Choosing your markets

Often your markets choose you, you don't get to choose them.

I am presently working diligently on three market sectors that I am hoping to dominate within the next few years.

The reason? They appeared to be under-served, and for a variety of reasons:

1. They are in inhospitable locations. The types of places that suffer 25% + turnover rates of people. 
2. They aren't the "big spenders" of the market. So everybody else seems to be going for other, larger targets. 
3. And lastly, they are recovering from the in-housing "We can do it all" sort of foolishness that occasionally grips companies.

Some things I have learned over the past few years, but sharpened as I became a very small organization. (Just me right now)

1. Don't go after the top of the town. (Ever) You need to know them, touch base with them, establish relationships with people in them, but do not get too hung up trying to chase work there.

There is a lot of work available in these companies, and there are a lot of competitors vying for it with lots of sharp elbows. Sure, you can pull off an upset. And an upset with a large organization can be a company making move. But in general, it is frustrating and something to put down as a long term goal. 

2. Cold Calling still works. I wrote on this previously and have written on it several times since. But cold calls work, and they work best when you can follow up with an in person meeting. 

Before you start whining that this is hard and expensive - my clients often live around 5,000 miles away. The goal is to try to work it into the day to day work that you are carrying out when possible. 

3. It may not be where you think. I started out wanting to deliver services to the oil and gas sectors as my work history would lend itself to. My best options, through almost totally random events, appeared in very obscure sectors of the mining industry. (Uranium, Manganese and Mineral Sands)

4. Display ads work. NO matter what people tell you, or what Seth has to say on the matter, the raw facts are that display ads do work. Even if it is only to get your name known as a household (and therefore trusted) name in the game. 

I have some display ads out now, and I am going to run a  few internet display ads in the very near future. I will link to them here so you can see what I am up to directly.

I hope this helps, I will be writing the tips I learn and my adventures into this blog on a regular basis. 

Doing one thing exceptionally well...

Being a generalist is good to give you somewhere to hide when specific sectors collapse. But it doesn't inspire awestruck devotion the way being able to play the guitar like this does. (you HAVE to check out that link to YouTube, it will change your view of what the guitar can do)



Tommy Emannuel is a guitar legend. The guy that even the guitar gods of this world speak highly of. Why? because he is a nerd. He lives in his guitar and has played so much his hands look deformed. But god is he good...

I play. Not well, but I can play. I picked it up in high school and just decided that nothing else was going to happen in my life until I taught myself how to play. (Same as how I learned Spanish)

But heres the thing.. I can play that song!! I picked up the beginnings of it from an impromptu lesson he gave on stage here.

Okay... so it doesn't sound quite like Tommy does it... but it still sounds damn good.

Good enough to stop the music at any party I play at, or turn heads in most rooms. I try to stop after it because Stairway to heaven just isn't a great follow up.

This is the benefit of being able to do one thing really, really well. it gets noticed. people sit up and realise that this is how it should be done. 

Whether you are delivering a course, serving wine, playing guitar (another Tommy link) or re-writing code. If you are good at it, really good, stop-still-and-watch-good, people get it. They appreciate it, and they tell others about it.

What is it that you do really, really well? Or what could it be...?

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Retiring on Trust

I was poking around the internet on consultants sites recently, as I often do, and I came across Alan Weiss' site Summit Consulting.

Alan appears to have a brilliant retirement plan set up there. (Yes, I doubt he'll retire also)

He is licensing the IP he has built up over the years to consultants around the world in perpetuity. And doing so for a hefty fee also. (At first blush)

Here we see Alan giving us all a lesson in how multiple relationships built on trust can give you a lever large enough to move the world.

Even when Alan stops circling the world his books and articles will continue to be referred from one consultant to another for many years to come. His brand is one that does what it says on the tin, with a track record of consultant millionaires who have passed through his mentoring programs,

The market trusts his brand, they believe that it is of value, and it is now available only through the people Alan allows in the program. Trust, value and scarcity - great case study.

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The secret to managing objections in the sales process

...is not to do it.

Managing objections means that you are trying to force something through where it shouldn't go. That's okay for selling hairbrushes and maybe even door to door vacuum cleaners. But it is foolish for selling consulting services.

Sales is not a battle, it is a process. Your clients are aware you want to sell them services. And if you manage the relationship correctly they are working with you to find the problem, approach and benefits of working together from the outset.

