19 December 2010 5 Comments

How I Get Over 70% Of My Clients From My Website

Of all the things I teach about marketing and business development, the thing most people are interested in is “how do you get so many clients via your website?“

And it’s a good question to ask. The web is a fantastic equalizer – allowing small businesses like you and me to match and beat our big competitors.

We may not be able to match their marketing dollars. We may not be able to send legions of footsoldiers out networking. We can’t afford the fancy agency graphics and presentations. But if we know what we’re doing – we can use the web to make just as much an impact on our potential clients as they can. Sometimes even more so.

In my case, I get somewhere over 70% of my clients from my website (ie – that’s how they initially found me, and that’s what triggered them to contact me). And my site is ranked higher for traffic than some of the top 50 consulting firms globally.

It’s not because I’m some internet genius (far from it – I’ve made a ton of mistakes). But I have learnt a few simple lessons on what it takes to get clients via the web. And most importantly – I’ve put those lessons into practice.

Which, of course, begs the question – what are those lessons Ian?

Well, first up, I have a clear picture of who my potential clients are.

Most people have an idea of who their target clients are – but they haven’t really got under their skin. They don’t really understand them. They maybe did an exercise at a workshop for 20 minutes once, and that’s it. Or they “just know”.

But the truth is that unless you really put work into it, you don’t know. Not enough.

I spend literally hours thinking about my ideal target clients. Trying to get inside their head. To understand what their biggest needs and concerns are. What messages will resonate with them and what will turn them off. I try to infuse what I write on my site or the videos I do with that knowledge. I try to create useful resources to help them with what they’re really worried about.

My hope is that they’ll feel like I really understand them and am on their side (in fact my hope is not just that they’ll feel like that – but that I really do understand them and I really am on their side).

I don’t always get it right by any stretch of the imagination. But I do get it right often enough, and with enough people that I’ve been able to build a “following” of sorts.

I’ve also learned what people who need my services actually search for on the web.

I’ve learned that there are two primary sort of searches. People who have a problem or opportunity I can help with usually start out searching for useful information they can use to help them. Then eventually, they may come to search for people they can hire or services they can buy.

It would be nice if everyone came looking for help. But in reality, the vast majority of searches are for information. Where most consulting and coaching websites go wrong is that they try to sell to people. They talk about how brilliant the consultant is, what fantastic benefits the services will deliver, and how great everyone says they are.

That’s great stuff – and you need those pages for the much smaller number of people who come looking for someone to help. But if you want to be really successful on the web you need to have content to attract and engage with the far greater number of people who are in the earlier stage of looking for valuable information.

Catch them early with blog posts, articles, videos and other resources which establish you as an authority in your field and you’re positioning yourself to be the person they turn to when they decide they need help.

To do this you need to continually research what people are looking for on the web in your field – and to be able to distinguish between the searches that lead to winning business and those that don’t.

Of course, if you want to get those searchers to your site, you need to know how to get traffic.

There are lots of different ways to get traffic to your website – from paying for it through pay-per-click and banner advertising, to getting to the top of google’s search results, through to getting traffic from other related websites or social media.

All of these strategies take work. From on-site optimisation and link building to get traffic from google, to writing compelling pay-per-click ads and landing pages, to forming alliances for guest blogging and article syndication.

Your best bet is to master one or two strategies. I get most of my traffic from search engines – but also know how to boost it via social media and guest blogging. Getting traffic is the “grind” of succeeding online. It almost always requires a lot of work – though once you know what you’re doing, much of it can be outsourced quite cheaply.

But I’ve also learned that getting people to your website is not enough.

It’s great to get lots of visitors and to be at the top of the google search results for lots of keyword phrases. But since most visitors won’t be ready to buy when they first visit my site, I need some way of connecting with them so that I can keep in touch and initiate more direct communication.

If you want to succeed online you can’t rely on clients remembering to come back to your website.

Some people use social networks: Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter as a way of interacting more directly with potential clients.

Personally, I use good old email.

Potential clients who sign up for my free video training course get a weekly “Insider Strategies” email from me with useful articles and tips on how to get more clients. It ensures I stay top of mind without them having to remember to come back to my site.

