Category Archives: Marketing Examples

“More than half the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list were launched during economic downturns.”— “The Right Stuff,” by Alexander Stein, Fortune Small Business, September 2009, page 27.

I love people who tell me they are hosting a radio show or a TV show. That almost always means they’ve allowed their ego to be captured by some wise guys who are charging them to “host their own show”!

In an electronic age, why not spend nothing and be more effective than poorly appealing to an irrelevant audience that really isn’t there? Here are nine steps to killer email:

1. Use your own list of people who know something about you. Don’t purchase “stranger lists” if you are trying to sell consulting services, which is what I’m talking about here. A small, quality list is always better than mere quantity.

2. Create a great subject line. “Special offer” is not as good as “Unique opportunity” or “Five ways to attract talent that most people are missing.”

3. Personalize the opening and make it immediately enticing: “Jane, you’re a respected professional and valued client (friend, professional colleague, etc.), and I’ve thought of something that makes great sense for your career (profession, company, plans, etc.).

4. Offer real value, but simply. Provide a quick list, explanation, idea—something to show value in the early going.

5. Don’t send them away or make them work. People are not going to follow links, and may not even open attachments. Stick to a brief email.

6. But have a call to action on your part or theirs. I prefer that you follow up with them. Tell them you’ll be calling at a specific time on a set date (and invite them to respond if they prefer another time). When you call, say that “I’m calling as promised.”

7. Spread it out. If you have a list of, say, 50 people, send out ten every other day. Don’t make it onerous on yourself, and give yourself time to make the follow up calls. This also allows for personalization and will greatly increase the tendency to read the message.

8. Include a brief testimonial. “Jim Smith at Sigma Engineers said that he was overjoyed that I contacted him about this, and has already found two new people with no fees. You can reach him at….”

9. Keep tinkering. As people respond, eventually ask what was key in the email to make them amenable, and constantly improve the content and format as you hear patterns.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

I’ve published here previously research done by McGraw-Hill underscoring the wisdom of investing in promotion, development, and so on during a recession, and why such companies outperform those which hide under a rock. Thanks to Mark Smith, a member of my Million Dollar Club, here is another great article from The New Yorker on the topic, and why Kellog out-cerealed Post, among other fascinating examples:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2009/04/20/090420ta_talk_surowiecki

You ought to be citing these resources to your clients who claim it’s a bad time to invest. They’re afraid of wrecking the boat, but in the meantime they’re missing the boat.

It’s astounding to me how much consultants spend on marketing that not only need not be expended but is pretty useless, and how many simple, inexpensive activities with high impact are ignored.

Interested in reading on?

Here are examples of wasted time and money—poor ROI:

• Third parties who claim to market you or include you on some list or site. These people simply make money from your subscription or membership, and besides, this is a relationship business, not conducive to selling through lists. Would you buy services this way? Many of these groups make outrageous claims, have shills give testimonials, but can be found on various “rip-off” web sites where victims tell the tale. Do you choose a doctor or attorney from a list, or from personal references and having heard that they’re good?

• Search Engine Optimization, the mythical “SEO.” The people making money here are the ones helping you to achieve SEO. In the consulting business, buyers don’t troll the Internet searching for consultants or key words. They act on word-of-mouth and reference, and use your web site to investigate your credibility and expertise. You’re not selling toasters or time-shares. Save your time. Web site “hits” are irrelevant. You only need one good hit.

• Long hours on social media platforms. I’ve written about this here recently: http://www.contrarianconsulting.com/what-price-glory-orcan-we-get-some-air-in-here/. I don’t care about the exceptions who “claim” they are doing six figures on Linkedin. If you are a consultant working with corporate clients and prospects, that’s not where to spend marketing hours (I don’t care how many leisure hours you spend there, it’s your time). I’ve found utility in social media platforms, but not in place of far more effective marketing pursuits.

• Indentured servitude in return for “exposure.” When you work for free or peanuts, people often learn of your arrangements. You’re also clearly seen as a performing seal—you’re there to please the crowd on behalf of someone else.