If after a few meetings there isn't an immediate need for what you do then move on. Never break contact but accept that this sale isn't going to happen soon and focus on other opportunities.

Opportunities where there are only issues and problems, not objections.

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The real secret to sales success

You never get if you don't ask!

Closing techniques went out with selling hairbrushes and insurance door to door. Nobody falls for "your pen or mine" anymore, and they are increasingly cynical because of it.

For consultants the sales process is exactly that, a process. We live and die by the value of our last engagement. Our calling card is our track record and the brand we have created from it.

If it doesn't fit, then don't try to make it fit. You will just burn yourself out, burn out their patience and trust, and ensure a low likelihood of repeat work.

During your discussions with the person who pulls the trigger, at some stage you will have identified the opportunity where you could help, established your value in the mind of the client, and bought her to a place where she is comfortable in spending whatever is required to achieve that value.

Then you ask for the order.

"How can we bring this to a close?"

"What else is needed for us to proceed here?"

"What are the next steps here?"

At all times your intentions are clear. There is no hidden agenda. You are there to do business, this is not a charity after all.

You could get into the whole fencing thing with objections and countering statements. But that is more like forcing a sale than making a sale. In the end, your best results, and most likely chance at consulting repeat work, is to develop a process that allows for a win win situation.

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Could you take out Dominos Pizza?

in entrepreneurial circles the Pizza industry is often used as an example of one that is totally commoditized. People generally don't care where they get their pizza from.

In fact, Pizza is a $30+ billion / year industry. There are approximately 69,000 pizzerias in the United States. Approximately 3 billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year.

They taste about the same, the take about the same time to get delivered, and they even cost about the same.

But what if you took the model to pieces and reconstructed it.

What if instead of the standard 15 different pizza types, including the "build your own" type, you just majored with the 4 most popular pizza toppings? (Pepperoni, Ground Beef, Ham and Bacon)

And instead of all the different sizes and all the different bases, why not just one size. family Pizza only. Period! And make them opt out, not opt in. Make things like extra cheese and onions automatically included - at no extra charge.

Do away with the standard Pizza storefront. Just focus on deliveries. No retail staff. Only the call center, the cooks, and the delivery staff.

Get a selection of cartoons for the inside of the cartons. And change then every week. Sort of an inside joke for those who buy from your Pizza store.

But the real kicker, the real separation point is the business model. Instead of purely delivery, and extra helpings on already large pizzas, take it a step further.

Add a subscription service. Not cheap, lets say $80 per month. And for this $80 / month you get 2 free pizzas a week, with the lare drink bottle also. Not only that, but every three months put on a draw.

Give $10,000 away to three subscribers who have been with you for a minimum of 3 months.

I don't know about you, but I want to be a part of that community...!

A community that is primed to tell others about their unusual and enjoyable experiences buying pizza!

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What has value today??

Produce and the land that produced them used to be very valuable. Back then land was scarce, and so was farmers who could produce what was needed by the population.

Science and the free market turned agriculture on its head. It is no longer scarce, in fact it is abindant. Sure there are quibbles about quality and so on, but farm produce today is essentially a commodity item. 

Then it was the turn of products, and factories became the wealth creators that would drive forward several generations. Free market strikes again and suddenly there are billions of people in low wage economies who can be exploited for a tenth of the cost of those who originated the technology.

No longer scarce, no longer valued, no longer market controlling..

As we entered the information age we saw that information would be the new currency, the new engine of wealth generation. But alas, all too quickly the internet has put an end to that. I can find out pretty much anything I need to know, on a regular basis, with a few taps of a keyboard. And I can do it almost anywhere on the face of the plant...

A lot has been written about the idea economy. "Ideas that spread" etcetera...While this is true, there is nowhere near the level of IP control that used to exist when markets were closed. Drugs, software, music, films... all of these can be knocked off within days of appearing if not sooner. 

So it's not IP either... what then is valued in todays economies?

For me, with all of the hyper connected people in the world, it is personal relationships. Sincere people who are able to build and hold relationships built on trust.

This is what is valued, what sells books, supports a brand or destroys a nation. 

Ideas that spread do win it is true.... but if you have many relationships built on trust, you have a lever big enough to move the world. 

