Marketing Your Consulting Services.pdf - epiheirimatikotita.gr

keting, authors Ries and Trout claim, “If you can’t be the first in a category, set up
a new category that you can be first in.”
When ebb associates first started in the late 1970s, we decided to offer customized
training programs. We had no idea whether the niche we had chosen was
unique. This was a time when the giants were selling training programs accompanied
by videotapes and training manuals. Videotapes were created with a huge
budget and training materials were designed generically to use in many organizations.
Trainers were scripted and activities were timed. It was a time before PCs
and easy tailoring. In fact, I remember using a Kroy headline machine that was like
a giant typewriter on which we typed titles on clear tape and pasted them on paper
to create large title pages and headers for overhead transparencies. Desktop publishing
was a dream of the future.
Indeed, it was a time when the concept of customization was too difficult and
too costly—at least for the large training consulting firms. A small company like
ebb associates could focus on one client at a time and offer a special service, customizing
exactly what the client needed. We offered the service and clients hired
us. One of the most finely customized training programs we designed was a time
management module for janitors on a specific ward in a hospital.
How did we know there was a need? As a trainer, I had heard complaints from
participants for years that they could not transfer what they learned in training
sessions. How, they would demand, could they be expected to transfer examples
from a candy bar manufacturer back to their job as an environmentalist? The training
gurus of the time were adamant that the required skills were the same, so the
transfer of skills should be natural. We decided that no matter who was right, learning
would not transfer to the workplace if the learner did not believe it would.
Richard Bach’s quote in Illusions sums up the situation, “Argue for your limitations,
and sure enough they’re yours.”
So the niche we had chosen met the criteria for potential success. There was a
hole to fill. The industry leaders were not filling it. Clients were asking for the hole
to be filled. And it appeared that a small company like ours could accomplish fast
delivery of the service. This was a recipe for success and it launched ebb associates
quickly.
You, too, can position yourself and create your own niche. Use this process to
discover where your competition is, what potential clients want, and how you determine
your own niche.
External Assessment: How Do Your Competitors and Clients Stack Up? 45