I’ve found it’s vital to create the right impression with your website.

Your website needs to get across to potential clients who you are and what you’d be like to work with. I still see consultants websites these days with no About page, or just a generic description of the company. These days people want to know more about who they’ll be dealing with. We like to see behind the scenes and get suspicious of businesses who don’t “open their kimono” and share more information about who they are.

And these days, your website must look professional too. It doesn’t have to be too slick with all sorts of clever graphics and animation. My site here is fairly simple in design.

But it must look professional. Clients make judgements about your professionalism based on what they see of your site. If it’s ugly, difficult to use, and has errors on it (or even spelling mistakes) – they’ll assume you won’t be professional in your work with them.

Finally – and most importantly of all – I’ve learned you must take control of your website in your own hands.

That doesn’t mean you have to do it all yourself (although these days it’s pretty simple to do so).

But it does mean you have to understand it.

If you’re hiring people to develop your website for you and to optimize it to get traffic, you must be able to know if they’re doing a good job.

I’ve heard horror stories of consultants recently shelling out 5 figure sums for basic websites that have done nothing to help their bottom line.

You can’t let that happen to you. You must understand the basic principles of succeeding online to make sure that whoever you hire is doing the right things to help you get clients.

Filed Under: Get Clients Online
17 December 2010 5 Comments

Hustle, Hustle, Hustle

In my experience, the people who succeed at business development are not necessarily the ones who are the best at it. They’re the ones who are the busiest at it.

They’re not the people with the greatest skills. They’re the people with the most “hustle”.

I’d like you to do a little exercise for me, right now.

Really simple. Will only take 2 minutes.

First – write down what your top 3 sources of new clients are. It could be referrals, your website, networking, giving presentations – whatever.

Then for each of those methods – write down when you last did whatever it is. The last time you went networking, wrote an article for your website, asked for a referral.

If it’s not within the last few days then the chances are you’re not busy enough at business development.

In my experience, the people who get the most business from networking aren’t the people who are the best at it in the technical sense. They’re the people who do it the most.

The people who get the most clients from seminars? The people who run the most.

The people who get the most clients from referrals? The people who ask the most.

The people who get the most business from their website? Well, you see where I’m going.

So ask yourself seriously – how busy are you at business development? How much hustle are you putting into it.

I see far too many people “waiting” for something to drop. They put some feelers out, do a little networking, speak to a few people.

Then wait.

Don’t wait.

If you’re not busy with client work – do something.

I found myself falling into this trap myself recently. I read a few articles on the web about how to get clients online and kept thinking to myself “I could do better than that”.

But of course, what I should have asked myself (and thankfully eventually did) was “why haven’t I done better than that?”. Why don’t I get off my backside and get some better articles written, published and attracting traffic for me.

Instead of looking at others succeeding and thinking you COULD do better. Get out there and DO better.

Hustle, Hustle, Hustle.

——

Photo by Steve Edgeworth

Filed Under: Business Development Mindset Tagged With:
17 December 2010 1 Comment

Getting Your Marketing Done: Top Tips to Get Results

All the great marketing plans in the world mean nothing if you don’t get them implemented.

And I must admit, this is the area I’m personally the weakest at. I get my kicks from thinking: innovating or solving problems. It’s probably what makes me quite a good consultant.

But I’m not so good at actually implementing my ideas myself. I just don’t find that quite as exciting.

And my experience from working with hundreds of consultants, coaches and other professionals over the years is that I’m not alone.

It seems endemic that we prefer the intellectual to the practical or relationship sides of business.

So if, like me, you’re in that camp then the following implementatio tips that I’ve picked up over the years may help you. They’ve made me vastly more effective at getting things done and getting results than I used to be.

The first tip is simple, but not often followed: don’t attempt too much at once.

In previous posts I’ve talked about planning your major lead generation campaigns. For an individual my experience is that it’s difficult to manage more than 3 or 4 such initiatives in a year.

And it’s usually best to implement them sequentially rather than in parallel. When we multi-task we think we’re achieving more, but we rarely give enough focus to each individual task to do it excellently.

And if you think about it logically, given we all have limited time, if you do 4 things in parallel it’s going to take you 4 times as long to complete those tasks.

