.jpg)
The question as to whether you should quit your job if you are thinking of going freelance or selling your knowledge as a consultant starting a consultancy can be answered in several ways depending on your circumstances.
In any situation, I would make sure that before I quit completely I had some clients. Not potential clients but actual ones. Customers lined up ready to pay you for what you can do. No clients = no business, unless of course you have enough money saved up to last you at least 6 - 9 months (just in case it takes this long to get your first contract).Some consultants either start getting clients before they leave their jobs or they run their consultancy alongside their employment. This is not possible for many but for those who either work part-time or are in jobs where they can either devote some time and energy to developing their own consultancy ideas or have permission from their boss to pursue personal interests.
If you want to be a full-time independent consultant then make sure you not only have some clients first but also that you have a business plan in place. This means knowing how much you need to make to survive, how you are going to get the work that will provide the money, what your marketing strategy is, what your quarterly targets are.Any decision to start up on your own is like taking a jump off the cliff. Sooner or later, one way or another you will have to do it if you want to be fully independent.
Preparing for this is as much psychological as it is practical. Make sure you have support from those around you - your family mostly, friends, and colleagues. Having them 'swim' with you, cheering you on will make it seem easier than it would otherwise. If your closest aren't with you it can make it more lonely.
A consultant is a person who works by selling their specialist knowledge. So you need to make sure you have this knowledge and have the propensity and appetite to develop it as the industry it serves changes. You may also need to acquire a professional qualification or certification. So make sure you have the requisite bits of paper. As soon as you do quit your job you will need to figure out your own balance between the time you spend marketing and the time you spend delivering. If you are delivering a lot then you will have little time for marketing. Don't neglect this or else when you run out of work to deliver there will be nothing in the future.
So when should you quit your job?' Quit your job when you are confident you have all the above in place. This planning will make the landing softer than it would otherwise be. That's not to say it will be easy, it won't! It will be a long time before you feel really comfortable - but you will eventually. Be patient and you'll enjoy the ride.
So, in summary, before you quit:
Line up some Clients
Create a business plan
Get support from family and friends
Work out (at least in theory) your Delivery/marketing strategy
Be patient!
When you feel ready, go knock on the bosses' door, tell them you are going to start your own consultancy and get their support too. Be honest, clear and express your gratitude for their help in developing your career and giving you the opportunity to work for them. Resist the temptation to gloat or show to much de-mob happiness. Keep friends - never know if you'll need them again and they may well become a client.
For more articles on starting a consultancy go here:
http://www.start-a-consultancy.com
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
How to run a workshop
How to run a workshop
Workshops offer a great forum for providing information, training, development, team-building, communications, motivation and strategic and operational planning. The participation and involvement of staff increases along with a the feeling of ownership and empowerment.
Workshops are very effective ways of in managing change and achieving improvement in a range of scenarios, and particularly the creation of ideas, plans, process and actions in order reach or to achieve particular business and organisational goals
Workshops are perfect for breaking down social or business barriers, improving the links and communications within and between departments, as well as beyond them. Workshops are also good for (CRM) customer relationship management development.
By far the most effective team-building format is the workshop. focusing on the people's key professional and personal responsibilities/interest areas. A workshop can integrate these aspects so that they develop in tandem. After all we cannot entirely separate the personal from the professional.
I use workshops regularly. Within my business I used to use them to train people within organizations to lead better to function better in teams, to deal with and manage change. Now since my business has changed I use them to educate others in how to promote, market and sell their products and services better. Essentially I use them to teach people what I learned myself about running a small business.
How a workshop works is dependent on the leader and the participants. The leader is more of a facilitator than a teacher although teaching and informing can also be a key feature.
Before a workshop starts it’s useful to know what the expectations of those attending the workshop are and that they ‘want’ to be there.
It is also useful if the group are unfamiliar with each other that there is a period at the beginning for them to get to know each other. This should be followed by some input – either from the facilitator or the group (led by the facilitator). There should be time to discuss this and to bring out key themes. Don’t feel under pressure to answer any question perfectly that emerges yourself. The idea of a workshop is that people discuss attempt to resolve each others questions.
Over the course of a day long workshop don’t attempt to cover more than 4 topics; two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Also makes sure there is a clear and obvious relationship between these topics.