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Website design for marketing

The web used to be about placeholders and billboards. Today it is about engagement, conversations and entertainment.

If your website is still just an online display ad then you have very little chance of using it for effectively marketing your products and services, and no chance of using it to create a tribe of loyal supporters.

The ultimate goal of your site is to engage with the growing number of people who may trip across your site looking for related services or information. The architecture of your site needs to be such that it creates several opportunities for you to start an ongoing and personal discussion with them about their problems, and your answers to those problems.

I work in engineering and equipment maintenance. Not sexy, not exciting to most people (except me) and not a very web going clientèle. Yet I have had two recent requests through the internet, one of which is likely to result on cash revenue increases.

So there are all sorts of people out there looking, even if not many, for consulting professionals.

Website Design

Who is your web page talking to?

Who are the readers of your site? What are their drivers and interests? And why might they be looking for you anyway? Let me take my own profession as an example.

A website on my area needs to talk to many levels of the organization. From the executives, through to the senior management, through to technicians and journeymen.

The site needs to carry messages and links that apply to all of them. What are their drivers and interests? Why would they want to continue a conversation with me?

In the case of the senior executives they are often well aware that their career prospects depend greatly on them being able to do an outstanding job where they are today. Journeymen or supervisors, on the other hand, may be more interested in acquiring skills that will make them more recession proof, and increase their chances of getting up the ladder.

A middle manager may be interested in how she can quickly resolve issues related to (say) oil and lubrication issues.

Whatever... the point is... make sure your web page appeals to all of them through links, language and downloadable documents.

Engaging in Discussion

It is easy to follow the crowd and just think that everyone needs a blog. In some cases this is true, and I am going to be writing some more about blogs for B2B marketing shortly.

But a website can have several blog type elements to it. And their feeds, headline style, should appear on the front page.

For example, I am working on creating a blog called "What's working in maintenance". The idea being that it is an ongoing narration of discoveries, case studies, news on new techniques and practices, testimonials and practical assistance.

The idea of this blog, as with any B2B blog, is not to deliver a message or a strap line - but to deliver value.

Get it? No..."For more information contact". No, "We are doing a fantastic job, every time!", and no "Just call us and we will be happy to help you achieve..."

Forget it. People are far too cynical and they either get blog blindness, glossing over the obvious spin lines...or they just surf away to another part of the web. (It's big by the way, and you are only one point on it)

Instead post things that they can use. It doesn't have to be a full blown article, and it doesn't have to be every day. But it does have to be...

Second: You need a news feed. And you need news. Your PR strategy, combined with your news release strategy are key to this. Campaigns of two to three news releases every week should occur frequently.

Colorful emotion evoking titles about things that are coming up, events, case studies, recent wins - whatever. All of these need to be worded in such a way so as to appeal to your audience(s) - not to appeal to the news media.

After all... they also search th news, and sometimes bloggers pick them up, and so on and so forth. It is all a part of creating a dominant presence online.

Things like "Condition monitoring reduces costs by 20% - according to industry research", "Company X forms best practice group within the underground mining industry - exposes large possibility for revenue growth". And so on...

This stuff is about telling everyone what a great job you are doing. And combine it, with your "other" news stuff. The things that you have created through your "Be the news not the ads" campaigns.

Permission to talk please

You must have a newsletter, this is glossed over as an outdated form of internet marketing but the results speak for themselves.

But in order for you to get people to reliably give up their email you need to exchange them something of equal or greater value, and preferably with the promise of more to come.

"4 tips for shaving percentage points off downtime" for subscribers to our bi-weekly Uptime Tips newsletter

There are lots of things you can do with email newsletters. Set up autoresponders for example. A series of four or five emails. I have a 6 part series on this site that has been immensely popular.

A quick tip - take bi-weekly as a minimum. Weekly will kill you if you aren't spending a lot of time at this.

And by continually giving something in exchange for the right to speak to them, you get to turn them from readers into friends - and hopefully from friends into repeat business clients.

Content - not products

Whether you decide to follow these tips, or other similar concepts of your own - there is one thing for certain. If your website is a part of your marketing campaigns, and it should be, then your strategy is one of content and value - not one of products and placement.

Those days are gone, and they may never have existed. Todays web surfing buyer needs to be engaged, entertained and find you to be the holder of scarce and valuable information.

