Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, some clients have, on occasion, accused me of being "all about the money" and ignoring or downplaying the other (very) important parts of their business.

The bottom line is that of all the professional speakers, consultants, and professional services firms I've helped with their marketing strategy, tactics, and tools - 100% of them came to me with NOT ENOUGH focus on the money side of their business. Thus, their struggle.

Yes, I focus on the money... and so should YOU because money does bring you some very valuable advantages.

These include:

Power Bill Gates can do more good in the world than I can because he has a $37 billion charitable foundation. Money enhances your ability to help others.

Security When you attain financial independence, your money worries are gone for good, an enviable position to be in. Millions of Americans worry about money.

Comfort Money insulates you from hunger and homelessness, and ensures access to basic services such as heat, electricity, potable water, and health care— stuff we take for granted but millions worldwide lack.

Luxury For those who desire it, wealth allows you to indulge yourself, whether living in a mansion on the ocean, driving a Porsche, or dining on the finest caviar.

Freedom With enough money, you choose what you do, where and when you do it, and who you do it with…and never have to work at a job you hate because you need the cash.

"I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow."
-- Woodrow Wilson,
28th president of US (1856 - 1924)

As I was preparing for a marketing seminar last week, it occurred to me that there are very few people who know MORE than you do.

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, my clients and fellow speakers sometimes say, "Wow - you know so much MORE about marketing than me." And I guess I better if it's my life's work, right?

But they know so much more than I do about how to run a $2 million consulting business, how to operate a $50 million franchise, how to apply paint protection film to the front end of a Maserati, and how to design a build a LEED Platinum-certified office building.

POINT: Sure, I might know more in a particular area, but then YOU know more in different areas than I do (a LOT more probably!!)

So, perhaps a way to cross-pollinate ideas, surround yourself with "smart" people, and learn from your peers is to seek out NOT people that know MORE than you do - but to seek out people that know DIFFERENT than you do.

When's the last time you spent some time with a college professor? I live next door to two of 'em.

When's the last time you spent some time with a storyteller, actor, or improv comedian? Not to hear stories or jokes, but to exchange ideas and think WITH them.

Do you know the Guinness Book record-holder for balloon sculptures? I do. He's a great guy.

How about a puppeteer? Psychologist? PR guru? Web designer? Pastry chef? IT geek? Nurse?

Talk to these people. Seek out people that know DIFFERENT. Very few people actually know MORE.

What do you think? Ideas, comments, additions, rants, raves? Use the COMMENTS area below and let's hear from YOU. Yes, you in the blue shirt. Just click below and start typing...

Guest post by Chris Di Fonzo

It's true, where to seat a prince for dinner as a guest in my home, never became relevant.  Still, those professional etiquette workshops "the man" made me take had value.  Shake hands, even if someone is visibly sick?  Yes!  Lift your glass when being toasted?  Nope.  Arrive late for calls and meetings?  Obvious.

Then what gives?  Lateness, lack of follow up, and lack of formality are prolific today, even among enterprise consultants, salespeople, managers, and executives.  The worst thing about perpetually more casual behavior in business is it's a death spiral.  Business culture is organic, not static, and our daily interactions either raise the bar or push it down.

Entrepreneurs, freelancers, and creative independents, this is as opportunity to differentiate ourselves.  I'm calling myself out and asking you to join me.  Let's set the example by bringing back (a little) decorum.

Three basics to get us going:

1.     Say what you're going to do, and do it.  A simple formula – Learn it and live it.  Your word matters; treat it like a contract.  Think before making commitments.  Once made, follow through.

2.     Thank people.  Walt Disney was known for handwriting thank you notes daily.   Try it for your most important ones, it feels great and people remember.  Always formally thank customers and people who refer you business.  Failure to appropriately thank others is lazy and tragic.  (Self-disclosure: A little behind on thank you notes myself; I'm going to start catching up today.)

3.     Learn names and use them.  A dollar for every time you’ve heard, "I'm not good with names;" you’re a zillionaire.  Excuse, copout, laziness.  Make it a point to learn people's names and use them, it's fundamental.  The first rule to remembering names (and anything) is intent to remember.  When we care enough to remember, it's amazing how easy it usually is.

Why bother with decorum?  Many reasons, here’s one.  You represent your company, yourself, your cause, your town, your community.  Entrepreneur is a hard road, requiring more of us, not less.  Independence is not a reason for a lack of decorum; rather a responsibility to embody it.  Whatever your perspective on business etiquette, consider applying a little more protocol, formality, and decorum.  Represent.

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Simon Sinek wrote a great book called Start with Why. One of the key lines in it is...

"People buy WHY you do something before they buy your WHAT or HOW."

Meaning - People first buy your purpose, your intent, your WHY.

