Because thats where the money is!

Guest Post by Ric Willmot

I read this fun and informative post yesterday and would like to share it with you.

Why do you go to bed at night?

Because the bed won’t come to you.

The same is true about your prospective clients. You have to go to where they are. Obvious right?

Surprisingly, though, this is oft-confused by those in the professions: lawyers, accountants, recruiters, and the like. You won’t often, if ever, pick up new business at your own profession’s industry events. Your clients usually don’t attend those!

You have to go to where your ideal clients are hanging out.

• Who is your ideal client?
• What do they look like?
• What type of industry?
• Where are they geographically located?
• What type of offerings do they provide?
• Who are their clients?
• What is the value they deliver to their clients?
• What are their challenges?
• What problems are they facing?
• What solutions can you offer that they would perceive is worth paying you for?

The answers to these questions inform you as to what magazines they read, what associations they belong to, what industry events they might attend. Now you know where to market, where to network, where to advertise, what events to speak at, what trade shows to attend, what journals to get articles published into, etc.

When Willy Sutton–the famous bank robber–was finally apprehended, the arresting officers asked him why he robbed banks? “Because that’s where the money is!”

You have to get your marketing to where the money is.

"Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately, it takes a lifetime to master." -- Philip Kotler

After reading this article, where do you think your most valuable marketing comes from?

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Weekly Marketing Checklist

Every week we need to be investing in the marketing of ourselves, our business, our services and our brand. By doing one thing every day, you are perpetuating  growth and developing your business and building your revenues and profits. How many are you actively implementing each week? By just doing one thing every day, your pipeline will start to fill:

Testimonials: Are they actively sought?
Referrals: Do you have a Referral System?
Lead sharing: With like-minded non-competing businesses.
Customer re-activation: To reconnect with orphan and dormant customers.
Passive advertising: Low-cost Association listings and alike.
Coffee o’clock: Having one coffee every day NOT at your desk or with your colleagues but with a client or nexus person.
Marginal net worth: Offering additional or supplementary products or services to existing customers to provide even further value to them.
In practicing what I preach I have amassed 64  techniques that make sense for me and my business. By alternating between them on a monthly basis, I never get bored and neither do my target market. Therefore, the marketing is fun, fresh and interesting for me and my clients.
What can you do tomorrow to make a difference for your audience that’s fun for both of you?
By Ric Willmot - Executive Wisdom

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How Much is Enough-Work Life Balance

We live in a world where there seems to be a lot of people telling us to “slow down”, it is important to “balance” you work and life and that we need to “have fun”.
The funny thing about these statements is they are nearly all true but they are often based on one problem.
That is the idea that work is something that you do because you have to and not because you love to.  I can tell you that if you love what you do at work then you won’t need to have time to balance it with other things so that you can relax, but you will love going to work and make things happen.
How many people do you know that work in a job that they hate?  Maybe even you do.  How do they feel going to work each day, the same old grind day-after-day doing the same things with no passion and no purpose.
Have you ever seen someone that loves what they do?  Hopefully this is you.  How do they look at work how much more do they get done and how do they feel compared to the others.
The next point about life/balance is yes you need to look after all of the areas of your life, but a lot of people miss the main point when it comes to this as well.  Looking after all the areas of your life doesn’t mean making sure you give set hours to each thing, but what it means is to excel at everything you do.  I read a good example the other day of a successful businessman who has a young girl – about six months old.  Every morning he gets up one hour earlier than he used to and he goes out with his daughter and does something for example goes and buys the groceries, goes for a walk with the dog etc.  Every night he gets home about seven and his daughter is already asleep and he gets to spend quality time with his wife.
I know another example of a successful businessman who takes his daughters to school and arrives at the office at 9:30.  He works until 5:30 and between 6pm and 10pm he can’t be contacted for anything but his family.  At 10pm the family goes to sleep and he goes back to work for two hours.
Compare this to the average person who spends four to six hours a day in front of the television or the businessman who is constantly answering the phone or handling emails whilst he is with his family or friends.
So I want to come to the question that I posed ion the heading of this article.  How much is enough?  The answer is more than you think you need to.  Do more than you think you need to, to be successful at everything you do.
But to be able to do that the key ingredients are:
1)    Love what you do.
2)    At everything you are doing make sure you are the best.
3)    Be the best.
Posted by Greg Paul of Dynamic Business MentorsHow much is enough-Work life Balance

Do we value our service enough to stand by our pricing

• Weekly Wisdom No.119: Pricing Redux

Value-based pricing

If your prospective clients are speaking to you about fees and pricing that informs you that you’re seen as a commodity. If when clients receive your invoice, they pressure you for a reduction you know they’re unclear about the value you delivered or the return on investment they received. These are all indicators that you’ve failed to clearly articulate your fundamental value. It’s not the client’s fault. It’s yours!
Most professionals love talking about their services, methodologies, and processes:

• Business coaches and consultants jump straight to solution mode.
• Accountants throw out ideas about business structures and tax minimisation schemes.
• Lawyers usually tell the client exactly what their hourly rates are for the differing levels of people in their firm, including the secretaries.
• Recruiters talk about reference checking, guarantee periods, and their placement fee.

Think about your practice in these terms:

1. Would you want the cheapest brain surgeon? Leave the discounting to Aldi.
2. Will contingency pricing genuinely make for a successful practice?
3. Hourly pricing limits your earning capacity and tempts you to take longer when the client wants you to work faster. Of course, then you start upon the doom-loop of “write-offs”.
4. How would you prefer your clients think of you? As an accountant/consultant/coach/financial planner/lawyer/recruiter? Or as their “trusted adviser”?
5. Would you prefer to be in the business of sales or in the business of relationships?
6. Would you prefer to be “prospecting” or would you rather be implementing diverse and interesting marketing?

“The time has come,” the walrus said, “to talk of many things:

of shoes and ships

and sealing wax

of cabbages & kings.”

The time has come for professionals to unlock the shackles that have imprisoned them to the dark and dreary jails of hourly rates and commodity thinking. Let’s talk about value-based pricing: How to charge the fees that you are worth and have your clients gladly pay you for that value.
__________

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

-  Warren Buffet

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Ric Willmot-Online Business Forums for half-price-

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