Why
marketing is a lot like baseball and
how this can help you attract more
clients!!!
By Robert Middleton
Not Attracting
Enough Clients? Here's Why.
You're not attracting
enough clients to your business for a very simple reason. You're not doing
the right things.
Not only are you not
doing the rights things, you actually think you know the right things you
ought to be doing. You most likely think you should be doing more
networking, have a better web site, and do more speaking engagements. You
think you need to "get out there more."
But those are not the
right things. After all, you've tried all of those things to some degree,
haven't you? If they really worked, how come you're not doing them
consistently? If they worked they would bring you all the new business you
needed. Right?
No, doing the right
things first means understanding how the marketing and sales process
actually works and then following a proven system for attracting new
clients. Perhaps one of the best ways to look at this is through the game
of baseball.
To win at baseball you
need to do a lot of things. You need to throw the ball, hit the ball,
catch the ball and run. Pretty simple, right? But consider this: I can
take a bunch of people and put them on a baseball field and have them
throw and hit and catch and run and you don't necessarily have a baseball
game going on. You just have a lot of activity that leads nowhere. You get
some exercise but that's about it.
And that's how most
Independent Professionals approach marketing! They get on the field of
business and do some networking and calling and mailing but not a whole
lot happens. They certainly aren't playing the marketing game. Because if
they were, they would be attracting more clients than they could handle.
In baseball you'd never settle for those kind of results. Why would you
settle for it in something that's responsible for your livelihood?
Playing
"Marketing Ball"
Now interestingly,
baseball is not only a good analogy to marketing your professional
services, it's an excellent model to use. If you want to win at
"marketing ball" you need few things:
1. Knowledge of how the
game is structured and what the rules are.
2. The skills to play
the game.
3. An organized plan
to play and win.
1. The
Structure and Rules of the Game
Click
here for a more detailed model
The object is to start
from Home Base where you don't have a client, go all around the bases and
then get back to home again where you have secured a new client. The
number one rule in baseball and also in "Marketing Ball" is that
you have to touch each and every base before you get to home plate. If you
miss a base you're out of the game. Here are the steps:
Home
Plate Objective -
You have
identified your Core Marketing Message and what game you're going to play.
You can't play marketing
Ball until you are crystal clear about what you are selling and who you
are selling to. This sets the foundation for everything else that follows.
Who are your ideal clients? What problems or issues are they facing? What
results are they looking for? And what is it about your service or
approach that is going to interest them and make them remember you?
Once you're up at home
plate you then need to pick your game. To go around the bases you can use
several vehicles. You can use networking, speaking, publishing, direct
outreach or a number of others. Which game you play determines the moves
you will make on the playing field. And the great thing about marketing
ball is that you can play many games at once. The more you play, the more
clients you can attract.
First
Base Objective -
The prospect
knows you exist. You have their attention and interest and they want to
know more.
To get from Home Plate
to First Base you need to get the
attention
of your prospective client. You do this through effectively communicating
an attention-getting message. This generates interest so they want to know
more. It all comes down to what you say when people ask you what you do or
what headline is on the letter or brochure you send or what title you use
for the talk you give. Words matter here.
The key to generating
interest is focusing on results, not process, benefits, not features,
stories, not concepts. Tell people what they'll get, not what you'll do.
One of the things you're doing wrong is talking about YOU. You need to
start talking more about THEM.
Second
Base Objective -
The prospect
sees you as a possible help and has identified both a need and a want that
you just might be able to fulfill. At this point they are ready to explore
working together.
To get from First Base
to Second Base you need to give them more
information,
in the form of an article or report or other valuable ideas that educate
them about your thinking, capabilities and results. You want to build a
case for your solution. Many miss this step altogether. The purpose of
this information is to warm up your prospect so that they will be willing
to meet with you and discuss their needs.
Realize that it
sometimes take a LOT of information to move from first base to second
base. That's why marketing isn't about one-shot deals but about building
long-term visibility and value. Keep-in-touch marketing strategies such as
newsletters, eZines and invitations to presentations will keep the
information flowing. Sooner or later you'll get to second base.
Third
Base Objective -
You have agreed
in principle that working together is the right thing to do. The
conceptual sales has been made. Now you're ready to finalize the deal.
Getting from Second Base
to Third Base is the whole "selling
conversation."
This is where you talk to the prospect and determine needs. You explain
more about what you do. Your present ideas and solutions. You work at
coming to a conceptual agreement about how you can help your prospect.
Ideally, marketers are
never trying to convince prospects to do business with them. Instead they
are in effect saying to the prospect, "You already understand the
value of my services, now lets discuss if these services are right for you
or not." Smart marketers are able to do this because they've built up
trust through the information they've provided. Nobody wants to discuss
business with a complete stranger with a great idea. This is why so many
get tagged out early in the game.
Home
Plate Objective [$core] -
You have a
win-win contract or agreement and are ready to move to implementation.
