How Gratitude Works

1. It won’t get tossed out with the rest of the junk mail.

2. It builds a genuine bond with the recipient.

3. It’s personal, a 1:1 “marketing touch,” and customized.

4. It costs less than 40 cents.

5. It takes less than 10 minutes to do.

6. It requires no expensive investment.

7. It’s low-tech, but high-touch.

8. It’s a great way to turn downtime and waiting into productive marketing time.

9. It’s rarely used and sets you apart from the crowd.

10. It gets a higher response than any other marketing tactic you could use.

What is this amazing tool? A thank you note. Okay, wait…before you roll your eyes and stop reading, take a quick look at happens when you use this one simple tool:

“Thank you for your note. I’ve never been so impressed. It made me stop and send this email to you. When can we meet?”

“I’d like to say thank you for the note. Really nice touch&ndashyou’ve made an impression. Yeah, I’d definitely like to talk more.”

“Thank you for the personalized note. It is a very nice touch and will motivate me to think more about the marketing skills you taught me in your class. I will do my best to inform my management and colleagues about the value of your class and the services offered by TurningPointe Marketing.”

“Thanks for the nice card! I pinned it up in my office as it made my day!”

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve walked into a prospect or client’s office and my note is propped on their desk or pinned to the bulletin board. Can you say the same of your marketing materials?

Here’s when I send a handwritten note. I’m sure you can think of more opportunities, as well:

1. After a meeting to thank a prospect.

2. After a networking event, particularly to people with whom you had a genuinely good conversation.

3. When you earn new business.

4. When a client recommits to you by giving you more business.

5. When someone gives you a referral (whether it pans out or not).

6. When someone consistently gives you repeated referrals. Often, I send more than a note: anything from a $5 gift card to a high-end basket of their favorite goodies or tickets to an event should accompany a note when they’re been really good to you.

7. After you give a talk. I know it’s daunting, especially if your audience climbs above 30. But the payback is amazing. There are ways to “systematize” this, so that you don’t have to hand-write every single note yourself. Send me an email, and I’ll let you in on my secret process. Also, send a note to your sponsor, host, other speakers, and any co-panelists.

8. If you’re new to a committee or board &ndash or welcoming someone new to yours &ndash send a note to each member.

9. After a kick-off meeting, retreat, or visit with a new client &ndash to everyone that was at the meeting, if possible. I also like to send thank-you’s to key support staff that were involved (i.e., meeting planners, secretaries, A/V technicians, vendors, etc.).

10. When you’ve ended with a client.

For tips on how to give thanks, keep reading…

1. Above all, be genuine. If you don’t feel grateful or don’t mean what you write, don’t bother. You’ll resent it, won’t make it a habit, and the recipient will know it’s hollow.

2. Do them immediately (i.e., the next day). I’ve found that if I don’t, chances are I won’t later. This is more about discipline than it is about creativity or a big marketing budget.

3. Make them a habit. On average, I do three notes every morning before I turn to other priorities. In less than a half hour, I start every day off with a high-impact marketing action.

4. Use a professional note card &ndash I find that a 4” x 5” folded card is perfect. Mine are an exact replica of my business card, which creates a consistent “identity” after someone has received my business card at, say, a networking event. I slip them into sheer envelopes and include another business card, for a low-cost marketing piece. Before I had them, though, I used small note cards in my company colors &ndash don’t let the lack of the “perfect” stationary keep you from starting now.

5. Hand-write them! This is about relationship building. A short note written by hand (even in sloppy hand writing) has a much more meaningful impact than a sterile letter with a (heaven forbid!) stamped signature. Nobody is too important or too busy to write a quick note. Many a U.S. President has hand-written-noted his way to the top. If they can do it, so can you.

The real key to this strategy? Being grateful. I don’t take any of my clients, prospects, and valued contacts for granted and want them to know it. By expressing my gratitude in writing, it’s a great mindset to start the day.

Ten Easy Marketing Tasks You Can Do NOW

1. Listen to (and write down!) the questions your clients ask. They’re clues to the problems you can help them solve. They’re also topics for your next article, talk and e-newsletter. Don’t invent this stuff - just listen!

2. Plan and write out your next sales conversation. Got a meeting next week with a hot prospect? Write down the words you will use to find out who the decision makers are, what the budget is, the scope of their problem, and how you’ll ask them to take next steps. If you have no idea how to do this, send me an email and I’ll help you think through it.

3. Read a marketing article. Most non-marketers don’t go out of their way to read about marketing. A painless way to stay motivated, though, is to read one new article every week. Start here: .turningpointemarketing.com/Free_Resources/Articles.html

4. Pay attention to the marketing messages all around you. See if you can pick out the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) and call-to-action (what they want you to do). Practice thinking like a marketer.

5. If you manage others who perform your client work, visit a client with your employee to show interest. This keeps you fresh and demonstrates your commitment to the client. It also shows the client that there’s more to your organization than their sole point of contact.

6. Give a copy of this article to your staff and ask them to come to the next staff meeting prepared to talk about the ideas that this generates. Ask people to commit to one new task. Have them give a progress report at the next meeting. Rinse, repeat.

7. Draft a 3 or 4-question survey to do short, conversational telephone interviews with your target audience to find out what they struggle with…what’s on their wish list…what they want from you. Do NOT ask them if they want to buy anything from you. This is a relationship-building task, NOT a sales call. That comes much later. Ask others you work with to pick two clients or prospects and call them. Compare notes and discuss your findings.

