The More Clients Blog

Strength Through Collaboration

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Has 2009 been a great year for you or a tough year?

What happens in bad economic times is that the weaker businesses fade away. They just don't have the persistence and staying power to succeed.

On the other hand, the stronger businesses take a tough economy as a challenge and find ways to thrive.

These businesses take risks, they innovate, they work on their marketing and they focus on customer service to keep their existing clients delighted.

They also collaborate.

I've declared collaboration to be my marketing and business theme for the year 2010. But what exactly is collaboration and how can it help your business? And what things can you actually do to collaborate?

Collaboration is defined as: "the action of working jointly with others on an activity, esp. to produce or create something."

What you're doing is working with associates, partners and even clients to create something you wouldn't have created by yourself.

And collaboration creates synergy. That is, one plus one doesn't equal two but five or more. The power of collaboration adds energy to any undertaking and tends to propel things forward.

Here are some ways you can collaborate this year.

Co-Coaching

Two heads are better than one. Everybody knows this, but as an Independent Professional, it often feels easier to go it alone. But what if you could team up with an associate?

For the past two years, I've met with my friend and associate Patrick Summar once a quarter, and we help each other with our businesses. For a full day we mastermind, brainstorm and coach each other. It's resulted in great results for both of us.

Find someone whose talents can compliment yours. I help Patrick with marketing plans and Patrick helps me with systems and structure in my business.

Affiliation

Does one of your associates, or even one of your competitors have a service or program that you don't offer? Why not help them sell this service and get paid a commission? Every month I earn from $3K to $5K in affiliate commissions.

I simply mention my affiliate partners in my eZine every week. And once in awhile I send a special email to promote the services of one of my affiliate partners. If your partner offers quality services or programs that you don't, why not?

Partnering

Perhaps you offer a business service to a certain target market. Why not partner with other professionals who serve a similar market and do co-promotion?

One of the members of my Marketing Mastery Group is putting together a group of "trusted advisors" to serve his clients. He's a management consultant and the partners are an attorney, accountant, business broker and estate planner.

They'll be putting on seminars and inviting their current and potential clients to attend. The clients of each partner become the potential clients of the other partners.

Summit Meetings

Why not put on a "Summit Meeting" of your most creative business associates and clients? In an interactive, collaborative environment you'll get to know each other better and explore ways to work with together on projects.

This isn't something you can do by conference call. Getting together physically and letting the chemistry happen can lead to places you can't imagine.

I'm doing an InfoGuru Summit Meeting at the end of January with the professional experts I've interviewed for my Marketing Club. For a weekend we'll make new connections, brainstorm, and emerge with new business collaborations for the new year.

Mastermind Groups

These groups can be done by teleconference or in-person. The format is to meet regularly - weekly, bi-monthly or monthly and support each other through idea and resource sharing.

My experience with groups like this is that everyone starts to put out ideas of things they've wanted to do but didn't have the confidence to start. With the support and encouragement of the group, new projects get launched, many with great success.

Those are just a few of the ways you can collaborate.

I encourage you to make collaboration a centerpiece of your business in the coming year. You can only get so far by doing things all by yourself - especially in a tough economy. Who knows how far you can go if you creatively work together with others?

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Collaboration makes your business stronger. It helps you discover new ways of doing things and new avenues of expansion. When you lend support to others and receive support yourself, business also becomes a more enriching and fulfilling experience.

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How are you planning to collaborate in 2010? Please share ideas of successful collaborations. Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

One More Thing

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Last week I challenged my subscribers to let me know "Just One Thing" they do to consistently to market their businesses. I got a lot of answers with many excellent ideas but there was one that really stood out.

John Paul Engel was the clear Winner. He got a complimentary 3-month membership in the Marketing Club. He more than deserved it!

One Weekly Action That Transformed John's Business

Every week I volunteer at a local middle school in the poorest area in my town. I teach leadership and public speaking to the kids. When I began doing this a little over a year ago I had no idea it would totally transform my business, my marketing and my life.

One day a 13 year old boy got up and gave a speech about how he wanted to be an engineer, but he didn't know any engineers. I thought, "That's a need - I can help him!"