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10 online tools for the eMarketers starter kit

A lot of stuff on the web is all about B2C marketing. In fact, my whole take on Facebook is that it is a B2C arena. (I could be wrong about that, often am, but I have yet to hear of a B2B success story on Facebook.)

For me, eMarketing is probably 30% of my time, and very little cash. I seldom advertise on Adwords unless I have a really good blog post to get out there. And I have never purchased any sort of banner ad, newsletter ad or anything of the sort.

Yet I have three blogs with high levels of traffic to each. One of them has been very successful in promoting a book I wrote in a separate area, and two of these blogs are in the B2B space.

So these are the 10 must have tools for every B2B eMarketer as I see it.

1. Blogger. I do not care what the technology elites say about WordPress, TypePad or Drupal. I have been using Blogger for years and as Google gets its fingers deeper and depper into the workings of this program - it is improving out of site.

The easiest, quickest, horizontally integrated and widely used platform for bloggers on the net. I wouldn't bother trying to work out how to use anything else.

2. LinkedIn. Undoubtedly the leading platform for professional networking. The only place where a lot of my contacts hang out, and the place where recruiters constantly sift through the profiles. I have made over 6 figures  from this platform alone, in less than a year.

3. Twitter Account. A tricky one. I posted some tips here about marketing with Twitter . But it is something that you really need to get into and enjoy if it is going to help you in your marketing and branding. it is possible, I would not write it off as a fad at all, but it takes time and determination.

I have yet to see the full potential of Twitter as a marketing and revenue generation tool. But I have done pretty well with it so far I have to add.

4. DimDim.com. I pump up this program so much I should have shares in the company! But what can I say, I really love and appreciate this webinar program. I am running a one very soon on LinkedIn as a marketing and sales tool.

That will be the fourth free webinar I have used to cement my relationship with readers, and to grow the Consulting Pulse brand and tribe. I am sure that you could do a heck of a lot more with it.

5 Feedburner and Google Analytics. Must have items. What gets measured gets managed. Period.

6. BudURL. I really like this link shortener. it allows you to track the number of clicks per link so you can really see whats working, what isn't working, and what you could do to repeat your success.

7. Aweber. Email marketing is something that I have neglected here on this blog. But we now have a decent audience, most of whom (80%) regularly read the newsletters that we send out, and we are growing steadily. I recommend newsletter marketing to everyone - but you have to follow the rules...


8. Slideshare. I only ever ran one presentation on Slideshare and it went really well for me. I need to set up a heap more, they are a lot of fun and I really get a lot out of it personally.

9. Squidoo. I am not too sure if this is going to be a concrete part of my eMarketing arsenal yet. But I do know one thing. It gets a lot of attention if you do it right, and it is a heck of a lot of fun. (Yes, I am a boring person.)

10. Positive mental attitude. You can do this, you really can. Why not you? Why me (a baggy shorts electrician from the remotest part of the world) and not you?

The reasons... there aren't any. Good luck!

Related Posts

• Turn your LinkedIn account into a powerful revenue generating tool 
• Starers Kit for Blogging Consultants 
• Check out our Squidoo lens on free Bootstrapping tools for Small Business 
• Redefining Consulting Success - A Slideshare presentation 

For the modern marketing company - Twitter Farms !

I don't run a marketing/PR company. (Yet!) But if I did I would be realizing that most companies, especially SME operations, are taking a do-it-yourself approach to modern marketing.

And why not? Adwords, Pay-per-Post, trust based marketing, permission marketing - all available, all cost little, and all are pretty effective.

So the requirements for targeting display ads in magazines, newspapers and the TV is shrinking pretty fast. If they are going to survive, and they may go the way of much of the newspaper industry in reality, then they need to adapt very quickly.

Some are trying through reactive means. Setting search parameters for (say) "bride", or "Wedding" or "groom" and then contacting the person with offers of products and services related to their looming event.

Not bad, but a bit brutish and hit and miss really isn't it?

So they are going to need new products, and new ways of remaining relevant. For marketers, just like everyone else he magic formula still works - Trust + Scarcity + Value.

They might be able to hit the "Trust" and the "Value" part, but with the preponderance of low cost marketing avenues how can they regain their position as providers of "scarce" services?

Well... this is what I would do...