And since you usually don’t see any results until you’ve finished – it means you don’t get any results until right at the end.

But if you do each task at a time, you get the first one finished in a quarter the time and you start getting results straight away. Then you do the next and start getting results from that, etc.

Of course, it’s not quite as simple as that – but it’s not far off.

So focus on one important initiative at a time – hold back on your excitement and enthusiasm to work on them all at once.

Next, don’t try for perfection initially. Don’t spend ages trying to get your talk absolutely perfect, or your 2-minute introduction for networking, or your article or brochure. Once you’re 70 or 80% there, start using it.

That last 20-30% will take ages – and you’ll never get it right. The only way to get your marketing right is to test it in the real world and see how people react – then refine it.

I remember very clearly how I spend an absolute age perfecting the way I was going to introduce myself when I went networking.

At the first event I used the “audio logo” I thought I’d done a great job with the group I introduced myself to – just as I’d planned it. Then a new person joined the group and asked me what I did.

Slightly flustered I kind of stumbled over my introduction and got it much less than word perfect.

But the comment I got from another member of the group was very revealing: “Oh, that sounded much less scripted” he said. “And I think I actually know what you do now”.

So just get something good, not perfect. Then perfect it in the real world based on feedback. Remember – imperfect action beats perfect inaction every time.

Next create action habits. What I mean by this is get into a regular routine of doing things which drive action. It’s a bit like going to the gym first thing every morning so it becomes an ingrained habit.

In my case, I find that if I review my project plans every Sunday night and transfer the key upcoming activities either to my schedule (if they’re going to take more than about 30 mins) or to my To Do list – then it gets them prioritised and more likely to happen.

Then every morning I review my schedule and To Do list and plan the days activities.

Doing this doesn’t just help me get organised – it reminds me of all the important activities I have to do and puts a little hustle into my day.

I find that if I don’t do this I have a tendency to “goof off” in between tasks, not realising just how much I have on my plate.

Now this particular routine might not work for you. Find your own routine that gets you moving – and make it a habit.

Finally, make commitments. For things which I know I need to do but don’t particularly enjoy (networking for example) I’ll force myself into action by making a commitment to it.

This could be emailing people I know will be at a networking event to say I’ll see them there.

Or I’ll tell my wife I’m going to write an article and ask her to ask me about progress at the end of the day. These external commitments help to keep me on track.

Whatever you do…

…make sure you do something.

My experience is that the people who are the most successful at marketing and business development are simply the ones who do it the most.

Marketing is all about action. Yes, you must do some some solid thinking in advance of course. But without action there are no results.

Don’t be the person who sits back and watches others thinking “I could do better than that”. Go out and actually do better.

’til next time.

Ian

PS – to put a little oomph into your marketing and get practical support for doing it, rather than just learning it – check out the $5 trial of my Momentum Club by clicking here.

Filed Under: Marketing Professional Services Tagged With:
9 December 2010 2 Comments

How To Differentiate Yourself When You’re Selling

We talk a lot about differentiation in marketing. Differentiation is something that sets us apart. Unique attributes of our services that are valued by our clients but that can’t be easily reproduced by our competitors.

At it’s simplest level, it could be a service we can deliver that no one else can. Or perhaps we specialise in working with a particular sector so we have more experience and knowledge in that field.

Differentiation in marketing can make us the obvious “go to” person for a client who recognises they need our unique skills and capabilities.

We talk much less about differentiation in selling however. But it’s just as important.

If we’re face to face with a client trying to persuade them to choose us over a competitor then unless we’re different in some way, the client will end up choosing on price.

Differentiation at this level is hard. By the time a client is talking to us face to face they’ve already discarded the firms and individuals who aren’t specialised in their sector (if that’s important to them) or who don’t deliver the services they’re looking for.

At this stage, the short list almost always comprises firms who can perfectly well help them address their problems or opportunities (or at least claim they can). They might do it in a different way to us. But at the end of the day, it’s highly likely that they’ll claim they can achieve the same end results.

If a client says they want to reduce their indirect procurement costs by 20% – all the consultants pitching to them will say that’s what they’ll deliver.

