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.

Can you ever say “Thank You” too much?

Everyone loves to know they are appreciated.

The right gift lets your clients know that their friendship and business is important to you and helps cement your relationship.

The best client gift takes your client’s personal interests into account and impresses him with your thoughtfulness and sincerity.

While giving client gifts during the holidays is popular, you’ll find that clients appreciate them any time of year.

Give your clients gifts any chance you can get. Birthdays. Holidays. Important events in their lives. They will be remembered for a long, long, long, long, long time.

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.
G.B. Stern

Be creative, A box of chocolates, a magazine subscription, Tickets to the movies.

How about a gift certificate to Starbucks, Home Depot or Office Max
But, here’s my rub about giving gift certificates to specific businesses…
why aim your client to spend their money at a business of your choice? Let them choose.

Here are a few Gift Ideas:
•    Custom made gifts
•    Gift certificates to events or services you know for sure that  they would enjoy
•    Send edible enjoyment: cookies, cakes, cheeses presented with class
•    Flowers, on Monday so they last all week or living plants that sometimes last for years
•    Books or magazine subscriptions relating to interests or hobbies

Warning: Be sure to look into the gift-giving policies of your clients’ companies before sending along your present.

Sadly, some companies have a “no gift” policy for their employees, and it could lead to an embarrassing situation if they must refuse your gift for this reason.

Now, how will you thanks your clients for their friendship and business?

Does your business communicate a positive attitude?

Do you have a written “Mission Statement” that explains what your business is about?

Does this statement represent the vision, purpose, and aspirations that your business communicates to the world?

More importantly, do you tell your customers and prospective clients about your mission statement in every marketing effort that you create?

What should this statement include?
Typically, it will include your USP or SOB (statement of benefit). It also will include what “attitude” your business is trying to communicate.
Is your business and marketing attitude friendly, exclusive, or inviting?
Is It classy, low-priced, or responsive?
The list could be endless.

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you can do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.”
- Lou Holtz

It is important how you integrate your attitude into your marketing.
If the public sees and hears your positive attitude, then they will know and understand that you are proud of what you sell.

They also will know that you are very serious about your business and are willing to go the extra mile to keep them happy.

Your attitude should tell them that your business is ready to be their sole source —their “go-to” solution.

Your attitude should be communicated in everything that you do and say. If each of your marketing efforts is consistent and professional, then prospects will pick up on your attitude.

When the statements that you make in your marketing efforts are positive and consistent, your clients and prospects should understand that you will deliver on them.

This builds their confidence in you and will increase your sales. Consistency and attitude are the keys to getting people to remember your business.
Do you know what your company’s attitude is?

Are you getting this message to your customers and prospects every day?

Do you ask yourself regularly, “Is this information reaching my clients?”

The answer, obviously, is no.

Your customers are not created equal. Give or take a few percentage points, 80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customer base.

It is wise, therefore, to categorize your clients into five distinct categories. Use -5, or AE (or some other rating system that you develop), with 1 or A being your best and most profitable clients and 5 or E being the clients with whom you spend a great deal of your time but from whom you make very little profit.

” Twenty percent of the customers account
for 80 percent of the turnover; 20 percent of the components
account for 80 percent of the cost and so forth.”
Vilfredo Pareto, Pareto’s Law

After you have categorized all of your customers, I suggest that you “fire” the ones that make up the bottom of the list. I know that this sounds like a bold thing to do, and maybe even a little bit crazy, but you will find that your business is more profitable in the end.

The easiest way to rid your business of the troublesome “low-end” clients is to raise your prices. Again, this sounds like a bold thing to do, but your better customers know that price isn’t everything.

Your business should have the service and value to back up your prices. A price increase should send your “low-end” customers to your competitors.

Believe it or not, you will benefit from this. These customers don’t care about the value that you offer and they take up a lot of your time.

These clients are not interested in anything but price. Let them go! Let them slow down your competitors and give them the headache of being busy for very little profit.

Meanwhile, you will be able to spend your valuable time working with the better customers on your list. You already know that most of your profits come from your best clients. Therefore, focus on keeping only the better clients.

Work to get all of them to the “number one” category by offering amazing value when they give you their business.

How many clients do you have in each category?

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Does your business have a personality?

“Branding” simply means creating a personality for your business —giving it a unique look, feel, taste, touch, sound, smell, texture, color, or even typeface.

Branding also means using every opportunity to give your business a consistent theme and a “stand¬out” look. Having a recognizable brand is essential to surviving in today’s business environment.

Brand recognition alone may not be enough to get people to buy your products/services. People need reasons to buy. You have to ingrain your brand image into their brains by associating your brand with a positive feeling. When you do, people will remember your prod¬ucts/services and will feel good about buying from you.

Getting your business noticed in an inexpensive way is very possible if you are a clever business owner who is motivated to create a brand for yourself.

First, you can create and perfect your very own brand in your local market and then decide if you want to expand.

Most small businesses don’t have the marketing budget that the giant corporations have to spend on their brand image.

If you have a little money, a lot of chutzpah, and know how to harness the magic of low¬cost or free publicity and promotions, you can make your brand and business stand out!

Make the invisible visible.

Make your business an obsession.

Take every opportunity, no matter how small, to talk about your business. This will get you noticed.

It’s important to make the media aware of you, your business, and its brand image. You have to make your­self available. Use the free publicity that the media can offer to spread your marketing message and expand your brand recognition to a wider market.

What are you doing to give your business a positive image?