First: assemble a "farm" of Twitter users. People who have 5,000+ followers. People who have proven their ability to generate a trust based asset. (Their following)

Pay them a set fee per month. Say $1,500 each for 20 - 40 of them. (For a rough maximum of 200,000 followers)

Get them to promote products that they agree with, in their specific interest areas, several times per week. With several Tweets per campaign.

Sell this service to advertisers who are looking for a way to tap into the Twitter phenomena. You get to leverage the trust based assets that your farm members have fostered, and they in turn get an opportunity to monetize these.

As time goes on you can track and pay the more effective trust marketers a retainer commensurate with their real value.

Second: This is the part where the innovation is needed. Twitter analytics is a nascent art and one that has the potential to be incredibly powerful.

Imagine being able to measure the "spread". Imagine if you could tell with just a few queries, who was the most retweeted person on Twitter.

What could you do with that? And what if you could also see when they were retweeted and how many consequent retweets they received. (At what time, in what country, on which day and so on...)

This is only scratching the surface but there are some kewl things out there. But the ability to show a radar chart, which shows density against time, is still pretty far away. (I am going to post on this later, or maybe another Squidoo  page)

Third: Track clicks via something like BudURL.com, track conversions via landing pages, standard Google Analytics stuff, and (of course) track straight out revenue measurement.

This is pretty powerful stuff if it is done right. A real time graph showing the spread of an idea, Tweet, and link.

Measures showing the number of people who actually clicked on the link that was sent.

And an end result table showing how many of those clicks actually converted. Checking it with different members of the Twitter Farm and with different versions of the landing page.

The end result? A measure of marketing effectiveness within hours of launching the campaign. Now that's worth paying for...

The whole Web 2.0 thing does not have to mean the death of the marketing agency. it just means that a shift is needed from todays model to tomorrows model. Newspapers could have done the same but now it is too late.

What newspapers once held as a scarce and valuable resource is now seen as a commodity, don't let that happen to you.

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We have nearly 2000 subscribers now, as well as over 1000 subscribers to our weekly newsletter. It is a humbling experience and I sincerely hope to continue posting things that others find of value. 

Thanks for helping me to get the word out about the lucrative nature of consulting, and some of the skills needed to make it successful. 

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Freelancers caught out in the current crisis

With everything that is going on in the world it is hard not to be thinking about change. It has all happened so fast and so dramatically that just about everyone now knows someone who has been affected by the economic changes upon us.

For me right now I am getting ready to move from the Middle East to Australia in three days. So change is right on the tip of my mind.

This phase finishes, the next one begins. It is a pretty good job, a step up, and a good sized contract. I'm fortunate, and the harder I work the luckier I get.

I have a strong network, I pre-plan these things about 10 months out, and I have people lining up to reference my track record.

I'm not bragging, I'm a forty year old consultant who has been doing this forever... If I didn't have these things then I wouldn't have survived this long. (Like you)

The value of a career based on trust. Relationships based on trust in your character, and the trust that you can deliver what they require.

If you are a freelancer who has just had a contract end, or a contractor whose project has stopped, or even if you are an employee who has lost their job then now is the time to draw on your trust based career.

Call your contacts - you're a freelancer right? You don't get to do that unless you have a strong track record and people who will vouch for you.

Now is the time to draw on that asset. Get references up on LinkedIn.com, ask them if they can refer you to others, ask them if they will stand as verbal references for you.

Get out of the "project" mindset and into the "jobs" mindset. What can you do very quickly that will bring them real tangible and cashable value? How quick (reasonably) can you do it? Put the package together, give it strap-line or two.

Price it, work out what the mutual activities need to be, and start pitching through your network. All you need is the first "job".

Collect the reference, get the client to help you forecast benefits before completion and start pitching new prospects during this job.

Now you have a packaged service. Tight, value delivering, and (after your first engagement) proven! And you now have another trust asset to bargain with throughout the network of trusted contacts.

It's all about trust - every time.

When you have a hammer...

...every problem looks like a nail!

Take the blinders off, stop tunneling deeper and deeper into your own methodology. Lift your head up and look around.

news flash - the vast majority of your clients do not care about the integrity, perfection or subtle nuances of your well defined and beautiful methodology.

They care about their results, the Value Quadrant - revenue, Cost reduction, risk reduction, knowledge increase.

Your job is to create, find and spread leading practices - not just to bludgeon them to death with a very narrow view of the world.