End the day making sure that everyone has a satisfactory outcome from the information provided and the method in which it was discussed.
To keep energy levels high it is important that there is as much interaction as possible and that as much humour is shared as possible.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
A leap of faith or leap of fate?
When you start your own freelance consulting, trainer, or coaching business you will know that what is often required is what is referred to as a ‘leap of faith’.
When business advisers and motivational books talk about taking a ‘leap of faith’ what do you think of? I think of it as the need to do something that I felt I just had to do, and although it would incur a risk of some kind it was a necessary thing to do.
Leaps of faith always reward you – even if they cost you in the short term. When I established my business – having previously been employed, it was scary but I knew I had to do it. When I decided to go to university, when I decided to get married these were also leaps of faith.
However, I also know some people who have taken similar 'leaps of faith' and it hasn't worked out for them. Also there are things I have done where I thought I was doing the right thing or taking the right ‘leap’ but it hasn’t worked out well.
So what’s this all about? Well, I think the important key here is understanding the word ‘faith’. Sometimes, when things aren't going the way we'd like them to, we'll latch on to anything in the hope that it will make a difference, turn things around. But mere hope without faith is what I call a ‘leap of fate’. I don’t believe in fate or blind determinism– I don’t believe there is a pre-planned destiny that we blindly embrace.. Yes, I am a person of strong religious faith and believe there is a plan for individuals but that individuals are also co-creators in that plan and what makes it work is faith. Faith is the surety that something is right and necessary. A leap of faith needs to be fed, nourished, supported and practised in order to produce results.
A leap of faith is a leap of strength but a leap of ‘fate’ is not. And this can be the difference between when our leap works out and when it doesn’t.
We make leaps of fate when we are overly vulnerable and afraid. I'm sure you have lots of examples, business and personal, where your judgment was affected by fear or a frustration with a current situation and an overwhelming desire to make a change in the belief that it was ‘right’.
So, from this position of vulnerability and fear, we took what we believe was a leap of faith... and it went wrong... A leap of faith is accompanied not with overwhelming vulnerability and fear (only a little vulnerability and fear, yes there is always some fear), but with - get the rest here www.consultancy-coaching.com
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
new article: start a consulting business in 28 days
http://www.startaconsultancy.com/start%20consultancy/Start%20Your%20Consultancy%20in%2028%20Days%3A%20a%20business%20plan.html
Monday, March 16, 2009
search engine rankings
Not checking your Search Engine Rankings is like entering a competition and not knowing if you won it or not. You can’t know how well you’ve done if you don’t check this. And if you don’t know where you came in the competition you won’t know what to do to improve you performance for the next competition you enter. get the rest here...
Monday, March 9, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
twitter and consultancy
twitter is a great place to build links to your consultancy business. Try it
Friday, March 6, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Why should I optimise my website?
Most people who market their products and services on the internet know that you need to optimise your content. Although few people really understand the process of how to do this.
There is a lot talk about the ‘mysteries’ of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Sadly, many SEO companies exploit the ignorance of those who don’t know any better. The simple truth is that the search engines (like Google and Yahoo) have never published how their engines work so no one, really knows exactly what they use to ‘rate’ your site. Although through research we can make (and many have made) accurate estimations.
It is important to point out that your website itself is not ‘rated’. Websites themselves are not searched by search engines. It is relevant content that the engines search for. If you look at when Google last crawled your website you will see that each page was visited at a different time. This suggests that it was not your site that was searched as a whole but relevant content.
Much of what is known about SEO has been learned by testing and experimenting. There is relatively little authoritative knowledge published on it. You can develop your own learning on it without spending lots of money on consultants to teach you.
Bear in mind that most SEO experts will not be writing your salescopy or web content for you. Nor will they be able to do many of the other things you can do yourself or get a knowledgeable friend to help you with.
The founders of Google were meticulous in the way that they set the systems they use to work with respect for content and relevance for what searchers are looking for. So they expect your pages to have quality content which includes a meaningful title and description that they can index to help the searchers.
Meaningful page titles, descriptors and keywords in the Meta tag areas of all pages is really important. There is also a citation aspect is also relevant since the more sites that link to your site the better. This is premised on the on the idea that if other content on the internet links to your content it is likely to be because your content is valued by the linking content.