I'll make that even more specific - they buy WHAT YOU BELIEVE. And, perhaps most important of all, they buy what you BELIEVE IN.

Face it, beliefs are easy to spot. You either believe or you don't - you either believe IN or you don't. The proof of your beliefs is in your actions.

Which of these things do YOU and YOUR TEAM and your COMPANY believe IN?

• Being nice (Zappo's)
• Overdelivering (Nordstrom's)
• Helping others (Tom's Shoes)
• Joy (BMW)
• Design (Apple)
• Simplicity (In 'n' Out Burger)
• Gifts (Seth Godin keeps sending me books!!)

Want to make this abundantly clear to your prospects, customers, clients, partners, and the world?

Great! Post it - share it - let the world see your beliefs not only in what you SAY (like my marketing pal, Steve Miller has done so brilliantly here) but in your ACTIONS.

When it comes to small business marketing, only action creates results and only action proves your beliefs.

Just finished presenting for Steelcase to a group of really smart, entrepreneurial architecture and design firm principals and executives in Philadelphia.

When I asked them the overall purpose of marketing their firms, someone volunteered the notion that they want to become the "go-to guys" and "go-to gals" for their prospects and clients and the community of folks whom they serve.

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach to professional services firms, I pointed out exactly how important that was - especially in light of the fact that a survey of over 700 clients showed that between 52-72% of them would be willing to change professional services providers across a wide variety of industries. (Architecture and design was in the middle of the pack at around 60%)

For YOU, I'd like to raise the bar even further. Once you've successfully established yourself and your organization as the go-to resource... the key question becomes:

What do people GET when they GO TO you?

Do they get help, information, tips, actionable advice and a genuine thank-you for getting in touch?

OR... Do they get a sales pitch, a come-on, an invoice, a brush-off or worst of all - silence?

There's nothing worse than doing all the hard work to establish yourself, your team and your organization as the "go-to" resource only to blow it when prospects and clients ACT on your invitation to help them.

• For free...
• Because you care...
• And because you put their needs ahead of yours.  

When it comes to becoming the "go-to" resource, be careful what you wish for... Do it right and they WILL go to you.

Question is, what will they GET?

And will they come back for more or leave disappointed?

What do you think? Share your "go-to" guy stories, tips, and strategies in the COMMENTS section below...

I was going through my old files and came across some truly excellent thinking and writing about one of the most misunderstood and overhyped areas of my beloved marketing profession: branding.

Here, then, for your enjoyment is the real deal according to people that know a thing or two about the matter:

With 35 varieties of bagels, 66 subbrands of GM cars, and more than 13,000 mutual funds, American consumers are suffering a severe case of brand overload. Marketing speaker and marketing coach Peter Sealey has a tough-love cure: "simplicity marketing."
Read more here.

Take the Brand Challenge - "Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are trying to get ideas." -- Paula Poundstone
Read more here.

Be the Brand: Creating a meaningful brand goes beyond mere product presentation. It requires vision, leadership, and communication.
Read more here.

(Re) Brand You: This marketing expert and author will help you reboot yourself after a layoff.
Read more here.

What Great Brands Do: Marketing speaker Scott Bedbury knows brands. The man who gave the world 'Just Do It' and Frappuccino shares his eight-point program to turn anything -- from sneakers to coffee to You -- into a great brand.
Read more here.

Nine Ways to Fix a Broken Brand: The marketing excesses of the past few years left broken pieces scattered across the branding landscape. As a result, many companies are left with bogged-down, boring -- even dying and dead -- brands. Now take a look at your brand: Do you know what's broken? Do you know how to fix it?
Read more here.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts, comments, and rants in the comments section below...

How to Design a Client-Magnet Presentation

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I see too many speakers, consultants, and thought-leading executives who commit to a speaking strategy built around their professional passions, interests, or favorite topics within their expertise.

Sounds like common sense, right? Well, that would be a huge mistake. DON’T do it!

For your speaking efforts to pay off in terms of marketing results, you need to design the presentation content NOT around what YOU are passionate about, but what your buyers and prospects are passionate about!

Imagine a pair of X-ray vision goggles that you are now using to zoom in on your target clients. Ask yourself the following:

• What do they want?
• What are they missing in their lives?
• What hurts?
• Where is the pain?
• What are they yearning for?
• What do they worry about most?
• What are their biggest headaches, heartaches, and hassles?
• What are their urgent, pervasive, and expensive problems?

Gather Live Ammo Data

What’s the first step? Research. Preparation. Homework.

Industry, regional, business, and company news is now at everyone’s fingertips on the Internet. Look for verbatim quotes, video clips, blog entries, trade journal profiles, and audio interviews to capture as much as you can from representative members of your buyer persona.