8. Think of small solutions that you can offer to important problems. Or small solutions to little problems. The key is to think small. It’s less intimidating for your customer to “sample” you and makes it easy for them to take a first step.

9. Practice saying your Positioning Statement out loud. To the mirror. In the car. In the elevator. If you don’t know what your Positioning Statement is, that’s a problem. Email me and I’ll give you a hand.

10. Visualize doing any one of these things successfully. Really - it’s what professional athletes, speakers, performers, and successful people do all the time. Visualize it, and it will be so.

The next time a scientist tells me they can’t market, I’ll know better. These ideas clearly prove that theory wrong!

Twelve Tips to Make ‘Moments of Truth” Count

People’s impressions are a result of accumulated experiences or ‘moments of truth’ that the world has with your organization over time. Everything you (and those you manage) do sends a message, impacts your brand image, and is PR &ndash for better or worse. These moments of truth include things like how you…

• Handle the recruitment and hiring process, including unsolicited resumes and employment inquiries

• Welcome new staff into your organization

• Ramp-up, manage, and treat subcontractors

• Treat vendors, suppliers, someone else’s support staff and any receptionist or answering service

• Use voicemail and email &ndash what you actually say and write

• Respond (or don’t) to voice or e-messages

• Manage client expectations about what you can do and when you can deliver

• Communicate bad news, handle conflict, or hold your ground on an unpopular policy

• Ask for what you need from a client, employee or vendor

• Take ownership for your role in a conflict, problem or mistake

This gets especially tricky when you’re managing others. Whether it’s staff, vendors, subcontractors, your boss or peers…it’s one thing to manage your own behavior, quite another to manage moments of truth created by others.

I recently ran across the following tough-love tips from Kelly Harman, CEO of The Harman Group (.theharmangroup.com). Kelly takes an active approach to clearly define what she expects from contractors, staff and colleagues, and it pays off.

Her feisty marketing firm is growing by leaps and bounds, fueled by happy clients and lots of good buzz about her firm.

Here are Kelly’s tips (direct from the source!) for making sure you get the most from the people responsible for creating moments of truth for your organization:

1. “Disagree with me. I come up with ideas all the time; some are better than others and some are perfectly awful. When I run one by you, and you don’t think it will work, tell me why. I may not have looked at the idea from all angles, and I value your input. I may not agree with you, but I’ll respect your opinion.”

2. “Question my decisions. If I make a decision that you don’t agree with or don’t understand, then ask me why I made it. I’ll take the time to explain my logic. You might still disagree with me, but at least you’ll understand why I made the decision.”

3. “Don’t come to me with problems. Don’t run to me with a problem and expect me to fix it for you. Come to me with a problem and then tell me how you want to fix it. If it makes sense, we’ll implement it. If I don’t agree, I’ll tell you why and then we’ll work together to figure out a better solution.”

4. “Tell me you want my job. It’s great to be ambitious. I want you to covet my job. There is nothing wrong with clearly stating your goals. How else will anyone know how to help you? I’ll give you more responsibility if I know what you want &ndash and if that means you want my job (or a position similar to mine someday) then my job is to help you get there.”

5. “Tell me you don’t want your job. You won’t have fun unless you do something you’re passionate about. Who wants to spend their working hours in a state of resignation or boredom? If you want to go to night school and study for a completely different career, I’ll support you. I’ll still expect 110% from you when you are here, but when I make my long-term plans; I’ll take into consideration the fact that you may not be here to help me execute them. But I’ll respect your dreams and your goals and I will do everything I can to help you achieve them.”

6. “Tell me when you don’t know something. Don’t try and fake your way through something you don’t know. It will only make me angry. If you’re honest with me, I’ll make the investment to educate you. After all, I hired you because I thought you could learn, not because I thought you knew everything already.”

7. “Make bad decisions. Congratulations! At least you made one. I’d rather see you make decisions that turn out wrong and learn from them than have you expect me to make every decision for you. I don’t have time. A mistake isn’t stupid unless you do it twice.”

8. “Act like you own the company. Before making a decision, spending a dime, talking to a customer - you get the idea &ndash pretend you own the company. As the owner, how would you behave? What would you spend? Knowing it would impact your own bottom line or the success of your company, would you act the same way or make the same decision? If the answer is yes, then you are on the right track.”

9. “Don’t expect me to pay for everything. I will pay for certain classes, but you need to have some skin in the game too. Read books, take classes, listen to tapes, what ever it takes. And don’t just learn what you need to know to do your job today &ndash learn for the future. Just because you aren’t a manager now doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take management classes. Don’t assume that you don’t need accounting courses because you’re not in the accounting department. Believe me, accounting and budgets are a big part of any manager’s job. If you want advice, come to me and I’ll help you. I’ll suggest classes, magazines to subscribe to, and books to buy. And - I’ll remember.”

10. “Confess. When you make a mistake, tell me immediately. The sooner I know, the sooner we can deal with it. I’ve gone to my boss with my heart pounding, my palms sweating, and my voice shaky to confess a mistake I made. It’s natural to be scared. What will save you is the fact that I immediately heard about it from you instead of someone else.”

