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Marketing
Ball:
Why
marketing is a lot like baseball and how this can
help you attract more clients
By
Robert Middleton
Not
Attracting Enough Clients? Here's Why.
You're
not attracting enough clients to your business for
a very simple reason. You're not doing the
right things.
Not
only are you not doing the rights things, you
actually think you know the right things you ought
to be doing. You most likely think you should
be doing more networking, have a better web site,
and do more speaking engagements. You think you
need to "get out there more."
But
those are not the right things. After all,
you've tried all of those things to some degree,
haven't you? If they really worked, how come you're
not doing them consistently? If they worked they
would bring you all the new business you needed.
Right?
No,
doing the right things first means understanding
how the marketing and sales process actually
works and then following a proven system for
attracting new clients. Perhaps one of the best
ways to look at this is through the game of
baseball.
To
win at baseball you need to do a lot of things.
You need to throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the
ball and run. Pretty simple, right? But consider
this: I can take a bunch of people and put them on
a baseball field and have them throw and hit and
catch and run and you don't necessarily have a
baseball game going on. You just have a lot of
activity that leads nowhere. You get some exercise
but that's about it.
And
that's how most Independent Professionals approach
marketing! They get on the field of business
and do some networking and calling and mailing but
not a whole lot happens. They certainly aren't
playing the marketing game. Because if they were,
they would be attracting more clients than they
could handle. In baseball you'd never settle for
those kind of results. Why would you settle for it
in something that's responsible for your
livelihood?
Playing
"Marketing Ball"
Now
interestingly, baseball is not only a good analogy
to marketing your professional services, it's an
excellent model to use. If you want to win at
"marketing ball" you need few things:
1.
Knowledge of how the game is structured and what
the rules are.
2.
The skills to play the game.
3.
An organized plan to play and
win.
1.
The Structure and Rules of the Game
Click
here for a more detailed
model
The
object is to start from Home Base where you don't
have a client, go all around the bases and then get
back to home again where you have secured a new
client. The number one rule in baseball and
also in "Marketing Ball" is that you have to touch
each and every base before you get to home plate.
If you miss a base you're out of the game. Here are
the steps:
Home
Plate Objective -
You have identified your Core Marketing Message and
what game you're going to play.
You
can't play marketing Ball until you are crystal
clear about what you are selling and who you are
selling to. This sets the foundation for
everything else that follows. Who are your ideal
clients? What problems or issues are they facing?
What results are they looking for? And what is it
about your service or approach that is going to
interest them and make them remember
you?
Once
you're up at home plate you then need to pick your
game. To go around the bases you can use
several vehicles. You can use networking, speaking,
publishing, direct outreach or a number of others.
Which game you play determines the moves you will
make on the playing field. And the great thing
about marketing ball is that you can play many
games at once. The more you play, the more clients
you can attract.
First
Base Objective
- The prospect knows you exist. You have their
attention and interest and they want to know more.
To
get from Home Plate to First Base you need to get
the attention
of your prospective client. You do this through
effectively communicating an attention-getting
message. This generates interest so they want to
know more. It all comes down to what you say when
people ask you what you do or what headline is on
the letter or brochure you send or what title you
use for the talk you give. Words matter
here.
The
key to generating interest is focusing on results,
not process, benefits, not features, stories,
not concepts. Tell people what they'll get, not
what you'll do. One of the things you're doing
wrong is talking about YOU. You need to start
talking more about THEM.
Second
Base Objective
- The prospect sees you as a possible help and has
identified both a need and a want that you just
might be able to fulfill. At this point they are
ready to explore working together.
To
get from First Base to Second Base you need to give
them more information,
in the form of an article or report or other
valuable ideas that educate them about your
thinking, capabilities and results. You want to
build a case for your solution. Many miss this step
altogether. The purpose of this information is to
warm up your prospect so that they will be willing
to meet with you and discuss their needs.
Realize
that it sometimes take a LOT of information to move
from first base to second base. That's why
marketing isn't about one-shot deals but about
building long-term visibility and value.
Keep-in-touch marketing strategies such as
newsletters, eZines and invitations to
presentations will keep the information flowing.
Sooner or later you'll get to second
base.
Third
Base Objective
- You have agreed in principle that working
together is the right thing to do. The conceptual
sales has been made. Now you're ready to finalize
the deal.
Getting
from Second Base to Third Base is the whole
"selling
conversation."
This is where you talk to the prospect and
determine needs. You explain more about what you
do. You present ideas and solutions. You work at
coming to a conceptual agreement about how you can
help your prospect.
Ideally,
marketers are never trying to convince prospects to
do business with them. Instead they are in
effect saying to the prospect, "You already
understand the value of my services, now lets
discuss if these services are right for you or
not." Smart marketers are able to do this because
they've built up trust through the information
they've provided. Nobody wants to discuss business
with a complete stranger with a great idea. This is
why so many get tagged out early in the
game.
Home
Plate Objective [$core]
- You have a win-win contract or agreement and are
ready to move to implementation.
Getting
from Third Base to Home Plate involves negotiation
and wrapping up the deal. You're not complete
until you've put together a proposal and gotten
agreement from your prospect that you will proceed
with the work.
The
key here is to structure a win-win agreement
that will ensure that the expectations of the
client are met while getting them to take
responsibility for the success of the project. How
to do this will be covered in chapter
eleven.
And
of course, the more times you get around to home
plate successfully, the more success you have in
your business.
Dugout
Objective -
You have performed in such a way for the client
that they refer a continuous stream of new clients
to you.
After
you round the bases to home you go back to the
dugout. In our analogy, the dugout is where you
take care of your client. Performing for the client
means all the big things like doing a great job and
adhering to the highest standards of excellence and
integrity. It also means paying attention to the
little things like returning calls, staying in
communication and handling problems
immediately.
