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Marketing for Consultants on A Shoestring

I am in San Diego presenting at Performance Technology Group Conference on May 30 and attending two conferences through June 3. Back in the office on June 4. No new posts until then.

What You’re Missing: Instant New Profit With Current Clients presented by Lewis Green, Author/Consultant, L & G Business Solutions.

Here is a taste from my presentation:

Easy Things You Can Do Today to Market and to Stay in Touch with Current Clients, to maximize leads and referrals and to get more of their work.

1. 1. Engage your clients at least quarterly. Research tells us that clients forget about us after two to three months.
2. If you engage them with sensitivity and respect for their time, but more importantly, by offering value, they will appreciate your efforts and not see you as intruding on them.
3. Use a contact manager, a customer relationship manager or sync your contacts with Plaxo Pulse. The key dates to enter after the primary contact information are your clients’ birthday and anniversaries. Send them an electronic card on these dates, signed with your name, your company name and anything new, such as the name of your new book, new products and services, new product versions and so on.
4. Your clients will appreciate your attention, it is easy to do, and will not be seen as interruptive.
5. Create a client distribution list and every month or at a minimum every quarter send the list either a newsletter or a thought paper. You will get about a 20% open rate.
6. Use an online system such as Vertical Response or Constant Contact, track who is reading, and send those people thank you notes and let them know how much you appreciate their business.
7. Understand social media—blogs, vlogs, podcasts—and social networking—LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse and Facebook—and how it can benefit you by providing free but valuable content, by keeping you in touch with peers and clients and by having a presence where referrals and leads are easy to give and receive.
8. Network, network and network some more where you will see current clients and, of course, meet new clients. Talk with them about their lives and their business, not yours. It’s always about them, not us.
9. Take your best clients out to lunch once or twice a year. Again, talk with them about their lives and their business, not yours. It’s always about them, not us.
10. Be personable, conversational and never, ever sell when you are providing information or networking.
11. You won’t get many referrals and leads if you don’t ask. So ask! But ask when you are face-to-face, not through e or snail mail.
12. Don’t just ask for leads and referrals, give leads and referrals. In fact, giving them is the fastest way to get them.

Turn Your Presentation Into A Conversation

Last night I gave a presentation called "Selling to Small Business." It is popular and I have been blessed to offer my ideas through this presentation in both the U.S. and Canada. What I have discovered, and perhaps I am a latecomer to this idea, is that turning my presentation into a conversation is lots more interesting and informative for both me. the so-called speaker, and you the perceived audience.

It's a simple idea really. All it requires are tables and chairs: Remove the podium and dump the  PowerPoint. Here's how it works...

Instead of speaking to your audience, converse with them. If the group is small, say 25 or fewer, everyone can sit around the same tables by pushing a couple of rectangular ones together. Everyone, including the speaker, sits around the tables. Then make it known that you can be interrupted at any time with questions, comments, ideas, and counterpoints. The presentation soon goes from static to dynamic, and everyone owns the ideas.

If the group is large, the challenge becomes more difficult but not impossible. Everyone should be seated at round tables, with a copy of your presentation's messages as bullet points, so the main ideas can be shared easily, quickly and simply. The speaker presents for a few minutes, maybe 15, goes over the highlights of the presentation, and then turns the discussion over to each table. We can number the tables and label these table discussions as breakout sessions. After a half-hour or so, each table reports back with their thoughts and ideas and from there the conversation ensues for the remaining time.

This is called giving up control of a presentation and creating a conversation. It's like social media. At the end of the day, we can learn a lot more from many voices than we can from one.

Writing and Delivering A Winning Presentation

Tomorrow finds me in Toronto making a presentation to a small business that is new, fresh and, like all of us at first, looking for answers to lots of questions. I will be sharing my thoughts on "Selling to Small Businesses," a presentation I developed because small businesses represent my client audience and most of my client's customer audience. For my firm to serve our clients well, this is a topic we need to be well-versed in. And writing a speech on the topic is one way for us to get better at what we do. When we deliver this topic, one of our goals is to learn something new from our audience. It is a presentation I have made throughout the U.S. and now Canada, but one that I always try to customize for my audience.

When we are asked to present and accept, we take on a huge responsibility and obligation to the client who hires us. We owe it to them to exceed their expectations and we owe it to ourselves and our client to customize the presentation to meet our client's and our audience's needs, no matter how often the topic has been delivered. We do a disservice by dressing up an old presentation by simply putting a new bow on it. Every audience is different and every client has somewhat different wants and needs. It is our job to drill down to find the diamonds.

Once I clear the business part of my presentation--agreed-upon fee and expenses, I send the client a list of questions to help me customize the presentation. They vary but generally look like the following:

1. How do you see yourselves today? Where are you strong? Where are you weak? What do you most want the attendees to learn?
2. What does your ideal client or customer, or in the case of a conference or event, your attendee's ideal client or customer look like?
3. What three things do you most want to learn or discuss?
4. Where do you want to be in five years? Ten years?
5. What do you think I can bring to the table? What do you expect me to bring to the table?
6. Why do you want me to present on this subject?

In writing the questions, I first research the business, event, conference or professional organization to get a sense of their goals, wants and needs. I then write questions as specific to them as possible, unlike the general questions above.

My next step with the presentation is to edit it. It is important to note that I prepare canned speeches on subjects that fit my firm's experiences and knowledge, and then get the word out that we speak on those subjects. (For example, while I am delivering in Toronto, our Art Director is delivering a presentation of "Design that Sells" in Connecticut.) Once I receive an invitation, my job becomes editing and customizing the asked-for presentation so that it is aimed at the audience. Therefore, once my questions and research are completed, I begin the customization (editing) process. It looks something like this:

• Create stories specific to the audience's goals, objectives, mission, profession, business and ideal clients and customers.
• Edit the three to five large messages to address the audience's expectations. Although the messages don't change, the way we communicate those messages does, based on the audience.
• Create a pace, tone and style suitable to the audience. (e.g., Marketers and sales people lean toward impatience, so I use short sentences, blended with bullet points, numbered lists, short stories and questions. Engineers want details, so their presentation looks the opposite.)
• No matter the audience, build passion into the written presentation and the delivery.
• We are hired because we have an opinion. Express it liberally but authentically and without arrogance or defensiveness.
• During the delivery, watch your audience and make quick changes in your presentation based on their response. If they are attentive, no changes may be necessary. If they are staring down or off to a corner or fidgeting or grimacing, put your mind to work and come up with a different style and new stories on the spot. With practice, this becomes a natural process.

Again, delivering a speech or presentation requires us to address the wants and needs of our audience. We have a responsibility and obligation to work to exceed their expectations. Being in front of an audience should not puff up our sense of self; that will lead to disappointment and a less-than-stellar performance. And good presenters are also good performers: They demonstrate a passion for their topic and their audience. Lesson to be learned: It is always about them, not us.