11. “Take responsibility when it isn’t your fault. If you are in charge of a project then ultimate responsibility belongs to you. I don’t want to hear a long litany of excuses and explanations of how someone that reports to you failed to do something. I expect you to take full responsibility for the project. I know a lot more about what’s going on than you think. And believe me, it works all the way up the management chain. If a project I’m in charge of fails because you didn’t do your job, do you think my client cares? The bottom line is that I am in charge, so I’m the one who has to take responsibility, and you should too.”

12. “Quit your job. If you think of what you’re doing here as just a job, then quit. Come in on Monday and start your career.”

Agree? Disagree? Have some of your own wisdom to add? Let us know &ndash you can comment directly in this article now, if you’re reading the e-version; if not, go to .turningpointemarketing.com/Free_Resources/eArticles.html and give us your input there.

Turbo-Charge Your Rollout with ERM

Find the Sweet Spot

Embarking on any change initiative, such as a CRM implementation, requires a parallel strategy of ERM - Employee Relationship Management. In helping companies manage change, our experience repeatedly tells us that employees know what the problems to implementation are, usually have strong opinions about them, and honestly want to make their work environment successful. Nobody wants to work in continual chaos. So leaders and managers need to leverage existing employee knowledge and motivation&ndashthat sweet spot&ndashto accelerate implementation. Finding the sweet spot will help you develop the strategy to:

Move managers and employees to quickly buy into CRM implementation and;

Productively reflect on what actions or new behaviors need to be adopted (teamwork, better communications, better problem-solving, decision-making, etc.).

Confronting Resistance

The ERM piece of the CRM implementation puzzle can confound and frustrate the most seasoned managers and leaders. That’s because you have to deal with the softer side of CRM. The key is to think and act in less linear ways. Here are a few situations where dealing with the softer side of CRM implementation is a must:

Employees are balking at another change. In the drive to implement, there is usually an overwhelming focus on task (getting the job done) vs. process (how the job is being done). This leaves employees feeling partially informed, not part of the “in the know” group, and uncertain of what really is happening. The result: some people dig in their heels and refuse to change, others will humor you by pretending to get on board, and some will just ignore you altogether.

Lots of wasted time on rumors and misinformation. Many organizations are hampered by patterns of communication that run in “silos” instead of smoothly across all departments throughout the organization. Handicapped by these silo communications, functions and departments are in a pattern of cross-talk. The result: people tend to rely on the grapevine and who they know to find out what’s going on.

Ask 10 employees (or managers!) what CRM is and you get 10 different answers. There is minimal formal knowledge or understanding of CRM, maybe at all levels in the organization. And what people don’t know, they make up. The result: managing expectations becomes a nightmare.

Bad blood exists between critical departments. When history colors the relationships between key people and/or departments, interactions tend to be seen through the lens of the past, not the present or future. The result: unless serious mending of relationships occurs, players have to change.

Anything sound familiar? If you’ve been through an organizational change, you probably have some war stories. The good news is if you develop an ERM strategy in conjunction with your CRM implementation plans, you can sidestep many of these people problems.

Take a Look at Yourself

Turn the CRM philosophy inward and what you have is ERM. Any brand guru will tell you that to create a great brand, you need to also align your culture and people internally to deliver on your brand promise. Same thing with CRM-ERM. Your ERM policies need to reflect your CRM vision and policies. But that’s easier said than done, especially during an implementation. When the heat is on to demonstrate the ROI on your CRM investment, it’s tempting to blow by the “high touch” part of successful high-tech implementation.

The one thing you must do, though, is resist the pull of high-tech/low-touch. If you neglect good employee relations practices in the rush to get the job done, your ROI will be significantly decreased by more errors, low productivity, low morale, higher turnover, lost opportunity, and time not spent on managing relationships with your customers.

But simply telling people to get on board won’t make it so. If you think that people will easily rise to the occasion and embrace CRM just because you tell them it’s now their job to do so, you’re in for a rude awakening. Organizational change is not that neat, clean, or linear. There are, however, some ERM practices that can actually speed up implementation and increase your chances for success:

Continuous and consistent information sharing will accelerate understanding and acceptance of change. Why? People generally only retain about 25% of a message after a 48-hour period. To increase the odds that your employees understand the CRM vision, develop an internal “public relations” strategy to manage employee expectations.

Include the people that will be most affected by the new technology and business processes in your change efforts from Day One. Not only will you find out what they need to make life easier as their world changes, you’ll also start the buy-in process just in asking for their input.

Focus on knowledge, not on your employees’ attitudes. If employees are resisting, look to increase their knowledge about why this whole initiative is happening. Explain how the new technology will impact their job. Clarify what new skills they’re expected to have and how they’ll acquire them. Articulate explicitly what metrics will be used to gauge new CRM behavior and what business results are to come of all this. In other words, make it real obvious what’s in it for them (the “WIIFM” factor). It is 5 times more difficult to change attitudes than it is to change knowledge. To engage employees, focus first on changing their knowledge through learning and communications that allow for a two-way exchange of information, feelings, and ideas.

Manage expectations by gently warning people that it could get worse before it gets better. There is almost always a period of “storming” and messiness before new practices, knowledge, systems, and relationships gel into a new functional way of doing business.

You can never over-communicate. If you’re sick of talking about CRM, you’ve probably only connected with a fraction of your people. Talk it up some more. They’ll let you know when they’ve heard enough.

