Making Marketing Authentic

Most people who get into mediation or other ADR services don’t do it because they love to market their services.  For many of us, marketing has a pejorative feel to it; marketing feels unprofessional for a professional service industry.  Yet, because so much of the public is unfamiliar with the types of services that ADR practitioners offer, and with less support from litigation attorneys than we’d like, we need to find an authentic, comfortable way to market our services and mediation programs.

Developing Your Signature Style

For most of us, it’s been a long journey since we resolved to become peacemakers. Once you open your office it doesn’t take long to learn that clients don’t magically appear.  The question is how to make our commitment to peacemaking feel as authentic for our prospective clients as it is for ourselves.  How can we design marketing plans that convey the benefits of mediation and our own sincerity in a way that is also designed to sell our services? 

Developing your signature style and discovering your own identity as a mediator are the key elements to begin your marketing.  After that, marketing falls into two categories, one of which works and one of which doesn’t:  spending lots of money (doesn’t work) and spending lots of time (works really well).  Chronologically, you also divide your time into two categories:  finding new prospective clients and making sure they become actual clients.  This article will cover how to be yourself while marketing and how to choose marketing techniques that will work for you and your practice.

Defining Your Signature Style:  For your marketing to work, you have to know who you are as a person and as a professional.  Be honest with yourself about what you like to do and where you shine as well as what you don’t like to do and where you’re not at your best.  If you hate networking at the Chamber of Commerce, you’re not going to come across in the way you’d hope by doing it anyway, so you’re wasting your time.  If you love to write articles but hate public speaking, focus your time and talents in writing.  If you think you hate all kinds of marketing, remember that waiting for the telephone to ring isn’t an effective client generation tool.  Maybe it’s time to think about dropping the private practice idea and start thinking about joining a corporate HR department or teaching.  Out of the different ways to market, pick only those which you’ll actually do and follow through upon.

Some people feel like marketing is selling out. Your marketing plan should never feel unprofessional.  Using public speaking to tell consumers about the benefits of mediation is a public service, and if your speech is sounding too much like a sales pitch, then revise it.  Writing articles about skills that people can use to lessen the conflict in their lives is also a public service.  Introducing yourself to others in related fields who could make referrals to you provides a service both to those professionals and to their clients because you’re a quality practitioner who will do a good job with their case. When you market authentically, you help others while growing your practice.  Stop and rethink your approach if you’re feeling uncomfortable with your marketing message.  Marketing at its finest is genuine and holds value for those to whom you’re marketing.

Your Elevator Speech and Mission Statement:  Have a clear vision of what you do.  You can’t encourage people to participate in mediation if you can’t explain what it is.  And let’s face it, mediation isn’t easy to describe in just a few words.  The first step is to develop your Elevator Speech:  a one or two sentence explanation of what you do.  It’s called an elevator speech because you need to be able to finish it by the time an elevator takes between floors.  Examples: 

• I help busy lawyers like you settle cases; or

• I help people get divorced without losing their shirt or their sanity.

How can you describe your practice in just a sentence or two?

Next, expand your elevator speech into a Mission Statement, and think about your Brand.  You may never be Coca-Cola, but your practice and services need an identity.

For example:  Peace Talks Mediation Services is dedicated to providing a constructive, forward-thinking and peaceful ending to relationships.  Marriages may end, but families endure forever.  We provide a confidential, efficient and impartial atmosphere to help people resolve conflict and to create solutions with integrity and dignity for everyone concerned.

You may or may not share your mission statement with clients, but you need it in order to have a direction in your practice. You wouldn’t leave on a trip without a map, and you shouldn’t have a practice without a mission, either.

Your Brand is what you stand for, the kind of services that you provide, and your signature style.  For example, your Brand may include:

• Honesty

• Trustworthiness

• Commitment to client education and service

• Going the extra mile

• Commitment to the profession of mediation

Practically speaking, your brand exemplifies your values in your practice.

