Marketing Your Consulting Services.pdf - epiheirimatikotita.gr

The Tightwad Marketing list in the next section is one I’ve been carrying around
in my head for a long time. It was fun to put it on paper in this chapter.
Make Money Marketing is another list that just didn’t quite make it to any other
chapter, but you may wish to think about some of the items.
“ebb’s 13 truths” (Exhibit 12.2) has been around for a long time. I put them together
as a presentation for our company’s first off-site retreat. They were meant as
an overview for employees who had never been consultants. We initially used them
as discussion starters. And I frequently use them in conference presentations. Until
I wrote this book, I was unaware of the strong marketing focus each item has.
This chapter also includes several actual marketing plans. They do not present
the assessment, but the plans help you see the direction the consultant wants to
take. They also demonstrate that a few well-chosen ideas can provide a direction
and focus for a consultant.
And of course, I end with “one last thing.”
TIGHTWAD MARKETING
I suspect that this list has been formulating itself in my mind for nearly a quarter
of a century. I have always had to do more with less, so being a tightwad comes
naturally. Tightwad marketing requires more imagination than finances.
1. Don’t hire a marketing firm. You can create great ideas. Just let your imagination
flow. Or use some of the creativity techniques in Chapter Eleven. In
the case of a holiday gift, forget developing the theme first. That’s the way
everyone else does it, but it’s harder that way. Select the gift you like (and can
afford), and then come up with the theme by brainstorming words or
phrases. For example, a lighted magnifying glass could support a theme such
as “finding something,”“help with your big problems,”“magnifying the best
of...,”“light up your...,”or others.
2. Make what you can’t afford. We wanted to send fortune cookies with customized
messages. We learned that they would cost almost $1 each. We decided
we could do it at a better cost. We bought the fortune cookies, used
tweezers to pull the old fortune out, and inserted our own, all for less than
30 cents each.
Lists, Plans, and Last-Minute Advice: Where’s Your Opportunity? 251