Make sure you’re walking the talk of your CRM strategy by getting “relationship management” right in your own back yard first. If you can’t build and manage relationships with your own people, how can you expect to be successful with customers?

The more helpful relationships there are within your organization, the more likely CRM implementation will be successful. Why? Because information will be shared faster, problems will be resolved quicker, and employees are more likely to buy into the CRM vision. You can create these helpful relationships by investing in an ERM strategy.

Revealing Secrets About the Color of Marketing

Kelly: Why should we take color into consideration when it comes to marketing?

Karen: Actually, let’s back up. Color is our worldview &ndash it’s instinctive, human and intrinsic to who we are. So we have an emotional, unconscious response to different colors. This is what matters in marketing &ndash the emotional response &ndash and color is a piece of that.

Kelly: So we’re having reactions to a logo or website based on color, and don’t even know it?

Karen: Yes, and there are also scientific ways of thinking about color, that help us elicit a certain response. For example, if you consider the color wheel, there are warm colors and cool colors. And each of these tones will provoke a different response: warm gets an active response, cool gets us a calming response.

So with marketing, you have to ask &ndash what’s going to work with your message? Warm colors in nature, like red and yellow (think sun and fire), indicate action. When you see or feel fire in nature, it can either draw you in or be a sign to get out of danger. Either way, the unconscious message is to “act now!”

On the other hand, cool colors don’t elicit action &ndash they invoke serene, calm, stability (like our earth and sky) &ndash so the message is “steady as she goes,” and “we’re stable.” If you’re trying to calm the viewer or impart a sense of timelessness, blues and cooler colors are good.

And then there are all the variations &ndash combinations of the three primary colors &ndash that are very complex, when it comes to our unconscious responses. An interesting example is how pink is used in prisons to stimulate a more human response.

Kelly: So now let’s apply this to marketing. How does color impact our brand identity and our marketing message?

Karen: In marketing, you’re looking to connect with your audience. So it’s important to include some form of warm tones to help people feel comforted, and bring in the sense of humanity. Even if you’re going after an industrial or serene feel, you need to temper cool neutrals with something warmer. Blacks, grays and blues tend to be very cold and sterile. By just adding an element of warmth, you can completely change the response a logo or identity triggers.

You see red a lot in logos because it means action. When you work outside of the primary colors (anything but red, yellow or blue), you create an edgier, more complex feel. So orange is warm, but edgy, because it’s not a prime color. And purple is very complex &ndash it’s warm and cool, and can shift depending on light and other colors around.

Kelly: What advice do you have for how to use color in marketing materials? Where and when does it matter to pay attention to color?

Karen: Obviously color matters everywhere…the first place to pay attention to it is in your identity. It’s your first chance to say if you’re contemporary and hip, cool and industrial, warm and humanistic, intellectual and solid, stable and traditional…and you can combine things. Like if you sell to the federal government, you could portray “intelligent and stable” using blues and grays…but if you’re in the homeland security business, you’d want to demand action - address an urgent issue &ndash so you could add shades of orange.

On the other hand, an Asian antique company in the city is completely different &ndash we’ll look at jewel tones as a nod to the orient, but make it hip and urban, using slate gray in the color scheme.

Color can be a fairly inexpensive way to make a statement. For example, a bright red postcard with large-font type on it is more likely to be picked up then something gray-blue. Using a hot color &ndash and a lot of it &ndash may be all the design you need. Now this wouldn’t work for a hip urban spa, so you have to keep in mind what you’re selling. If you’re selling “tranquil” &ndash bright yellow isn’t the answer. But something with a warm color, like beige, mixed in with the serenity imparted by gray or green would work.

Kelly: So what’s the one thing you wish your clients would do that would make it easier for you to help them when it comes to color? Karen: Not think that blue is the only color on the planet! Really, it’s a safe color…it’s everywhere around us…in large doses &ndash the sky, the ocean. So there’s a comfort level with it. I also think people are afraid to take a risk. But if you think of very successful companies that took big risks with color, think of UPS. Nobody was using brown in their logo back in the 60’s! For small companies, this can feel like they’re putting everything on the line.

The smaller the business, the more compelling the reason to take color risks &ndash you don’t have a whole team out there marketing for you, so your logo and business card have to do a lot of work for you.

Kelly: Do you have a story or example you’d like to share that illustrates what we’ve been talking about…maybe a client success story or surprising outcome?

Karen: A couple come to mind. One is TurningPointe’s colors. I pay attention to off-hand comments &ndash so when you joked about using pink and black to reflect your background in ballet…and I thought, why not? So playing with warmer variations led us to your pink and warm brown palette &ndash a combination we hadn’t done before. Your pink and brown is much warmer, human and comforting. The fact that they turned out to be such popular colors was just luck.

Another example is that we just did a tradeshow booth with wild, hot colors, for a conservative audience…but they stood out in the cold, austere convention center. They were really in-your-face and it worked great &ndash people just flocked to their booth.

In another case, we adjusted color from purely cool and industrial &ndash what the client said they wanted &ndash to add more warm tones. So without changing the design layout, it made all the difference.

Kelly: Where can people go to learn more…do you have any favorite websites or resources?

Karen: Go to Pantone.com &ndash this is the industry standard for color, period. The Pantone Institute has lots of helpful resources and articles. They also do color forecasting, so you can see predicted color trends for the coming years.

Kelly: Any final thoughts?