A new client - TODAY!

Before running through this list it is vital to point our one key thing. Do not be desperate. If you are desperate then this may not be the time for you to be launching your consulting career!

Desperation is probably your greatest enemy when you are out prospecting. If you are desperate then think seriously about sub-contracting or getting a job until the heat dies down a little bit.

Some tips for getting the next client...

1) Get out of your office! 

Unless you are Tom Peters, and you aren't, they are not going to come to you! Get out, get in front of them,m network, talk to them, impress your value on them without being too direct.

2) Follow up or ... go away!

So you have met people while networking. great, now what? Did you ask the golden question? E.g. How can I help you to get more work? Did you resist the urge to hard sell during the networking meeting? yes? great..

So now you need to follow up. Remember rule number 1, unless you are Tom Peters they are not going to come to you. So call them, set up a second meeting, see if they will take the time to sit with you over coffee or lunch.

3) Cold calls work. 

In our game cold calls really do work. Call them to get to meet them. meet them to get to impress them. Impress them to get the opportunity to sell to them.

Normal rules apply. leave something of value behind you. Call a few days, maximum of a week, later. Check up.

4) Don't call to see how the quote is going!

"Ahh.. yeah. I'm just calling to see how the quote is going, if you need any additional information, or if I can assist you further." - You Goose! You've done this haven't you? I know I have.

Don't do it, resist the urge. What you want to say is "I'm just calling about the quote we gave you. It was a fair while ago and I am wondering if the work is still planned to go ahead, and if so are we still in contention. Please let me know, if the quote doesn't meet your needs right now then we would appreciate knowing."

Period. You have done the right thing. Your relationship isn't strong enough that they are going to call you to tell you the quote stinks. So call up and be honest... always be honest!

What can they say? Yeah the quote stinks.
"Can I resubmit"
"No its too late"

Okay, so what. Get moving after the next account and don't burn any bridges here. In fact you might want to try to book a meeting with them on this call for a couple of weeks or months down the line.


5) Be frank at all times.

You are in business. So are they. Your meeting is a meeting between commercial representatives of two companies. Do Not be coy, don't beat around the bush, don't wait for them to move onto the subject in the hope that they will offer to give you some work! It doesn't work like that!

When the moment is right, and that could be three meetings in, then tell them. "Listen, over the past X meetings I think I have a pretty fair idea of what it is that you are doing here and what you are trying to achieve. We have been thinking about it and we think we could add value in this specific area. Particularly as we have a very strong track record of helping our clients to do that."

Straight talk always helps. You are not there to eat the crumbs that fall from the table - you are there to add value so be proud of that and state as much. The client is also there in a commercial conversation.

6) Ask for the next step.

"Okay so I think we have a fair idea of whats going on now. We believe we can help you to achieve what you want to achieve. Do you think it is worthwhile taking this any further down the sales process (Yes, say sales process) or do you think you need to work out some of the finer details?"

What is this statement doing? You are giving the client a choice of several ways to say yes to you right? Warning - this is for once you have a to and fro type of relationship up and running. Do this on the first meeting and you are likely to be bounced.

7) Don't do work for free

I run into this a lot with the large scale projects. It really annoys me. The goal is for them, the client, to get as many contractors to do a lot of preliminary work while promising nothing to nobody.

You need to make a decision here. I prefer not to do freebies. It sets the wrong precedent and doesn't help you get any leverage over the longer term at all.

If there is a little bit of work done then quote for it. If they tell you that others will do it for free them you answer needs to be along the lines of how much value you know that you can add to their operations, and that you can't support free work right now. (These are tough times for everybody after all)

Support your case with history, testimonials and other proof of capability stuff.

If they aren't willing to do it then stay engaged, but bow out of the proceedings for this one. You want to earn continuous flowing cash after all. That is the name of this game if you recall. Any attempts to see it as something different are disingenuous.

8) It is over said and underdone - but remember that you deliver solutions, you solve problems. You don't just make sales!

Get them talking about the problems they are facing, their plans for the next few months of year, and their burning issues. Offer to help them work through one of he problems and let them know that this is the way your sales process works. You help them arrive at the means of solving their problem, and then if you have done that correctly you should also get a chance to bid on it in pole position.