Be prepared to discuss your practice in terms of value, benefits and results for clients.  That’s all they care about:  value, benefits, results.  The good news is that mediation is full of value, benefits and results for clients.  Brainstorm a list of what you perceive these to be. You’ll use this list when you talk to clients about mediation.

Choosing Where and How to Market:  Specialize.  It’s easier to market that way.  You can accept any kind of case that comes into your office, but you’re only going to market one or two specialties. You’re also going to pick your geographical area.  Marketing every service to everyone everywhere is too difficult and expensive.  The more you define your services, practice areas and geographic area, the easier it is to market.

It’s counter-intuitive, but as we’ve narrowed our services our income increased.  In 2005 gross income increased 25% yet we cut back on the services that we offer.  The less we do, the more we make.  It makes sense when you think about it, because the less you do the easier it is to describe what you do, including the value, benefits and results, and the easier it is for clients to conclude, “yes, this mediator can help me.”

Likewise, it’s important to define your mediation style.   Do you generally practice in a more narrative, evaluative or facilitative style?  Can you explain to clients how you do what you do, and why you’ve chosen to practice the way you do?  What about the other styles do you include in your practice, and what parts don’t work given your mediation style?  Being able to articulate why your particular mode of practice works will help clients have confidence in you and in your practice.  Mediation Career Guide, by Forrest S. Mosten (Wiley Jossey Bass 2001), has some great chapters on developing your signature style.

Getting Started:  You’ll learn about marketing your mediation practice with a combination of trial-and-error and professional advice.  Hopefully, this article will help you avoid some expensive lessons.  A marketing approach that worked in your previous professional life might not work for mediation and just because it worked for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you.  My best investment was using an ADR marketing consultant.  It cost money, but it saved both time and money in the long run.  Individual consultations helped me to develop marketing plans that feel authentic, professional, and comfortable to execute.  A few good books were also helpful:  Essential Guide to Marketing Your ADR Practice, by Natalie J. Armstrong (Golden Media Publishing 2001);  Selling the Invisible:  A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, by Harry Beckwith (Warner Business Books 1997); Guerilla Marketing: Secrets to Making Big Profits in Your Small Business, by Jay Conrad Levinson (Houghton Mifflin 1998); and Marketing Without Advertising by Michael Phillips and Salli Rasberry (Nolo 2003),  were all good starting points.

The strategies below range from low out-of-pocket costs and a high time investment to a high cost and low time investment. When you’re able to spend lots of time, but little cash, you’ll spend your time networking, speaking, writing, and serving before you sell.

Networking:  Educating people about mediation in a social or networking context is free or nearly so.  Connecting with another person and talking about what you do is an invaluable part of marketing for any business, and particularly for mediators.  Join your professional organizations, or, better yet, the professional associations of a gatekeeper organizations.  A gatekeeper is someone who frequently comes into contact with the demographic you’re trying to reach.  For example, as a family law mediation firm, I get referrals from therapists and accountants.  As a result, I’ve joined the local therapists’ organization and the family law section of the accountants’ organization and actively participate in the meetings and committees.  If you’re really outgoing, you can make good use of your time at their networking functions.  If you’re more of a workhorse, you can gain points by volunteering on committees.  What better way to prove that you’re honest, trustworthy, hard working and worthy of their referrals? 

While joining organizations is a great way to meet people and to network,   dues can be expensive.  Try attending various associations’ functions without joining first.  Look for their calendar of events listed either in their newsletters or web site and make sure that the event is not “members only”.  It’s a great way to try out a new organization without a big cash outlay. 

Wear your nametag on your right shoulder so when people shake your hand they’re staring at your name.  Make your business cards easy to reach.  If you have a name badge on a lanyard, put your cards in the back of the pouch.  Get their card because the key element to networking is following up.  After the event, follow up with a letter or call and remind your contact about who you are and what you do.  The plan is to land in their Rolodex so that when they’re asked about a mediator, they think of you first.

