The Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action
Plan Marketing
and Robert Middleton
-
Combatting Skepticism -
Prospective
clients are skeptical about you, your services and
the results you say you produce. What can you do to
combat this skepticism?
People
are more skeptical than ever.
They
are skeptical about the government, business,
professional sports, medicine, entertainment,
media, religion and technology (to name just a few
institutions that impact our lives
daily).
In
the middle of all of that skepticism you attempt to
market your services - you try to tell the
world (or those in your market niche) how wonderful
you are and what a difference you can make.
The
truth is that most of your marketing falls on deaf
ears - even when it's good. But when you make
major marketing mistakes, the skepticism rises and
the results can be abysmal. What are the marketing
mistakes you're making that are increasing the
skepticism of your potential clients?
Here's
a handful:
It's
unclear what you do or offer
When
you tell someone what you do, you want one kind
of response. I call it a "That's for me
response." In other words, your listener gets it
right away and wants to know more. The best way
to a get a "That's for me response" is to speak
the language of results. You can do this
verbally or in writing, but in both cases you
need to telegraph your ultimate outcome or value
proposition. If you don't tell people what
they'll get from working with you, they'll
assume you don't have what they need.
Your
web site is poorly designed
I
read an interesting article recently that
reported the reaction time to a web site.
The reaction time is a whopping 1/10th of a
second! If the design is bad, if the balance is
off, if the colors are dull, that 1/10th of a
second impression is negative. And it's hard to
recover from that. The chances are good that
your web site is hurting you more than helping
you. The only remedy is a professional,
attractive design (not a homemade
job).
Your
web site doesn't build
credibility
Even
if your design is good and the immediate
impression is favorable, it can go downhill fast
from there. People browse the web looking
for immediate answers to their questions. They
want free information; they want to know what
you do and who you serve and how your services
work. In the first 30 seconds of visiting a web
site, most visitors give up because they are not
getting what they want. So they go away and
never come back.
You
are poor at follow-up
If
you've gotten past the hurdles of initial visual
impression and have given reasons to learn
more, your prospect might actually respond -
with a phone call or an email. And all you have
to do is follow-up in a timely manner. Sounds
simple, but it's not. I've struggled with this
as I'm sure you have; a huge amount of business
falls between the cracks just because we were
lax in our follow-up. Improving this area can
give you a big competitive advantage. Most
ignore it completely.
Your
sales process is incompetent
Now
you have a prospect on the phone. They've
read your site, they liked what they saw and you
were on top of the follow-up after they
responded. The sale should be easy from here,
right? Well, not necessarily. Most independent
professionals have no sales process whatsoever.
They take on the demeanor of an order taker, or
worse, a heavy persuader. Neither approach
works. You need to have questions prepared,
benefit points outlined, and an understanding of
exactly when to listen and when to ask for
action. When a prospect says, "I'll think about
it," they really mean, "You blew it."
Be
honest. Would you buy from YOU with the
marketing and sales approaches you're using now? Or
would your skepticism get triggered? When the
message is unclear, the design pedestrian, the
information sketchy, the follow-up lackadaisical
and the selling nonexistent, don't you think you,
as a prospect, just might back off and look
elsewhere?
Now,
this might sound depressing to you but there's
actually some very good news buried in here! If
you understand that every impression you make on
your prospective clients will either draw them
towards you or push them away, you have the
opportunity to make some changes that could
transform your marketing completely.
Use
this three-step action plan:
1.
Do a brutally honest assessment of the impact your
marketing is making on your prospective
clients. Look at the five elements I've
outlined above. But don't stop there. Examine every
single impression you make on a prospect and score
yourself from poor to excellent on each one.
2.
Get some resources that will help you. Really
learn what works and what doesn't and then start
making changes. These two resources from Action
Plan Marketing are a good start:
The
InfoGuru Marketing Manual
http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html
The
Web Site ToolKit
http://www.actionplan.com/wstk.html
3.
Pick one area at a time and make a commitment to
improve that impression. You might have a long
list, but you have to start somewhere. Before too
long you'll have dramatically improved the
marketing impressions you're making and your
skepticism quotient will go down. You'll be on the
way to marketing success.
*
The
More Clients Bottom
Line:
Too often we think of marketing as manipulative
tricks to get prospects to notice us and respond to
us. The truth is, marketing is a process of
presenting real value in an attractive, competent
and compelling manner. In other words: This is
something you can do!
What
things have you changed about your marketing
impression that have transformed your marketing
results? Please share them on the More Clients Blog
at:
http://www.actionplan.blogs.com
*
This
Week's Featured Product:
The
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Even
if your marketing is brilliant, there's a good
chance your pricing has something to be
desired. Are you charging (and receiving) what
you're worth?
Do
you make a huge impact on your clients but fail to
get rewarded in proportion to your
contribution? How would your business and life
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you delivered instead of the time you
spent?
In
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Share
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Until
next week, all the best,
Robert
Middleton
ACTION
PLAN MARKETING
Helping Independent Professionals Attract More
Clients
www.actionplan.com
210
Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790
Contact
by email
©
2006 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved. You
are free to use material from the More Clients
eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include
complete attribution, including live web site link.
Please also notify me where the material will
appear. The attribution should read:
"By
Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please
visit Robert's web site at http://www.actionplan.com
for additional marketing articles and resources on
marketing for professional service
businesses."
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