I gathered some questions from the boy, I asked a college student, and I came up with some questions myself. We also asked an engineer, and he was happy to help. When I gave the answers to the young man he loved them. He was that much closer to his dream. His teachers told me he was more focused in school and his homework had improved.

I thought: "I know lots of successful people, why don't I do this for all these kids?" So I went out and got advice from Ph.D.s from Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge, graduates of Tokyo University, Stanford, London School of Economics, and the University of Chicago - some of the smartest, most successful people in the world, and I gave it to the kids.

The class was so inspired that I decided to turn it into a book and give it away for free. Everyday I give this book away for free to any student, parent, teacher anywhere in the world who wants it. All they have to do is download it from my website at:

www.projectbethechange.com

In a couple of weeks I will be giving away 2,000 copies of the book to area students.

You might be asking, "Fine, John - its nice that you are doing such a good thing but how is it helping your business?" My answer is in several ways...

1. Each book gets my name out there and makes people aware of my business

2. Because of the book I am getting high profile speaking engagements

3. A local TV station did a story profiling me, as did the University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni magazine

4. One of the contributers in the book referred me to an RFP worth tens of thousands of dollars

5. I am building a list of successful people and of people who downloaded the book

If you help someone everyday in whatever way you can, you will supercharge your marketing. A portion of every dollar I make in my business I now reinvest into "Project Be The Change" and this helps me help more students.

It's a wonderful virtuous marketing cycle!

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The More Clients Bottom Line: I hope you are inspired by John! His one selfless weekly action ended up transforming his business and his life. John just didn't go through the motions; he put his focus where there was a need and it mushroomed into something that will benefit thousands of people - and his own business in the process.

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How are the contributions you are making to the community not only making a difference, but transforming your business as well? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the comments link below.

Just One Thing

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Every Monday I do just one thing in my business to move it forward. I write this eZine.

That's certainly not everything I do on Mondays, but for over 12 years I've set this time aside to communicate with my subscribers.

What difference has this made?

It's transformed my business to one that was struggling to meet the rent every month to one that is financially abundant. There has been no recession for Action Plan Marketing.

And it's also made me a better coach and consultant.

When we think of marketing, we think of all the thousands of things we could do. And yes, there are thousands. But that is simply overwhelming.

The good news is that you don't have to do thousands of things to market yourself. You don't even have to do an eZine. But you need to do a least one thing religiously every single week (and sometimes every day). This is what forms the foundation of effective marketing.

So I'm going to keep this eZine very short today.

The question is: What is one thing you'd be willing to do every single week, perhaps every single weekday to market your services?

Not ten things or even five things, just one thing.

And for those who are already doing this one thing, I'd like to hear from you and the difference it has made in your business.

You can write me back or post on the blog and I'll reprint some of the things you are doing.

The best one gets a free copy of the InfoGuru Manual, or the Web Site ToolKit, or a 3-month membership in the Marketing Club (your choice).

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Pick just one thing to do weekly in your marketing and make a commitment to do it for a whole year. If you do, I promise you'll transform your marketing and your business.

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What is that one thing? Let me know! Please share on the More Clients Blog:

Client Satisfaction or Delight?

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Here's what most business owners don't get:

It's not enough to satisfy clients, you need to delight them. The good news is that this really works. The bad news is that it takes more thought and effort than the average business owner is willing to give.

I recently went on a vacation to Sedona Arizona, as I mentioned last week. Well, Sedona itself certainly delights. It's a natural wonder and the spectacular red hills, desert pants and breathtaking hiking trails don't need any marketing help.

But it's a different case with the restaurants.

I'd like to compare two for you.

The first night we went to Hiro's Sushi. Like most Japanese restaurants, the food quality was excellent. Everything tasted great and the portions were generous. We enjoyed our meal. They were definitely giving us satisfaction for money spent.

But the place was the definition of boring. They had taken over from another restaurant six weeks ago. The previous restaurant had bad food, so at least they were an improvement. But other than putting in a sushi bar, not one thing had changed.

