The Contribution Factor

Over the past few months I've been re-thinking everything about Action Plan Marketing. And during the past two weeks, over the Holidays, I've worked at re-branding my business.

For years my message has been: "Marketing for Independent Professionals who are struggling to attract clients." Up to this point this message has served me well.

However when I looked at the ideal clients and customers for my products and services, I realized that this message was outdated.

One of the ideas that I've always emphasized was that the key to effective marketing was to make a contribution through your marketing. This was also the foundation of the InfoGuru Manual.

Making a contribution, providing value, and making a difference is the most powerful and effective approach to growing your business. It's what builds credibility and trust and draws prospective clients to you without force or manipulation.

This is our new brand: "Marketing for professionals committed to making a difference."

I've written a report called "The Contribution Factor" that shows exactly how to use this principle to grow your business. This is the report that all new More Clients subscribers will receive.

The first part of this report is below and you can download the complete report at this link:

www.actionplan.com/thanks_contrib.html

The Contribution Factor

We all want to make a contribution. In fact, it’s the thing we want more than anything else. When we’re making a contribution, we feel that we matter, that what we do makes a difference, an impact. When we are making a contribution, we feel fulfilled, successful and powerful.

If you’re a consultant, coach, trainer, speaker, writer, therapist or other professional service business owner who is focused on helping individuals and organizations develop, grow, change, evolve, improve or transform, your business is all about making a contribution.

All you wanted to do when you started your businesses was to make a contribution - to your clients and to the world. And you spent a lot of time studying your profession so that you could make your contribution real.

You wanted to be as good as you could be. And you knew that if you strived for excellence, your impact would be greater and that you’d be both successful and fulfilled.

But has it turned out like that?

Perhaps you’ve done well working with clients, helping them produce results, and even getting paid well for those efforts. But pretty early on in your business you may have realized that the most challenging and daunting activity in a business was not making a difference with your clients but in attracting new clients.

Maybe clients came in slower than you had expected and you had no sound strategy to attract more of them. And because of this, you’re not making the contribution (or the money) at the level you know is possible.

For many self-employed professionals (also known at Action Plan Marketing as Info-Gurus), their primary marketing strategy is to do great work for their clients and then pray for referrals!

But, other than referrals, very few Info-Gurus have the know-how or skills to bring in new clients consistently. Even ones who have been in business for some time tend to resist, if not detest, marketing and selling activities.

Therefore, it’s not unusual that many very talented Info-Gurus who are committed to making a contribution, find themselves thwarted because they are only working with a limited number of clients and they don’t have a reliable strategy for attracting more of them.

This often leads to frustration, struggle and discouragement. And this isn’t the case just for new business owners. It’s not unusual for established Info-Gurus to also struggle with marketing.

Perhaps they do all right; they make an okay living and enjoy working with and contributing to the clients they do have. But underneath they have the nagging feeling they could attract more clients if they could only find a way to market their services more successfully.

The question is, how?

Continued here: www.actionplan.com/thanks_contrib.html

You can both read and/or listen to this report.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: The most powerful approach to marketing your professional services is to focus on making a contribution - not just to your existing clients but through all of your marketing activities. Make sure to read the full report to learn how to make The Contribution Factor work in your business.

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How have you used The Contribution Factor to market your professional services? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Comments

[Cynthia Hallanger]

Robert,
This subtle, but significant, shift in perspective and direction is really exciting. I get it! And more importantly, I understand how prospects will get it, too.

The contribution piece really is what drives our passion and keeps us out there in the game.

Thanks so much for everything you do, from your heart, for all of us.

Happy New Year!

Cynthia Hallanger

[Pamela Slim]

I like the new direction Robert!

One of the things I have liked best about you over the years is that I see you care the most about contribution, not just making money.

So this fits who you really are, and what you have been doing with Action Plan for the last quarter century.

And at the same time it will bring you more of your ideal clients. Nice!

Happy New Year to you and your family. I am very happy to have your wisdom piping in every week to help my business, and contribution, grow.

-Pam

[Craig jennings]

I've created a weekly mailer of inspirational sayings - lots of nice feedback.

but I'm a business coach, and nothing happens until I have a business relationship.

I need to generate business case histories, either as a newsletter or blog or both.

Best,
Craig Jennings