Maintain a database of your contacts and former clients so you’ve got all the information in one place, and make follow up calls or contacts on a regular basis.  If you’re uncomfortable telephoning, consider writing a mediation newsletter or e-newsletter to send to your mailing list, or sending an article or holiday card.  Break up the task of following up with your entire database into small pieces, like 10 calls a day, to make the task less daunting—and more likely to get done.  Contact every 60 to 90 days is ideal.

Speaking:  Public speaking is also a great free opportunity to make personal contact with specific groups that could use your mediation services.  Again, make sure you target your efforts to “gatekeepers”—those who can refer you business—or to individuals who are likely to need your services, e.g., speak to couples’ counselors if you’re a divorce mediator.  Expect mixed results with large, general membership groups like the Chamber of Commerce, and more promising responses from more targeted groups, like an HR professionals association.  A group with a focused demographic, especially one in your geographic area, is ideal.

Writing:  Writing about mediation, or mediation as it relates to another topic, like entertainment law or conflict resolution for educators, is a great no-cost high-profile way to market your services.  Most professional organizations have a magazine or newsletter and they need content.  As a result, it’s easier than you might think to get published in a newsletter.   In addition, you can submit articles to general interest and professional websites, post them on your website and reprint them in your own newsletter.  If you’re a talented writer, think big: your local newspaper or well known professional publication. If you’re just starting out, think smaller:  letter to the editor or smaller newsletter.  Make sure your topic fits your intended audience and targets your gatekeepers in a way that highlights your services without self-promoting.

Volunteer Mediations:  Demonstrating how mediation works through participation in a volunteer mediation panel is a widely-used yet controversial marketing technique. Volunteering your time to build your skills or to give back to the community is one thing. If you’re volunteering for marketing purposes, make sure your time is productively spent.

Spending a Little Money:  One reasonably low-cost marketing strategy which can be incredibly useful is building and maintaining a web site.  From my own experience, the web site has consistently paid for itself in clients generated, and has saved money because it also functions as an on-line brochure.  For more information on web sites, please read James Melamed’s article “Marketing Your Mediation Practice on the Internet” in this issue.  Don’t forget to register your name, address and domain name with major on-line yellow page style directories, like Yahoo Yellow Pages, switchboard.com and smartpages.com. Basic listings are free on many sites.  You can also use your web site for reciprocal links and strategic partnerships.  Find sites which you feel would interest your potential clients and link to those sites; ask those sites to link to your site as well. 

Blogs, either on your own website or someone else’s, can work the same way.  If you start a blog on your own website, you can update the content of your website constantly, which may help your search engine rankings.  If you start a blog on a blog website, link back to your web site, which may also help your search engine rankings. Make sure that your blogging is professional and well-edited.  Don’t be fooled by the informality of blogs. Everything you post anywhere that the public can read must be your best effort.

You can use the concept of “permission marketing” on your web site and with your e-mail address list.  Each month (or whatever frequency), send out a newsletter to subscribers. The key is that the newsletter is strictly opt-in. You don’t want your newsletter to look like spam.  Web site visitors subscribe by signing up on the site and you can send it to your e-mail address list with their permission.  Keep each newsletter short and simple, less than 2 minutes to read.  Make it informational and timely.  At the bottom, include some information about your practice and services, as well as your contact information.  Encourage readers to forward the e-mail newsletter to anyone who might find it of interest. With luck, you’ll get more subscription requests from people who received your newsletter as a forward.  This is one way to use “viral marketing,” i.e., the forwarded e-newsletters do your marketing for you. If you have the time to do several different targeted newsletters, then send different newsletters to different groups.  This is a great way to develop word of mouth about your services.

Spending Money Doesn’t Work:  Spending lots of money on print, radio or TV advertising is usually a poor investment unless you’re committed to an ongoing advertising campaign, which is cost-prohibitive for most mediators.  The problem with advertising is that the person who needs your services must see the ad at the exact moment that he or she needs your services.  Your chances of hitting a target on the first few tries are slim.  Limiting your ads to publications read by your gatekeepers is more effective, but given the expense, your return on investment will generally be too small to be worthwhile. The same is true for direct mail advertising and Yellow Pages ads. Your money and time are better spent elsewhere.

