| We self-employed professionals spend a
great deal of our marketing effort on searching for the right words. We read books, take
classes, and hire consultants to help us write copy for our marketing materials. Writing
sales letters, drafting brochures, and composing websites consumes hours or days of
precious marketing time. But it appears that many professionals have mistaken all this
wordsmithing for productive action.
Don't get me wrong; the words we use to market ourselves
are important and deserve our attention. But crafting the message and delivering it are
not at all the same thing. Here are some situations I've encountered with clients that
illustrate this all-too-common marketing blunder.
"I spent $3000 on a brochure and I haven't gotten a
single client from it."
If all we had to do in order to succeed at marketing
ourselves was spend money, I suspect many more of us would have thriving businesses. But
when selling your own professional services, it rarely works that way. A brochure can be a
useful device for getting a prospect's attention or providing information about our
services. Its true function, though, is to open the door to more conversation, not to
close a sale.
Brochures don't get clients all by themselves. Before you
begin work on one, you should know exactly how you will use it. Will you send it by direct
mail? Distribute it through strategic partnerships? Give it to people who inquire about
your services? Include it in proposals you write? What are the specific action steps you
have in mind that require having a brochure? The best marketing tools in the world are
worthless without a plan for how to use them.
"I can't follow up on these leads because I don't
have a good sales letter."
The quest for the perfect sales letter seems to prevent far
too many of us from reaching out to prospective clients. It appears that many
professionals are convinced that there IS such a thing as the perfect sales letter -- you
know, the one that results in your phone ringing off the hook with eager clients as soon
as they receive it? Searching for this holy grail of marketing, they delay and delay until
all their leads grow stale.
Instead of focusing so much on the content of your sales
letters, put your emphasis on repeat contacts using multiple channels over time. Place a
call, then send a note, call again, then send an e-mail. You could make contact with a
prospect four times over a two-week span in less time than it takes you to write and
rewrite one "perfect" letter. A series of action steps like this will have much
more likelihood of resulting in a live conversation than almost any letter you could
write.
"I can't start marketing; my website isn't done
yet."
The idea of marketing one's business on the web didn't even
exist before the mid-90's. And somehow, we managed to market ourselves without it. Now it
seems that having a website up has become a prerequisite for getting clients. Actually,
the universe really hasn't changed that much.
For the vast majority of professional service providers,
their first few clients come as a result of pre-existing personal connections. These
clients are people they already know, or the friends and colleagues of people they know.
There's no need for a web presence to land clients like these.
In fact, you'll compose a much better website after you
have had the opportunity to have a few real sales conversations, so you'll know more about
what works when you speak to potential clients. If prospects need more information about
you, put it on paper or send an e-mail. Just because you CAN share information about your
business on the web doesn't mean you have to.
Brochures, sales letters, and websites are all excellent
and effective marketing tools. Writing powerful and informative marketing copy is a useful
skill to learn or hire out to a professional. Just don't let your marketing get put on
hold because you haven't yet found the perfect words to use. In marketing your services,
actions really do speak louder than words.
Copyright (c) 2006, C.J. Hayden |
