Marketing Your Consulting Services.pdf - epiheirimatikotita.gr

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But I’m Not a Large Business
Not being a large business is not all that bad. What do you think you lack that large
companies have? Well, money, time, and expertise for starters. Let’s consider each.
Money Money is relative. The larger you are, the more money your company
needs for everything, including marketing. Are you aware that there are many marketing
things you can do with no money? Yes, that’s right—$00.00. You may not
be able to afford a thirty-second ad on Super Bowl Sunday, but you can probably
afford a stamp to send a prospecting letter.
It costs very little to write an article and send it to a magazine. It costs a few
cents to make prospecting phone calls. It costs nothing but the overnight package
to respond to requests for proposals. It is free to call a satisfied client and request an
endorsement. Newsletters can be designed, written, copied, and sent for less than
a dollar each. It is free to clip articles from your local newspaper or business journal
about local businesspeople and send them.
Time We all have the same amount, yet none of us thinks there is enough. If you
have read the first five chapters of this book and have completed all the exercises,
you will breeze through developing a marketing plan. After that you simply need to
be disciplined enough to complete each item when you are supposed to. Remember
to delegate portions to others. My staff has always helped with brainstorming
ideas for our holiday mailing and the theme that would accompany it.
Many marketing activities do not take much time—especially if you have a marketing
calendar to follow. It can act as a to-do list and you can check off items as
they are completed. For example, you will probably read your business journals
anyway—why not read them keeping in mind which clients would appreciate receiving
a copy of one of the articles? If you have greeting cards available, it takes
very little time to dash off a note and send it to a client. You need to eat lunch anyway;
why not eat it with a client?
There are other things you can do to save time. For example, when you are developing
your plan, one thing you can do is to stick with a narrow niche by targeting
just one industry at a time. For example, you might focus on the banking
industry this year and then add the communications industry next year. This allows
you to concentrate on one area of research, one area of networking, and one
area for submitting proposals to speak at conferences.
Marketing Your Consulting Services