However it’s also worth considering that the value of the site that links to your content is ‘weighted’. That is, links from highly reputable sites such as universities or highly respected authors and publishers are valued more highly than those of lesser repute. Content with high volumes of visiting ‘traffic’ are also considered of higher value (by virtue of their popularity with searchers) than those with low levels of traffic.
You need to put your keywords in the meta tags fields of you page. If you do this and you include them in your page then this will be found by the search engines. However, if you use them in you meta tags but then fail to use them in the content of your page then a search engine will be confused and may will and may not index it at all. This means that it is counter-productive to try to ‘con’ the search engines by pretending that your content is about one thing when it is really about something else. In other words you cannot cheat by using one set of words in the Meta tags and then write about something entirely different.
For example, if you think that planting lots of keywords on a page at random will make Google like you then you’ve got it wrong – it won’t. In the early days of the internet people used to try and trick the search engines by hiding keywords in their pages so that only the search engine could see them (like making them the same colour as the background and therefore invisible to the human eye but visible to the search engines) and thereby trick visitors into coming to their site. Another trick was to keep repeating the same keywords over and over. Today search engines are a lot smarter and will disqualify your page and/or site if you try this. Don’t get disqualified as it is hard to get re-qualified again.
Write good content that stays within the rules and you’ll be rewarded. Linking this to a few simple rules such as Keyword placement and proximity is the heart of SEO. You don't really need a highly paid SEO expert to do this; it just needs to be part of your regular writing of web copy.
Tip: a great system that helps you optimise your site whicle you actually build it is the Bebiz Business Builder. Go here to find out about it
If you are interested in getting more marketing ideas like this then take a look at the ones here … at http://www.startaconsultancy.com/articles.html
There is a lot talk about the ‘mysteries’ of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Sadly, many SEO companies exploit the ignorance of those who don’t know any better. The simple truth is that the search engines (like Google and Yahoo) have never published how their engines work so no one, really knows exactly what they use to ‘rate’ your site. Although through research we can make (and many have made) accurate estimations.
It is important to point out that your website itself is not ‘rated’. Websites themselves are not searched by search engines. It is relevant content that the engines search for. If you look at when Google last crawled your website you will see that each page was visited at a different time. This suggests that it was not your site that was searched as a whole but relevant content.
Much of what is known about SEO has been learned by testing and experimenting. There is relatively little authoritative knowledge published on it. You can develop your own learning on it without spending lots of money on consultants to teach you.
Bear in mind that most SEO experts will not be writing your salescopy or web content for you. Nor will they be able to do many of the other things you can do yourself or get a knowledgeable friend to help you with.
The founders of Google were meticulous in the way that they set the systems they use to work with respect for content and relevance for what searchers are looking for. So they expect your pages to have quality content which includes a meaningful title and description that they can index to help the searchers.
Meaningful page titles, descriptors and keywords in the Meta tag areas of all pages is really important. There is also a citation aspect is also relevant since the more sites that link to your site the better. This is premised on the on the idea that if other content on the internet links to your content it is likely to be because your content is valued by the linking content.
However it’s also worth considering that the value of the site that links to your content is ‘weighted’. That is, links from highly reputable sites such as universities or highly respected authors and publishers are valued more highly than those of lesser repute. Content with high volumes of visiting ‘traffic’ are also considered of higher value (by virtue of their popularity with searchers) than those with low levels of traffic.
You need to put your keywords in the meta tags fields of you page. If you do this and you include them in your page then this will be found by the search engines. However, if you use them in you meta tags but then fail to use them in the content of your page then a search engine will be confused and may will and may not index it at all. This means that it is counter-productive to try to ‘con’ the search engines by pretending that your content is about one thing when it is really about something else. In other words you cannot cheat by using one set of words in the Meta tags and then write about something entirely different.
For example, if you think that planting lots of keywords on a page at random will make Google like you then you’ve got it wrong – it won’t. In the early days of the internet people used to try and trick the search engines by hiding keywords in their pages so that only the search engine could see them (like making them the same colour as the background and therefore invisible to the human eye but visible to the search engines) and thereby trick visitors into coming to their site. Another trick was to keep repeating the same keywords over and over. Today search engines are a lot smarter and will disqualify your page and/or site if you try this. Don’t get disqualified as it is hard to get re-qualified again.
