Author Archive

What Makes Marketing so Hard?

“Marketing is hard.” That’s what we independent professionals tell each other, anyway. At meetings, workshops, and online, wherever entrepreneurs gather, the difficulty of getting clients is a frequent topic. There’s certainly some truth to this statement. [...]

5 ways you are probably sabotaging your own sales effort

For the past nineteen years, I’ve been asking self-employed professionals to tell me the most effective ways they know to get clients. No matter where and when I ask this question, their answers are always the [...]

Friday Faves: How much do you love your prospects?

Does it seem strange to use the word love when referring to a business relationship? Substitute another word if you prefer — “like,” for example, or “respect.” However you want to express it, the point is [...]

Publish or perish

When you place a call to a prospective client, does the person you are calling already know your name, even if you have never met? When new clients are referred to you, do they often say [...]

If you want to get clients, you’ll have to talk to them

“I’ve done everything I can think of to get clients,” a desperate self-employed professional wrote to me. “I launched a website, I had a brochure designed, I’ve been sending out mailings, and I’ve placed all sorts [...]

Avoiding the feast or famine trap

It often seems that it’s the destiny of the independent professional to exist in a constant state of feast or famine. Either you are working day and night to keep up with client demands, or you’re [...]

MARKETING WITH THE 80/20 RULE

You know about the 80/20 rule, right? It’s the guideline that 80% of your return comes from 20% of your investment. For example, 80% of your referrals come from 20% of the people in your network. [...]

Your market niche: An essential key to success

How important is it that you have a clearly defined market niche for your professional services? Can’t you simply make yourself available to work for anyone who might need you? Doesn’t having a niche limit you [...]

Networking: more than just chatter

“I spend a lot of time networking, but I don’t see many results from it.” I hear this complaint frequently from independent professionals who are hoping that their networking activities will produce clients. It used to [...]

Cold Vs Warm: What’s the right marketing temperature?

Are cold calls a good idea or a complete waste of time? What about pitching business via letters and emails — does writing to strangers pay off, or should you focus on contacting people you already [...]

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