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More Clients
- the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert Middleton

In This Week's Issue: What would happen to your buisness if you were able to "crack the marketing code?"

 

Cracking the Marketing Code

Have you ever felt like marketing was a code that you hadn't yet cracked? And yet if you could crack this code you know marketing could really start working for you.

Well, there is a code and you can crack it.

To effectively market your professional services there are seven important things you must recognize, understand and practice. It will take some time and focus, but it won't cost you a fortune.

Over the next seven issues of More Clients I'll be giving you an overview of "The Seven Most Important Principles for Attracting More Clients and Growing Your Business."

The topics are as follows:

1. The Most Important Marketing Spirit

2. The Most Important Marketing Strategy

3. The Most Important Marketing Technique

4. The Most Important Marketing Activity

5. The Most Important Marketing Asset

6. The Most Important Marketing Leverage

7. The Most Important Marketing Investment

You may be familiar with some of these ideas, but as I divulge them to you over the next few weeks I want you to do a little more than read them over quickly.

Print them out. Think about them. And do the brief assignment I'll give at the end of every installment. If you do, I believe you'll be a lot closer to cracking the marketing code for your business.

Each installment of this series will be in the form of a dialog between an Independent Professional (IP) and a marketing coach (MC). Hopefully this will make the material a little more palatable and fun to read!

The Most Important Marketing Spirit

IP - I really don't enjoy doing marketing that much. I actually get overwhelmed by it. There seems to be so many things I could do and when I finally get around to doing them, I never really get the kind of results I'd hope for. Is there some kind of code or system to make marketing both more effective and easier?

MC - Yes, you might say there's a code you need to crack to make marketing work for you. There are seven important principles that you need to master, but the first one may be the most important of all. Without it, marketing your business or accomplishing anything else, for that matter, is very difficult.

I call it Marketing Spirit.

IP - Sound kind of woo-woo to me. Is this really practical?

MC - It's the most practical thing in the world. Tell me, what do you really enjoy doing the most in your business? What gets you excited? What is something you can do for hours and it never gets boring?

IP - That's easy; it's when I'm working with my clients. When I'm consulting, training or coaching. I love it because when I work with my clients I can see their understanding growing and their business and lives changing before my eyes. I can't get enough of it.

MC - Perfect! And what's the spirit you bring to that work?

IP - Well, I guess you might call it the spirit of discovery and contribution, of making a difference.

MC - That's all I'm talking about. You bring a certain spirit to your work. And when you do, it's as if time stands still and you feel happy and fulfilled.

IP - Exactly.

MC - Well, I've discovered that you need to bring a certain spirit to marketig yourself as well. If you don't, it becomes a chore, something you avoid doing.

IP - But that's understandable. Marketing is very different from the work I do with my clients. When I'm working with them I'm always winning. Things are moving ahead. I can see progress. So I bring that energy, or as you call it spirit, to what I do and then I get positive reinforcement that increases my energy.

With marketing, I try something, it doesn't work that well and then my poor results make me feel worse. So what kind of spirit could I possibly bring to marketing?

MC - First of all, tell me, did it always go well with your clients? Did you always feel that energy that kept you going?

IP - I guess not. It took some time to really learn my craft. I kept at it and I was working at a larger firm for the first several years of my career. So it wasn't all on me. I got support, input, ideas until things began to click and I mastered my profession.

MC - And were you taught how to market and sell yourself when you were with your firm?

IP - No, other people brought in clients. I just got the assignments. But after several years I felt I wanted a bigger challenge and went out on my own. I started my own practice a few years ago.

At first I didn't have to market much because I had a network I'd developed and business came to me by word-of-mouth. But despite the good work I've done for my clients, things have slowed down somewhat because many of the contacts in the companies that referred me have retired or moved on.

MC - So now you're left with a practice that needs more business and you've never really had to market yourself. You're trying to produce results in an area where you have very little experience. Is it any wonder that you're not very good at it?

IP - I guess not. So what I hear you saying is that with time, patience and practice I can get better at it and will then be able to bring some spirit to my marketing. Right?

MC - Almost right, but you really need to put the cart before the horse. You need to generate the spirit first. Then the whole process will be a lot easier.

IP - And that spirit is?

MC - You've got to approach marketing and learning about marketing in the "spirit of play." And play is about wonder, discovery, risk and being in the moment.

You need to let go of all your preconceived notions about what marketing is and set out to discover it newly. You're carrying around so much baggage about marketing that it's impossible for you to see it for what it actually is.

IP - And that is?

MC - Marketing is about sharing value. It's about helping people understand what you can do for them. It's about communicating elegantly about the difference that you make. And it's about finding and expressing your authentic self.

IP - That doesn't sound much like the marketing I know about which is about stretching the truth, boasting about what you can do, manipulating people into meeting with you and overcoming a boatload of objections.

MC - Well that may be marketing for some people, but wouldn't you prefer to learn an approach to marketing that was fun, interesting, engaging and actually added value to your potential clients before you even started working with them?

IP - Yeah, I'd take that any day!

MC - Great. So let me give you something to play with until we meet next week. I want you to think about and then write down the answer this question to yourself: "What do I have to give to my clients?"

IP - That's it?

MC - Yes, and I don't want a feeble answer like, "My ten years of expertise as a consultant, trainer and coach." I really want you to look at your true value from all sides. And I want an in-depth list that expresses that value. And I want you to approach this exercise in the spirit of play. Have fun with it.

IP - OK, I'll do it. I look forward to our meeting next week!

Dear subscriber, I invite you ask and answer this question as well. See you next week with the installment on "The Most Important Marketing Strategy."

For the next several weeks during this series of seven installments of "Cracking the Marketing Code," I will not have any "Marketing Flashes" at the end of the eZine.

 

Want to be a better consultant and coach?

Are you producing consistently extraordinary results with your clients? Are your clients implementing what you give them? What if you could work with your clients at a whole new level?

I am working with two associates who specialize in helping coaches and consultants produce results beyond the ordinary and you may want to learn more about them and what they can do for you and your practice.

Best Year Yet

If you're a consultant or coach who works with companies and teams and want to see results at a much higher level, I recommend you learn more about the Best Year Yet system. And make sure to listen to my interview with Jinny Ditzler, founder of Best Year Yet on "How to Support a Client to Be Successful."

http://www.actionplan.com/byy.html

Create Your Vision

If you're a coach that works with individuals and want to see deeper level change in your clients, I suggest you learn more about the coaching program offered by Ben Saltzman of Create Your Vision. Also listen to my interview with Ben on "Coaching to Deep Level Change."

http://www.actionplan.com/cdlc.html

 

Taking the Next Step on Your Marketing Journey

Ready to take the next step? Then you need a guidebook to show you the way. Since 2001, The InfoGuru Marketing Manual has been that guidebook for thousands of Independent professionals and professional firms all over the world.

If you want to...

- develop a powerful marketing message,

- create an attention-getting web site,

- develop a client-attracting email newsletter,

- build a network of referral sources,

- establish yourself on the speaking circuit,

- get more appointments with potential clients,

- turn more appointments into paying clients,

- make marketing less of a struggle and burden...

Then the InfoGuru Marketing Manual has what you're looking for - detailed, how-to action plans on growing your business. And we're so confident that you'll like it that it comes with a 100% money back guarantee. What can you lose? (except the worry about where your next clients will come from).

Learn more about it here:

http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html

Until next week, all the best,

Robert Middleton

ACTION PLAN MARKETING
Cracking the Marketing Code for Independent Professionals

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www.actionplan.com

210 Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790

Contact by email

© 2005 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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