Marketing Your Consulting Services.pdf - epiheirimatikotita.gr

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start profiles for them. I encourage you to focus on fewer than twenty companies—
especially this first round. Trying to keep track of more than twenty can become confusing
and frustrating—which is why you have the profiles to summarize the information.
Therefore, continue to sift through the list of names, continuing to maintain
fewer than twenty. In addition, if you begin to collect many magazine, newspaper,
or web articles that you want to keep, begin a file for each company. I find these files
handy later when I have an appointment to speak with someone or when I write a
proposal for a project for the company. One last thing about your research—don’t
keep everything. Prioritize what you believe you may use and toss the rest.
Step 4. Compose a Letter to Each of the Organizations
You’ve researched your twenty top candidates. Now how do you reach them? You
could just make a phone call and speak to someone. That’s called cold calling and
usually isn’t much fun. Articles about selling suggest that you must make one hundred
phone calls to find ten people who will speak to you. Of these ten, two will
agree to meet with you, and one will purchase your service or product. Since consulting
is an expensive service, I’d bet that the odds are even greater. That doesn’t
sound like fun to me. There is a way to warm up your sales calls. And that’s why
you have worked so hard at your research.
Once you have gathered all your information, you will compose a letter to each
client. Each letter will be customized for each organization. A sample prospecting
letter is included in this chapter (Exhibit 7.4). Be sure to read them to understand
the flow of the content and to get a sense of the climate they are meant to establish.
It may sound like a lot of work, but once you are in the rhythm the letters will
flow off your pen (or out of your computer). If it still sounds like a huge amount
of work, remember the one hundred cold calls to schedule two meetings. Besides,
even if you do decide to go the cold call route, you will need to conduct some research
before your meeting to have maximum success. The person you meet with
will expect that you know something about the company. You will be able to rely
on the folders you have created.
Letter Composition It will be most effective when the body of your letter addresses
three different but connected content areas. As you compose your letter, think in
terms of these three questions: What’s important to them? What do they need that
you can provide? And what can they expect next?
Marketing Your Consulting Services