They were just marking time. Just getting the food out there. Nothing special. It could have been any other Japanese restaurant in the world. As they say, nothing to write home about.

Then a couple days later, on a recommendation, we were sent to a Mexican restaurant called Elote.

The location wasn't too exciting. We had to wait an hour to get in. But when we did - ay caramba! This wasn't an ordinary Mexican restaurant. In fact, it was better than any restaurant I'd been to in Mexico.

The dishes were indescribable, but I'll try. Their signature dish is called "Elote" which consists of roasted corn scraped off the cob and then mixed with mayonnaise and spices. Beyond belief.

We weren't that hungry, so we ordered appetizers. There was more food than in most main courses. I got chicken mole tacos and my wife got shrimp tacos. The sauces were unbelievable. I can still taste them.

The service was also spectacular. We felt we were the most important guests in the world with a waitress who appeared to be the most cheerful person on the planet.

Now that's what I mean by delighted.

When you go to Sedona some day (and you must!) what are you going to check out first, Hiro's or Elote?

Wish they delivered to Boulder Creek!

www.elotecafe.com/

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The More Clients Bottom Line: If you're only satisfying your clients, I promise you, it's not enough! These days people want even more value for their money. You have to delight them, go the extra mile and provide more than service, but an experience that is memorable.

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How do you delight your clients? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Launching a High-End Service

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

What if I told you that *THE KEY* to growing your business and multiplying your income was creating, developing, launching, and selling high-end services and programs?

Well, it is.

In my Mastery Marketing Program this is all we focus on. In the past few months, my group members have successfully developed and sold many high-end services by following the plan below.

Two of our members got clients worth over $1 Million each. Many others are gearing up to market and sell high-end programs in the next few months. Others are having the best months ever in their businesses.

But it doesn't happen by itself. It takes a plan and very consistent follow-through. Let me share the basics of this plan.

High-End Service/Program Launch Plan

1. Create and Develop a New High-End Service or Program

This may be the hardest part. This is the equivalent of product development. You need to know your ideal clients, their needs, the results you can deliver and the structure of your service or program. It can't be another "me too" program.

Ideally you want to develop what I call an "HEOB" - High End, Outcome-Based Program. These programs offer much more value and tend to require a larger commitment from the client. They are also more expensive, but they pay for themselves many times over. Could you offer such a service or program?

2. Write a "Marketing Letter" for Your Service.

You can't just let people know, "Here's my new service, are you interested?" You need to build a solid case for it by writing an in-depth letter for it. This includes the purpose and benefits of this service, with a detailed outline of the deliverables and structure.

Usually this letter will be online on a web page. Don't think people will read a long letter? They will, if it communicates true value, not hype. You need to tell a complete story to convey the value.

3. Pre-launch Your Service/Program

Utilize email announcements, social media, teleclasses, intro workshops, and talks. You want to generate interest in what you're offering before you actually launch the service or program.

For instance, let those on your current list and your existing clients know about this new service. Direct them to a web page where they can sign up to join a list to learn more. Give them value just for checking out this service, such as a complimentary teleclass or intro workshop.

4. Launch the Service/Program on a Pre-announced Day

Let people know that there is limited space in your service or program (because there is). And if you offer a high-end program, have people apply for it, not sign up for it.

If you have dozens, or perhaps hundreds of people anticipating the launch of your program, you'll create both excitement and urgency. Many more people will want to learn about the details of this program they've been hearing so much about.

5. Conduct Strategy Sessions

If your program is $2,500 or more, have prospective participants apply and offer them a "Strategy Session" to explore whether or not the program is for them. In this session you'll discuss their goals, challenges, and opportunities, and explain exactly how your service/program works to produce results.

This is the exact opposite of high-pressure selling (which you hate to do anyway). Instead, you put a high value on your services and have low-key conversations with those who have self-selected.

Of course all of these steps need to be customized for your particular audience. But the basic approach can be used to offer high-end services to everyone from solo-preneurs to multi-milllion dollar enterprises.