Once you get your marketing plan into place, it’s time to think about how to turn those prospects into actual clients.

Turning Prospective Clients into Actual Clients

We sometimes forget that our most valuable marketing contact—the prospective client who telephones our office—is our most viable marketing prospect.           

Step one is to serve before you sell. This is a concept I learned from my marketing coach at Golden Media, and the idea is that before you ever talk to anyone about paying you for your services or becoming a client, first answer all of their questions and be as helpful as possible.  Let prospective clients get to know you, your services and your practice before you ask them to become clients.  It’s good business for your practice, and it’s also good business for mediation in general. During this “serve before you sell” period you’re making sure that the case is a good fit for your practice as much as clients are evaluating your firm.  Answer questions about mediation, give a tour of your office, offer an orientation session, have articles and handouts ready to help the clients get prepared to mediate, and make them feel like they’re getting special attention from your firm.  All of this is free of charge, of course.  The serve before you sell stops with the actual mediation of the case—that’s when you go on the clock.  By the time the caller becomes a client, he or she will not only be sold on your services, but will have the confidence that your firm is dedicated to client service.

Consider how much time, effort, and money that it took to make this call happen.  Every speaking engagement, networking luncheon, article and marketing activity is designed to make the telephone ring.  Yet when it does, few of us are as prepared as we need to be to turn that interested caller into a paying client.  Forrest Mosten pointed this out to me early in my career, and convening is still the backbone of my firm’s marketing.

That ringing telephone signals the beginning of a process called convening, or getting both sides to the table.  Do you know what your call-to-client ratio is, i.e, how calls you get and how many turn into paying clients?  Knowing your call-to-client ratio from each of your sources of referrals, as well as your overall ratio, is important in order to know which marketing plans work, which are cost-effective, and where you should focus your time and money.

Telephone Calls

Who will take your telephone calls?  Is it a receptionist, unskilled at mediation and unable to answer basic questions about your services?  Is it a Dispute Resolution Associate, trained in mediation and in convening?  Will you take the calls yourself?  A general receptionist is fine if you’re taking the intake calls yourself, but your first line marketing person should know all about the mediation process. 

After you’ve decided who is doing the intake, what model will you use?  Will you spend a few minutes, off the clock, and then send out your brochure, marketing materials, or a follow-up letter? Or will you do a thorough phone intake, on or off the clock?  Will you schedule an orientation session during the first call?  A critical part of your intake is where the client heard about your services.  You’ll use this information to track the efficacy of your marketing efforts. 

The next piece of information you need from the caller is whether or not the other party is aware of the caller’s desire to mediate.  Is the other party even aware that the call is being placed? If not, ask how best to approach the other party. 

For cases in which the parties have already agreed to mediate, your intake is then geared toward selling the potential client on your services.  What do you offer that other mediators do not?  Why should the client choose your services over someone else’s?  Write a short script or outline in case you get tongue-tied on the phone. After the telephone call, send out a “thanks for calling” letter along with some printed information about your practice. Give prospective clients a tangible reminder of having called you.

Information Packages

After a call has come into the office, send an information package to the callers.  Your information package should instill confidence in clients and differentiate your services in the marketplace.  You might include brochures, business cards, a firm newsletter, a short biography of yourself and your experience, pointers on how clients can prepare for their mediation session, or articles about mediation. Use a simple pocket folder so you can mix and match your materials for different types of cases. 

Just as with serving before you sell, remember that clients are looking for value, benefits and results. Ninety percent of your brochure, information package and website should be centered around value, benefits and results for the clients.  Only 10% should be about you and your qualifications.  The same 90/10 rule holds true of all of your marketing materials, your web site, and any other descriptions of your practice or program.