Write good content that stays within the rules and you’ll be rewarded. Linking this to a few simple rules such as Keyword placement and proximity is the heart of SEO. You don't really need a highly paid SEO expert to do this; it just needs to be part of your regular writing of web copy.
Tip: a great system that helps you optimise your site whicle you actually build it is the Bebiz Business Builder. Go here to find out about it
If you are interested in getting more marketing ideas like this then take a look at the ones here … at http://www.startaconsultancy.com/articles.html
Monday, February 23, 2009
How to get your clients to buy
Getting clients to buy from you is no mystery but it is a skill. Try the article 'How to get your clients to buy' here
http://www.startaconsultancy.com/articles.html
http://www.startaconsultancy.com/articles.html
How to analyze your web stats
Start up consultants tend to be creatives than technical or statistically oriented but this is no excuse for neglecting your website statistics. Starting a consultancy should involve having your website and managing it well. This involves analysing your website statistics. It is critically important that you analyse your web stats as often as you can. Not only do these provide you with really good information like the number of visitors, and the pages that have been visited; they also inform you which pages they enter, and how long your visitors stay on your site.
The information provided by analysing your stats needs to be interpreted. For example, the total number of page visits doesn’t really mean very much. If you have been encouraging visitors to visit say an just your ‘Opt-in’ page some of your stats will drop (0pt-in pages are the pages visited when a visitor clicks on a Google Ad you have set up). Such a page is designed to get visitors to give you their email address. Frequently no other option, such as the chance to visit other pages, is offered. This means that fewer page hits will occur. So visitors will either sign up or they will leave your site on this page. So, the number of page hits will not be that high. Although you will find that the total number of unique visitors will increase. If you add a link back to the homepage, or to any other page on your site, from your opt-in page it will reduce this tendency.
It is also true that when more people leave your site after visiting your opt-in page your "bounce rate" will also go up. High bounce rates are often considered to be a bad sign. Although, if some of your pages are designed to get a decision from your visitors whether to opt-in then a high bounce rate can be a sign that you are persuading them either to leave or to commit their email address. So your statistics need to be seen the context of the kind of marketing you are engaged in as this will determine what the stats will say. It is therefore important which stats you decide to record and monitor these carefully on a monthly basis.
An easy way of doing this is to use Google ‘Analytics’. This tool allows you to see the results the displayed as statistics. It is good to get into the habit of looking carefully at these and to start making your interpretations of them in the light of the comments I have made. When I built my start a consultancy business it took time and patience to get things right. So bear in mind that it takes time and patience (and testing!) to interpret and ultimately to make decisions on the basis of the results you get.
There are several things that you should consider as a matter of course to collect stats on:
· The number of unique visitors per month
· How these visitors found you (e.g. through search engines, referrals from another site)
· The number of repeat visitors per month
· Most popular pages - as so many are coming via search engines it may not be your homepage. (This will depend on whether you are providing other pages as landing pages)
· What keywords were used to find you via search engines - this is useful since it will help you to know which keywords are the most effective in an Pay-per-click campaign
· Which other websites give you most referrals. This can be an indication of the success of you referral technique
Tip: a great system that helps you keep track of your stats is the Bebiz Business Builder. Go here to find out about it
If you are interested in getting more marketing ideas like this then take a look at the ones here … at http://www.startaconsultancy.com/articles.html
The information provided by analysing your stats needs to be interpreted. For example, the total number of page visits doesn’t really mean very much. If you have been encouraging visitors to visit say an just your ‘Opt-in’ page some of your stats will drop (0pt-in pages are the pages visited when a visitor clicks on a Google Ad you have set up). Such a page is designed to get visitors to give you their email address. Frequently no other option, such as the chance to visit other pages, is offered. This means that fewer page hits will occur. So visitors will either sign up or they will leave your site on this page. So, the number of page hits will not be that high. Although you will find that the total number of unique visitors will increase. If you add a link back to the homepage, or to any other page on your site, from your opt-in page it will reduce this tendency.
