Do you play checkers or chess?
* Attend a networking event and expect to generate business
* Invest thousands of dollars in direct mail and expect horizons to relate passionately to your services
* Treat vendors poorly by not paying them on time or not communicating with them in time
* Misunderstanding the differences between advertising, PR, and promotion - and what they can and cannot do for your professional service company
* Minimize the importance of meeting your customers' perceived needs (i.e. what they think they need) versus what you know they need
You play chess when...
* Understand that there are right customers and wrong customers for your company, depending on where you want your company to be in one, two, or five years - and that your definition of "right" will change over time
* Consider what the right types of customers look like for your company and then carefully develop a roadmap for all marketing activities that are in line with your definition of "right"
* Use a combination of carefully designed "touches" to convey your relationship pipeline from Stranger, to dating, to Friend, to Lover, to loyal partner. We look forward to six steps forward, rather than the next one. Whether it's developing your website, deciding which committees or network groups to join, whether you should invest in a particular part of the marketing guarantees, or where to publish your following article... Chess players see the links between today's marketing decisions and their impact in the coming months and years. For a game plan to avoid checkmate, try these things:
* Consider where you want to be in 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 36 months. Select the big steps to get you there. I organize my actions through the theme of the month. For example, in 6 months, I want to be good at developing an online platform to launch subscription-based marketing tools. So January and February are the search months. I'm attending two connected conferences to quickly assess the latest methods, make some good contacts, and expand competition.
* Your time is precious, so why waste it on marketing activities that do not fill your pipeline with the right types of prospects? Decide how or whether to invest time in a particular work (communicating, developing a booklet, sending thank you notes, writing a newsletter, giving a lecture) based on how it corresponds to attracting attention from the right types of prospects. I recently joined a steering committee because in addition to loving the cause you support, I will be exposed as a leader of my target audience.
* When proceeding after contact or initial introduction, you are not close to making the sale. The game just started. Make your goal to learn more about the other person's condition so that they feel comfortable because you correspond to their needs. The transition from Stranger to Knoainance to Friend to Lover takes many "touches," including telephone conversation (conversations), face-to-face meetings (meetings), email, sending it to your website for excavation (because you stored it full of valuable freebies), seeing you at work as a speaker, or reading about you in the press Put a predictable system of "touches" in place and run everyone through it.
* Place a huge target "out of reach" and then connect the dots to reach it. In 2005, I was monitoring the penetration of certain major organizations and the creation of partnerships for the national distribution of my marketing educational programs. I imagine what these relationships look like at the end and I'm taking much smaller steps and an "actionable" process to get there now. These include attending conferences where I can meet the main contacts I have already identified (and where I will get the ground to speak next time), and moving the wheels for a series of books (the final business card!) To build credibility and exposure, experience local prototypes (where the sales cycle is shorter and there is not much expensive travel to make the sale), and slowly build a strong relationship with VIPs before jumping on the gun.
Are you ready to play chess? Move you!