Marketing Your Consulting Services.pdf - epiheirimatikotita.gr

Listen.
Listen to whom? Everyone. The president, CEO, CIO, CO, receptionist, administrative
staff, training director. Listen to the participants. You’ll learn how you can
better serve them, things you need to know about the organization, and tidbits that
you probably shouldn’t know. You’ll also hear information that will give you an
excuse to talk to the person who hired you or people who should hire you. Listen
to secretaries. They often know more about the organization than anyone else.
They’ll remember the thank-you note you sent the next time you’re having trouble
tracking down their bosses.
And finally, don’t depend on your brain. Keep records, to-do lists, files, tickler
files, notes, note cards, Post-its, and calendars.
Marketing can be this natural. But you must do it.
A MARKETING PLAN FORMAT
A marketing plan can become quite complex, using marketing jargon, formulas,
and lots of analysis. Some of the ones I’ve seen have a heavy emphasis on the word
“plan” and little emphasis on “implement.” If you are a small consulting firm, you
know that it is important to plan, but you must also not become paralyzed by
planning.
The eight easy steps to a marketing plan displayed in Exhibit 6.1 are somewhat
unconventional, but they are realistic. They require that you do some assessment
and analysis. They require that you know some of the jargon. But marketing is
a combination of intuition and logic. This process forces you to complete the
assessment and analysis and then encourages you to be creative and to trust your
intuition.
The eight-step format will move you through the process comfortably. It will
ensure that your final marketing plan does what it is supposed to do—get your
name out there! Let’s examine what you might include in each step.
The eight-step plan is expanded here to help you with the actual writing. I suggest
that you pull out your notes from the first five chapters, put the outline on
your desktop computer, and begin filling in the words as you read each step. Don’t
get hung up on wording, spelling, and grammar. You will become discouraged. Just
move quickly through the steps, filling in thoughts and ideas as you read the next
few pages.
Your Marketing Plan: Can You Market on a Shoestring Budget? 113