Marketing Your Consulting Services.pdf - epiheirimatikotita.gr

Asking “What if?” can be just as much fun and with the same kind of payoff.
What if your marketing problems were actually the solutions? DuPont Information
Systems found themselves in a situation of needing to provide more training
services that were increasing in cost with budgets that could not keep up. They
were paying more and getting less. What if their problem was actually the solution?
What if they paid more money? What if they paid more money to fewer vendors?
DuPont asked the question and initially saved $400,000.
Our office headquarters recently moved to Virginia after being in Wisconsin for
over twenty years. At first that looked like lots of problems: finding new support
staff, changing telephone service, alerting people of address changes. It seemed like
a never-ending list until we asked, “What’s good about the move?” Well, in addition
to that’s what we really wanted to do, it gave us a great excuse to personally
connect with clients and past clients we had not spoken with in a long time. What
a great marketing opportunity!
Your Challenge Think of something that is not going the way you wish it would.
Perhaps it is that you have fewer clients than you wish you had. First ask, “What’s
good about it?” Maybe you have clients that you need to get rid of because they are
unethical, don’t pay their bills, or are not profitable. Maybe this is an opportunity
to select the clients you want to have.
Now ask, “What if?” What if the problem was the solution? What if having fewer
clients gave you the time to develop some dynamite materials or write a book or
develop a knock-their-socks-off marketing campaign? What if those few clients
were actually the leads you needed to get your second tier of clients (because you
asked them for help)? What if having too few clients forced you to examine the
products and services you offered to identify others in greater demand? What
would happen to those few clients if you changed your corporate values and/or
philosophy? Create your own “what if” questions. And of course, answer them.
5. Transform Your Viewpoint
Seeing things from a different perspective is something we do daily and probably
should do more often. If we always saw things from our adversary’s perspective,
there would be fewer disagreements. You can transform your viewpoint from many
perspectives. Let’s examine a few of those possibilities.
First, as mentioned above, you can transform your viewpoint from negative to
positive. Or the reverse. If you were trying to determine the best marketing plan,
Marketing: Can It Be Fun? 229