If a client says they want a smooth divorce that doesn’t impact the kids, all the lawyers will say that’s what they’ll deliver.

If a client says they want their accounts done quickly and efficiently with minimum hassle – then pretty much every accountant they speak to will say that’s exactly what they’ll do.

And if everyone is saying they’ll do the same thing – then the only thing that sets them apart in the client’s mind is their price, right?

That’s not good. Certainly not if, like me, you price at a premium because you believe you deliver a premium service.

So when it comes down to the crunch. When you’re sitting 1-1 with a client and discussing what you’ll do for them, how on earth do you differentiate yourself?

Well, the first thing you need to accept is that simply identifying the client’s needs and then telling them you’ll address them isn’t enough. Everyone will do that.

Here are some ways you can differentiate yourself in these competitive selling situations:

The “Safe Pair of Hands” Strategy

You may all promise you’ll deliver what the client wants. But from the client’s perspective, there can be major differences in how confident they are that you’ll make good on that promise. If you’re able to prove through testimonials, references, or just how much you seem to understand their situation, then they’ll feel more confident that you’ll be able to deliver what they want. And so they’ll pick you rather than selecting on price.

The “Relationship” Strategy

People choose to work with people they like and trust. They won’t pick you if they don’t think you can do the job. But once you’ve proven that, then they’ll almost always choose someone they like and feel they can partner with over someone they don’t.

The “Change the Game” Strategy

When you’re interacting with a potential client and talking about their needs – if you can identify problems or opportunities that they haven’t thought of themselves – then you can mark yourself out as being different. The quality of your diagnosis immediately marks you out as being an expert – and (rather fortuitously) can prompt the client to question the abilities of your competitors who didn’t highlight these new ideas.

It can be a risky strategy if the client has fixed ideas about what they need and doesn’t want to be challenged. But it can be a particularly powerful way of pulling the rug from under entrenched incumbents who have better relationships than you and are seen as safer pairs of hands.

What’s Your Strategy?

These aren’t the only strategies you can use in sales situations – but they’re good ones. Ones which I’ve seen work time and time again.

Whenever you’re in a competitive selling situation you absolutely must have a differentiation strategy in place. Just diagnosing the client’s needs and saying you’ll meet them is not enough. That’s the baseline – everyone will do that.

Unless you want to end up competing on price you must have a compelling reason why they should choose you. It might be different for every client – but you need one for every client. And that means in every competitive sales situation you’ve got to put the time and effort into developing it.

So for those upcomings bids, pitches and sales meetings you’ve got: what’s your strategy?

———-

Image by Foto43

Filed Under: Selling Professional Services Tagged With: ,
28 November 2010 4 Comments

Two Simple Steps to the Greatest Marketing in History

Bold claim, I know. But I believe it.

Step 1: Listen to this. Listen carefully, it’s the lyrics I want you to get.

YouTube Preview Image

Don’t skip ahead. Don’t go any further until you’ve properly listened.

Step 2: Translate to your own business.

That’s it.

OK – I’m sure you’re ahead of me already, but let’s play with this and look at some of the lyrics.

And there he was, this young boy
A stranger to my eyes

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

I felt all flushed with fever
Embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters
And read each one out loud.

What would happen if when clients and prospects heard you present, or read your marketing materials or your blog – what would happen if they felt like that?

What would it mean if they felt you were strumming their pain and singing their life?

If they felt you’d found their letters and read each one out loud?

My guess is that you’d never have to worry about getting more clients.

My guess is that you’d be the person they’d most want to work with.

Because no matter how much we like to think clients are hiring our expertise, our intellect, our experience – what they want most of all is someone who deeply understands them.

So here’s the big question: how can you get there?

What can you do to “get inside your client’s heads” – no, scratch that, what can you do to “get inside your client’s hearts“?

Because if you can do that, and if you can communicate that, then the battle is almost won.

Ian

Filed Under: Marketing Professional Services Tagged With: ,
27 November 2010 Leave a Comment

Do you really need a USP?

If you’ve been the recipient of any marketing advice over the last decade or so you’ll no doubt have been told that you can’t possibly succeed without defining your “Unique Selling Proposition”.

