By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing
Below is an email one of my Marketing Mastery Participants, Josie McLean from Australia, sent to me last week. I think it really goes to prove that if you put your marketing into action and persist, great things can happen. She sent this to the members of the Mastery Program and I got her permission to share it with you.
"Yesterday Robert and I had my 1:1 session. The amount of business in my business was drying up. A number of projects that I had put a lot of work into hadn't come to fruition and I was starting to wonder what was wrong with me.
"Robert and I talked about taking some more proactive steps into the 'leadership for sustainability' market and developed a plan to do that. On the way, we discussed an audio logo that sounds like this: "I work with businesses wanting to be more sustainable". (Seems so obvious doesn't it? But my version was embedded in the process not the outcome.)
"So, I hung up the phone and took a message from someone who had been trying to reach me while I was talking with Robert. It was a government organisation I had done a tender for (an advertised request for a proposal to undertake specific work) ... I have never won a tender process in my life, but I had enough time to write the proposal, so I did.
"I sent the tender in over a week ago and never expected to never to hear anymore about it. The phone message was asking me to visit the organisation and talk to them about my proposal and meet the HR people. So I am short-listed.... that's nice. I have probably moved from 1:50 chance to 1:5 now. I arranged the meeting and hung up.
"I started getting ready to leave for a networking luncheon and my phone rings again. Its the CEO of an organisation I have been discussing some work with for awhile. I really had gained the impression that the project, long-term and important to me as well as the client, would not go ahead for various reasons.
"But his call was to let me know he remains enthusiastic and just needs to smooth the way organisationally. We discussed this for a while and I committed to providing an overview of the work to assist the process. Wow... things are looking up!
"Now I am late for the networking lunch I had planned to attend. I get there as quickly as I can but the event has started and I have been bumped off the table I should have been on - and placed onto what I thought of as a 'leftovers' table right at the back of the room.
"I am little down in the mouth - possibly even grumpy about this. Anyway, I decide to make the best of it and I enquire with the woman next to me about who she is and what she does.... She is an influential person within an organisation that may be quite interested in my sustainability work.
"I use my new audio logo when she asks me what I do... "I work with businesses and organisations seeking to become more sustainable," I say. She asks, "How?". I reply that "I work at the intersection of leadership and sustainability - assisting to implement sustainability through leadership and appropriate change processes..."
"She lights up! Then she immediately starts writing in her little book and asks for a businesses card, and would I be willing to meet with her and another person from her unit? They have been looking for someone like me but didn't think I existed!
"Of course, I ask for her card and permission to send an article I have written that she may be interested in....
"Further around the table I notice a woman I have met once before. She was in the audience when I gave a presentation about 18 months ago - she has overheard and leans over and says "We must have a coffee Josie... I want to know what you are doing now".... So I have emailed her today with some times that work for me....
"Well, how things can turn around... for no apparent reason! I guess the secret is to keep persisting. And although things were looking a bit sad, I had committed myself to continue working at it... persevering really. Working through "The Dip" (Seth Godin's book).
"Then one more thing... This morning, the prospective client you had all helped me develop thinking around, gets back to me and indicates they would like to work with us...."
This was a 'blue-chip' organization she had spent considerable time with, preparing a proposal etc. and that never got back to her. She had all but given up on them. It's a big, 3-year project.
So one day, two new pieces of work, some potential work and two people interested in knowing about her services. If you make a commitment to your marketing, take the steps necessary and persist, this is the kind of thing that happens!
Visit Josie's web site at: http://the-partnership.com.au
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The More Clients Bottom Line: Don't assume you know what prospects are thinking and what's gong to happen until it happens. Too many of us give up on marketing or do it half-heartedly, when right around the corner may be the next client ready to start working with you.
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Do you have a story of a project you'd given up on that came through anyway? Please share your answer on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below.
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