In summary the overriding factor to success in generating new clients is one of confidence. Confidence that you can add value, and the confidence that you have the right to be sitting there speaking to this person as a peer, an equal, a partner with whom you can help to solve problems.

Be active, keep calling, be honest, and do not ever let rejection get you down. How badly do you want this anyway?

They might not realize we helped them

One of my mentors once said to me that consulting was a great profession to get into.

We meet companies that are in trouble. We help them out, and get paid well for doing so. And when we leave them they are better off because they met us, even if they don’t realize it.

Even if they don’t realize it…his words ring in my ears even today. (15 years later) Why don’t they realize it?

Because we didn’t tell them, we didn’t sell value we sold a service. (Or we told it to the wrong person)

We didn’t tell them about the value achieved; instead we focused on deliverables.

They never acknowledged the value in the first place, we prepared the reports.

We sold them time based units, and they counted them.

In short, we don’t focus on value we focus on work and they treat us in exactly the way we have taught them to treat us. It’s up to you.

Will this client remember your work as incredible value that changed everything, or as a project that “somebody” delivered?

An end to faith based initiatives

An ad in a magazine, on Television or on the radio is essentially a faith based initiative isn’t it?

We place the ad, we have an idea of their normal circulation. We hope it stays the same. And we wait for the phone to ring.

Some call, some just check our website, some email, and some ignore it.

So did it work or not? If you really want to know then you need some form of screen that asks then why they are visiting your site. This is a method fraught with problems and inaccuracies, particularly if they don’t register.

But if you hang a video on YouTube there is a very clear indication of how many people have seen it. If you purchase Adwords then you get very clear reports on how many clicked. If you use Google Analytics then you can easily determine who visited, what they bought and the path they took before they clicked.
We can see the immediate impact using Feedburner of Google Analytics of a Blog post, or of our Adwords campaign.

And we can track the references from sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Stumble Upon or whatever else.

I am not a big fan of banner ads, (I will go out of my way to avoid them) but the fact remains that you can track them…

So, what are the reasons for pitching ads in paper based (faith based) publications? Forget it – the world isn't changing; it has changed.

We don’t base our marketing programs on faith anymore, we base them on facts - on what works, and on measurable results

One vote at a time

A lot has been made recently about Barack Obamas secret weapon leading up to his election victory. The fact that he was a community organizer and used to calling groups of people to action.

So how do they do that? By putting in the hard miles...

Knocking on doors, interacting with communities, speaking at local events - not just creating local events by speaking, and networking - networking - networking.

Speak to one person, appear to ten, get them to tell their friends and colleagues, appear to ten more... and on and on it goes.

Why do they come? Because when you speak to them, and when they speak to their friends - they think you might have what they are looking for at that point in time.

This is the truth behind community organizing, the truth behind getting out the vote, and the truth behind modern marketing.

Don't be where they are looking be what they are looking for, and when they come - be extra-ordinary.

My Triiibal Experience

In around 2000 I was working in Mexico City on a large scale EAM project. As always I am never content with only one thing to occupy my mind so I started an internet site as a hobby.

The goal was to use my emerging Spanish Language skills to create a hub that could be used by engineers, technicians and equipment maintainers thropughout the Spanish speaking world.

It was crude and unsophisticated by todays standards. (Or even by yesterdays standards if I'm honest) We had articles, some video lessons, a monthly newsletter and a weekly site roundup.

I sent out three invitations to companies in the region to post their articles on the site, and I used these as early content to try to draw visitors to the site. 

This has really come to my mind lately after reading the new Seth Godin book Triiibes. 

The results were phenomenal....

By the time I sent out the second months newsletters I was registering 1000 hits on the site every single day. This, back in 2000, in Spanish, and in a very niche area.

I didn't realize that there was a dynamic taking place that I had never thought of previously.

In Latin America, if you work as a maintenance engineer, or worse a technician, then your work is not as respected as it is in the western world. In fact - in any developing country this is the truth of it.

What I had done by accident, was to give a group of hard working and intelligent people a way to communicate with each other that they never had before. And through the newsletters and articles, they suddenly had a way of demonstrating to others in their company just how vital their work was to corporate performance.

Within 5 months I was getting 100,000 hits per month and had started selling banner advertising slots for around USD$1000 a month. 

We leveraged the traffic to earn additional revenue for advertising in the email newsletter, the monthly PDF newsletter, and for selling other lead generation services on the site. 