When prospective clients call your office, they already believe you’re an expert. Laypeople and attorneys [generally] perceive all mediators to be equal and qualified. As a result, they don’t care much about your qualifications.  The way mediators can differentiate themselves is by describing their services in terms of value, benefits and results.

Price is not as important as you’d think.  In Western culture, people tend to believe that they get what they pay for.  If it’s free or inexpensive, it has no value.  People who are 100% price sensitive are always going to be a problem. You’re never going to build a practice on price competition.  The good news is that mediation offers so much value, so many benefits, and such great results, it’s relatively easy to compile your information packages.

Clients appreciate the fact that you’re organized and have materials to send out.  It conveys that you’re committed to client service.

Mediation Orientation Sessions

You may wish to offer a free orientation session in order to supplement the intake.  Orientations allow the parties to see the office, meet the mediators and discuss how the mediation process might work for their case.  Both the mediator and the parties can use the orientation to decide if the practice is a good fit for the case.

Thoughtful convening is the bridge between marketing and building a practice. 

Client Service as Marketing

Sometimes we forget that great client service is a great marketing tool.  Simply doing a good job, being respectful of clients’ needs and questions, answering the telephone in an approachable way, and demonstrating patience with people in conflict can be a great way to get clients to refer your office to other prospective clients. 

Takes time to build, however, so it’s important to jump start your practice with other marketing activities.  There’s no need to do every suggested marketing technique in this article, and, in fact, it would be counter productive.  Pick a few things that feel right and that fit your personality and budget, and start there. Evaluate your return on investment:  was it worth the time and money?  If so, do more of it.  If not, try something else.  Keep your marketing plan consistent with who you are and who you want to be in your practice and you will help you develop the kind of clientele that you can really help, and as a result, it will be the kind of clientele that will refer others to you.  That’s the best kind of marketing of all.

About the author:  Diana Mercer is the founder of Peace Talks Mediation Services (www.peace-talks.com) and the co-author of Your Divorce Advisor (Fireside 2001).

ACR Magazine, Spring 2006

Diana Mercer, Attorney-Mediator, copyright 2006

Peace Talks Mediation Services, Inc.

8055 W. Manchester Ave., Suite 201

Playa del Rey CA 90293

(310) 301-2100

Diana1159@aol.com

Are You Ready?

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 mind share marketing working for you.

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

To find out, complete this checklist and then stay tuned to the next six articles for a complete break-down of each component.  You might be surprised to find you’re not as ready as you think.  You might realize why you don’t yet have all the business you can enjoy.  And you’ll know what to do right away to get things going your direction.

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 mind share?

OR…

Are you marketing efforts sporadic and inconsistent?

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?

Unless you’re already exceptionally well positioned, getting business coming to you will take time.  How long it will take depends on how ready you are.  You might find that you’re ready immediately.  Conversely you might find that you have several weeks or months to get yourself and your practice in a position to begin attracting clients.  If you rush into trying to get business without positioning yourself solidly, you’ll just have to go back later and redevelop your practice into a better position.

Why not start now?  Check back next week for more.

If you need help with any of the above, just send me a message and together we’ll get you started on the right path.

I rather like the new normal.

I know that the last month or two have been strange for most us but hopefully we’re all settling into our new groove. 

One thing I like about this new world is the amount of effort if requires of me.  Last year in order for me to attend a conference I needed to register for the event, sometimes get a visa, book a flight and hotel, deal with airport security, figure out the public transportation from the airport … and on and on and on.  Until it was time to do it all in reverse.  It’s exhausting me just writing about it and I simply don’t have it in me to list the hundred other steps necessary.  But I don’t need to. You probably know them all too well.

In person meetings were a bit easier but only because the effort involved had become normalized.  Buy a car, maintain the car, or figure out how to public transportation, rent an office, furnish and maintain an office, wear a suit and heels, provide snacks and drinks, keep fresh flowers in lobby, set the date and time for us to meet, research and prepare for the meeting, confirm the date time, …. and on and on and on.  Again, I’m leaving out a bunch of steps and little tasks to large efforts.  But you know the drill. 

