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Articles
on Performance Your
Marketing Mindset - Scarcity or Abundance?
A
great number of people who come to me for marketing
help have a litany of complaints: "I have no
time to market, I'm not the marketing type, I
really hate marketing." Often they're expecting me
to give them a "painless pill" that will make
marketing both easy and effective. That
pill is actually available but it's not what they
expect. The
first dose of medicine is this information:
Your concept of marketing is completely
backwards. Marketing isn't an ordeal to be endured.
Marketing is about sharing the heart of your
business. You need to change your point of view
first. What
do I mean? What
I'm talking about is a "Mindset" that shapes the
way you perceive your business and marketing.
There are mindsets that serve you and mindsets
that undermine you. The
kind of mindset that undermines you might be called
the "Scarcity Mindset" and consists of beliefs,
attitudes, self-talk and behaviors that go
something like this: "People
don't value my services. People don't understand
what I do and there's really no way to explain it.
Marketing is about presenting a false image so it's
not appropriate for my business. When it doesn't
work anyway, how can I find the time to market? I'm
not the hype-and-hustle type, so I'll just have to
hope for word-of-mouth business. You have to
struggle to make it in business - that's just the
way it is." Sound
familiar? Now
the interesting thing about this is that it is
TOTALLY subjective. It's not a report on the
truth but a reflection of your mindset. It might
seem completely true to you but it's actually a
choice you've made. Sure there were things in your
life that influenced you to adopt that mindset but
it's still your choice whether you hold onto it or
not. Ask
yourself, does it serve you? Does it make your
life and business easier? Does it add to your
satisfaction and fulfillment? I
didn't think so! So
why not try a whole new mindset that actually
serves you, that makes your life and business
easier and more fun and increases your satisfaction
and fulfillment? What have you got to
lose? This
mindset might be called the "Abundance Mindset."
This mindset is also composed of beliefs,
attitudes, self-talk and behaviors, but they sound
quite different from the Scarcity
Mindset: "People
value my services. It's fun sharing about what I do
and the results I produce for my clients. Marketing
is about getting out there and presenting an
authentic message that represents my business. It's
easy to find the time to market because everything
I do pays off so well. I'm going to provide
services that are so great that people will want to
pass my name along. When you do what you love and
share that passion, business is
effortless." This
might not seem so familiar to you! But
again, it's your subjective viewpoint and it's your
choice! You can whine about marketing or you can
celebrate it. You can resist it or you can jump in
with both feet. When
you adopt this new mindset, all sorts of new
possibilities open up to you. You no longer
feel like a beggar but more like an evangelist with
a vital message. You're no longer trying to GET
something with your marketing, you're trying to
GIVE something. After
all, with an Abundance Mindset, you know that you
have a lot to share. By sharing with enthusiasm,
you realize that people will see the value you have
to offer and will be more readily attracted to your
services. Some
of the things you can do to share the value of your
services include: Let
me tell you, it's very hard to do all of the above
things if you're coming from a place of scarcity.
But if you're choosing a mindset of abundance these
things come naturally and easily. You'll
also realize that what you give comes back to you
many, many times over. What
you need to do first is work on adopting an
Abundance Mindset. Then start to initiate
marketing activities that are focused more on
giving than on getting. I guarantee that not only
will marketing be a lot more fun, it will be a
whole lot more effective.
Maintaining
Your Professional Edge One
thing is a given when you're self-employed: you're
on your own with only your talent, wits and
perseverance. A
few weeks ago I talked about the necessity of
having a network that could assist you when you
needed help. I was talking about help with client
projects by tapping into your own personal
"knowledge network." Such a network can increase
the value you provide to your clients. But
often a more pressing issues is, what support do
you get to keep YOU on track? It's
been my observation from working with hundreds of
clients that virtually no one gets the kind of
support they need. There are all kinds of resources
for support. Which ones are you taking advantage
of? 1.