Karen: Trust your instincts. There is a science to color, but it’s not complicated. It’s also okay to choose a color because you love it and it makes you happy. I’d go back to where we started &ndash color is about eliciting hidden human emotions. So pay attention to your own, when it comes to choosing color.

How to Take Your Law Firm to the Next Level

If you can confidently answer “yes!” to the following metrics, then you’re ready to take your practice to the next level:

• Is your firm’s mission perfectly aligned with your market?

• Do your marketing efforts create exactly the relationship your customers most want and need?

• Are your services well packaged, presented with a What’s In It For Me? punch, and priced at various levels?

• Do you know exactly where and how to promote your firm’s services?

• Does your marketing system routinely and predictably create the kinds of new customers your business requires?

What happens next in many successful firms, however, is not good news. Instead of sticking with what’s created success in the first place, the focus shifts away from a marketing mindset. Instead of being an essential lens through which people in your firm view their role, marketing as an every-day focus fades from importance. After all, why continue to invest the time and resources on marketing when you’ve got more business than you can handle now anyway? And shouldn’t you spend time on what’s now important, like internal operations, serving current clients, and other more urgent priorities?

The answer is an emphatic NO! Not only will you erode all the hard work you’ve invested get to where you are, but it will be much harder (and expensive!) to turn your now larger and more complex ship around, once you lose that marketing mindset.

The truth is, that once your firm gets more successful and, by definition, more complex, your energy and focus turn naturally more inward. As your business grows, it takes on a life of its own in the form of meetings, policies, training, politics, and reports. The larger your firm gets, the more energy is directed inward &ndash it simply takes more planning, management, and systems to keep things running smoothly.

So how do you keep your firm from being consumed with internally focused activities? By developing and executing a strategy to…

Keep your firm’s mission alive, real, and relevant in the marketplace. Think of your firm’s mission as the “magnetic north” in your compass. For everything you do, constantly ask, “what difference does this make in the lives of our customers?” If it makes no difference (or the wrong difference), then why are you putting resources into it? Build this line of questioning into decisions you make and resources you allocate.

Create and maintain laser-like internal alignment with your external mission in the marketplace. Everyone’s job should have a direct connection to serving the customer. That means tying rewards and consequences to how everyone at your firm contributes to building client relationships. Even if someone has no direct client contact, they’re supporting someone who does. Connect the dots between what they do and what it means to the client.

Create new customers for old packages. Chances are, you haven’t saturated your current target market. Don’t let the basics that got you to your current level of success fade away. And what about new target markets? What successful services do you have that you could offer to another segment?

Create new services for old customers. Do a little research…ask people on your “front line” what they think your customers need. Ask your customers directly or hire an outside firm to ask for you. Find out why you won and lost business. You’ll be surprised, inspired, and motivated by what you learn.

Create new packages for old services. Take what you know or do and put it into a new format or offering. You can create workshops, CDs, e-books, mini-books, on-line content, workbooks, checklists, and more out of just about any professional content you know or work with. Think beyond just charging an hourly fee for your services. “Productize” what you know by offering people helpful tools they can use.

Ensure you and your leadership team are role models for the rest of your firm on how to create lasting relationships. What behaviors, words, standards, and approaches create lasting relationships with both clients and employees? Make sure your senior team walks the talk and, if they don’t, fix the problem. If you can’t model how to create lasting relationships at the top, others are less inclined to do it well.

Deliver on your firm’s brand promise through solid practice management. The mark of a true professional is when your firm’s own act is together. It’s not enough to be experts in your field, backed by the credentials and experience that are important to your target clients. You must also engage in continuous learning about your profession, your clients’ industries, and how to professionally manage your firm. Your firm’s leadership must act as a role model for how you want to be perceived in the marketplace. Are these high standards to set for your firm? Absolutely. But then again, you’ve already proven you do the basics well.

Resting on your laurels will only go so far.

Sooner than you think, loosing your focus on marketing will put you back to square one, scrambling for clients and worried about cash flow.

Except this time, the stakes are higher, your profile in the marketplace is higher, and you have a lot more to lose. So why go there? Take your firm to the next level, and be confident you won’t have to look back!

References

Putman, A. Marketing Your Services. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1990.

How to Up-Sell Change

Unless you’re willing to wait for a crisis (that usually means someone gets fired), start thinking about “up-selling” change. “Up-selling” change means to persuade your employees that making a personal commitment to the change will reap them personal benefits. Similar to up-selling your customers by informing and sharing the value-add to your products or services, you need to demonstrate the value-add of your change initiative. Just like any business problem, you start by making the business case for change. Except in this situation, your employees become your target market. So, you better have a good answer to the “WIIFM” test - What’s In It For Me?

Even if you don’t know the answer now, don’t let that stop you. The best place to start looking for answers to that question is your employees. Go to them and get them involved in your thinking. The act of asking and listening not only engages them, but informs them as well. When people feel partially informed, not part of the “in the know” group, uncertain of what is really happening, and have no clear answer to “what’s in it for me?” you are guaranteed to face stiff resistance to change. The act of engaging employees early on in the change process will accelerate acceptance and learning at a pace most managers would be thrilled to achieve. Weave people into your change plans - their buy-in, their reactions, their learning curve, their commitment (or lack of) to adopting the change.