Now, I ask my clients to let me know the best date and time for me set up a Zoom call, I prepare for the meeting, confirm with them the date and time and send them the Zoom link, log on and get to work.  No heels or train stations necessary.  In fact this might just be the perfect answer for introvert who is cleverly disguised as an extrovert.

I hadn’t really though much about the first two scenarios.  They were just normal.  I didn’t measure the amount of time or energy either of them required because putting all that effort into working with clients was just what I did.  Part of the challenge of a worldwide shift is that all of us have to engage in new effort that we’re not used to. It’s nothing we asked for, and the old effort disappearing didn’t used to feel like much of a benefit.

But now? 

Although I do miss the first two versions of conferences and meetings, they were expensive, complicated and sometimes difficult processes.  This new normal has its own challenges for sure, but if new effort is required, we have the chance to do what we’ve always done in the resolution industry, which is figure out what works and to commit to it.

This is right in our wheelhouse.

You’re Just 3 Easy Steps to Becoming the Go-To ADR Professional

In order to build up your reputation and create more visibility, it’s imperative to know and understand your prospective clients. If you do you will be able to craft messages that resonate and that create the necessary dialogue for true engagement.

One of the most common mistakes I see mediators and arbitrators make on their websites and social media platforms is that they focus on themselves rather than their clients.   This is an easy fix.   

1.     Make a list of the prospective clients that want to reach and the best way(s) to reach out to them.  They might like face-to-face networking, direct email, social media contact, videos, podcasts, etc.  In what medium(s) will your messages be most effective and efficient?  Wherever they congregate, in whatever way --- you need to be there.  Expecting clients to come to you is unreasonable. 

2.     Next you need to make it clear that you truly understand what your clients’ issues are.  Make a list of their primary, secondary and tertiary concerns, issues, or problems.  Next to each line item write up a short explanation of how each can be addressed and potentially resolved when they hire you. 

3.  Utilizing the list of concerns and the possible solutions verify your assumptions when you have the face-to-face opportunities with your prospective clients.  They’ll tell you if you’ve got it right or need to refine your ideas.  With a newly refined list of problems and solutions, write articles, record video or podcast messages, create a training, or provide a speech in which you address each scenario.  Using client-preferred mediums you’ll see a very positive cumulative effect of your efforts over a relatively short amount of time. 

If you need help with any of these 3 activities, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll help you design the right system to help you reach your goals.

REALITY Vs. PERCEPTION

A great deal of a businessperson's time is spent creating the right perception of her business. She wants to be sure that her target market have the opinion she wants them to have. Is her practice a high-end boutique practice, an "every-man's" kind of practice or a practice designed to accommodate those who can't afford other venues? She might want to position herself as the friendliest, the most authoritative, most experienced etc.

The perception of her practice to her prospects should be based in the reality of her practice. Just ask her previous clients if their perception of her practice proved to be the reality. If she positioned herself as an expert in construction issues and was unable to read the blueprints put before her, well ... not only are her clients going to be a little more than disheartened, she might have done actual damage to the their case, the process, her individual practice and the industry as a whole. The reality did not support the perception.

On that note, a great deal your time should be spent on building an APPROPRIATE perception of the reality in your target market's minds. How do you do that?

First realize what your strengths are. Determine your niche. Then determine what position in that specialized market place you want to take. It could be based on your fee schedule, your expertise, your personality, your geographic location, or, well, pretty much anything.

Then design your marketing and promotional pieces to reflect the "personality" you've chosen for your practice. Be sure that your marketing choices give a true reflection of the perception you want folks to have. If you are trying to position your firm as the high-end provider in the area, don't scrimp on paper quality, real estate, or staff.

If you're a non-profit - the reverse is true. Recipients of your letters want to know that you're frugal with the little money you have. They want to see your information on less expensive or recycled papers.

In essence - the reality, and the perception of that reality, need to be the identical in order to avoid any cognitive dissonance in your target market, not to mention keep them coming back for more.