• Self-development programs with people who do nothing but self-development programs (usually featuring multi-page letters of benefits, testimonials, and “money back” guarantees). Has the person who will be in front of you actually done, personally and successfully and continually, what you want to learn to do better? Or do they merely provide advice and coaching or, worse, are a representative of someone providing advice and coaching?!

Here is what you can do to thrill people with your marketing and achieve huge ROI:

• Return your calls and emails properly. If you can’t call or write back because you’re currently with a client, or traveling, or on vacation, or whatever is consuming your current attention, that’s not great focus, that’s a learning disability. Simply get back to people quickly and you’ll not only start the relationship process earlier, but they will get an idea of how responsive your are. (When I used to routinely call people back from Hong Kong, they were astounded. The call cost about $20. Calling back from a beach in St. Barth’s, believe me, is not a hardship.)

• Orient your marketing materials toward the client, not you. Your credentials and methodology are unimportant. How the client is improved is important. Do you have case studies, typical client results, and a buyer-friendly web site, collateral, and conversation? Do your testimonials talk about how great you are or how great the client results are?

• Learn business etiquette. In the Million Dollar Consulting® College I’ve often had a segment on social etiquette. In the preparatory work, participants would remark, “I have no needs in this area,” and treat the session lightly. Then they would use the wrong bread dish at dinner and hold their knife as if playing a role in “MacBeth.” Buyers can be turned off when you act as if you’re new in the big city.

• Learn the language of the sale. Use language correctly, confidently, and cogently to turn aside buyer objections and focus on the next step in the process. It’s really that simple. Influence is about language. Language controls the discussion, the discussion controls the relationship, and the relationship controls the business.

• Associate with people who ARE master marketers, and with whom you can see the evidence to support this. Don’t copy them, but do appropriate the techniques that work for you (so long as you don’t plagiarize or steal). There are people out there obtaining great consulting business right now. Why them?

Why not you?

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.

Too many consultants are thwarted when the buyer says, “Sounds interesting, I think you should talk to our human resources director (or training manager or whatever).” That’s not the time to ask directions to the HR department, but to say any of the following:

1. I’m happy to do that. In my experience, I often hear ideas and intent not consistent with your own. So it’s very valuable to debrief on my meeting. What’s the best date and time to schedule our getting back together?

2. This is a strategic decision, not something that HR has the means or capability to decide. They need marching orders on this from a comprehensive business perspective, and that can only come from you.

3. If they haven’t been able to address this issue internally yet—and obviously they haven’t or you wouldn’t be talking to me—why is it useful to involve them at this stage?

4. They are the executors and implementers for a portion of this, and I’m happy to work with them at the proper time. But right now we’re formulating what the project should achieve and look like.

5. If this is perceived as an “HR project,” it will fail. This must come from line leadership, as initiated and supported by you. It’s your team.

6. Every HR department has credibility problems, political preferences, and certain blind spots in terms of the daily operations. It’s not a good idea to burden a new project with those liabilities.

7. I guarantee you that HR will tell you to delay, study, and otherwise make this project more complex than it needs to be. Let’s tell them what to do to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

8. Anything you try to do through HR will wind up to be more expensive, more time consuming, less credible, and include two dozen of the latest fads, academics’ books, and buzzwords. People will recoil from that, or see it as “this, too, shall pass.”

9. Does your HR leadership regularly sit in on your senior meetings with your team, with policy initiatives, or with strategy formulation? If not, then they would be dysfunctional participating in the formulation of this project.

10. I deal with the person who has the fiduciary responsibility to make investment decisions and evaluate ROI. Ethically, I need to understand your expectations to ensure that I can help to meet them and to ensure they are reasonable. Those needs and this relationship cannot be delegated to a third party.

You cannot name for me, in the last ten years, ten human resource executives promoted directly to CEO positions in Fortune 1000 firms. You can name line vice presidents, actuaries, general counsels, CFOs, COOs, and myriad others. There is a reason for that. Don’t go there.

© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.