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Who Will Buy Your Professional Services?
By: Sandy Barris

Are you an engineer, IT consultant or a dentist? How about a business coach, facilities manager, project manager or any of the thousands of professional services wanted by millions of businesses?

Have you recently been downsized or layed off? Or, have you retired and are climbing the walls wanting to get back in the game.

If so, stop and pull out your magic wand, wave it around a few times and imagine creating the perfect professional services business —without fear of failing—what would it look like?

Got it pictured. Now, take your magic wand and break it in half because whatever professional service business you choose to create, you’ll always be in sales and marketing business.

Why, because if you won’t market and close business deals, you’ll have a rough time staying in business.

Of course, one of the keys to your success in a professional service business is knowing, without a doubt, who will want and can afford to buy whatever it is you are offering.

One of the ways to get started is to figure out what and who the perfect client may look like to you:

• What business niche are they in?
• What markets do they serve?
• Who supplies that business niche with goods & services
• Where is that niche located?
• Are there enough businesses in that niche to be profitable?
• Can they afford your services?
• Who would recommend their products or services

Answer these questions and you’ll be well on your way to discovering exactly who’ll want your services.

Next, market to your perfect client using many different marketing approaches. Some will work better than others. Some will start out like gang busters then fad off. Others will crash and burn with no ROI. It’s all good because every success and failure is a lesson and brings you closer to succeeding in your business.

The key here is to create an overall marketing strategy that includes 15 or more marketing tactics. The more marketing tactic you try, the greater your chance of getting in front of the perfect future client.

Keep in mind people absorb information in different modes. Some people like information presented verbally. Talk to them face-to-face; send them a CD/DVD or an Mp3 they can listen to in their car.  Others want info visually; they like to see videos, graphs, charts and pictures to fully understand what you offer.

You should test many different marketing tactics.

• Build an optimized website and use the Internet to describe the benefits of your service using video, audio and the written word.
• Go to networking events.
• Approach your suppliers for referrals.
• Host webinars and pod casts because they are the 21 Century brochure.
• Grow your database
• Email market your growing database
• Create a local Pay-per-click internet marketing campaign
• Develop a social media marketing plan
• Join LinkedIn, Facebook and 3-4 of the other top SMM sites.
• And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Whatever marketing you do, provide a compelling reason to try out your services. If a future client has a choice between many similar services or does not have a compelling need to buy your service, your company will not grow fast.

Targeting big business? Your ideal future client may be hidden deep within the corporate structure. Professional service providers have sometimes found it was easier to sell at a department level rather than target the CFO.

But, it can pay to go to the top first, so you can name drop to the rungs down under. Granted, it’s a lot harder to get to the CXO’s. Is it worth the effort, you’ll have to be the judge. Now, keep in mind that when you do get in front of the CXO, birds of a feather flock together and it could be your ticket into many more C-level opportunities.

Discover what your perfect future client looks like, and how to get in front of him/her and you’ll be well on your way to growing a successful professional service business.

5 Simple Secrets To Social Media Marketing Success To Grow Business
By Sandy Barris

Let’s face it, you can’t go a day without hearing about, seeing the effects of or feeling your gut telling you learn more social media marketing techniques to help your grow your business.

Social media marketing (SMM) is everywhere.

You watch a news report and the newscaster gives you their Twitter name and asks you to Tweet them. Your best friend puts up a Facebook page and asks you why you don’t have one yet? Your boss asks you to create a Linked In page for him and to get him connected with as many of your clients, suppliers and prospects as possible.

And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are a few mind-boggling social media stats to ponder.
•    200,000,000 – active Facebook users
•    10,000,000  – average daily Tweets
•    900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period

Nielsen Online shows that: Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email. Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population; time spent is growing at 3 times the overall Internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all Internet time. Wow. And to think it’s exponential. Today, this. Tomorrow?

So, how can your use social media marketing to help grow your business?

1. Social media marketing is a great way to generate traffic to your website. Every time you post anything anywhere, complete your post with your contact information, a call to action and a link back to your Website, landing page or your Blog.
2. ost to your blog every 2-3 days. Post tips, tactics and techniques. Reveal secrets, “how-to’s” and ideas. Keep your content fresh and it will be picked up by the searched engines and served up as valuable information when someone hits on one of the keywords in your blog posts. If you don’t have a blog, see tip No. 3 below.
3. Post comments on other people’s blogs, on message boards, on forums and Facebook posts. Answer peoples questions, Help solve their problems and ask for there help solving your problems too. Post book reviews on Amazon and other book seller sites. Every post will help to build your credibility in that community. Let’s face it, he more credibility you build, the more likely people will click on your signature link to see what else you have to say and offer.
4. Create Pod cast and videos of your content and distribute using the many free and paid distribution services on the Internet. One of my favorites Websites for video distribution is Tube Mogul, a free service that sends your videos in the correct format to 26 different website for video distribution, saving you time. Plus they have great tracking tools to see how far and wide your videos are distributed.
5. Use your public profiles as an integral part of your Social Media Marketing plans and search engine marketing strategy. Everyone searches online, including your prospects and customers. Having strong, keyword ladden, public pages helps people find you fast.  Every time you put up a new public page, or update an existing one, it calls the search engines and let’s them know to come and see the new information. As you create your profiles you are actually build up your name recognition, and making it easier for people to find you, and you want to be found, don’t you?

The benefits of Social Media Marketing are hugely important in their role as a search engine marketing strategy.  The more traffic to your website and blogs, the more connections you make, equals more awareness, leading to sales and higher profits for you and your business.

When will you start your social media marketing plan and kick it into high gear?

Proof Will Help You Sell More Products, Services and Ideas:

Go ahead, take a few minutes today and look at every marketing message you are putting out…

Ask yourself:
Am I providing my reader, viewer and listener the proof and credibility that what I’m saying is indeed true?

How many times have you seen an ad on TV and said to yourself “Yea. Right. Sure it is?”

Let’s face it… we are all slammed with so many marketing messages a day, that we stop believing most of them.

So how do make your marketing messages more believable?

Start by take a closer look at the benefits of what you are selling.

Think about all the ways you can prove your benefits actually exist.
Ask yourself:
•    What are the strongest “Reasons Why” anyone should believe they’ll get what I promise?
•    How much more specific can I be?
•    What solid proof have I offered showing what I claim it true?
•    Have I begun to think about how I can strengthen my guarantees?
•    Is there a way to demonstrate your product/service in action?
•    Can you get a celebrity endorsement?

Answer these questions and apply these ideas to what you are selling and you are well on your way to providing the proof people need to believe your benefits will deliver.

“No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.”
-Henry David Thoreau

Quick Bonus Marketing Tip:

Thousands of marketing experts say that it costs 5 to 6 times more to win a new client than it does to retain an existing one.  What about your company? Is it true for you too?

Yet, most companies spend a small portion of their sales and marketing budget on client relationship management.

Take a moment and think about how much more profit you could generate by deepening your existing client relationships?

Rather than finding ways to get your sales people to “make 20 unqualified appointments this week,” instead, think about the easiest way to building stronger relationships.

Think about all the way you can say “Thank You.” All the ways you can show that you appreciate their business and enjoy the relationship you have.

Here are a few simple ways to get you started.
1. Send a hand written thank you card or note.
2. Drop off a small gift.
3. Bring a flower to the gatekeeper you’re trying to get past.
4. Take your client to breakfast or lunch to talk about ways to improve profits in the coming year.
5. Hold a customer appreciation party.
6. Have your CEO write a personal letter of thanks.

Now go out and give thanks. Show your appreciation.
It feels great and is sure reduces your client attrition rate.