If you need any help in trying to determine whether or not the reality matches the perception you are trying to create, give me a call - we'll mediate the gap.

Some Questions (And their answers)

Here's a question that might actually be your answer. Next time you're working on your practice-building strategy, ask yourself this:

If I ran a competing practice, how would I beat mine?

Which weakness would I attack? What would I do to distinguish my new practice from my current practice?

Then --- eliminate that weakness from your practice. Either augment your activities, your location, your service, your support systems, etc. or outsource them. Your weakness is your soft underbelly, and probably the reason you are losing some business.

Next --- build on your distinguishing strength before someone else starts doing it.

Always ask yourself, "How would I beat me?"

Another good question to ask.

Whenever you consider your business's next steps, ask, "if we were starting this business from scratch, what would we do differently?"

Then do that. Every now and then it's good to start from scratch.

Wonder!

At an international conference of ADR consumers a while ago I overheard one gentleman say to another "Mediation is the greatest thing since sliced bread"!

Well, here's the thing about sliced bread.

It was invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder in 1912. A simple yet brilliant idea: a machine that could take a loaf of bread and (voila) slice it!

Otto's machine was a complete failure.

Around this same time was the beginning of the advertising age (which meant that no matter how a good a product or service was, without good marketing it had very little chance of success.

It was about 20 years later, when a new brand called Wonder started marketing sliced bread, that the invention caught on. It was the packaging and the advertising that worked - not the convenience or innovation of pre-slicing bread.

How does this translate to your practice?

Well, I know your service is great and you know your service is great - but if your consumers don't know it ... well, frankly, it just doesn't matter how great your service really is. You've got to reach out to your consumers and tell them how great your service is. Tell why you're different, better, faster, cheaper, bigger, smaller,.... But the point is - you've got to tell them.

If you need help figuring out ways to tell you customers how great your practice is, give me a call and I'll you strategize some practice-building and marketing activities.

Promoting through Public Speaking

One of the most obvious and most effective ways to promote your practice is through public speaking. It puts you directly in front of your target market and establishes you as a credible authority on your topic ... IF you're a good public speaker that is.

If you need to polish your public speaking, one way to improve is to join your local toastmasters club where you can hone your impromptu and prepared speaking skills

alongside others like yourself. Another option is to join a local community theater

company where small speaking parts allow you to dip your toe in the sea of public

speaking with minimal attention. You might also try your local college for a public

speaking course.

In many regions oratory still thrives, and indeed is performed in clubs and associations that allow people like yourself to learn the trick of the trade and have an opportunity to engage in the honorable, ageless practice of public speaking. Most programs and organizations that offer such training and participation have nominal costs, if any. For those of you who don't want to pay for a private coach, but need the skills necessary to hold an audiences' attention, these group venues might be just what you need.

Once you're comfortable in front of a crowd it's time to your skills. But not on primary, secondary, or tertiary target markets. Nope. Try them out on us first. Speak or present to the resolution industry. Our organizations should be your comfort zone and will give you the right platform to take your expertise public. Speak to us. Teach us something that you're passionate about. Give us your best. From us you'll learn how to prepare for presentation, how to deliver it, and very importantly - how to follow up on it.

Now that you've got some practice it's time to swing for the fences and speak and present to your target markets. What do your perspective clients want to hear? Or maybe take the riskier route and deliver a speech about what they don't want hear - but might be necessary for them to know. As you reach out to associations and organizations to which you want to speak, it's always a good idea to ask the all-important question; what do the members want to hear or learn. That might better define or even entirely change the subject matter of your presentation.

