Marketing Your Consulting Services.pdf - epiheirimatikotita.gr

140
The advantage of prospecting is that you have more control over the organizations
with whom you will explore business opportunities.
Luick tip . . .
Set aside one full day each month for researching potential new clients.
Make a date with yourself on your calendar, just as if you were working
with a client. Accept no phone calls; and if you are at the library, do not
call in for messages. You will find it easier to stay focused and will be
surprised at how much you accomplish.
Who Ya Gonna Call?
How will you decide whom to call? You may have already decided to contact specific
organizations that meet your criteria and with whom you would like to do
business. List those organizations. Remember what I said in the last chapter about
going after large organizations. This is not the time to be shy, timid, or modest. Go
for it. Are you thinking that Microsoft is too large? Perhaps Harvard is too prestigious?
Or General Motors is too impenetrable? Don’t let size, prestige, or reputation
scare you. The people who manage organizations need good consulting, no
matter what the size. You will invest the same amount of time marketing to large
organizations as small. However, the payoff may be much greater.
As I stated in the last chapter, larger organizations have larger consulting budgets,
they generally have a greater need, they are more likely to hire for repeat work,
and they are often willing to take a risk with new consultants. Don’t be intimidated
by the size. To whom do you want to provide consulting services? If you hope that
your image is respected by larger organizations, this may be a great opportunity
to test it.
It’s unlikely that you will be able to easily identify a large number of clients and
even more unlikely that you will have adequate knowledge about them. How do
you do this? Let’s examine a five-step prospecting process, which is shown in Exhibit
7.1 and described below.
PROSPECTING PROCESS
The five-step prospecting process in Exhibit 7.1 is the one I have used for over
twenty years.
Marketing Your Consulting Services