Don’t bother to “up-sell” change without first administering the “WIIFM” test. The test is really rather simple. First, do a quick check of your team’s vital signs. Walk around and randomly ask people questions like “So, what do you think of the changes we’ve been talking about?” “How do you think it will impact your job?” “Think you’ll be able to adapt quickly to the new system?” You’ll be surprised (and maybe pleased) with the feedback you get. If your employees can articulate a positive connection to their daily job performance, then you’ve passed the test. On the other hand, if you get answers that vary widely across the board, or responses like “what change are you talking about?” “I hope it’s not like last time” or “we’re so burnt out now, I don’t think we can handle another change,” you have some serious remedial change management work to do.

If you pass the “WIIFM” test, then your communications have “connected-the-dots” for your team in ways they can understand and absorb into their daily job functions. If you hear resistance to the change, you need to go back and literally reconnect-the-dots for your employees so that they can clearly understand how the change directly or indirectly will impact their job. You can never over-communicate during a change initiative. Continuous, repeated, and rapid information exchange and knowledge sharing are key to successful adoption of change. If you’re sick of talking about it, you’ve probably converted your true believers but have only reached 25% of your people. Talk it up some more and keep “up-selling” the change.

The art and science of dealing with the people side of the change equation is Change Management. As a practice, it draws from a multitude of social science disciplines to effectively bring people, technology, and ideas together at the same time.

Your Secret Marketing Weapon

It seems paradoxical &ndash the more you give away, the more people are willing to pay for your services &ndash but it’s true. This exact approach has worked quickly and effectively for me for years. The key is that it’s got to be good and of high relevance to your target audience. This builds people’s confidence that you consistently know your stuff and that you can be counted on for long-term value. People soon realize that if you’re willing to give away such valuable expertise, think how great the solutions they pay for will be!

So how do you share your expertise with your target audience? Through writing and speaking. And it starts with being able to get your core ideas down on paper in a way that catches your audience’s attention and compels them to action.

If the idea of writing an article or giving a speech feels overwhelming, stay with me. I’m going to show you how easy it can be if you follow a basic formula that works every time.

Formula for Success

We’ve all stared at a blank page, at a loss for words or ideas…and wondered how in the world to write the article, proposal, report or presentation that’s due soon…with the deadline looming and no inspiration in sight. It’s the worst feeling and brings out the procrastinator in all of us.

Next time you’d rather clean out your desk than force yourself to sit down and write something, try this easy approach:

1) Brainstorm a short list of things that your clients struggle with. What problems drive them to you? Why are they willing to pay good money for your services. Remember, it’s not about you — it’s about them, their pain, and their needs. This is now your list of topics for articles and talks.

2) Pick one topic and answer the following questions:

• What’s the problem?

• What’s the lost opportunity?

• Why is this important to address?

• What will happen if it’s ignored?

• What’s your solution?

• What tips do you have for implementing your solution?

• What example can you use to illustrate your point?

3) Write your answers to these questions and don’t worry about how it flows or even that you’re using good grammar. Just get your ideas on paper (or into the computer). Notice that by now, you have at least a page written. Pat yourself on the back and keep going.

4) Go back and clean up what you’ve written, add a catchy title and some headlines to break up the text, keep your paragraphs short, add some bullets or numbers to guide the eye. Maybe add references or a diagram. Step back and review what you’ve done. By now, you’ve got an article!

5) Ask a couple of trusted colleagues, clients or friends for feedback on your draft &ndash really do this because it helps! Plus, it’s a great confidence booster and low-risk way to share your writing with a small audience first.

6) Put your new article on your website, offer to send it as follow up when networking, send it to current clients, use it as the basis for getting booked for talks (more on how to in a future newsletter)…whatever you do, don’t let it languish. USE it as a way of sharing your expertise.

For more tips on how to share your expertise through writing, keep reading…

Taking a page from Twyla Tharp’s new book, The Creative Habit, this prolific dancer and choreographer shares her tips for moving from procrastination to creativity, regularly and with ease. Apply these ideas to your writing and notice the difference…

1) Set up a creative environment that’s habit forming. Creativity doesn’t just happen, it’s a disciplined skill that can be learned. Creativity is not a mystical, elusive gift that’s only accessible to artists. Everyone can develop it. Set up the right conditions and it eventually kicks-in. For me, it’s the act of daily planning that clears my mind to make room for ideas to flow. For you, it might be puttering in your garden or going for a walk. Whatever it is, do it daily and be disciplined about it.

2) Use an organizational system for your ideas. Over the course of a month, I run into articles, quotes, websites, books, photos, experiences, and conversations…all of which inspire me for an upcoming article or talk. I capture them in folders, labeled by theme or big idea. When I’m ready to start writing, I draw on this collection of resources to inspire and guide my thinking. Twyla Tharp uses a box for each new project. You might find a binder the best catchall. Whatever works for you, the mere act of labeling and filling your container demonstrates your commitment to the idea.

3) Scratch. Scratching is about seeking inspiration to fill your container. I scratch when I flip through copies of Fast Company and Inc. Magazine or browsing in my favorite bookstore (where I found Tharp’s book!). I scratch while networking with other professionals and ask what they’re working on or stuck on in their business. This is about where you get your ideas…it’s kind of primal, and you never know what’ll inspire you.

4) Beware of these deadly mistakes: relying too much on others, waiting for or expecting perfection, overthinking, feeling obligated to finish what you’ve started, and working with the wrong materials. Any one of them will undermine your best efforts. If you’re stuck, look at each of these to see if they’re holding you back.