It is also true that when more people leave your site after visiting your opt-in page your "bounce rate" will also go up. High bounce rates are often considered to be a bad sign. Although, if some of your pages are designed to get a decision from your visitors whether to opt-in then a high bounce rate can be a sign that you are persuading them either to leave or to commit their email address. So your statistics need to be seen the context of the kind of marketing you are engaged in as this will determine what the stats will say. It is therefore important which stats you decide to record and monitor these carefully on a monthly basis.
An easy way of doing this is to use Google ‘Analytics’. This tool allows you to see the results the displayed as statistics. It is good to get into the habit of looking carefully at these and to start making your interpretations of them in the light of the comments I have made. When I built my start a consultancy business it took time and patience to get things right. So bear in mind that it takes time and patience (and testing!) to interpret and ultimately to make decisions on the basis of the results you get.
There are several things that you should consider as a matter of course to collect stats on:
· The number of unique visitors per month
· How these visitors found you (e.g. through search engines, referrals from another site)
· The number of repeat visitors per month
· Most popular pages - as so many are coming via search engines it may not be your homepage. (This will depend on whether you are providing other pages as landing pages)
· What keywords were used to find you via search engines - this is useful since it will help you to know which keywords are the most effective in an Pay-per-click campaign
· Which other websites give you most referrals. This can be an indication of the success of you referral technique
Tip: a great system that helps you keep track of your stats is the Bebiz Business Builder. Go here to find out about it
If you are interested in getting more marketing ideas like this then take a look at the ones here … at http://www.startaconsultancy.com/articles.html
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Starting a discussion forum
I am in the early stages of developing a discussion forum for all those of you who have been sending me questions about starting a consultancy business.
Since I started www.startaconsultancy.com I have been overwhlemed with all the questions and interest it has provoked so I think I need to create a solution where you can all put questions to others as well as me.
Not because I don't want to respond but because lots of heads are better than one and a range of response to questions and issues can create a really vibrant community of similar-minded people.
If you have any thoughts on this please let me know.
michael@startaconsultancy.com
www.startaconsultancy.com
Since I started www.startaconsultancy.com I have been overwhlemed with all the questions and interest it has provoked so I think I need to create a solution where you can all put questions to others as well as me.
Not because I don't want to respond but because lots of heads are better than one and a range of response to questions and issues can create a really vibrant community of similar-minded people.
If you have any thoughts on this please let me know.
michael@startaconsultancy.com
www.startaconsultancy.com
Friday, January 30, 2009
Communication Skills for Business
Good communication skills are absolutely critical if you are trying to sell your business. It is central to almost everything you do. There are lots of kinds of communication but let’s just look at general principles and then you can apply them to whichever form you are using (speaking, listening, memos, sales letters, leaflets).
In a survey of recruiters that was published out not so long ago communication skills were given as the most important factor in selecting managers. The University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School, said that communication including written and spoken presentations, are the main factors contributing to success in business. When developing a business, working time consists of issuing and receiving information, and instructions. The potential for these to be misinterpreted is huge. The same act or word can be interpreted by 3 different people in 3 different ways. Also, studies show that miscommunication in business can mean lower productivity, higher turnover and greater tension and anxiety. If individuals don’t feel their thoughts and comments are getting heard, they won’t voice them. Misunderstanding can easily turn discussions into conflict and unnecessary anxiety leading to even worse communication. Building a business insists that you to communicate with and influence others, whether they are your prospects, clients, or you employees.
In communicating is critical when: talking to prospects and customers and making sure they understand the benefits of doing business with you as well as just the features of your skills and talents; convincing your customers of why they should buy more from you; gaining support, and motivating your staff, engaging imaginations, creating partnerships. Being good at communicating and influencing others will make your job easier!
