How to Get Clients to Come to you by Nigel Temple

1. Write down the reader profile that you are aiming at.

2. Write down the core proposition of the book (“this book will solve problem XXX”).

3. Check Amazon / bookshops etc to see what’s already out there.

4. Do your best to ensure that your book doesn’t have too much competition.

5. Write at least 10 book titles and select the best one.

6. Write chapter outlines (10 chapters is perfect).

7. Write the first chapter.

8. Submit a book proposal to 10 relevant publishers, via their websites.

9. Start writing your book / continue writing it. Give yourself a daily word count
to achieve at least 25,000 words within three to six months.

10. Whilst you are awaiting responses from publishers(!), investigate self-publishing.

You are welcome to ask questions about becoming an author (or any other marketing topic!) via: www.marketingcompass.co.uk

The primary answer is that you have to be creative. Having taught creative thinking for 12 years at CIM (the Chartered Institute of Marketing), I can tell you that this is a challenge for many of us. It’s much safer to ‘stay in the groove’, do what we did last year and adopt so called ‘industry best practice’, which translates as “do what everyone else is doing.”

The secondary answer is to produce an emotional reaction in the viewer, i.e. laughter, shock or surprise. Professional marketers have known for a long time that an emotional appeal is more effective than a logical argument. By the way, you are welcome to ask questions about viral marketing, YouTube etc via The Marketing Compass website.

Once you have a creative video with emotional impact, the third answer is to use social media to promote it. Dave Clark from NRG Business Networks brought the following YouTube video to my attention, via Facebook. As Dave says, it’s well worth watching! As you will see, it’s creative and generates an emotional reaction.

The filming works better if I rehearse. However, trying to read a script doesn’t work. In the past, I have used Mind Maps – which have proved to be helpful, so I’ll probably use them again.

My motto is: ’little and often beats big and infrequent.’  I hope to get at least two or three editions ’in the can’ each week, as we say in the movie business.

I have decided to give this project a name: ’The Marketing Compass show’. You are welcome to join the debate here: The Marketing Compass website.

Within this edition, I have spent some time getting to grips with Windows Live Movie Maker. I am not sure if I will have the time to continue using this, in the future. So here is edition 2. This time, I am talking about social media and sharing some feedback from my seminar audiences with you. Listen to my response to this viewpoint:  ”Twitter is a waste of time, isn’t it!”

When you were a child, did your family dream of you becoming a salesperson?

What words would you use to describe salesmen and women? Are they flattering words?

Now think about your business. Is selling one aspect of what you do?

For many of us, the answer to this question will be: ‘Yes it most certainly is.’

There is no point in doing a lot of marketing activity if you can’t close the sale, is there?

Selling is a process. Break it down into separate elements and master each one.

This is a big subject – so I will ask one question: what are your feelings about selling?

One of the central reasons that people avoid selling is fear of failure.

Is it something that you love to do, or would you rather avoid it?

Personally, I love selling. After I graduated (with an honours degree in marketing),
I spent five years selling, for the likes of Rank Xerox.

To be successful in selling in the 21st century, you have to have integrity,
partly because negative word of mouth now travels so fast. You have to have
strong values. And you you have to place the customer’s interests at the centre
of everything you do.

I wish you all the best with your business, your marketing and your selling!

Regards
Nigel
Marketing consultant, speaker and author
The Marketing Compass
Small business marketing direction

I have written books, training manuals and marketing guides. Personally, I love to write but I know that many business people don’t. If you are amongst the latter, here are some tips which may help.

Use Twitter to practice your writing skills, every day. You only have 140 characters to get your message across!

If facing a blank page scares you, keep a notepad handy and write down those great ideas when they come to you. An alternative is to capture your ideas via www.evernote.com which I couldn’t live without.

English grammar can be a something of a challenge. Take the time to get to grips with it. This knowledge will serve you for a lifetime.

Writers are readers. Read novels, business books and quality newspapers. (Interestingly, the Economist refers to itself as a newspaper, not a magazine).

If you feel that you need some help with your writing, you are welcome to ask me for feedback. One way of doing this is by joining The Marketing Compass.

I wish you all the best with your business, your marketing and your writing!

Regards
Nigel
Marketing consultant, speaker and author

If you are interested in this visual thought
organisation technique, I can recommend
iMindMap – which has Tony Buzan’s blessing
(Tony invented Mind Maps).

Find out more here: www.thinkbuzan.com

I use Mind Mapping for presentations, public speaking,
webinars, teleseminars, creative thinking / problem solving
and for a host of other things.

My office was across the corridor from Tony’s for
several years. He is an interesting person and I
learnt a great deal from him (this was probably not
reciprocal).

All the best,
Nigel
Marketing consultant, speaker and author
The Marketing Compass
Small business marketing direction

Values = the basis of branding. As a business owner, your values are the foundation of your enterprise. Being clear about your values will help you to position your enterprise, amongst other things. It is important to know what your values are. Here are some of them:

Authority, Change, Communication, Competence, Creativity, Decisiveness

Efficiency, Excellence, Family,  Focus, Freedom, Friendship, Goals, Gratitude

Happiness, Health, Helpfulness, Honesty, Imagination, Independence, Integrity

Knowledge, Leadership, Learning, Logic, Love, Loyalty, Money, Positive thinking

Privacy, Problem solving,  Professionalism, Quality, Recognition, Relationships

Service, Spirituality, Success, Teamwork, Truth, Trust, Wealth, Wisdom

Take a moment to list your values. Include the finished list within your website. I have known customers to decide on a particular supplier, as they displayed their values in this way.  Incidentally, the above list of values comes from The Marketing Compass Manual.

I have been involved in sales and marketing for a quarter of a century.

During this time, I have witnessed great successes and great failures. The millionaires I have worked with know that failure is a feedback mechanism. “OK, so that approach didn’t work out. Let’s try another way of doing this,” they respond.

If you are an internet marketer, you will know all about failure. High bounce rates, poor responses to email marketing, SEO results which keep on changing – the list is endless. Some things work, some things crash and burn. The important thing is to keep learning from the endless feedback loop which comprises the internet.

If you are selling professional services, you need to get in front of prospective clients. Do you have a CRM system? Does it contain thousands of contact details? Do you have a promotional mix which enables you to keep in touch with dormant, current and prospective clients? Are you picking up the phone and talking to people? Are you filling your diary with sales meetings?

Recently, I have been picking up the phone and talking to members of The Marketing Compass, which is a group  of small business owners who are interested in marketing. I have heard some amazing stories, regarding the recessionary years we have just been through (and are hopefully now emerging from). “I lost most of my clients last year,” a member told me. “I knew that it wasn’t my fault. So I picked myself up, dusted myself off and took your advice. I kept adding to my list of contacts and I kept in touch with them. I chose the ones I really wanted to work with. I kept asking them questions and I suggested helpful ways that they could improve their business. Two of them have now signed me up for on-going work. As you keep telling me Nigel: never give up.”

As the saying goes, it’s not what happens to you that counts, it’s how you handle what happens to you. Thomas J Watson Senior, the founder of IBM said that the formula to success is easy: simply double your rate of failure. Don’t fear failure: learn from it. I wish you great success with everything that you do.