The concept was pioneered by advertising legend Rosser Reeves in the 1940s. Reeves’ belief was that each advert should have a USP which:

  • Highlighted a specific and real benefit to the consumer of buying the product
  • Was one the competition could not or did not have
  • Was so strong it could “move the masses” to buy your product

There’s a lot to like about this concept. It can be a powerful and succinct way of communicating with your clients – but unfortunately, since Reeves’ day it’s been mangled and misapplied repeatedly.

Note the order in which Reeves describes his points – start with benefits, then uniqueness.

Unfortunately, the very phrase “Unique Selling Proposition” tends to lead people to start off thinking internally about what’s unique about them rather than thinking externally about the value or benefit they bring to clients.

If you start by focusing on what’s different about you, you frequently end up with a proposition that just doesn’t resonate with clients. There probably aren’t many lawyers who wear clown suits – but I wouldn’t recommend it as a USP.

For that reason I usually prefer the phrase Value Proposition to USP. It forces you to think first about the value you bring – and then second about how it’s different to what others do.

If you’ve immersed yourself in your clients’ world as I advise, then you should have a good idea of what your clients’ main problems and opportunities are.

What frustrates them, what excites them, what keeps them up at night?

That’ll help you to flesh out the value and the end results they’ll get from addressing those issues. And it’ll guide you in describing the value you deliver and what your proposition is.

Only then do you go on to think about how you’re different and better than your competitors.

And to be frank, if you’ve done a great job of identifying the real value you can deliver to your clients then that will be a huge differentiator in it’s own right.

A Practical Example

Most examples you’ll see of good Value Propositions or USPs are taken from the consumer goods world: Domino’s original “Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed” for example.

It’s much less common to see a professional services example – so here’s some food for thought.

Take a look at Mazuma Money.

Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just a low-cost accountancy service. What they’ve actually done is to really understand their core customer base: the (very) small business market who just want to get rid of the hassle of bookkeeping.

It’s not just low cost – it’s hassle free – and that’s very important.

Now for sure, they’re not the only accountancy firm that can do “low cost, hassle free”. Just as Domino’s wasn’t the only pizza delivery place that could deliver in 30 mins.

But the key is that they’ve focused their entire business around this value proposition.

They’ve geared their primary service around it (the Purpleforce package). They’ve aligned their branding and their messaging. Everything is infused with “low cost, hassle free”.

They’ve abandoned the traditional “prim and proper” accountancy branding to create an image that feels “easy to do business with”.

For anyone who’s in that position of not wanting to deal with the pain of accounts – but not wanting to pay someone a fortune to deal with it for them – their message really resonates.

They don’t talk about all the clever reports they’ll do for you to give you “strategic insight”. They don’t talk about saving you tax or about partnering with you.

They don’t pretend to be a “full service provider” with a huge list of services that aren’t of interest to their core customer base.

All that extraneous “nice to have” fluff that actually dilutes their message has been discarded. They just talk about simplifying your life by putting your receipts and invoices into an envelope and sending it to them.

Now sure, if you navigate around their wesbite you can find other services they offer. But they don’t push them – that would weaken their core message.

So here’s an exercise for you:

If you think about the needs of your absolute ideal clients – the things that are really important to them.

And if you stripped away all the rest – all the nice to have, the additional services, the extra things you list on your website that they might need…

What would you be left with?

And if you focused your marketing only on promoting those core areas of value to your ideal clients – do you think it would be stronger?

I’m betting it might well be.

Ian

PS Creating a powerful value proposition is one of the Core Marketing modules in my Momentum Club private members site. If you’d like to start getting better results from your marketing and business development then take a look at the $5 30 day trial – click here for details.

Filed Under: Marketing Professional Services Tagged With: , ,
25 November 2010 5 Comments

Don’t Vote For Me

I was honoured recently to find out I’d been nominated for the “Top Sales Blog of 2010″ award.

And I do mean honoured. The awards are run by Jonathan Farrington who I have the utmost respect for. In the field of sales, Jonathan is one of the elder statesmen. A gentleman and a hugely knowledgeable authority.