Read books and magazines on business, marketing
entrepreneurship, etc. This is your lowest cost
resource to give you insight and perspective on how
to make your business more successful. I'm assuming
you subscribe to Success and Inc. Magazines,
amongst others. If not, you're missing out on what
is happening in business today. A big mistake. I
assume you read at least one business book every
other month. You don't? How are you going to
generate new ideas to stay ahead? 2.
Listen to cassette tape programs. If you
commute more than 10 minutes to work each day you
can benefit from a wide variety of taped programs
on business, marketing, sales, motivation etc.
These programs are relatively inexpensive, you can
listen to them over and over and they have a
different impact than reading. I suggest you
contact Nightingale Connant and get their most
recent catalog: 1-800-323-3938. 3.
Join and participate in your professional
organization or chamber of commerce. Go to
their monthly programs. Get to know your fellow
members. Share ideas and meet with members to form
more solid business alliances. You can't succeed in
business today if you're totally isolated.
4.
Attend workshops and seminars. Unlike books and
taped programs, a live seminar or workshop provides
a more powerful, immediate experience. You can get
your specific questions answered. You can network
with participants and talk to the presenter
directly. If you can get a copy of the program on
tape as well, so much the better. 5.
Create a Mastermind group. Napoleon Hill
championed this concept back in the 30's but it's
still as valid today. Get together with a small
group of your peers and focus exclusively on
helping each other achieve your goals. I suggest a
regular meeting - from once a week to once a month.
Make sure you both contribute to other members and
get contributed to. 6.
Join a "Leads" club. This form of networking is
ideal for small businesses. Only one business from
each category can attend meetings (which are
typically held weekly). Your purpose, unlike a
mastermind group, is to provide leads for each
other. This kind of group works best for
consumer-type services like Realtors, dentists,
insurance agents and chiropractors. 7.
Get coaching from a business coach or consultant.
This may be the most expensive form of support
but it can also be the most cost-effective in the
long run. A few meetings with someone knowledgeable
about business or marketing can help you get moving
in the right direction, often saving you thousands
and thousands of dollars, helping you increase your
personal effectiveness and reveal opportunities
that were once invisible to you. 8.
Take advantage of the services of Action Plan
Marketing. We can't help you with all of the
above but we have much to offer you. Browse this
web site and read all about our services, from our
inexpensive "Infoguru
Markeitng Manual"
to our in-depth "Marketing
Action Groups."
The
Erin Brockovich Effect If
you haven't seen the movie Erin Brockovich yet,
certainly you've heard of it: The true story of
a single down-and-out mom who dresses provocatively
and swears like a sailor, becomes a legal assistant
for a small law firm and almost single-handedly
wins the largest settlement ever paid in a
direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history. We
cheer for Erin, hiss at the opposing attorneys and
empathize with the victims. But if we take the
movie just on that level, we really miss a much
more profound message -- especially if we are
professionals trying to deal with and attract new
clients. In
my model of the "5 Ps of Professional Service
Business Marketing," the final P is about
Performance (the other Ps are Positioning,
Packaging, Promotion and Persuasion). Although
Performance is possibly the most powerful of the 5
Ps, either we don't pay much attention to it or we
take it for granted. Of course we
provide great service and go the extra mile for our
clients! Oh,
do we really? Watching Erin Brockovich in
action proves that most of us do a pretty miserable
job. Erin, in my opinion, is the consumate master
of the fifth P. Erin
Brockovich does much more than go the extra
mile. I'd like to highlight her actions
throughout the film so you can see exactly what I
mean. Erin
is curious. Even though the case she's been
handed is a pro-bono one, Erin is interested enough
to pursue a puzzling question: Why are the client's
medical records included in a supposed real estate
case? No one else in the law office seems to care.
Erin
asks the right questions. From the very first
interview with her client, Erin digs deep, trying
to understand what's really going on. And she
doesn't stop. She keeps asking the questions that
ultimately break the case wide open. Erin
is warm and friendly. In the film, dealing with
small-minded, dishonest or unfair people brings out
the worst in Erin. However, when she's dealing with
her clients, she treats them like close family.