I don't want to pretend that putting these five steps into action is easy; it's not. But if you really want to take your business to a whole new level, you can't keep marketing your services as you have in the past.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Marketing and selling high-end services or programs takes more than jacking up your prices, it's positioning your services to not only appear more valuable, but actually delivering more value. In hard economic times, one strategy is to lower value and prices. But this is not a long-term sustainable practice for your business.

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What's your plan to launch high-end services this coming year? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Pricing in Tough Economic Times

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Today I met with one of my Marketing Mastery Program participants, Dave D., for his monthly coaching session. Dave is having a banner year with the fourth quarter numbers looking very, very good.

Dave shared how he had just implemented an idea he had learned in the program.

Dave just pitched a $25,000 project to a client, but he got a little pushback. With the recession, and budgets being tight, they wanted to know if they could get a better deal.

These days, many of us would find a way to knock off a few thousand, go the extra mile and hope this would translate into more work down the line.

But this would be a mistake.

This is something I learned from Alan Weiss years ago. If you are asked to reduce your price, you need to make a corresponding reduction in the value you provide.

And that's exactly what Dave did.

He went down the list of the twenty or so things included in the proposal and suggested they cut back on a few of them. These were things they could for themselves quite easily.

So this cut back Dave's workload with his client and he was able to cut $5,000 off the project. The client readily agreed and signed a $20,000 contract without delay.

Another variation of this, which fits well during tough economic times, is to offer three options for every proposal you submit: Deluxe, Standard and Basic.

Again, Alan Weiss emphasizes that it's better to have a choice of yeses instead of a choice between yes and no. This way your clients are still able to take advantage of your services while maintaining some control over their budgets.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: In recessionary times it's more important than ever to offer you clients some choice. But if they can't afford the full fee for your services, you must cut back the scope of the projects. If you don't do this, it's an automatic invitation to keep pushing the price down while your workload remains the same.

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How are you pricing your services these days? Please share on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below:

Action Plan Marketing Survey (And Club Membership Drive)

I got lots of very useful information from the survey I posted last week. I'll be reporting on this in more depth later, but let me give you a few highlights.

Most Important Area of Marketing - The area that got higher scores than any other were challenges with marketing messages and branding, Each got about 44% of you saying these were important to you.

Biggest Marketing Challenges - The areas that got the highest scores were things like time management, procrastination, lack of focus and perfectionism. Dislike of marketing had a very low score, proving that just getting it done was the bigger issue.

Programs and Services - The kind of programs people said they wanted most were hands-on, how-to type information programs such as teleclasses with transcripts, e-books and other tutorials, including actual marketing samples.

The Marketing Club Addresses all of these.

I'm going to do a second round of this survey soon to zero in more on some of these areas. However, the survey was a validation of what I'm currently offering in the Action Plan Marketing Club.

1. The Club has a big focus on marketing messages and branding, with several expert interviews and other material to help with this important area that is at the heart of marketing.

2. We also put a lot of focus on getting things done, including coaching calls and mastermind groups to support members in moving forward on their marketing activities and projects.

3. The primary materials in the Club are audio and written tutorials on specific marketing strategies with lots of hands-on and how-to information and examples.

So I know I'm going in the right direction with the Club and will continue to support and enhance these areas.

Marketing Club Membership Drive - If you haven't yet checked out the Club, you can do so for one month for just $1.00. Then the fee is only $29 per month, for which you get over $250 worth of tutorials, coaching calls, expert interviews, mastermind groups and more, each and every month. Go to the link below and note the "Membership Drive" link at the top of the page.

http://www.ftmprogram.com/amember/signup.php

The Arrogance Trap

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

I have to admit it. I'm arrogant.

I think I know everything, how to do anything and of course, what my clients and customers want.

I also have to admit I've been kind of lucky.

I've developed a lot of services, programs and products that have been very well received. Because I fit my "ideal client profile," I just think about what I would personally like and I create that.

But even that has its limits.

After all, there are infinite possibilities. When I was creating my Client Survey this weekend, I was amazed to see that I came up with a list of 28 different areas of marketing Independent Professionals could use.

In addition, I came up with 17 different kinds of programs, services and products. Right now I'm only offering three.

