your area of expertise than writing. In fact, a few of the email marketing tools have a polling feature built in, so you can accomplish #1 (client survey) with the same tool.

I recommend you look into these four email marketing sites, Aweber (my favorite), Constant Contact, Exact Target and iContact. Most of these have very reasonable entry level packages (typically ~$20/month) and make it very easy for you to keep in touch with valuable information. But here’s the trick, it’s very easy to come off as a spammer; you MUST include valuable content with each email. You cannot simply say “how ya doing? ready to buy yet…?”

One of the easiest ways to come up with newsletter content is to make a list of everything you wish your clients knew; or what could really help them improve their business; or simply ask them what their top 3 “issues at hand” are (HINT: use the survey tool if you don’t have time to call or meet). This will give you enough meaty content to get started. Once you write three or four newsletters–and, you start to see the positive reactions when done well–it becomes a habit.

At the end of the day, your email list will become one of your greatest assets in your business. Each person has “opted in” to hear from you, so you know they are interested in what you have to say. Sign up for one of the above tools now and start cultivating that relationship. When they are ready to buy your services, you’ll stand head and shoulders above the competition.

4. Measure Progress

Business today moves fast. It’s easy to forget who you talked to, what they last bought, how you met them, their birthday, whom they referred, etc… There are online tools that help you get everything under control. For the client side, I recommend Salesforce.com and PipelineDeals.com (what I use). Salesforce.com is the 800lb gorilla in CRM (Customer Relationship Management). There are modules to automate all aspects of your marketing effort–including email marketing and surveys. It includes a full dashboard to track your progress against business goals. It’s a great reminder during the last week of the month to get out there and shake the bushes to bring in a little business.

As for your website, Google Analytics offers amazing reporting to tell you what’s working and what’s not–and it’s free. This tool is so powerful that most Fortune 500 businesses use it to track their own corporate website. Once you copy a little bit of code to each page on your website, you’ll be able to see how many people are coming to your site, how long they stay, what pages they visit, how they navigate, where they live and more data than you can use. You can use this to see where you’re site is working and where visitors are leaving. There is also a complimentary service for A/B split testing. In essence, you design two versions of a given page, Google automatically displays both to various visitors and you can gauge which performs better. I use this to test headlines and call to actions on my site. It works great.

There’s an old saying, “what you pay attention to, gets improved.” If you want your website and your marketing efforts to work harder for you, start measuring them.

5. Never Forget A Big Idea

Here’s a fun little tip. An IT/Business Development consultant friend of mine, Bill Dotson, turned me on to this free service; Jott.com. With Jott, you can call the toll free phone number and leave a message that is automatically transcribed and emailed to you or an email distribution list. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been on the road or woke up with an idea I didn’t want to forget–but couldn’t write it down. Now, I simply hit my speed dial Jott #, leave a message, and when I’m back in the office, I have the full message perfectly transcribed waiting for me in my Inbox to take action on. I also know of people using this to notify a high school baseball team if practice is canceled. The coach has a distribution list of players and parents (all you need is their email) and when the weather turns inclement, he “Jotts” them to let them know practice will be canceled.

Okay, there are the five ways to pump up your marketing efforts with technology. The world has changed. Obviously, we’ll never get away from face-to-face as the best form of communication; but when we start to leverage technology, it can free us up to more of what we do best.

We need people to halt, cease, anything but stop…

Published on July 27, 2008 in advertising, branding and strategy. 0 Comments

Saw this great video below on a Facebook post by my friend, Jason Parmer, owner of design firm, Apparel Studios.

If this video wasn’t so spot on, it’d be funnier. Unfortunately, since I’ve lived on the client side of the fence more than the agency side, I’ve been part of meetings just like these. The group think that comes from everyone trying to cover their own a$$ and make it look like the winning idea was their own kills simple effective marketing.

It will never cease to amaze me that organizations bring in the “expert” outside marketing firm only to second guess and outright direct the final product. If they were capable of producing the deliverable on their own, why go outside in the first place? You don’t tell an architect how to design a stable, functional and attractive structure; you don’t tell the oncologist how to treat cancer; you don’t tell the attorney how to best win your case. Yet everyone thinks they are a designer; everyone thinks they are a world class copy writer.

Now, I cannot put all the blame on the client. A large percentage of the design profession suffers from self esteem issues and cannot seem to stand up for what’s right. They quickly forget that their ability to solve problems is valuable. Too many designers cut their own throat just to get an assignment only to cuss the client all the way through the process–while crossing their fingers for a referral. They’ve never taken the time to understand what makes business work and therefore have a hard time truly communicating with their own client. They complain that “good design is not magic;” then fail to ask enough–or the right–questions to get the answers required to create an exact solution.

Clients respect marketing firms that can prove their point. And designers need enough balls to stand up to the client and say, “This is wrong for these reasons…,”and be willing to walk away if the client won’t listen. Let another schmuck handle it. Go out, proactively market yourself and find clients that value what you bring to the table.

Enough ranting. On with the show… “What if there were no Stop Signs and a Major Corporation was tasked with inventing one.”

I’m loving the Volume Fairy

Published on July 16, 2008 in management, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

Tom Fishburne is a genius. His cartoons are always spot on.

I see this all too often with clients that are overly dependent on referrals & word of mouth. I’m beginning to believe that the old business adage, “feast or famine,” is simply a signal that the business is poor at marketing their services/product. I know there are seasonal/circular patterns to some businesses, but good marketing helps to offset these normal variances. And marketing done properly (ie. planned, tied to measurements, evaluated, tweaked and relaunched) can become a system to generate predictable results.

For instance, I know that everytime I publish a blog article on Fast Company I’ll get a spike in web traffic. Google Analytics shows me that ~10% of those people sign up for my email newsletter, Client Magnet. Once they are on my newsletter, it typically takes six to eight months for them to call/email me about working together. Publishing articles has become a system for me.

If you’re still counting on the volume fairy, you need to know that generating consistent sales isn’t rocket science. Consistent sales comes from consistent proactive marketing. Pure and simple. You cannot leave it solely up to your word of mouth stream which is too unpredictable from month to month. You may be great at what you (and probably are), but you need to become a better marketer to grow your business.