People trust her because she likes and care about
them and treats them with respect. Erin
is passionate. This quality is communicated
more obviously than any other in the film. Of
course we expect our heroes to be passionate, to
care, to go out on a limb -- to get shot down and
get back up again. We forget that this is a rare
quality in real life. Erin
works hard. Very hard. Endless back and forth
trips to her clients' town take their toll on her
kids and her relationship. But she knows she's on a
mission and that what she's doing will make a
difference. Erin
works smart. Very smart. I think the most
moving scene in the film is when Erin is challenged
about the facts of the case. Not only does she have
a complete grasp of the facts, she has memorized
every single phone number of the 660 plaintiffs!
Erin
takes advantage of her best assets. Perhaps the
most discussed aspect of the film is how Erin
dresses. We're talking cleavage, bare midriffs and
short, very tight skirts. In his review, movie
critic Roger Ebert thought that this actually
ruined the film. I beg to differ. For one, Erin
really does dress as portrayed in the film. She
knows that one of the biggest things she has going
for her are her looks and she uses them to her
advantage when she must. Erin
gives her clients the bad news. No one wanted
to hear that the best course of action was to bring
the case to binding arbitration instead of to
trial. But she and her boss tell it to them
"straight" and are so up-front that all of them
agree with Erin and her boss's
recommendations. Erin
is approachable. The case finally gets the big
break it needs when a rather unsavory character
approaches Erin with some vital information. He
says, "I feel I could tell you anything." It's not
just a pick-up line. People do feel they can tell
Erin anything. Erin
shares the victory. In the final scene of the
movie, when she tells her first client in the case
about the final, successful outcome, she shares the
win with George who took care of her kids all the
time she was away or working late. She acknowledges
that she couldn't have done it without
him. Besides
being an inspiring and highly entertaining movie,
Erin Brockovich has a lot to teach us about the 5th
P of Performance. If most of us performed at half
her level, we'd experience success beyond our
wildest dreams. And we wouldn't need to worry so
much about the other 4Ps of marketing
either! If
you haven't seen Erin Brockovich yet, go! If you've
already seen it, go again! It's certainly more fun
and less expensive than most marketing
workshops!
The
customer is NOT always right Someone
had signed up for my Marketing Tele-Clinic in
February but then said they were not ready for it
and would join the one in May. I said fine, and
then sent her a reminder last week. A few days
letter I got an angry email that said she would not
be in the May Tele-Clinic, that she didn't want me
to sign her up for any other programs, that she
would contact me when she was ready and that she
was having the credit card company reverse the
charges and not to interfere with the
process. I
responded to her e-mail saying that this was OK
with me but that I had just done what she had asked
me to do--remind her of the upcoming class. I
said I would have appreciated if she had just let
me know she had decided not to attend in May and I
would have been happy to refund her money by check.
Immediate I got an e-mail note back saying just
this: What happened to "the customer is always
right?" What
happened is that the customer is NOT always
right! In fact many times the customer is dead
wrong. In most situations, of course, you want to
bend over backwards to make things right for a
client or customer. But when you do everything you
say you will do, you don't deserve abuse. Herb
Kelleher, president of Southwest Airlines says that
they invite some customers to take their business
elsewhere if they are are always complaining. Good
for him! And
if you're a consultant or professional service
provider, it would be suicide to always agree with
clients. After all, they hired you to help fix
things. If you can't strongly disagree with clients
when your professional judgment says you must,
ultimately you'll lose your credibility. A
recent client of mine was faced with a dilemma.