The
work you do in the dugout is often the most
important marketing step of all. If you don't
meet or exceed client expectations your business
will never gain the momentum that comes from
word-of-mouth referrals.
This
model can be used whether you're marketing your
consulting or speaking services to a multinational
corporation or marketing your coaching services
to a one-person business owner. The point is to
know which base you're on and to do the activities
appropriate to that stage in the marketing and
sales process.
Where
You Can Go Wrong
A
lot of people tend to skip bases. For instance,
you want to go directly from home to second base.
You leave out the information base. This is what a
lot of cold callers try to do, or those who meet
someone in a networking session. They want to get
right to the appointment and to the selling
conversation.
Usually
a big mistake. You may have their attention,
but you don't yet have their trust. By providing
more information you warm up the prospect. You
prove that you're credible and successful. If you
try to hurry and get to second base too quickly
you'll get put out of the game before you know
what's hit you.
Once
at first base people then try to get to third base
too soon. This is skipping the sales process
altogether and jumping to the proposal or the
close. It's all happened to us. Before we have time
to really warm up to what is being offered, the
close comes on strong and we get turned off. Again,
you need to be patient, listen to your prospect's
needs, give them more information and move
naturally to the proposal or close.
Finally,
many try to get to home base from second base.
This means they skip the proposal or close. The
purpose of this stage is to confirm understanding,
work out the fine details and handle any final
objections. And you need to go at a pace that works
for the prospect. Sometimes the marketing and sales
cycle is longer than we like, but if you try to
push it too fast, you'll be tagged out once
again.
Of
course, once you get to home base, you've arrived
at a solid agreement to work with your client.
Now the work begins of performing well for that
client.
You
need to be patient to make this process work.
Don't skip ahead or you'll end up out of the
running when you're playing on the real field of
marketing and selling your services.
2.
The Skills to Play the Game
Now
you know the basic structure of the game. Like
baseball, you can learn it in a few minutes but it
can take a lifetime to master. Essentially what you
need is the know-how to get from one base to the
next as efficiently and as effectively as possible.
There's
a fair amount of things to know and there are a lot
of pitfalls and mistakes you can make along the
way. For instance, did you know:
That
speaking about your services in terms of a
problem is more powerful than speaking in terms
of a solution...
That
long copy in marketing materials works a lot
better than short bullet-pointed
copy...
People
may still be interested in your services even if
they don't return your phone calls...
When
talking on the phone with a prospective client
you should spend more time trying to "reject"
them than convincing them...
The
very last thing you should do is develop a
proposal - but when you do it should hardly tell
anything about what you actually
do...
You
need to know how to talk about your services, write
about your services, turn interest into
appointments and appointments into contracts.
Every one of these skills consists of dozens of
tiny details and, as you know, the devil is in the
details. Get something wrong and you're
out.
But
if you really know how to play the game you can
have several games going at once. If you don't
have the skills to play, you'll just be running and
throwing and hitting with few results to show and
lot of energy expended. You'll get frustrated and
you'll probably quit, going back to relying on
referrals from satisfied clients. And as you know,
this is rarely enough for a viable, thriving
business.
So
how do you get the marketing know-how?
Information and practice (with a dose of trial and
error.) The information is readily available. The
implementation and practice are up to you. Nobody
is going to do it for you. There are no designated
hitters in the game of marketing your Independent
Professional business.
However
you can shorten the trial and error
considerably if you have detailed, how-to,
hands-on information that comes from experience.
You can avoid costly mistakes and take the right
steps the first time.
3.
An Organized Plan
Like
baseball or any other game, you need to have a plan
to win. Winning doesn't come by accident.
•
First you need to get reliable, solid and proven
information that shows you how to play the game.
•
Next you need to develop a strategy to gain
those marketing skills. You might do this
yourself or get a coach.
•
Finally, you need to plot out your various
marketing activities and start implementing them
one by one.
Sounds
simple, and it really is, but it will take a
certain amount of time, effort and commitment on
your part. It may be daunting, but if you don't
take action, you'll be in exactly the same place
you are now a year from now. You need to start
somewhere, but where?
Listen
to a 20 minute interview on this
topic
What
should you do first?
Hi,
I'm Robert Middleton. I started Action Plan
Marketing in 1984 and since then have helped
hundreds of Independent Professionals such as
consultants, speakers, coaches writers, designers,
financial planners, employment professionals and
several other categories of professional service
businesses attract more clients.
I've
been providing marketing assistance in the form of
manuals and workbooks, cassette tape sets,
workshops, TeleClasses and one-on-one marketing
coaching and consulting.
Here's
all the products and services I offer to help you
attract more clients. Click on the links for
complete details on each one.
InfoGuru
Marketing Manual
For good, reliable marketing information for
Independent Professionals you can read a dozen
or so books and spend a few hundred dollars. Many
of these books are listed in my online
bookstore.
Or you can get the very best information on
attracting new clients distilled into one
comprehensive volume: The InfoGuru Marketing
Manual.
Click
here for information on the manual.
Web
Site ToolKit
This is a comprehensive program that gives you
everything you need to build a high quality
professional service business web site.
Includes
audio tutorial, online manual, links to web page
samples and web and online services and
resources.
Click
here for information on the Web Site
ToolKit
Marketing
Action Groups
Several of my Action Plan Markeitng coaches offer
groups programs held by teleconference that
give you the support to keep on track and implement
those strategies.
Click
here for information on Marketing Action
Groups
Free
Marketing Plan start-Up
Kit
Get a free Start-Up Kit on developing a
marketing plan for your professional service
business. Also subscribe to More Clients - our
weekly eZine on attracting more clients.
Click
here to get the free workbook
I
wish you all the best in your marketing!
Robert
Middleton
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