And the nominations were based on an entirely objective formula – looking at the popularity and google ranking of the blogs (I think I came in at #6 globally).

But here’s the thing: the final decision is made by internet voting.

*** UPDATE *** Jonathan’s just told me that the vote only counts for 50% of the result. The rest comes from a panel of judges

We do all know that anything decided by internet voting is bullshit, don’t we?

Who wins in an internet vote?

Either someone who’s popular, or someone who knows how to game the system.

It’s incredibly easy to fix internet voting. If you have lots of website visitors or social media followers – ask them to vote for you.

If you’re smart and you think the PR will help, hire some folks in a third world country to vote for you. Or do it yourself through an IP proxy, if you’ve got too much time on your hands.

Currently I’m at #2 in the voting for Sales Blog of 2010. Is it because I have the best or second best sales blog?

No. It’s because I’m popular. I have a lot of Twitter followers and I shamelessly asked them to vote for me here.

Anthony Iannorino is number one. I guess he did something similar. We’re miles ahead of anyone else.

So here what I’m going to ask you to do. I’m going to break with years of tradition and buck all the “rules”.

What I’d like you to do is go to the site with the list of all the blogs here.

And I’d like you to actually read them all.

Rather than voting for me ‘cos you like me, I’d like you to actually read the blogs. They’re all excellent. They’re all full of great ideas and tips which could really help you.

Rather than treating this as an opportunity to vote for someone you like (that would be me) – I’d like you to treat this as an opportunity to explore the best of the best. Learn something valuable. Then vote for the one you think is the best – not the person you’re the most friendly with.

Now, of course, here’s the $50,000 question: who would I vote for? And who do I reccomend you vote for?

Well, personally, I’d vote for Charlie Green’s blog.

You may know Charlie as the author of the Trusted Advisor and Trust Based Selling.

Here’s the thing: all the rest of us write great stuff. Really valuable hints and tips. Articles that can radically improve your results at selling.

But Charlie writes the only blog that can change your life. He writes about trust and what it means to us, our clients, our families, our life.

Out of all of us, it’s Charlie who’s really making a difference – not just helping people get a bit better.

Out of all of us, it’s Charlie who’s driving for that deeper understanding and meaning.

Out of all of us, he’s the one who’s going to change the world for the better.

Vote for Charlie.

*** UPDATE *** Hey, judges – you vote for Charlie too.

Filed Under: News
24 November 2010 4 Comments

Overcoming Procrastination

A slightly off-topic post, but one that should be highly relevant to most professionals: overcoming procrastination.

Since most professionals have a high degree of control over their activities and schedules, they very often fall victim to procrastination.

Last night I read an excellent article in the New Yorker reviewing a collection of essays on procrastination – and how to overcome it.

The good thing about the book is that it presents a variety of different viewpoints on procrastination (rather than one dogmatic view) and hence offers a range of potential solutions.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the major viewpoints and my experience and ideas on how to use each one to overcome your own procrastination.

Viewpoint: Procrastination happens when you’re overwhelmed. You have so much on your plate that doing any specific task doesn’t seem like it will help – so you put off the tasks and do something trivial instead.

Idea: Take a radical review of your tasks and cut out those that aren’t absolutely essential. get down to a psychologically manageable task list. And in future, only take on essential jobs.

Viewpoint: You procrastinate with something if subconsciously you don’t think it’s worthwhile.

Idea: Sometimes your subconscious is right. If there’s a particular task you’re avoiding, take a good look at whether it really is worth doing.

Viewpoint: You procrastinate when you don’t realise the full impact of doing so. In other words, if you realised how much damage you’re really doing by avoiding the task, you’d get on and do it.

Idea: Make sure that before adding tasks to your “to do” list you’ve properly assessed what you’re required to do and the impact of doing/not doing it. Often I find that I’ll write down actions but not really think them through and so I don’t realise what impact delaying them has. Make sure you break down big tasks into concrete steps – it’s much easier to procrastinate big, fuzzy things than specific actions. Probably also a good idea to remind yourself of the impacts on a regular basis too when reviewing your to-do list.