Get more articles here
Being aware of good communication means you learn…
How communication is crucial for influencing others
How communication is a critical part of interpersonal skills
How consultancy is 70% listening and 30 % asking questions
How communication powerful for developing partnerships
How confident communication benefits all
How to get the understanding you want
How communication skills that mark out an achiever
How to have impact and influence on other people
How to get noticed - positively rather than be instantly forgettable
How to build rapport quickly and easily
How to get a talker to tell you what you need to know
How to find out what other people really want
How listening techniques really work
How to get cooperation, rather than confrontation
Get more articles here
In a survey of recruiters that was published out not so long ago communication skills were given as the most important factor in selecting managers. The University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School, said that communication including written and spoken presentations, are the main factors contributing to success in business. When developing a business, working time consists of issuing and receiving information, and instructions. The potential for these to be misinterpreted is huge. The same act or word can be interpreted by 3 different people in 3 different ways. Also, studies show that miscommunication in business can mean lower productivity, higher turnover and greater tension and anxiety. If individuals don’t feel their thoughts and comments are getting heard, they won’t voice them. Misunderstanding can easily turn discussions into conflict and unnecessary anxiety leading to even worse communication. Building a business insists that you to communicate with and influence others, whether they are your prospects, clients, or you employees.
In communicating is critical when: talking to prospects and customers and making sure they understand the benefits of doing business with you as well as just the features of your skills and talents; convincing your customers of why they should buy more from you; gaining support, and motivating your staff, engaging imaginations, creating partnerships. Being good at communicating and influencing others will make your job easier!
Get more articles here
Being aware of good communication means you learn…
How communication is crucial for influencing others
How communication is a critical part of interpersonal skills
How consultancy is 70% listening and 30 % asking questions
How communication powerful for developing partnerships
How confident communication benefits all
How to get the understanding you want
How communication skills that mark out an achiever
How to have impact and influence on other people
How to get noticed - positively rather than be instantly forgettable
How to build rapport quickly and easily
How to get a talker to tell you what you need to know
How to find out what other people really want
How listening techniques really work
How to get cooperation, rather than confrontation
Get more articles here
Thursday, January 22, 2009
How to cut through writers' block
Here is a tip for whenever you are trying to write out your products or services, preparing a report or writing an article. Whenever the English author Rudyard Kipling waged had a problem with ”writer’s block” he used what he called his six honest men. Their names are: here
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Do ebooks really sell?
The idea of an e-book or e-guide is that it is short and quick to both access and read. Unlike a full 200 page book it does not encourage too much thinking and reflecting but action. This is precisely the reason given by hundreds of customers who buy ebooks.
Essentially, what most of them said was that if they wanted to sit down for a couple of weeks reading and reflecting on consultancy then they would buy a full 200 ++ page book and wait a week or so for it to be delivered or until they have time to go to the bookshop.
My ‘How to Start a Consultancy’ E-Guide at was originally a 310 page book? When I asked for feedback from those who bought it they said it was too long and they would pay more for something short and easy to read that they could get immediately. So I shortened it for them to around 70 pages, but I kept the price the same. This gives all the essential information while saving time reading, thinking and reflecting. I took out all the footnotes and nearly all the references. Then I added action steps, so they could go through the book in a couple of days and take action on it.
So are you a reader/reflector or a real action taker?
This is a tip for when you write your own ebook or eguide that you can sell online to your customers (if you haven’t done so already!) Make your information short and easy to read and ask people to tell you why they liked it or didn’t want it – it will really help your business to grow.
Essentially, what most of them said was that if they wanted to sit down for a couple of weeks reading and reflecting on consultancy then they would buy a full 200 ++ page book and wait a week or so for it to be delivered or until they have time to go to the bookshop.
My ‘How to Start a Consultancy’ E-Guide at was originally a 310 page book? When I asked for feedback from those who bought it they said it was too long and they would pay more for something short and easy to read that they could get immediately. So I shortened it for them to around 70 pages, but I kept the price the same. This gives all the essential information while saving time reading, thinking and reflecting. I took out all the footnotes and nearly all the references. Then I added action steps, so they could go through the book in a couple of days and take action on it.
So are you a reader/reflector or a real action taker?
This is a tip for when you write your own ebook or eguide that you can sell online to your customers (if you haven’t done so already!) Make your information short and easy to read and ask people to tell you why they liked it or didn’t want it – it will really help your business to grow.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Marketing – how long does it take to work?
It always takes time for a prospect to become a customer. And it also takes time for a first-time customer to become a repeat customer.
Remember that your prospects are just like you except that they may be buying from one of your competitors. But that competitor probably doesn’t know the value of follow-up. This means that many customers feel ignored after the initial purchase.