I had created a $150 k per year income stream purely by accident just by trying to facilitate the networking of a group of like minded people. 

I had created...a tribe!

The Triibe

I later sold the site as a marketing company to other media interests in the region. But even so I maintain in contact with the members of the site on a personal level. What saddens me, like really saddens me, is that today the site is nothing like it was. 

Why? Because it stopped being a community (albeit a commercial one) and started being a business. 

As that tribes leader I saw my role as the person who bought them all together. The guy who pushed the issues to get at the truth of the matter, and the one who made sure that the ever present spammers didn't get away with bombing the group with unwanted garbage. 

And the community did the rest...

The formed bonds between themselves. They told all their colleagues about the site. They bought and sold each others services and products. And they freely gave of their time and experience to help their fellow tribesmen and women. It was a really humbling experience.

After the Tribe

Looking back the lessons are obvious. Particularly because of what happened after it changed hands.

Be earnest - committed to what you are doing, focused on the good of the tribe. Make sure that you have the best articles, the best participants, and above all be available to the tribe.

Be honest - Set some rules and stick to them. Dont spam them, don't sell their email addresses, nothing like that. Encourage participation rigorously and award those who do so.

And always focus on the truth of whatever is being spoken about; don't ever let commercial agendas get in the way of the truth.

Be Open - It isn't your playground, its theirs. Thats why you created it after all. Let them take it to areas you hadn't thought of, or into realms that you wouldn't normally go to yourself. 

When people are able to participate in something that adds value to their lives, and they can see that it is being undertaken with good intentions; they respond.

What are your tribal experiences? Either as a member or a leader of a Tribe? Are you leading a tribe now? 

Could you be?

Marketing by walk about

We all know that traditional interruption advertising is more about ego than effectiveness these days. So in these down days what can you do to increase revenues by year end? 

If you already have a global brand and are a multi million dollar author, then people will search for you. They will take their time to find your web, your articles, your interviews and everything else about you that helps them in their present situation. You might want to do a few things to make sure it is a flood of enquiries, but you may not need to.

If you aren't then you could take the Seth Godin long road. You could work the social networking scenes, spend a lifetime glued to your PC, and after a while I am sure that you will create a snowball of momentum. 

I have neither right now. 

So if I want to make money quickly. Say, during the next 4 - 12 weeks. Then I hit the phones.  Cold calling definitely does work for consultants. But it is not for sales, it is to start a relationship. A commercial relationship that will deliver you revenues over time. 

Call them, set up an appointment, visit them, leave something of value for them to ponder, visit them again, call them again, go to conferences, meet people, speak at trade events, set up public courses and seminars. 

I don't care how far technology has come. The most effective marketing for short term earnings, when you aren't one of your games name brands (yet) is marketing by walk about. Guarantee it. 

How much per day for Marlon Brando?

Christian Bale is one of my favorite actors. I recently heard that he had signed to do three sequels to the franchise The Terminator in a role as John Connor. (After Doomsday)

I am not a huge terminator fan, but I will go to see these just to caqtch some of the hard edge I have come to expect from Bales acting. 

Similarly I will spend money to see a movie with Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon or Morgan Freeman.

I wonder how much these guys charge by the hour? (Or is it by the day?)

Stupid question. 

They of course don't charge by the hour. The charge a set fee with terms attached, and a large fee at that. 

And why can they do that? Because their value is obvious. They will help the movie to make money. Even if it's a stinker!

It doesn't matter if they work for two weeks or two years. The cost to the studio (minus expenses) is exactly the same. Everyone is focused on the end product, not on the process of making the thing. 

You deliver value right? In fact, I bet that often you can accurately measure the value you have provided, it probably extends into the hundreds of thousands if not the millions.

And if you delivered it quickly you probably received only a very small fraction of the results that you created. 

Why...?

Why are you undervaluing your services and selling them based on activity instead of on results?

Why are you undermining everyone else in the consulting game by not being able to deliver rapid results without significantly reducing your revenues?

Why are you limiting your income to the number of hours you can work in any given day?

If you have some of the answers to these, then you probably know the answer to the last question. Why are you not a wealthy consultant?

Time based fees end up in sites like Elance.com, rentacoder.com or Guru.com. You become a commodity and your only real competitive edge is to be the low cost provider. 

And god help you if you win it!