5) Find your spine. It’s your one strong idea, the toehold that gets you started. The spine of this e-newsletter, for example, is that writing is a core competency of effective marketing. Related to it is the inspiration I found in Twyla’s book.

6) Master your skill. You have to master the underlying skills of your creative domain, then build your creativity on the solid foundation of those skills. You can’t write or speak effectively about your chosen profession, if you haven’t mastered what you bring to the table to begin with.

7) Know the difference between a rut and a block. Writer’s block is when you’ve shut down and your tank is empty. In that case, you just need to do something &ndash anything &ndash to change the patterns in your brain (walk away, sing, get outdoors, do some yoga, cuddle with your pet…you get the idea). A rut is more like a false start. This happens when you’re using a bad idea, it’s bad timing, or you’re sticking with old methods that don’t work. Get out of a rut by questioning everything except your ability to get out of it.

Fail often privately. This includes drafts that get thrown away, early versions that you share with trusted colleagues, testing your message while networking (“what’s your impression of…?”). Then figure out why you’re failing (is it the idea? your timing? a matter of skill? judgement? nerve?) and address it before going public.

9) Believe in the long haul. Sharing your expertise through writing won’t be easy over night. It’ll take discipline to create a habit that eventually builds the skill. Believe me, it’s well worth it.

I’ve found that committing publicly (i.e., to subscribers of this e-newsletter, due out on the first Wednesday of each month) creates the right kind of pressure to motivate me into taking a disciplined approach to writing. Writing one good piece per month is doable and frequent enough that your audience won’t forget you. Before you know it, you’ll have a solid repertoire of articles and speeches to draw from in your marketing arsenal.

Painless Marketing for People Who Hate to Market

We don’t have time &ndash we’re busy enough and have to maximize our billable hours.

We can’t afford to market &ndash we have no extra money.

We have brochures and a website &ndash isn’t that enough?

We don’t know where to start, even if we do want to attract more clients.

We can’t get key people inside our firm to agree on how &ndash or if &ndash to start.

Promoting our firm is unprofessional, unethical, and tacky. These are all legitimate perspectives and shouldn’t be minimized. But what if there was a painless way to get the following results? High-quality prospects seeking you out and coming to you, instead of you having to seek them out.

Your firm reaching and helping more people with what you have to offer.

Increasing the volume of clients from which you can choose, allowing your firm to be selective and work with only those you truly want.

Differentiating your firm from your competition and articulating what makes you and your firm special.

Tapping new networks that don’t know about your firm yet.

Wasting no more money on ineffective brochures, flyers, web sites and other marketing materials &ndash better yet, knowing if the investment you make is worth it.

Raising your fees and being paid what you are worth.

Learning how to grow and sustain your practice in any market. My guess is that you’d be willing to take a closer look at some basic marketing principles and practices, if they could generate these results for your firm.

The Ugly Truth

Here’s the ugly truth about attracting more clients: you have to make it a priority constantly, consistently, and carefully. So what can you do to make it less painful…or even painless?

The answer depends on your firm’s view of marketing. Many of the professional service firms we work with tend to fall into one of two camps. Some firms are committed to using internal resources (i.e., partners, designated business development staff, or junior marketeers), and some won’t or can’t. Either way, marketing systems must become a core part of your day-to-day business practices.

Look Before You Leap

In both cases, you have to spend some time thinking about, developing, and testing what happens before you print brochures, develop a website, introduce yourself at a networking event, or write an article for a trade publication. Robert Middleton’s Five Laws of Marketing captures this well:

Build your base (careful attention to your message):

Get Attention: what you say and write to grab your prospects’ attention, introduce yourself, headline a talk or article, etc.

Uniqueness: what makes you stand out from your competitors, such as a specific promise, standard, or guarantee; you must be very clear on who you do and don’t serve

Value: what you demonstrate through information that you share before you get hired &ndash free articles, white papers, survey results, workshops, etc. &ndash so that when the need arises, the client thinks of only you

Authority: the proof that you’re qualified to deliver what you say you can do; demonstrated via case studies with measurable results, media appearances, testimonials, bios, company background, etc. Reach out to the market (being constant and consistent):

Relationship Building Systems: networking, direct outreach (personal or mass mail); keep in touch systems; centers of influence (banker, advisors), joint ventures, client relationship strategy, customer creation system, relationship selling strategy, value-based pricing strategy, next level strategies

The key to these five laws is that all aspects of marketing must pull in the same direction. So if you have one vendor doing direct mail, another your website, and another your ads &ndash particularly before you’ve built your base (laws 1 through 4) &ndash chances are they’re all pulling in different directions. You must have a holistic plan that keeps your firm and your vendors pulling together.

Making it Happen

Knowing what to do is not the same as making it happen. That’s where most busy professional service firms fall down when it comes to marketing.

Whether you do it yourself or hire an outside firm to help you, here’s the basic process you should follow: Make a research-based plan of action that’s strategic, contextual, and seamlessly aligned with your firm’s business goals; set priorities.

Establish a process to stay on track and motivated.

Use an approach that gets your team aligned and all working toward the same goals.

Factor in support, guidance, and resources for the hard work of implementation.

This Won’t Hurt a Bit!

