by Scott Channell

If you feel you are overworked and underpaid, or, with the pending economic slowdown want to make sure your new business generation efforts keep the cash and profits flowing - pay heed to the following list. 

1. DON'T CONFUSE THE SKILLS NECESSARY TO OBTAIN A CLIENT WITH THE SKILLS NECESSARY TO SERVICE A CLIENT. Do you think that because you are smart, capable and caring that you will get hired and paid what you are worth? Well strap on a football helmet right now because you are going to hurt yourself from banging your head against the wall. We all know mediocre (or worse) service providers who could hurt themselves if they fell off their money wagons. The ability to obtain a client is separate and distinct from the ability to do what you were hired to do. Focus on learning how and why potential clients make "buy" decisions. Many years ago I mentored a professional service provider who tripled his income in six months. What was the problem? He wasn't effectively communicating the value he could provide to potential clients, so they willingly and happily went to other less talented individuals and paid them more. Once he gained an appreciation of how his potential clients were evaluating their options and evaluating him, he was able to restructure how he presented himself and finally start to get paid what he was worth.

2. DON'T CONFUSE MARKETING ACTIVITIES WITH MARKETING IMPACT. Are you quite proud of the fact that you are doing a lot of marketing "stuff"? Irrelevant! The real question is... is the "stuff" you are doing having any impact on your intended target. Rather than start out making assumptions about the marketing tools and marketing message you will use to generate new business, start out with defining what impact your activities must create for you, then select the marketing tools and marketing message that will cost-effectively have that impact on your target.

3. DON'T CONFUSE PRICE WITH COST. Investing $1,000.00 in something that generates little inconsistently costs you more than investing $5,000.00 in something that will generate a high return on a regular basis. Many times service providers whose marketing programs need improvement feel more comfortable with lower-priced activities, feeling that there is less risk and that they can spend more when things start to work. It rarely happens. That type of thinking actually dooms you to a life in the salt mines - working very hard for low pay. There is more risk to your economic future sticking with low priced low return marketing activities, than there is in learning how to properly test and evaluate higher priced options that can generate more revenue and margin for you.

4. DON'T CONFUSE RESPONSE WITH RETURN. I would personally like to choke the person who started the rumor that a 2% response to a marketing campaign was good, and anything less that that was a failure. Extreme example: I once coordinated a marketing campaign to cold prospects which generated a 0.0007% response. That is not a typo. A disaster? Far from it. That campaign generated nine dollars for every dollar invested, not counting the value of the repeat business, referrals and new business that could not be directly traced to the campaign. If you can trade Washington's for Hamilton's when marketing to people who have never dealt with you, you are on the way to making serious money. It is return on investment that counts and should be your barometer of marketing success.

5. DON'T CONFUSE REVENUE WITH PROFIT. Decades ago when I was young and innocent I believed that being able to generate clients and revenue were the keys to business success. Need more money, just go get more clients. No problem. In time, that ridiculous belief was quite effectively beaten from every molecule in my body. We seek to generate revenue not for revenue's sake, but to generate a profit. So marketing to attract the right clients, with the right business, on terms sufficient to meet your pre-determined financial goals is what marketing and selling is all about. You want clients, revenue and healthy margins.

6. DON'T CONFUSE A ONE-TIME TRANSACTION WITH A CLIENT. As service providers, the real money is made when people make a 2nd purchase from us and refer us business. Those are truly "clients", individuals or companies who can be counted on for future business and to spread the word. Engaging in a transaction does not a client make. To be successful, you must lay a proper foundation for future business and to stimulate referrals. Financially successful service providers have client retention rates in excess of 85%-90%. Run of the mill service businesses have client retention rates in the 60%- 85% range, and anything less than 60% usually means that you are working very hard for not enough profit.

7. DON'T CONFUSE EXPRESSIONS OF INTENT WITH COMMITMENT. As service providers, we often deal with intangibles. A prospect's or client's perception of our capabilities and value is actually more important to being hired, than the reality of what we actually can do for them. Many times we hear things from prospects that sound great, pump our ego's and lead us to believe that a quality engagement is right around the corner. But, if those expressions of intent, are not combined with acts of commitment, which most commonly are a willingness to invest some time in meaningful action or write a check, you should be very cautious.

8. DON'T CONFUSE "LOOKING GOOD" MARKETING WITH EFFECTIVE MARKETING. Are you proud of your multi-colored flyer, your fancy graphics and your rich looking folders. Why? Having people oooh and aaah and tell you what you want to hear about your marketing materials is not the same as generating results. I could repeat to you hundreds of stories related to me by attendees of my seminars and clients, about fancy expensive "we thought it looked great" marketing materials that generated zip for new business. True story. Once worked with a service provider who was very, very successful financially. A lot of great clients who paid him well and generated a lot of referrals. This guy was very well respected. He also had a tendency for cheap marketing stuff. I remember well that he used to give out a large plastic carrying case (every see those black things with the plastic zipper that must cost all of 75 cents) for documents. He had emblazoned on this crappy thing "My lawyer is John Jones" in large yellow letters. Here is my point. This guy's image of professional excellence was created by the large volume of satisfied clients who used him again and again, spoke highly of him and referred him a lot of business. His image was not created by the cheap marketing materials he chose. I am not recommending his tactics, though they worked for him. I am telling you that surrounding yourself with fancy looking stuff, is no guarantee of a good image as a qualified service provider and marketing results.

9. DON'T HAVE AN UNREALISTIC VIEW OF HOW LONG IT TAKES A PROSPECT TO BECOME A CLIENT. I know you have heard it many times and it actually bores me to say it again, but it needs repeating and repeating. If it takes 7 contacts to obtain a client, most people will abandon pursuit after the 2nd or 3rd contact. If six months is a reasonable sales process, most people stop actively pursuing accounts that will not close in a month. You waste time and resources and deprive yourself of worthwhile profitable accounts when your view is too short term oriented. Establish with certainty a reasonable and realistic timetable for a new account to germinate, then have a system to follow through. If you do, you will not be limited to the "early adopter" type clients and will markedly increase the return on your marketing investment.

10. DON'T EVER, EVER, NEGLECT REGULAR COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENTS, PREVIOUS CLIENTS, REFERRAL SOURCES OR THOSE WHO HAVE INQUIRED ABOUT YOUR SERVICES. It never ceases to amaze me. Many business owners are quite willing to throw thousands at complete strangers in the hopes of generating new business, yet unwilling or unable to spend a little communicating with those who already know and appreciate them. If you are spending time and resources marketing to strangers and you are not regularly communicating with clients and referrals sources, your priorities are seriously out of whack. Do not spend one dime or one minute marketing to strangers, if you are not communicating with those who already know and love you. It is by far the fastest, most cost-effective, high return on investment marketing you can do.

Copyright 2004 Scott Channell