Last I checked I wasn't psychic, and although I think I know my subscribers, customers and clients pretty well, the truth is that I have no real idea what people are most interested in.

So I'm asking you to take a minute and fill out this survey and let me know. APM Survey

Ever overhear a conversation that went something like this:

"I can't believe they (added/removed) those features of that (service/product). Why didn't they just ask me? I've been using that (service/product) for years and I really know exactly what would make it better! Don't they care??!!"

But in our businesses, do we ask? Do we care? Or are you arrogant like me, putting together your service packages and programs, just trusting your "gut instincts" that they'll be right?

I actually did a survey last month for my Marketing Club.

I asked what people were using in the Club and what they'd like to see more of. I had no idea. People wanted more step-by-step how-tos. People wanted more support. A blinding flash of the obvious.

So I created detailed step-by-step checklists and added mastermind groups. We now have over 100 people in the Club who've joined a mastermind group. And it took very little effort on my part to set them up.

I still have a long list to work on...

It's funny how we know about something, have heard about it for years, and yet for some reason (must be that arrogance again), we don't check it out and give it a try.

The great little tool I knew about but never used was Survey Monkey. It's easy to use, free or very cheap, works flawlessly and makes it effortless to set up a survey. I did it from bed on my laptop on Saturday morning!

The theme of my eZines for awhile is "Marketing Strategies" and getting feedback is most definitely a marketing strategy. It's one I've personally avoided for years, but now I'm a convert.

And like all true believers, I want to convert you as well!

Ask yourself what useful data you could get from your subscribers, customers and clients if you did a survey. After all, if you can provide more of what they're looking for, isn't your business going to be better off?

Of course!

What could be more important in a down economy? Find out what people want and turn yourself inside out to provide it as quickly as possible. Developing most services takes some time but not a lot of money, so it's a low risk project.

Next year I think my main programs are still going to be the Marketing Club and the Marketing Mastery Program but when I get the results of the survey, I know I'll be creating a few more things to help you attract more clients.

Don't forget that survey: APM Survey

I'll share the results with you next week.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Find out what your subscribers, customers, and clients want by doing a survey. With a handy tool like SurveyMonkey.com you can develop a survey in a very short time and get some brilliant ideas that will help take your business to the next level. Do it!

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What kind of changes have you made in your business as a result of doing a survey? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

The Best Marketing Strategy?

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

What is the most powerful and effective marketing strategy?

It's one you probably know about but seldom use. However, this is something you should pay close attention to and work on implementing as soon as you can.

This marketing strategy is so powerful because you use it to borrow the credibility and trust of another to promote yourself.

People call it different things: endorsement marketing, fusion marketing, affiliate marketing or joint venture marketing. Let me explain in the simplest terms how it works and how you can apply it in your business.

1. You first need to have a solid, proven service that produces consistent results for your clients. And you have to have this service well packaged (outcomes, benefits, structure, price, etc), ideally on your web site.

So, for instance, "coaching services" or "consulting services" usually won't cut it. Instead, you need a "One-Year Marketing Mastery Program" or a "Six-Month Management Intensive." You've taken the intangible and made it tangible.

2. Next you need to find others who have a client base who could benefit from this service. You might be in the same industry, however your service can't be competitive, but complimentary.

Start networking, search online, subscribe to eZines, and keep asking the question, "Who do you know that I could partner with in my business who could promote me or visa versa?"

3. You work together to create a marketing campaign with the endorsement of your partner to his or her list (which could include your email list, your customer or client list, etc.)

Targeted emails, online sales letters, introductory events, teleclasses and complimentary sessions are all tactics that work for joint venture promotions.

4. Finally you develop and implement a conversion process whereby those who respond to the promotion are converted from prospects into paying clients.

Ultimately, you'll turn joint venture marketing into a system that can be repeated over and over to consistently win more clients.

And of course, you can do this process in reverse. If you have a good list, you look for those who have a complimentary program or service that you can offer to those on your list.

You should be doing both. And if you're not, you are missing out on a lot of business. Every single month I earn from $2K to $5K on various joint ventures and affiliate programs and I don't even put much time and effort into it.

A joint venture needs to be a triple win.