Then go directly to the source – YOUR real live customers and prospects. If you’re not intelligently researching your prospects’ issues, challenges, and pressures, how can you possibly come in with credible high-perceived-value solutions? One of the best ways to approach prospects is with:

• Interviews
• Surveys
• Research
• Data gathering

It positions you and your firm as an expert resource and it gives you valuable data you should be getting anyway!

Bottom line: for thought-leadership marketing to work for YOU, you have to be a dealer, collector, curator, and dispenser of thoughts... and one of the best ways to LEAD is to LISTEN.

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach who works with professional speakers, consultants, and professional services firms, one of THE most frequent questions I get is "How do I find the best places for me to speak so I generate business?"

I always come back with the following key question: What Audiences Are Your Clients In?

What groups do your ideal clients belong to? This will obviously determine which audiences you want to be in front of.

Not sure? Don’t guess – ask!

Here is the script to ask your current clients, prospects, and centers of influence who know your target market well…

“I’m looking to speak more in front of groups of [BUYER PERSONA]. I’d love to get your Advice, Insights, and Recommendations.”

(Thanks to my pal, networking and referral marketing speaker Michael Goldberg for the A-I-R approach!)

Another way to ask might be…

“Of all the industry groups and associations you belong to, which ones provide the most value in terms of the speakers and programs they present?”

With both of these scripts, the natural follow-up discussion would center around your desire to serve this industry/community more and to share information with them that would help them become even more successful.

Likely outcomes from this discussion would include:

• Names of specific groups, associations, and conferences
• Names of specific people serving in board or programming positions
• Names of other executives or decision-makers in the field
• Names of other companies or firms in need of similar information/services
• Specific networking introductions
• Offers of referrals to the individuals they already know
• An opportunity to reciprocate and ask how YOU might be of service to THEM

Resources for Targeting Best-Fit Venues

Finding venues to speak profitably could be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Here are some resources to help you laser-target your speaking to your best-fit audiences:

• The Directory of Associations online (http://www.marketingsource.com) 
• National Trade and Professional Associations of the United States – hardcopy from http://www.columbiabooks.com
• http://www.LeadershipDirectories.com for access to 500,000 corporate and association decision-makers (this comes at a hefty $5,000 annual fee)
• Your Public Library – free access to high-priced proprietary business databases (Hoovers, D&B Million Dollar Database, InfoUSA)

Have fun, speak well, and go generate some business.

Got questions? Comments? A resource or tip of your own? Please use the COMMENTS sections below and let's hear from YOU...

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach on the front lines of the meltdown economy, I'm seeing firsthand and through my clients that marketing has become even more challenging because – now more than ever – your buyers are lazy, busy, and befuddled.

See if some of these characteristics ring true with YOUR prospects and buyers over the last few months:

Lazy: Your buyers do not look forward to being marketed and sold to. The old standards of good, cheap, and fast have been replaced with the new “Web 2.0” standard of perfect, free, and now. Instant gratification, easy to buy, and effortless to install are the new watchwords for marketing and sales success. The expert at hand is the expert who gets hired.

Busy: Buyers have a million things on their plate besides researching the best options for products, services, vendors, partners, and trusted advisors. You need to become the obvious choice, the smartest choice, and the least risky choice – all in the span of a very short amount of time to be heard above their (internal and external) noise.

Befuddled: Buyers are overwhelmed with information, choices, data, specs, features, benefits, and marketing hype. It can be hard to separate the best service providers from the best marketers – and rarely are they one and the same. Your buyers have been burned, disappointed, and let down by slick marketers in the past.

So what can you do?

You won’t win them over with sizzle so your only choice is to convey TWO things with the utmost clarity and conviction:

1. We understand what you’re up against

2. We can fix it

That's marketing in a nutshell, folks! Agree? Disagree? Comments? Fire away down in the COMMENTS section and I'd love to hear from YOU...

What follows is not directly related to marketing, copywriting, professional speaking and the other topics I typically cover here — and it is easy to dismiss advice like this as simplistic or trivial.

But when copywriter Kim Stacey e‐mailed this list to me, I read it carefully—and found it to be deceptively profound and effective.

Here are 10 tips for living less stressfully, from “Loving and Leaving the Good Life” by Helen Nearing: 

1. Do the best you can, whatever arises.

2. Be at peace with yourself.

3. Find a job you enjoy.

4. Live in simple conditions; get rid of clutter.

5. Contact nature every day; find the earth under your feet.

6. Take physical exercise. 

7. Donʹt worry; live one day at a time.

8. Share something every day with someone else; help someone else somehow. 

9. Take time to wonder at the world and at life; see some humor in life where you can.

10. Be kind.

If you have some thoughts to add, please do so in the COMMENTS section below: