Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, my clients often ask me to critique their Professional Bio.

Whether YOU are a professional speaker, consultant, coach, author, or professional services firm owner - your Bio is one of your most powerful marketing tools that will make or break your future clients' perception of your expertise.

Writing an effective, attractive and client-magnet bio is hard.

Here's what you must NOT do:

• Be boring
• List achievements and awards out of context
• Brag
• Come across as a corporate stuffed shirt or pompous twit
• Trot out a bunch of acronyms, jargon and consultant-speak
• Preach
• Tell us about your awesome vacations, Harley collection, adorable kids, and scuba diving prowess

Without further ado, let me present a Professional Bio I recently came across from a consultant with the Tom Peters Company in the UK that I found quite impressive and that you might consider modeling into your own. My comments are numbered and explained below:

Like you,(1) leadership expert and business author(2) Robert Thompson has seen the word leadership defined numerous ways over the years. Is it charisma and positive thinking? Pinstripes and red power ties? Decisiveness? Is it all about the situation? Is it meant only for the chosen few who rise to the top? Or, is there a different story?(3)

With over three decades of executive coaching, speaking, and most importantly, real-life, in-the-trenches business experience, his view is radically different.(4) Robert appreciates, and shares with listeners, that leadership is a moment-to-moment choice and not about title, tenure or position. Leadership is for everyone, everyday. It's how we should live our life.(5)

Robert, sometimes referred to as the “Provocateur” for his ability to stir up a group(6) or as the “People Whisperer” for his coaching skill that brings out the best in people, is known for his practical, street-savvy style; Robert's fusion of real-life stories and his conversational techniques connect with his audience at an intimate, intense and individual level.(7)

Robert has served as a senior consultant with the U.S. based Tom Peters Company for several years. He is a Certified Master Facilitator of the The Leadership Challenge Workshop™, and continues to work with the best and brightest in the leadership development field. (8)

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1. The most powerful word in marketing is YOU. Starting the bio with "Like you..." is flat-out brilliant.

2. Label yourself immediately. Prospects need to know your expertise upfront and you get 2 seconds to position yourself. Put "_______ expert" in the first 10 words of your bio.

3. Using engaging questions in your bio is something you've probably never considered - and it WORKS. People judge you MORE on the questions that you ask rather than the statements you make. Add questions to your bio - it's a kickass idea!

4. Buyers are lazy, busy and befuddled. One way to make yourself come across as "different" is simply to claim it! "His view is radically different" works. I also recommend the phrase "Unlike many consultants/ speakers/ fill-in-the blank..." (Ex: "Unlike many marketing coaches, David Newman shows you exactly what to say and how to say it, what to do and how to do it")

5. Philosophy sound bites that serve as a preview of your thinking. Consider these "bullets without the bullets." They share snippets of what you'll share and implement with your future client in a conversational way.

6. Always promote your benefits, not yourself. I'm not crazy about these unattributed third-party references ("known as the Provacateur") but the saving grace is that they are framed in terms of benefit to the audience/client. This could be stronger if it said "The Financial Times called him 'the CEO's secret weapon'"

7. Love the fusion concept. It says subconsciously to your buyer - "hire this guy and you'll get the best of both worlds." It's also an implied differentiator. What are you a fusion of? And the masterstroke is that the fusion is also framed as a benefit to the audience.

8. He works with the "best and brightest" so YOU, Ms. Prospect, must be pretty sharp if you hire him. This implied compliment gets buyers to WANT to qualify to work with you. Nothing like a little ego boost for your reader as they cruise through your bio. This signals - again subconsciously - "I'm making a good decision."

9. Claim authorship. Calling his talks "conversations" is also a brilliant differentiator.

10. Name names. Client names are powerful. I do NOT like "His successes include" simply because it sounds like he's taking credit for the success of giant global corporations. A better turn of phrase might have been "Companies such as X, Y, and Z have partnered with Robert when they want outcome 1, 2 and 3." This might also be a great place to put in some testimonial snippets from execs inside these specific companies. Their words carry a lot more weight than his.

11. List your accomplishments in the REAL world. Speakers and experts are not hired for what they know so much as they are hired for what they've DONE. Connect who you are to what you do and your credibility skyrockets.

12. Creme de la creme. Board service and being seen as a leader among your peers implies that you are respected within your field and thus, you must be among the best at what you do.

Use these guidelines to turbo-charge YOUR professional bio right now and you'll thank me later -- DO IT!

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

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Yesterday, you were promised some thought-provoking questions for creating your best 2012 - and here they are. Once again, these are from the Soul Purpose Institute and they struck me as especially relevant for business owners, entrepreneurs and independent professionals.

Not only will these questions help you clarify your goals, focus, and themes for 2012 - they will also help you narrow down your choices, remove some overwhelm, kill some unnecessary "shoulds" in your marketing mix and generally help you focus on what matters most to your business, professional, personal and financial success.

13 Questions for Creating Your Best 2012

1. What would you like to be your biggest triumph this year?
2. What advice would you like to give yourself?
3. What is the major effort you plan to do to improve your financial results?
4. What would you be most happy about completing?
5. What major indulgence are you willing to experience?
6. What would you most like to change about yourself?
7. What are you looking forward to learning?
8. What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2012?
9. What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving?
10. What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore?
11. What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of it?
12. Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving?
13. What one word would you like to have as your 2012 theme?

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Please use the comments area below to share your 2012 successes, goals, plans and strategies. What's working? Where could you use a bit of help?

Want to kick it up a notch in your business for 2012 and tackle your most important marketing, sales and business growth TO-DO items all in a single, super-focused day? Check out DO IT DAYS and join us for the next one.

This just came across my email inbox from the Soul Purpose Institute and these 14 questions struck me as a powerful marketing concept to help you close out your 2011 and prepare you to launch into your next level of success in the new year.

I'll post some equally powerful questions about your 2012 - tomorrow!

1. What was your biggest triumph?
2. What was the smartest decision you made?
3. What one word best summarizes your 2011 experience?
4. What was the greatest lesson you learned?
5. What was the most loving service you performed?
6. What is your biggest piece of unfinished business?
7. What are you most happy about completing?
8. Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2011?
9. What was the biggest risk you took?
10. What was your biggest surprise?
11. What important relationship improved the most?
12. What compliment would you liked to have received?
13. What compliment would you liked to have given?
14. What else do you need to do or say to be complete this year?

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Ready to launch your speaking, consulting, or solo professional practice into its next level of success? You'll get 30 days of specific tools, tactics, templates AND the structured day-by-day guided implementation to remove the overwhelm and make it "paint-by-numbers easy" -- Details are waiting for you here: http://www.SpeakerLiftoff.com

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Got 2011 thoughts and reflections to share? Use the COMMENTS area below and...

Marketing Mix: Book Review of "PAID TO SPEAK" published by the National Speakers Association

PAID TO SPEAK is a virtual MBA in the business of speaking. From marketing to positioning to product development to platform skills, it's ALL in here. Well-organized, tightly edited, and with a logical flow from one part of the business to another, PAID TO SPEAK is also unique in that it tells it like it is. No sugar-coating. And no trying to fleece opportunity-seekers into believing the speaking business is a fast, easy, and glamorous way to make money. [It is NONE of the three!] 

Speaking professionally today is about thought-leadership, adding value to corporate, association, and entrepreneurial sectors, and understanding all the different ways that audiences and buyers want to access, use, and deploy your expertise. The book spans a wide range of business models, distribution methods, and revenue models. As it should - to reflect the current reality of many successful speakers (very few of whom have business models that look anything alike!) 

The key value in buying a copy of PAID TO SPEAK, dog-earing it, highlighting it, and taking notes in the margins... is that you will emerge from the experience with a wealth of information, some clear decisions to make, and a game plan to put it all together in a style and manner that suits your personality, your strengths, and your preferences. This is no "one size fits all" template for "THE" way to become successful. There are MANY paths up the mountain - and PAID TO SPEAK should be your personal handbook, guide, and reference to get you there miles ahead of the competition! 

Every consultant, expert, and professional services firm leader needs to establish their thought-leadership in order to stand out from the crowd and be heard above the noise. 

There's no room for the "Same-O Lame-O" dry boring MBA PhD guru guy or gal. Their days are over and their influence and impact are declining... daily... and dramatically. 

So that means that every day you wait to claim your place among the thought-leaders in your industry and in front of your target buyers, you're losing time AND money. 

Don't let that happen to you.

The good news is that independent research with over 200 buyers of professional services shows that at any given moment, between 52%-72% of them are willing to change professional services providers.

Across all service areas, more than 50% of purchasers could be considered Switchers, open to changing providers, ranging from 52% Switchers for Legal Services to 72% Switchers for Management Consulting. ("How Clients Buy" 2009-10 survey)

Additional research from the Wellesley Hills Group entitled "What's Working in Professional Services Lead Generation" surveyed over 700 firms and showed that the #1 source of leads is "Warm Calls to Existing Clients" - No surprise there. If you're great at what you do, the old adage applies - "your business comes from your business." 

The #1 source of NEW leads for NEW business for professional services firms, however, may surprise you: it is "Speaking at conferences, trade shows and seminars."

Put these two pieces of research together and the dramatic discovery you'll make is... 

You're never more than one good presentation away from generating new clients and new revenue.

So the question is... How successful are you at the #1 strategy of lead-generating speaking to drive credibility, visibility and revenue in your professional services practice? 

And do you do it "once in a while" with mixed results or has your professional services firm nailed down a process, a speaking "system" and a targeting methodology that consistently puts you in front of the right groups in the right rooms with the right people to say the right things in the right ways to reliably generate new revenue for your firm?