Your present customers are also your best prospects and future customers. They already do business with a company like yours and may feel disenchanted because they’ve been left alone after making their purchase. That’s why great marketers find their best prospects and then start a relationship building process.
Most businesses only contact their prospects once or twice (max), and if the prospect don’t show an interest, they move on to other prospects. Don’t make this mistake. Great marketers continue the relationship in simple quiet ways. Eventually, those potential customers feel so cared for, so important, so attended to, that they switch over and begin to patronize the provider who never stops the relationship.
So how long does it take? Well, it could take years, or it could happen in a month, even a week or less. But it probably won’t happen so quickly and it may never happen at all if you ignore them after contacting them just once.
Great marketers don’t lose prospects or future customers because they know about the very gradual process of getting them. When talking to prospects, they talk about their prospects needs and concerns – since this is what is most on the mind of prospects. When great marketers talk about the problems that are facing prospects, this gets them even more attention.
When they discuss issues and provide solutions to them they continue to do this from the prospects’ point of view. Prospects are customers who have not yet bloomed and flowered – they will in their own time. Feed them as you would a beautiful plant. Provide time, information, knowledge, and attention. Walk in their shoes so you can understand what they are trying to achieve.
People patronize a business for lots of reasons. Often it’s quality of the offering, or the service, sometimes the price. But did you know that for fewer than 20 percent, price is the number one criterion? Work on your quality of service and value of your content rather that just price – that way you will have customer well into the future. Also don’t assume that your prospects are very interested in the question "Who are you? or What is your product or service? The biggest question in your prospect’s mind is "Why should I care about you or your business?"
Your clients want to hear a story about them. they want to see themselves and a happy ending to their problem in the mirror of your salescopy "Tell me a story about me” is what they are saying. If you can do this then you show you understand them and the problem they are trying to solve.
Prospects want you to change their lives (and their story) in a way that is appealing to them. Your marketing is a blend of art, science, relationships and patience that does precisely this. But not immediately. It takes time. Be patient!
For lots of other articles like this go to www.startaconsultancy.com
Remember that your prospects are just like you except that they may be buying from one of your competitors. But that competitor probably doesn’t know the value of follow-up. This means that many customers feel ignored after the initial purchase.
Your present customers are also your best prospects and future customers. They already do business with a company like yours and may feel disenchanted because they’ve been left alone after making their purchase. That’s why great marketers find their best prospects and then start a relationship building process.
Most businesses only contact their prospects once or twice (max), and if the prospect don’t show an interest, they move on to other prospects. Don’t make this mistake. Great marketers continue the relationship in simple quiet ways. Eventually, those potential customers feel so cared for, so important, so attended to, that they switch over and begin to patronize the provider who never stops the relationship.
So how long does it take? Well, it could take years, or it could happen in a month, even a week or less. But it probably won’t happen so quickly and it may never happen at all if you ignore them after contacting them just once.
Great marketers don’t lose prospects or future customers because they know about the very gradual process of getting them. When talking to prospects, they talk about their prospects needs and concerns – since this is what is most on the mind of prospects. When great marketers talk about the problems that are facing prospects, this gets them even more attention.
When they discuss issues and provide solutions to them they continue to do this from the prospects’ point of view. Prospects are customers who have not yet bloomed and flowered – they will in their own time. Feed them as you would a beautiful plant. Provide time, information, knowledge, and attention. Walk in their shoes so you can understand what they are trying to achieve.
People patronize a business for lots of reasons. Often it’s quality of the offering, or the service, sometimes the price. But did you know that for fewer than 20 percent, price is the number one criterion? Work on your quality of service and value of your content rather that just price – that way you will have customer well into the future. Also don’t assume that your prospects are very interested in the question "Who are you? or What is your product or service? The biggest question in your prospect’s mind is "Why should I care about you or your business?"
Your clients want to hear a story about them. they want to see themselves and a happy ending to their problem in the mirror of your salescopy "Tell me a story about me” is what they are saying. If you can do this then you show you understand them and the problem they are trying to solve.
Prospects want you to change their lives (and their story) in a way that is appealing to them. Your marketing is a blend of art, science, relationships and patience that does precisely this. But not immediately. It takes time. Be patient!
For lots of other articles like this go to www.startaconsultancy.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