She was doing training for a wine company that
just didn't seem to get it. Despite having recently
built new meeting rooms with modern equipment, the
training sessions were held in their wine cellar,
and although their bakery attached to the winery
sold the finest pastries, they served the employees
packaged cookies! They emphasized how important
management training was, but none of the managers
showed up for the sessions and when asked to pin
down objectives for change they said they wanted a
major culture change which was not subject to
measurement. I encouraged my client to call them on
these issues. They
didn't want to hear what she had to say. They
wanted to be the customer who was always right. Not
surprisingly, the company was also three months
behind in their payments. I believe it was to her
good fortune when they decided not to renew her
contract. Too many trainers or consultants would
"stick in there" as their self-respect and careers
went down the tubes. My client had the courage to
pursue greener pastures. No,
the client is not always right. Perhaps a
version of the AA prayer is appropriate
here:
Authentic
Marketing This
month I got philosophical and decided to interview
myself about "Authentic Marketing." I've noticed
over the years that many professional service
business owners have real issues with marketing.
(They hate it, avoid it, are scared by it, etc.)
This "interview" addresses some of those
issues. Q.
What is authentic marketing? R.M.
You might think of this as marketing or promotion
of one's business that doesn't come from
self-centeredness but from a higher place, a
place of service and contribution. When you are
marketing your business authentically, those who
come in contact with your business are inspired to
work with you, they don't feel coerced or
manipulated. Q.
That somehow sounds antithetical to American
business. After all, we associate marketing
with being less than truthful. I think we've even
come to take most marketing messages, not just with
a grain of salt, but with downright suspicion. How
is it really possible to market
authentically? R.M.
Sadly, American business and the advertising
industry realizes most people want fairly
superficial things. They realize that people
act from their own self-interest and therefore prey
on motivators such as beauty, greed, status, and
instant fulfillment. But of course, most products
and services don't deliver on those promises. A
shampoo really isn't going to make you more
popular. A new car isn't going to make you any
happier. Q.
So you seem to be proving my point. Where does
authenticity fit into all of this? R.M.
First it comes with the realization that all
marketing isn't about promotion or advertising.
That's really just the tip of the iceberg of
marketing. Marketing is really about the complete
experience one has with a company's product or
service. So marketing isn't just a slogan or a
brochure or an advertisement. It's about how the
company answers its telephones and how they respond
to complaints and how they deal with their
customers. And, of course, it's about the actual
quality of their product or service. The
bottom line of authentic marketing is about truly
caring about your customers and clients. Q.
So what does this look like in the marketing of
professional services? You use your 5 P model
of Positioning, Packaging, Promotion, Persuasion
and Performance. Is that what it means to market
authentically? R.M.
Not really, that's just a model for different
stages in the service business marketing
process. The 5 Ps are a very useful tool but
you can still use those principles without much
caring at all, where the sole purpose is just to
make more money. That can be done, but authentic
marketing, at its core, is about caring. From that
point you can start to market from a whole
different place. Q.
So what happens after you start
caring? R.M.
You'll start to realize that caring doesn't happen
in a vacuum. That is, you can't just sit in
your office and really care about your clients and
do nothing! Caring requires action and marketing is
a very powerful vehicle for action. You can only
make a difference with the services you provide if
people understand what those services are and how
they work. And people will never be able to take
advantage of those services if they've never heard
of you. Q.
So once you've made the commitment to care about
your customers or clients, and I assume that
would include things like providing high quality
services, communicating honestly and responding
quickly, you still have to get the word
out. R.M.
Yes, exactly, and this is where people have such a
problem. They can understand good service, good
communication, reliability and all of that -- they
see that as being authentic -- but they have a hard
time "getting out there," as you say, getting
known, communicating about their services to a
wider audience, even explaining the value of their
services. This part of marketing often doesn't feel
authentic. Q.
Why is that? R.M.
It's what I call "car sales syndrome." What
I've observed in speaking to thousands of people in
workshops and seminars is that when it comes to
marketing and selling, most of us immediately have
the image of someone selling cars - usually used
cars! That's what selling is to us. You know what I
mean -- deception, not caring, talking without
listening, and outright manipulation. Since that
whole realm is so distasteful to us, we don't want
to have any part of it. After all, we ARE
professionals, aren't we? We don't want to stoop
that low, and of course, that's very
understandable. Q.