You win because you get more business. Your partner wins because they share in your profits as they offer additional value to their clients and associates and of course, the clients win because they get the benefits of the service you offer.

This past weekend I attended an "Internet Networking Summit" with Christian Mickelsen and about fifteen other online information marketers. We got to know each other, discussed our offerings and brainstormed ways we could help each other.

It was great to meet others who had complimentary services I could offer to my More Clients subscribers as well as those who could promote my programs.

The first one I want to make you aware of is a virtual conference called "Bridging Heart and Marketing." It's billed as the "First-Ever Soft Sell Internet Marketing Conference."

Jim and Judith, the couple putting this together, are therapists who are now involved in the world of online marketing for Independent Professionals. We have almost identical philosophies about marketing and I endorse them and this virtual conference without reservation.

You can find out more about it at this link:

tinyurl.com/heart-marketing

You'll be hearing more about Joint Venture marketing in the More Clients eZine, and I'm excited to introduce you to some great people and services that can help you attract more clients.

The question you should keep asking yourself this year is: "Who could I Joint Venture with?" If you put some serious focus on this, I predict it could be your most powerful overall marketing strategy.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Joint Ventures offer a triple win that can benefit everyone involved. But the key is to develop real relationships with those you work with, people with high integrity and excellent business skills. This isn't about pitching dubious fly-by-night money-making schemes. That will only hurt you.

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What joint ventures are you thinking of doing this year? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Building Trust with Marketing Strategies

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Last week I outlined the three main marketing activities to attract new clients:

1. Marketing Message
2. Marketing Strategies
3. Selling Process

As I think I may have done marketing messages to death in this eZine, I'll be focusing on Marketing Strategies in several upcoming More Clients.

A Marketing Strategy is an activity that gets the favorable attention of an ideal client for your service and builds enough trust that they will want to explore doing business with you.

Remember, a Marketing Strategy doesn't sell. Only the Sales Process can do that, but it can prepare the ground by building that trust.

One of the biggest areas of confusion in marketing is which marketing strategy to use and in what order. This is solved by this chart on Building Trust Through Marketing Strategies:

There are four primary ways to build trust that are represented in the first column: Visibility, Credibility, Intimacy and Reliability.

And then for each of these categories, certain marketing strategies are employed. You want to implement one or more marketing strategies for each of these categories. This is not what is usually called the "marketing mix," which is only a random implementation of various strategies.

It's really a system designed to build trust step-by-step. Let's look at these categories one at a time.

Visibility - The primary marketing vehicle here is written (and graphic) materials. This forms the foundation of your marketing as it simply gets your name and message in front of your ideal clients on a consistent basis.

This includes your web site, blog, ezine, articles, and social media such as Twitter. It also includes things written about you (P.R) and even advertising.

Most professional services businesses should do a little of all of these. The hub is your web site which is connected to your blog. More active outreach is your eZine, Twitter and articles posted online.

Often this is as far as Independent Professionals go. Visibility starts to build trust, but not completely. Just think, do you buy a product or service after seeing an advertisement or someone's Twitter tweets only a few times? Of course not.

And the solution isn't to do more and more of this. The solution is to move to the next stage of building trust, by increasing Credibility and that's through presentations.

Crediblity - A presentation is any opportunity you have to communicate your ideas or the value of your service to a group, in an audio and/or visual format. Talks, intro workshops, keynotes, teleclasses, webinars, podcasts, CDs and video all build your credibility.

But it's also hard to do this if you don't have the feeder mechanism of an eZine, blog or social media.

The combination of Visibility through written materials and Credibility through presentations is often enough to get an ideal client into a selling conversation. But it often takes an additional step that is more personal.

Intimacy - This is the big "X Factor" in building trust. When you meet and connect with someone in person, you convey things that can't be communicated through the written word or through presentations.

You've seen this happen hundreds of times. You meet someone and they tell you about their services. Their enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment build almost immediate trust.

This is why all Independent Professionals should also take advantage of opportunities to network, meet with prospects face-to-face, follow-up with teleclass participants by phone, attend conferences, brainstorm and mastermind, etc.