Getting from Third Base
to Home Plate involves negotiation and wrapping up the deal. You're not
complete until you've put together a proposal and gotten agreement from
your prospect that you will proceed with the work.
The key here is to
structure a win-win agreement that will ensure that the expectations of
the client are met while getting them to take responsibility for the
success of the project. How to do this will be covered in chapter eleven.
And of course, the more
times you get around to home plate successfully, the more success you have
in your business.
Dugout
Objective - You
have performed in such a way for the client that they refer a continuous
stream of new clients to you.
After you round the
bases to home you go back to the dugout. In our analogy, the dugout is
where you take care of your client. Performing for the client means all
the big things like doing a great job and adhering to the highest
standards of excellence and integrity. It also means paying attention to
the little things like returning calls, staying in communication and
handling problems immediately.
The work you do in the
dugout is often the most important marketing step of all. If you don't
meet or exceed client expectations your business will never gain the
momentum that comes from word-of-mouth referrals.
This model can be used
whether you're marketing your consulting or speaking services to a
multinational corporation or marketing your coaching services to a
one-person business owner. The point is to know which base you're on and
to do the activities appropriate to that stage in the marketing and sales
process.
Where You Can
Go Wrong
A lot of people tend to
skip bases. For instance, you want to go directly from home to second
base. You leave out the information base. This is what a lot of cold
callers try to do, or those who meet someone in a networking session. They
want to get right to the appointment and to the selling conversation.
Usually a big mistake.
You may have their attention, but you don't yet have their trust. By
providing more information you warm up the prospect. You prove that you're
credible and successful. If you try to hurry and get to second base too
quickly you'll get put out of the game before you know what's hit you.
Once at first base
people then try to get to third base too soon. This is skipping the sales
process altogether and jumping to the proposal or the close. It's all
happened to us. Before we have time to really warm up to what is being
offered, the close comes on strong and we get turned off. Again, you need
to be patient, listen to your prospect's needs, give them more information
and move naturally to the proposal or close.
Finally, many try to get
to home base from second base. This means they skip the proposal or close.
The purpose of this stage is to confirm understanding, work out the fine
details and handle any final objections. And you need to go at a pace that
works for the prospect. Sometimes the marketing and sales cycle is longer
than we like, but if you try to push it too fast, you'll be tagged out
once again.
Of course, once you get
to home base, you've arrived at a solid agreement to work with your
client. Now the work begins of performing well for that client.
You need to be patient
to make this process work. Don't skip ahead or you'll end up out of the
running when you're playing on the real field of marketing and selling
your services.
2. The Skills
to Play the Game
Now you know the basic
structure of the game. Like baseball, you can learn it in a few minutes
but it can take a lifetime to master. Essentially what you need is the
know-how to get from one base to the next as efficiently and as
effectively as possible.
There's a fair amount of
things to know and there are a lot of pitfalls and mistakes you can make
along the way. For instance, did you know:
• That speaking about your
services in terms of a problem is more powerful than speaking in terms
of a solution...
• That long copy in
marketing materials works a lot better than short bullet-pointed copy...
People may still be
interested in your services even if they don't return your phone
calls...
• When talking on the
phone with a prospective client you should spend more time trying to
"reject" them than convincing them...
• The very last thing
you should do is develop a proposal - but when you do it should hardly
tell anything about what you actually do...
You need to know how to
talk about your services, write about your services, turn interest into
appointments and appointments into contracts. Every one of these skills
consists of dozens of tiny details and, as you know, the devil is in the
details. Get something wrong and you're out.
But if you really know
how to play the game you can have several games going at once. If you
don't have the skills to play, you'll just be running and throwing and
hitting with few results to show and lot of energy expended. You'll get
frustrated and you'll probably quit, going back to relying on referrals
from satisfied clients. And as you know, this is rarely enough for a
viable, thriving business.
So how do you get the
marketing know-how? Information and practice (with a dose of trial and
error.) The information is readily available. The implementation and
practice are up to you. Nobody is going to do it for you. There are no
designated hitters in the game of marketing your Independent Professional
business.
However you can shorten
the trial and error considerably if you have detailed, how-to, hands-on
information that comes from experience. You can avoid costly mistakes and
take the right steps the first time.
3. An Organized
Plan
Like baseball or any
other game, you need to have a plan to win. Winning doesn't come by
accident.
• First you need to get
reliable, solid and proven information that shows you how to play the
game.
• Next you need to
develop a strategy to gain those marketing skills. You might do this
yourself or get a coach.
• Finally, you need
to plot out your various marketing activities and start implementing
them one by one.
Sounds simple, and it
really is, but it will take a certain amount of time, effort and
commitment on your part. It may be daunting, but if you don't take action,
you'll be in exactly the same place you are now a year from now. You need
to start somewhere, but where?
This article is by Robert
Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Robert's web site is a comprehensive
resource on marketing for Independent Professionals. For free marketing
resources and valuable marketing tools visit http://www.actionplan.com