Viewpoint: Procrastination is a natural condition that’s almost impossible to overcoming using your own willpower.

idea: Use external rules and help to get you to stay on track. Create deadlines and commit to them publicly. Find an accountability partner who you can discuss progress with your goals with. Join a mastermind group who will support you (this has really worked for me – see my blog post on Mastermind Groups for details). Block yourself from distractions (head to a room with no TV, use Freedom to block the internet etc.)

My take is that there’s not one simple cause of procrastination – so there’s not one best way to beat it. But by looking at some of the different ideas above you should be able to find something that helps you.

Filed Under: Business Development Mindset Tagged With:
17 November 2010 2 Comments

Win £2,000 By Writing Plain English!

One of the biggest business development challenges for many professional firms and individuals is that their marketing communications just don’t connect with their clients and prospects.

Whether it’s letters, adverts, publications or their website – many struggle to write in ways that resonate with their target audience.

Sometimes the language is full of jargon. But more often it’s that the writing feels stiff and formal. Not at all the way their clients speak – or the way they would speak once they’ve got home from the office, taken their suit off and popped their slippers on.

Somehow we seem to have all been trained – lawyers, consultants, architects, accountants alike – to write weak, wishy-washy sentences. We write in third person. We don’t use contractions (see what I did there?). We use the passive voice. We use long, complex words when short simple ones will do.

And we write huge, long, multi-clause sentences. I’m terribly guilty of that one.

My friend Ali Turnbull of Fit to Print has spent many long hours detoxifying some of the things I’ve written and turning them into plain English. And they’ve come out much better and more compelling from a marketing perspective as a result.

Now you have a chance to improve your communications – and win £2,000 into the bargain. Well, you do if you’re a UK business.

I’m a featured blogger on the t-mobile business site. And right now they’re running a competition to promote straight talking.

All you have to do is tell them what’s great about your business in 140 characters or less. The entries will be judged by TV “Hotel Inspector” and renowned straight talker Alex Polizzi.

Just head over to the t-mobile site by clicking here to enter the competition (UK businesses only I’m afraid).

My advice to help you win: put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Think about what keeps them up at night and how you help with that. Then use the same sort of words they’d use to describe it. Would they really say “improve profitability and ROI” – or would they say “make more money” for example?

Filed Under: News
9 November 2010 10 Comments

Secrets of Selling Professional Services: Pencil Selling

One of the most powerful techniques I’ve come across for building relationships with clients while you’re selling to them is the concept of pencil selling.

It’s also one that I’ve almost never seen anything written about.

When most professionals meet with a potential client to discuss how they might be able to help they typically come armed with a brochure or a big pack of slides. We consultants are the worst with the latter – often seemingly trying to batter a client into submission with the sheer weight of our slides.

These presentation materials are a sort of comfort blanket. They provide certainty for us. We’ve had time in advance to think them through and perfect them. They look professional.

But they also stand in the way of building a relationship with your potential client. Of really engaging with them.

And sometimes we get even worse – we take a laptop in to the meeting and present slides from there – putting an actual physical barrier between ourselves and the client.

Now I’ve nothing against maybe leaving a brochure behind after you leave. And maybe the odd pertinent slide (if you’ve already discussed with the client something you’re then presenting ideas on).

But in an early sales meeting your key objective is to engage with the client. To get him or her to open up and share with you what their real challenges are. To delve into them and pull out the impact so they’re motivated to do something about it. To get them to commit to moving forward to the next step with you.

You won’t get there by presenting at them.

And that’s what having pre-prepared slides inevitably does – you present them. And presenting means you talk and they listen. The exact opposite of the dialogue you want.

Now you’ll know from my other blog posts on selling professional services that being able to ask smart questions is one of the absolute keys to engaging a potential client.

But at some point, as a professional, you need to start sharing your own ideas and tentative thoughts. You need to be opening up the client’s thinking.

This is where pencil selling comes in.

Simply put, pencil selling is where in the meeting you sketch out ideas and concepts which illuminate and enhance your discussion with the client.

And I mean that literally, not metaphorically. Getting out a pencil or pen and sketching out a concept on paper.

In practice, what it looks like is that you position a blank pad of paper between you and the client (you are sitting next to the client aren’t you – not opposite?).

