Are You Ready? Number 6 in a Series of 6

Are you ready to get business to come to you instead of having to spend your time drumming it up.  Odds are that you’re eager to get word-of-mouth and mindshare marketing working for you.

But are you ready to do what it takes to get it?

For the last five weeks we’ve been providing you a checklist of marketing activities and strategic decisions that should lead you down the mindshare path. Were you as ready as you thought?  Did you realize why you don’t yet have all the business you can enjoy?  Have you figured out what to do right away to get things going your direction?

Let me recap the last five week’s worth of questions:

Have you decided on a single thing you want to become well known for?

OR…

Are you still trying be everything to everyone?

Have you committed to spending all of your available time, money and energy into developing this one thing?

OR…

Are you dividing your time between numerous possibilities?

Have you developed your own niche that capitalizes on your background and expertise?

OR…

Are you doing what numerous other providers in your area are doing?

Can you clearly demonstrate why you’re the provider prospects should choose?

OR…

Are you just hoping that folks will believe enough in ADR to want to do business with you?

Do you have a long-term plan to reach your prospects and then maintain their attention to create mindshare?

OR…

Are you marketing efforts sporadic and inconsistent?

Now let me address the last in the series of six.

Are you able to follow your plan with the consistency and frequency to attract the clients you’re interested in obtaining?

OR…

Do you let your marketing efforts wax and wane due to a lack of time or interest?

It’s important to remember that most ADR professionals are excellent at providing resolution processes but may not have any training in marketing or entrepreneurship and therefore don’t necessarily feel comfortable promoting their services.  That’s normal.  Most professionals the world over are trained in a specialty other than marketing but need those skills to create a successful business.  The easiest way to jump this hurdle is to have a cohesive plan of marketing strategies that enables you to contact your prospective clients at regular intervals as opposed to a catch-as-catch-can approach.  Establish for yourself reasonable marketing goals.  For instance, before you do anything else every morning write personal notes to past clients thanking them for their recent business, mention the article they just authored, the promotion they just received, or an invitation to hear you speak.  You get the idea.  Reach out to 5 prospective clients each day with a link to read an article on your website or blog that educate them about our industry or a change in theirs, send a survey to primary or secondary target markets about their use of our industry, set up a speaking gig, or write and publish a new article, reach out prospects via social media, etc.

This is a simple and attainable marketing goal that if followed will reach 5,200 prospects in a year!   Now that’s marketing!

The point is to find things that you capable of doing, that you won’t resist doing, and then do them.  Do them with sincerity and enthusiasm and your target market will respond.

Why not start now?