More Clients - the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert MiddletonIn This Week's Issue: Want to attract more clients? Stop trying to get prospects to understand you!
Why Understanding and Marketing Don't Mix
If there's one thing people strive for in marketing, it's to be understood. Unfortunately, that's often a dead end. Understanding really won't get you that far.
What's something you're tying to get your prospects to understand? How about the concept of "communication" for instance?
There are a lot of consultants who help people communicate better. Everyone can understand that. Unfortunately it doesn't work too well.
And why is that?
Because everyone already thinks they're great communicators! Other people are lousy communicators, that's for sure, but not them, they communicate just fine.
Good marketing sidesteps understanding.
Instead, It stimulates response and action. It increases desire. It gets people to do something. It gets prospects interested in using your services. It turns prospects into paying clients.
But it seems we prefer understanding.
Last week a member of my current Marketing Action Group told me, "If I could just get people to really understand how it is I work and what it is I do, I think they'd become clients."
"Is that true?" I said. "Tell me, do you know how to walk?"
And after some conversation it became very clear she had no real idea *how to walk.* Yes, she could walk, but she didn't need to *know how* in order for the walking to happen.
Same with marketing. Your prospects don't need to know how you do what you do. Just like you don't need to know how a magician does his tricks. In fact, when a magician reveals the know-how to the tricks, the magic is devalued.
Prospects need to understand a lot less than you think. So please give it a rest! Stop the endless attempts to get them to understand. Understanding simply won't attract more clients to your business.
In fact, it will often drive them away.
"Oh, that's what you do! Oh, I know how that's done. No, we tried that before and it didn't work. We're looking for a different approach to help our business. Do you know somebody who does something different?"To make what we do understandable, we turn it into a process.
As soon as we start to sell a process (communication training, executive coaching, web design), we go down the wrong road. We turn our services into an *understandable commodity* that prospects compare with everyone else's service. But interest wanes and they don't buy.
All because we try to be understood.
"Well, Robert, if we shouldn't try to be understood by our prospects, what should we do? After all, we need to say something, don't we? We shouldn't be all mysterious about what we do should we??!!
Good question.
Here's how most people do it:
"I do communications training for companies. I help people in companies communicate more effectively so that they experience less conflict and become more productive."Perfectly understandable. But are you eager to hear more? No. Because you think you know how to communicate already, you're not interested in communications training.
How about this instead:
"I work with companies that have great people and products but aren't thrilled with their profitability. Over the past few years I've gained a reputation of increasing my clients' profitability by at least 25% in less than a year."Now, do you understand how I do that? No. Do you want to know more? Most definitely! Now don't blow it by getting them to understand.
Don't be understandable. Be provocative.
The goal of marketing is to provoke the following thoughts: "How do I get that too?" "Will this work for me?" "Is that really possible?" "Who else has done it?" "Can they prove it?" "Will they accept me as a client?" "How do I start?"
And none of this will happen if you focus on understanding first.
* The More Clients Bottom Line: Don't try to get prospects to understand you by telling them what you do and how you do it. Instead, provoke prospects by telling them the kind of results you consistently produce for your clients and get their imaginations to kick into gear.
Crack the Code at New York and London Workshops
How would your business be different if you cracked the marketing code? What if you could consistently...
- market your services provocatively (not understandably)?- get more eager, qualified prospects to meet with you?
- make all your marketing activities more fun & effective?
- promote yourself with integrity and authenticity?
What if you could learn all of this in one day? And what if it included a free follow-up support system for one month? You can, it does, and it comes with this no-kidding guarantee:
"Attend the 'Cracking the Marketing Code' Workshop and follow-up program. If you don't feel you've dramatically increased your ability to attract more clients, I'll refund 100% of your tuition."
That's the deal and here are the details:
The dates for New York are Sat, July 16 for the Workshop and Sun July 17 for the Intensive.
http://www.actionplan.com/wkp/nywkp.htmlThe dates for London are Sat, July 23 for the Workshop and Sun July 24 for the Intensive.
http://www.actionplan.com/wkp/uk05.html
Free Introductory TeleClass
Each month I hold a free introductory TeleClass for new subscribers to More Clients. This month, the TeleClass will also serve as an introduction to the "Cracking the Marketing Code" Workshops in July (above).
Day: Monday, June 6thTwo times: 10 am Pacific and 2 pm Pacific.
For your time zone and to reserve your space go to:
http://www.actionplan.com/mtg.html
Attend a marketing workshop in your home
I know everyone can't attend a workshop. The next best thing is the 12 CD set of my Marketing Mastery workshop from last year. It's one of the best workshops I've done and it was all recorded professionally. You can participate from the comfort of your home. You can order it with the InfoGuru Manual or by itself.
http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.htmlIf you already have the Infoguru Manual you can order just the CD program on the same page.
Until next week, all the best,
Robert Middleton
ACTION PLAN MARKETING
Cracking the Marketing Code for Independent Professionals~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
210 Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790© 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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