Then depending on what you’re discussing, you sketch out a diagram which pulls together some of the concepts you’ve been talking about. And you use it to illustrate your thinking.

So if you’re talking about improving their product launch capabilities – maybe you sketch out a rocket and talk about how the product itself is the fuel in the rocket. But how you also need a guidance system – your segmentation and marketing so that the rocket hits its target. And then your performance measurement and management system is like the radar – spotting obstacles ahead and adjusting the flight.

Or the client is talking about building a stronger organisation – so you sketch out a greek temple with a series of pillars representing the major components (business functions, perhaps) supporting the roof (their goals). And of course, you sketch in the foundations and talk about what they need to be in an organisation (people, culture, technology, etc.).

Or maybe you sketch a simple 2 x 2 diagnostic and hand the pencil to the client – asking them to show where they are on the map.

The possibilities are endless. the key is that you use the diagram both to illustrate a point or concept – and as an engagement device to get the client interacting. You want them to make their additions to the diagram. To “get their fingerprints on it” and begin to take ownership.

How much more effective is that than showing some pre-prepared slides about who you are and what you do which they know anyway because they looked at your website?

Mind you – it sounds difficult.

How do you make up all these different diagrams and diagnostics on the fly?

Of course, the secret is that you don’t.

You have a repertoire of diagrams and diagnostics you can use repeatedly with minor tweaking.

Think back to recent client discussions. How many times have you been asked the same questions? How many times have you described the way you run projects, or what the three core components of a marketing plan are, or what makes organisations creative?

Most of us probably have half a dozen or so core concepts which we repeatedly use with clients in slightly modified form.

Rather than (or in addition to) turning those into bullets on powerpoint slides – spend some time figuring out how to draw them out as quick diagrams you can recreate with clients.

Then try it out next time you meet a client. You’ll see how much more effective it is at buildign a relationship and getting the client energised and interacting with you than presenting a bunch of slides is.

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Image by Marc Fonteijn

Filed Under: Selling Professional Services Tagged With: , , ,
1 November 2010 4 Comments

Why Are We So Afraid Of Selling?

Selling Professional Services is tricky.

Most professionals intensely dislike selling. In fact, I’d go as far to say that a great many fear it.

The thought of having to sell ourselves brings butterflies to our stomachs, makes our palms sweat, and triggers all sorts of negative thoughts:

“I didn’t do years of training to have to go out and sell”.

“I’m the expert here, people should be coming to me, I shouldn’t have to beg for work”.

“Selling is beneath me”.

In fact, some professionals can’t even bring themselves to call selling by it’s proper name. They call it business development or even marketing. When really they mean selling: engaging with potential clients and persuading them to hire you.

Why do we get such intense emotions when it comes to selling?

The most common response is that it’s “fear of rejection”.

But that’s far too simplistic a view. What on earth is “fear of rejection” really? We get rejected all the time. What are we really afraid of?

In my experience, there are multiple factors.

Sometimes we’re worried that we might damage client relationships by being “too pushy” and asking for sales.

Sometimes it’s because we have a very negative stereotypical image of salespeople. The sales people we’ve come across are the Ricky Roma, Willy Loman “used car salesman” types and we don’t want to be like them. (Apologies to all the professional used car salespeople out there who of course aren’t at all like the stereotype).

But the issue I see more often than not is that we’re worried what others might think of us. We’re worried that by “selling” we might come across as desperate. We have a self image of a highly successful professional we want everyone to buy in to.

Of course, we make all sorts of excuses and rationalisations. The time isn’t right to call. A direct mail sales letter is “unprofessional”. Clients’ don’t respond well to being asked for referrals.

We’re none of us immune to this. I did – and to some extent still do – this all the time. I have to catch myself when I start talking to myself like this and shake myself up.

Next time you find yourself thinking like this, take a step back and consider whether this is the reality – or whether the real issue is that you’re worried what the client or prospect might think of you.

And then think about how much preserving that image is worth to you. Is it worth limiting your career for? Is it worth risking the livelihood of your business – and your family for?

Sometimes we just have to get over ourselves and get on and do what’s needed.

Filed Under: Selling Professional Services Tagged With: , ,
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