That sounds like quite a hurdle to get over.
People are happy to provide great service and
in fact do care about their clients but they don't
want to be tarred with the same brush as "car
sales." So they do very little in the area of
self-promotion. And if they do, they always feel a
little tainted by it. Is that correct? R.M.
Absolutely. If that's the mindset we're stuck in
we'll never reach the number of clients we could
or really make the contribution we're capable
of. In many cases it means we often end up with
less- than-ideal projects, doing things we'd prefer
not to do instead of the work we really have a
passion for. So in trying not to sell out to the
"false gods" of marketing and selling, we often end
up selling out anyway. I've seen this with hundreds
of clients. Their issue isn't always: "how can I
get new clients," but "how can I get the right kind
of clients and do the work I was meant to
do?" Q.
So how do you help them market themselves
authentically? R.M.
It's quite simple really but we make it too
complicated. First you commit to caring about
your work and your clients above all else and then
you commit to holding true to that attitude of
caring in every aspect of your marketing. You
realize that marketing and selling your services
have nothing to do with selling used cars. You
start to realize that authentic marketing is about
communication, education and helping solve
problems. For
instance, when you're working on the material for
your web site, you need to explain how you help
your clients and build a solid case for your
services. There's nothing wrong with building that
case from every legitimate angle possible -- case
studies, testimonials, details about how your
service works, etc. You don't have to resort to
hyperbole and hucksterism to do that successfully.
You have to be completely honest and demonstrate
your caring without saying things like "we're a
caring company," which no one believes
anyway. Q.
This doesn't sound easy to me. R.M.
It's simple, but not necessarily easy. It takes
a very high level of commitment and self-honesty.
It takes being vulnerable and open. It takes
working at continuous improvement. It takes really
digging into the actual value you provide and
finding the best way to present that information.
But that's what builds trust and
relationships. The
companies who get it, and I'm including both small
and large businesses, turn themselves inside out to
communicate to their customers with complete
integrity. Those kinds of companies build loyalty
that a competitor could never erode with a million
dollar ad budget. For instance, I get many
referrals from people who have never even worked
with me. That's because they feel they know me and
trust me through my marketing. Q.
Does it take much of a budget to market
authentically? R.M.
For a professional service business it can be done
with virtually no budget at all. Communicating
one-to-one with your clients and prospects (what I
call keep-in-touch marketing) can be done by e-mail
for virtually free just as I've been doing for over
3 years. It's really an authentic one-to-one
conversation with those you do business with. And
that can be done in many, many ways, from giving
talks to a thousand people to writing an article
for a web site to speaking to someone at a
networking event. Q.
Authentic marketing certainly feels right, but is
it really profitable? After all, if you don't
make money in your business, you're out of
business. All of this sounds somewhat
idealistic. R.M.
That's what I used to think as well, but it's
really just the opposite. Authentic marketing
is about the long-term. It's about building loyal
clients, not about making a one-time
sale. For
example, I have a client that provides supplies to
the construction industry. I talked to several of
her clients to get some testimonial quotes. It was
a wonderful experience speaking to them because
they were all so thrilled by my client's service
and responsiveness that they wouldn't go anywhere
else. Being authentic doesn't mean being a doormat.
Authentic marketers can be very hard-headed
business people. But they tend to attract the right
kind of clients so it becomes very profitable for
everyone. Q.
So what are the first steps in beginning to market
a professional service business
authentically? R.M.
Just decide to start. You'll see opportunities
opening up everywhere for authentic marketing.
Commitment to this is all-important. Without it,
you'll be stuck with your outmoded notions of
selling used cars and you'll never take a
step. Return
to Index
of Marketing Articles These
articles give just a taste of what you'll find in
the InfoGuru
Marketing Manual.
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