Professional Services Leadership, Marketing & Rainmaking
From the category archives:
Imagine yourself on your best day. It seems like you’re productive before you wake up, because something happened while you were asleep to charge your batteries, clear your thoughts, and give you inspiration while you snoozed.
You wake up and nothing can stop you. The path is clear and the ideas are flowing. You settle in to work earlier than usual and start plugging away. And it all starts clicking. You accomplish one goal.
And another.
And another…
I’m always intrigued when I see what real companies are doing to build their brands, increase their revenue, and grow their firms. Here are five outcomes that stood out to me as I was reading RainToday’s latest ebook How 10 B2B Service Firms Grew Their Business in a Down Economy Using Affordable Marketing & Business Development Tactics:
Here’s an excerpt from one of the cases about marketing with live seminars:
Ask a professional service provider about the difference she makes for her clients and you might just hear something like this, “I help my clients first see, and then achieve, better futures.”
If a professional says this, they’re right that the concept of creating a vision of a new future is powerful. So powerful that we have included the concept as a core part of the RAIN Selling methodology. In RAIN Selling, the “N” stands for New Reality. It’s all of our jobs—in business development as well as in our daily work with clients—to help clients conceptualize situations, problems, and possible solutions.
In my recent podcast discussion with Dan Roam, author of Back of the Napkin, we talk about the power of helping people use pictures to solve problems and sell ideas. As you listen to the podcast, you should look at these graphics. They’re helpful in following along with what Dan and I are talking about, and will help you build your be-amazing-at-the-whiteboard skills.
Every business pundit has said at one time or another, “There’s no more misunderstood, argued about topic in business than <insert topic here>, but it’s really not that complicated. Here’s the secret to understanding it.” The concept of value proposition falls into this same category.
On the one hand, it’s a pretty simple concept to grasp. But like all simple, important concepts, it takes some thinking to understand it deeply and use it to your advantage. Let’s first look at a definition of a value proposition, then we’ll look at the three major components that comprise it so you can put it to work for you…
Every year about this time we members of the tribe engage in a sacred tribal ritual: sending email jokes, videos, and other types of hah hahs to each other so we can have something to talk about at our family dinners over green bean casserole and boiled chicken. (Thank you, tribal leader Len Glazer, for leading this annual rite.)
Those of us MOTs in marketing recognize these not just for their deep religious significance, but that, while they don’t reach everyone in the population, they do become semi(te)-viral.
Viral marketing is often attempted—but not often achieved—by many firms. For those of you out there that haven’t figured out a way to get it right, here are a few tips from the yarmulke crew.
If you’re going to cover a Barry Manilow classic you had better tread carefully. Barry may not have that much street cred with the kids anymore (if he ever did), but when he sings a song it’s smooth like buttah. When someone else sings his songs, it’s usually smooth like haggis.
The Man in the Chair ad is one such classic. First debuted in 1958, this McGraw Hill advertisement delivers a timeless message with clarity, grace, and impact. If you’re going to mess with it, you had better do it right, lest the world go all Simon Cowell on you.
I think the Business Marketing Association hit the nail on the head with their modernized rendition of the Man in the Chair at their 2009 conference. Nice job, BMA. Now, how about a little Mandy?
Here’s this week’s “Ask Mike” question:
Q: Do you have any recommendations for marketing services to service companies? I am often in a position of trying to address the client’s needs but not getting to meet the ultimate client—I feel at the mercy of a client with whom I don’t have contact.
A: This has nothing to do with marketing services to service companies. You could be marketing products to product companies. You could be marketing antimatter at a Star Trek convention. Whatever you’re selling, you have to get to the ultimate client, that special person we usually call the decision maker.
Decision makers are in the position of decision making because they are leaders in an organization. They’re trying to solve problems and they’re trying to build a better future. They have many different priorities and are trying to focus on the greatest impact, and the greatest return challenges to tackle. So they’re not avoiding you! You’re just not getting through to them. Or when a support staff gets your message to them, they say “You handle it. Doesn’t seem like it’s something I need to put on my radar screen.”
My advice in this case:
1. Keep trying to get on their radar screens. Email them. Call them. Send them letters.
2. Appeal to their need and the impact your service will have. They’re looking to spend their time on conversations and avenues that will make a difference. If it’s important enough, they’ll pay attention. If it’s not important enough, perhaps you should sell something else.
3. Perhaps it’s important enough, but your message or communication vehicles don’t convey how important it is. I’d suggest you get professional help getting the message across.
4. Don’t settle for being sent down the food chain. Don’t let yourself be relegated to levels below those that can influence, or directly purchase, your services.
5. Build your brand in the market. Sure, this is a long-term, heavy-investment, high-energy, high-commitment activity. But those that do it succeed, and those that don’t always fight the “best kept secret” battle in the marketplace. That’s usually no fun.
Everyone loves a train wreck…
Curious for more ways to destroy your marketing effectiveness? Read Six Keys to a Terrible Professional Marketing Strategy.
Tony Bettencourt, one of my closest friends, is the chef/owner of Sixty2 On Wharf, an award-winning, Italian-inspired restaurant in Salem, MA. I always enjoy hearing him talk about his visits to other Italian restaurants he respects because, while the chefs might all draw from the same list of fine ingredients from this one particular part of the world, each outcome bears the unique stamp and flavor of the chef that created it.
I’m thinking about this as I write a recommendation for Winning the Professional Services Sale by Michael McLaughlin. My area of focus is selling and marketing professional services, so, when I opened the book, I felt like Tony must feel when he walks into another Italian restaurant. This is my area. My tastes are discerning. I can be picky and I’m easily turned off by sloppiness, lack of talent, and underwhelming execution. On the other hand, I’m open minded (at least that’s what I tell myself), and I’m always waiting to be pleasantly surprised.
Definitely in the second camp with Winning the Professional Services Sale. Michael McLaughlin has done a fabulous job. Full disclosure: Michael writes for my publication, RainToday.com, and we’ve known each other professionally for a number of years. You can bet, however, that if he wrote a bad book I wouldn’t be talking about it here on my blog.
Here are five things I like about Winning the Professional Services Sale:
Everyone in professional services at one time or another thinks, “We should run our own seminars!” When folks call me for advice or help about running seminars, they’ve often read some book about how easy it is to get started with seminars, generate attendees, and make lots of money.
In my experience, there are more “first time, out of the gate” failures than successes, and it all starts with misconceptions about what it really takes to make marketing with short seminars successful.
So we at Wellesley Hills Group and RainToday.com have produced the Short B2B Seminar Planning Starter Kit. Above, you’ll find the video that goes along with it, featuring the dulcet tones of narrator Mary Flaherty, our research and content development manager. The rest of the kit includes the following tools and topics:
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