Once you've got the gig be sure to share all about it on your social media accounts (which should be populated with your target market contacts) and if appropriate invite them to attend. under the spotlight people come to you be prepared to network come with cards aplenty  offer to give attendees whatever follow up they need - a phone call, a face to face meeting, or more information.  if the association to which you speak doesn't have a survey in place to determine how well you did - get their permission to survey the attendees. 5 or fewer short questions and (this next thing is super important) a place for testimonials. If you can post to social media during or immediately after the event do it. Be sure to thank the association or organization for allowing you the opportunity to speak to their members. update your bio credible authority on the issues your target market face

The key component now is to follow up on the connections you made and move those interactions in relationships. Send your new colleagues a follow up email whatever information they requested or you offered, meet them coffee, add them to your LinkedIn network, and continue to keep in touch. Keeping yourself front of mind and you'll turn potential clients into prospective clients and then again into paying clients.

If you need help finding places to speak, a topic on which to speak, or to get the most from your speaking gig, give me a call. I'm always happy to help.

Before, During and After

Before advertising mediators had word of mouth. Our services were talked about, referrals made, and our services purchased.

The best mediators had the best reputations and busiest practices.

During advertising it's pretty simple - if you advertise and market directly to consumers your sales go up. A partnership with an appropriate PR and Marketing firm means you can grow your company nearly as large as you can imagine.

After advertising, well, we're back nearly where we started. But instead of your practice growing slowly and awkwardly by word of mouth alone, the power of your network combined with intelligent PR and marketing can drive your practice to great heights at rocket speed.

Striking a balance between self-promotion and professional promotion can be the defining combination for success. If you're not a business-minded mediator find someone to help with business development. If you're not entrepreneurial find someone who is to help create that never-ending drive for you. If you're not a bookkeeper - outsource your books to a professional. Essentially - do what you do best (mediate) and find professionals to augment your business with their special talents.

The combination is unbeatable and the balance you create will pay for itself in more ways than just your bank account.

If you need help balancing your practice-building and marketing activities give me call and I'll help you with your strategic needs.

Your Website - Yes, You Need One

Do you have a website?

Do you need a website?

Here's what you should you know.

1. Your content should be 80% - 90% about your viewer, their concerns, their fears, their issues, their position. It's all about them and what's in it for them if they hire you. Speak to their problems and provide them the solution.

2. Graphics and colors should be developed based on the lowest common denominators of your viewers' computers' abilities. If your target viewers are not at all Internet savvy - don't ask them to download files or add software to view your site. If your viewers are older - use a larger font and use a font that is a True Type font so that the majority of the computer systems will view the font you want them to view.

3. Keep your navigational bar clean, clear, and consistent. The same buttons should be available in the same order on all pages.

4. Provide your contact information on every page.

5. Be careful not to provide your viewer a "back door" to your competition. You work too hard and expend too many resources to invite viewers to leave your site for your competitor's site.

6. Although providing your viewer with educational articles and links about ADR - you don't want to overload them with information on your site - instead invite them to contact you or to use your personal library.

7. Make changes to your site at least bi-annually and inform your clients and prospects about these changes.

8. Be sure you watch your website statistics. Make note of the pages on which viewers enter, leave and spend the longest amount of time. Change your site appropriately based on these findings.

9. Use your photograph so that viewers have the advantage of a virtual introduction.

10. Keep an eye on your web hosting. You shouldn't have to pay more than $8.00 per

month in today's market.

11. Links are free. Any web designer that wants to charge you for links is taking advantage of you.

12. Most providers don't need a site that exceeds 10 pages.

13. A template is great - one of my favorites is available from Mark Johnson (a mediator himself and webdesigner) at www.TKOwebdesign.com

14. If you don't know how to code your own site you can easily hire a designer to make the changes for you. If don't need to make changes often - don't pay for them. You can hire a designer to make changes at equally low rates for "change orders" as opposed to fixed contracts. If, on the other hand, you want to make regular changes a maintenance contract may be the route to go.

15. Unless your viewers read and speak in high Oxford English - write your content using kitchen English. You know the language you use in casual conversation - less any slang.

The goal is to make your viewer feel comfortable and confident in your knowledge of ADR and their dispute. Make your site as easy as possible for them to get the information they're looking for and to reach you once you've let them know that you're the right person for the job.

If you need help with developing an appropriate website don't hesitate to contact me.