When you implement all three marketing strategies you create Marketing Synergy. The result of marketing synergy is Knowing/Liking/Trusting. When you are at that point, it is relatively easy to set up selling conversations with ideal clients.

There is one last step that may be the most important of all. It's actually the one that the majority of Independent Professionals rely on more than any other. This is Reliability, which is conveyed only by working directly with a client.

Your efforts to provide quality, consistent work, to keep your word, to follow up as promised and to communicate clearly and confidently can also be seen as marketing strategies.

After all, it's Reliability more than anything else that is responsible for clients referring new business to you. No matter how well you do with the first three, you can undermine all of those efforts if your degree of performance falls short.

In the next few weeks, I'll discuss specific marketing strategies in all four of these categories.

Thanks to Mark Slatin of www.truecolorsconsulting.com for his trust model and for being the inspiration for today's eZine.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: When you think of marketing strategies, you need to remember that their ultimate purpose is to build trust. These marketing strategies can be broken down into four distinct categories that build this trust step-by-step.

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Which category of marketing strategies do you need to work at implementing next? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Basic Marketing Machinery

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

For quite a long time I've been focusing on the interior aspects of marketing your services, from making a contribution to marketing mindset to "big mind marketing."

As important as these topics are, with this issue of More Clients, I'm returning to the "Basic Machinery of Marketing."

Like any machine, marketing has many moving parts. And if you want to attract clients consistently, you need to understand how those parts work and interconnect.

Every Marketing Machine has three main parts:

1. Marketing Message

2. Marketing Strategies

3. Selling Process

Marketing Message

If a business was a person, this would be your name, your personality, your body type, your thoughts and feelings, in short this would be who you are.

Your Marketing Message includes the kind of clients you work with, the issues those clients deal with, and the solutions you offer to them.

In addition, this would include all your verbal and written marketing communications that conveyed all of the above. The job of these communications is to say, in essence, "This is my business, this is who I work with and how I help."

In order to attract clients, your Marketing Message needs to be crystal clear, cut through the noise and offer clear advantages and benefits of working with you.

So your Marketing Message is not a trivial thing.

It's the very heart and soul of your marketing. Think of it this way: If you don't know what your business is all about and are unable to express your message clearly, do you think your prospects will ever understand what you can do for them?

Marketing Strategies

Without Marketing Strategies, your business just sits there, hoping someone notices. Even if you have a great Marketing Message, you won't get much attention because you aren't putting this message out into the marketplace.

Most Independent Professionals use tactics more than strategies. That is, they do marketing activities in a haphazard, random way. A little networking here, a little social media there. This rarely gets the results you wish for.

If you want consistent results, your Marketing Strategies need to be designed and implemented as step-by-step action plans. The purpose of these plans is to systematically build relationships with prospective clients until they feel comfortable exploring working with you.

Marketing Strategies don't convert people into clients, they build a foundation of knowing, liking and trusting. And then you can move to the final stage of marketing, the Selling Process.

Selling Process

When a prospect is ready to explore working with you, the Selling Process starts. Essentially this is a conversation to see if the needs of the prospect match your abilities to fulfill those needs.

Selling isn't about manipulation, persuasion and closing. It's more about discovering if you can work together successfully or not. This is particularly true of professional services where selling is a process of discovery and building agreement.

About three quarters of the Selling Process is asking questions and learning about the prospect's situation, goals, and challenges. The other quarter is explaining how your services work and how you can help the client.

What most Independent Professionals miss in the Selling Process is the process part. There are many parts to this process, and if you want to succeed at it, you need to master each of these parts.

What's missing in your marketing?

These days, many Independent Professionals tend to worry about the pieces of the puzzle (twitter, blogs, ezine, teleclasses, etc) while missing the big picture of marketing success.

Do you need to work on your Marketing Message, your Marketing Strategies, your Selling Process or all three?

In the coming weeks I'll explore these three parts in more depth.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Nothing is more important to attracting clients to your business than understanding and implementing "basic marketing machinery." And the more you work on its three main parts, the easier marketing will become for you.

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What part of your marketing machine needs tuning up? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.