If yes, great - welcome to the 1% club. If not, we should talk. Call me at (610) 716-5984 or drop me an email (david@doitmarketing.com) and let's have a conversation about how you can do a better job of generating more leads, better clients and bigger revenues every time you stand up to speak. 

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

Marketing Concept: Headlines eh? Doncha love ’em.
Guest post by Andy Maslen

Most copywriters, while happy to plough on through dense thickets of body copy, will do almost anything to avoid sweating over the really hard work: the headline. 

Over the years, many copywriters, myself included, have offered up rules, regulations, mnemonics and other helpful guides on the ‘best’ way to write headlines. 

Here’s a summary of some of the more useful ones. 

Michael Masterson 

The ‘4 U’s. 

Your headline should be:    

1. Useful   

2. Unique   

3. Ultra-specific   

4. Urgent 

“How to…” solves the first U. 

If you can’t substitute another business name or product for yours in the headline, you have the second U down 

“Save £34.97’ is more powerful than “Save money” for the third U. 

Using “Now’, “Right away” or a deadline covers the fourth U. 

Sean D’Souza 

Ask a question in your headline. People love being asked questions and can’t help starting to think of the answer. 

Get their curiosity buzzing. We’re hard-wired to solve problems. Ever see a chimp fishing for termites with a leaf mid-rib? 

Focus on the problem, not the solution. “Why should you be the only one in your street with tired, sad-looking windows?” is more powerful than “Acme double glazing makes your windows sparkle”. 

Brian Clark

Brian borrows from the late great Maxwell Sackheim for the classic: Do you make these [number] mistakes in your [activity]. 

You could say… 

Do you make these 7 mistakes in your blog posts? 

Do you make this fatal mistake when pricing your work? 

Do you make these three wealth-destroying mistakes when picking stocks? 

Headline writing IS hard. But it’s also fun. If you’re stuck for ideas, read a book, like the three guys above have done; or read a blog; or Google it; or go back to your product and dig deeper.

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

Publisher: PR News | Authors: Lori Zetlin and Jeanne Tee

Today's marketing concept is another stunningly simple one.

When it comes to your public relations or article marketing strategy...

Write What They Want to Publish - Don't Try to Publish What You Want to Write

If you're trying to put your expertise in the spotlight, don't go to the marketplace with a fixed number or pre-written articles and say "OK, where can we get these puppies printed?" When you're brand new, that might be enough - but once you're a truly up-and-coming though-leader, you start to need to pay close attention to:

1. Editorial guidelines (follow 'em)
2. Functional requirements such as word length (make overworked editors lives easier)
3. Editorial calendars with themes and topics (don't make editors stretch too far)
4. Current trends (be relevant and up-to-date)
5. Today's headlines and top stories (be timely so you ride the wave of attention)

It's the old marketing mantra of "Find a need and fill it" - but when it comes to niche PR, association publications, trade magazines and industry journals, we too often lose sight of the fact that editors are buyers and our content is our product.

Tailor, customize, and work hard to meet the demand and you will be published over and over and over again. Because you're writing what they want to publish.

What do you think? Leave a comment below to share your article marketing or niche PR success story, tip, or question. Eager to hear from YOU:

Today's marketing concept for you is simple - check this out:

Your marketing and sales process should be easy, effortless, and enjoyable.

Period. End of sentence.

If it is not - and if you're attracting difficult, high-maintenance or non-enjoyable prospects - here's another marketing concept for you:

If the dating doesn't go well, it won't get better once you're married.

As the great business sage, Donald Trump, once said:

"Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't do."

Amen, brother Trump!

5 Signs that Your Prospect is Giving You Too Much Bullsh*t

1. Agreeing to sign on and then backing off at the last minute or the next day to ask for references, birth certificates, blood tests, or guarantees.

2. Bargaining. Namely, asking for a price reduction with no corresponding reduction in services, terms, value, or relationship. (Asking for a price concession "just because" is a classic form of prospect bullsh*t!)

3. Undervaluing your services, track record, and expertise. "I could do this myself, I just don't have time..." or "We've outsourced this to several vendors and have never been happy..." (Run, my friend, run!)

4. Telling you upfront, "We're notoriously difficult to work with / a control freak / a perfectionist / highly demanding - but don't take it personally." (This means they've been fired by other service providers in the past and they're prepping you for the same eventuality while playing BOTH sides of good cop / bad cop. Nice!)

5. Using terms of false affection like "Big Guy'" and "My dear" or false compliments like "You are a great salesperson!" (Obviously, if you were a great salesperson, you would not be wasting your time with this narcissistic sociopath nightmare client from hell, would you?)

As poet Maya Angelou has so eloquently said, "When someone SHOWS you who they are, believe them."

Finally, a cautionary (and VERY funny) video to illustrate the point about Prospect Bullsh*t and how it looks in everyday life:

Grab your FREE copy of the Strategic Marketing eBook.

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!