You don’t have to tackle all of this at once. Take it one step at a time. Effective marketing takes hold organically and grows over time. A steady pace lets you experience and evaluate any changes thoughtfully. You can reasonably expect to put all of these things in place in about six to nine months. You’ll see results much sooner if your first steps are thoughtful, strategic, and carefully focused on building your base.

Want a prescription that will keep your business pipeline full of high-quality clients? Decide to add a little painless marketing to your weekly business routine and call me in the morning!

References

Levinson, J. Guerrilla Marketing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.

Middleton, R. Laws of Marketing TeleClass. Action Plan Marketing, Inc. 2003.

Putman, A. Marketing Your Services. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1990

Bird by Bird

Next, you’ve got to figure out how to get it all done. Marketing’s not your regular job, but you could work at it full time, given all there is to do.

And don’t forget…how do you stay on track and motivated? Sure, it’s one thing to be inspired during a marketing workshop or by ideas from a book. But then the reality of execution sets in.

Believe me, I feel your pain. Working on some major, next-level projects of my own right now, it’s tempting to stick my head in the sand and say forget it. Since I’m writing from the beach this week, it literally would be that easy.

Instead, I’m taking it “bird by bird.”

Author and writing teacher, Anne Lamott, coined this term to encourage budding authors in her book, Bird by Bird. The phrase refers to a school report about wild birds that her younger brother had to write as a child. He put it off until the night before it was due. Sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by piles of books, he was overwhelmed and frozen by the task at hand. His father, also a writer, told him to just take it bird by bird…first write about one bird. Then write about another bird. Then another. Before he knew it, his report would be done.

Faced with your own pile of marketing tasks? Here are some things you can do to take it bird by bird:

1. Don’t start with a whole bird. Start with some feathers. A beak. The feet. My point is, just start on one, tiny thing…like spend 15 minutes brainstorming your Positioning Statement (and if you don’t know what this is, email me!). Then stop. Come back to it tomorrow and spend 15 more minutes. Eventually, you’ll be done.

2. Be okay with lousy first drafts. Creativity experts know this. Famous authors count on it. Whether you’re working on your website, a client proposal, deciding where to network or writing an actual article, just get the ideas out of your head and onto paper. Don’t worry about complete sentences, clever themes or specifics. The point is to just start.

3. Invest by carving out the time. If you want to attract more clients for the long haul, you’ve got to carve out time to work on this stuff. It won’t happen by itself. Look at it as an investment in what matters most to you (your future? your sanity? your family? your freedom?). Then carve out the time to invest. Start small &ndash 15 minutes of uninterrupted, honest-to-god-I’m-not-going-to-do-anything-else time every day &ndash then expand to 30 minutes and more. I’ve found that the daily discipline is what makes this magic.

4. Protect and guard this commitment. Others will try to lure you away (that crucial client meeting…the latest staff crisis…family and friends), interrupt you, to make their needs more important. Don’t take the bait. Make your commitment to this investment more important. Julia Cameron shows us how to keep from being “blocked by falling in with other people’s plans for us,” in The Artist’s Way.

5. Use a timer. Okay, I know this sounds anal…but it works. I learned this from my friend, Susan Rose, whose book, ‘Bourbon? Babes, comes out this fall. Now I’m addicted. Instead of stressing about the time I don’t have, I simply set a timer and do the work. When the alarm goes off, I stop. It’s very freeing, since I don’t have to decide when to stop &ndash the alarm decides for me. Try this every morning for a week and see how much you accomplish.

6. Show up and see what happens. Carving out the time to work on marketing is half the battle. The other half is being open to what you come up with during the time you’ve set aside. The best ideas will come to you if you don’t pre-judge your efforts. Why put that kind of pressure on yourself?

7. Be gentle with yourself. Remember lousy first drafts? Again, go easy. Take a page from The Artist’s Way, where Julia Cameron encourages us to “go gently and slowly…no high jumping, please! Mistakes are necessary. Stumbles are normal. Progress, not perfection is what we should be asking of ourselves.”

8. On the other hand, no whining. In his Little Red Book of Selling, Jeffrey Gitomer gives us a tough love message that, when in doubt, give yourself a swift kick in the rear (his words are less delicate, but you get the idea). His main advice: no whining and kick your own a–!

9. Don’t go it alone. Yes, you have to carve out the time, show up, and stop whining. But you don’t have to go it alone. Create a system of support. Schedule a weekly check-in meeting with someone. Subscribe to marketing e-newsletters and online groups. Start a Marketing Book Club and meet monthly to share ideas. Join one of my Marketing Action Groups, Online Discussion Forums, Marketing BootCamps or Advanced TeleClinics. Get marketing coaching. The best athletes, performers and executives have ongoing support…why not you?

Getting started is the hardest part. I promise you, that once you carve out the time and just start, you’ll notice progress. And that progress &ndash however small &ndash will act as a magnet. It will attract you to the work of being a marketer, in ways that you can’t imagine now.

To Julia Cameron’s point (she uses the word ‘artist’ where I use ‘marketer’)

“Remember, that in order to recover as a marketer, you must first be willing to be a bad marketer. Give yourself permission to be a beginner. By being willing to be a bad marketer, you have a chance to be a marketer, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.”

References

Cameron, J. (1992, 2002). The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. New York: Tarcher Penguin.

Gitomer, J. (2004). The Little Red Book of Selling. Austin: Bard Press.

Lamott, A. (1994). Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor Books.

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