"You Are Hired!” - Success LessonsFrom The Final Episode of Apprentice

For the past few Thursday evenings millions of Americans were glued to their TV tubes watching Donald Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice” and speculating who will be fired next.

Regardless of your overall thoughts of the show, you can’t argue the fact that at times it delivered great insights into human behavior, business success principles and marketing savvy!
Watching the final episode I couldn’t help but notice a critical element that, in my opinion, largely contributed to Kelly Perdew’s final victory – building and leading a successful team.

I zeroed in on this since it’s a skill that eludes many business owners and something I personally have yet to master.

Charged with their final tasks Kelly Perdew and Jennifer Massey took a different approach to delegating and leading their teams.

Kelly delegated the details and focused on monitoring the overall progress. Jennifer let her team manage the more critical parts of her project and chose to take care of details she thought others would overlook.

While we can debate which approach is more effective, one lesson was clear for me: as entrepreneurs we often are doers and choose to get involved with too many details of our own businesses. It often causes us to loose sight of the bigger picture, become less effective, and in the most extreme cases, brings on the demise of the business.

Interestingly, it also seemed that the decisions which tasks to delegate might were partially influenced by the players’ personality instead of what made more business sense.

Kelly appeared to be more comfortable with managing the process (the guy couldn’t part with his laptop), so he assigned his team to the critical task of interacting with the highly influential audience – a mistake that almost cost him the winning spot!

Jennifer made an even worse mistake. Because of her preference to “operate behind the scene” she delegated the highly visible role of interacting with the VIP guests to a member of her team!

Another interesting twist that hit me like a ton of bricks was that both Kelly and Jennifer worked with disgruntled (previously fired) and unmotivated (they had nothing to gain or lose) team members and yet they still were able to get the job done.

To someone like me - who’s got a lot of hang-ups about perfection - this was a complete paradigm shift - a crappy team is better than no team!

If you own a business with employees you certainly can appreciate this dilemma of effective delegating, team-building and leadership. But if your company consists of just one person – YOU – you may be asking: “why on earth do I need a team?”

Look, unless you’ve got some super-powers, chances are you are great at certain things and really bad at others. You likely enjoy performing a few tasks in your business a whole lot more than dealing with all the minutiae of running your company.

Finally, when you are busy perfecting your website or brochure, or cleaning up your database and shuffling files from one end of the desk to another – you are not busy making m0ney! Is that reason enough for building a team?

So if you would like to give your inc0me a significant boost and hear the words “YOU ARE HIRED” more often, consider taking to heart those three success tips from Donald Trump’s Apprentice:

1. Focus on developing and maximizing the use of your “unique ability” and outsource/delegate everything else!

2. Just get things going and up-level your team as you go; even a crappy team to start with beats not heaving any support at all.

3. Carefully evaluate which of your tasks to outsource; maintain the visibility and control over the critical income-producing activities (and yes – that includes your marketing and sales!)

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

Four Super-Deadly Marketing Sins- And How To Fix Them

by Adam Urbanski

It seems nowadays every marketing guru and their brother-in-law has a “deadly sins and how to fix them” book, ebook or at least an article! But apparently nobody is reading this stuff! How do I know? Because nine out of every ten businesses continue making the same marketing goof-ups.

The most amazing part is – they are convinced their marketing is great and their phone will be ringing off the hook any moment now!
Time for a reality check! Are you guilty of these four marketing sins? Find out how to fix it!

Deadly Marketing Sin #1

Not Standing Out From Your Competitors

You want to be one in a million not one of the million. In the marketing jargon it’s called a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). I call it a HUB – Hot Undeniable Benefit of doing business with you. Your HUB sets you apart from the crowd. It tells your customers why you are special. And it answers the question your customers are asking themselves, which is: "Why should I do business with you versus anyone else?"

So how do you go about discovering your HUB? Do you know what makes you different from others offering similar product or service? The more competitive your industry the more important it is to emphasize even the smallest differences. Do you cater to a specific group of people? Are you better than others in addressing a specific issue? Do you guarantee your work?
How about the one thing no one can duplicate - what makes you – you?

If you can’t find anything unique right now, look for unresolved problems in your industry and become an expert in providing a solution to them. Here is good example. You’ve heard of a small parcel delivery company called FEDEX, right? Do you know their USP? It’s: "When you absolutely, positively need it overnight. Guaranteed." Funny thing is they are no longer the only company doing it – but they offered it first.

Discover your HUB, articulate it in all your marketing messages and watch your results soar.

Deadly Marketing Sin #2

Assuming Your Customers Know AsMuch About Your Business As You Do

Small business owners are a very special breed – we walk, talk, breathe, eat and sleep thinking about our business. Listen, just because you think about your business all the time doesn’t mean your customers do the same!

Fact is, I can count on one hand the businesses I became exposed to in the last twelve months that didn’t fail to educate their customers on how they solve their problems and meet their needs and wants.

Your customers don't really buy products and services. They buy SOLUTIONS to their problems. Use articles, presentations and case studies to educate them about WHAT you do, HOW it works and WHY it’s the only logical solution to their problems.

And don’t just do it once. Frankly, if you don’t have a way to consistently and automatically keep in touch with prospects, customers, centers of influence and strategic partners – you are missing the boat!

Deadly Marketing Sin #3

Wasting Time and Money On MarketingStrategies That Don’t Work!
Do you know which of your marketing efforts result in new business? Do you ever calculate the time, money and effort it takes to get a new customer from each promotional strategy you use? Why? Because if it is working – you want to do use it more often! And if it isn’t - you need to stop wasting your money!

Case in point; most professionals believe that networking is the best way to get new business. And it can be - but not always and not for everyone. Find out for yourself. Add up the amount of time you spent networking last month. Put a dollar value on it based on your fees. Add the actual price you paid to attend those events. Then divide this total amount by the number of new customers your networking produced. Are you happy with your results? Or is it a shock to see what it actually costs to get new clients by networking?

It doesn’t matter if it’s networking, advertising, referral or joint venture strategies – if you don’t know your ROME (Return On Marketing Efforts) I guarantee you are wasting money doing things that don’t work! Every marketing strategy can be tracked and measured. So figure out what works best for you!

Deadly Marketing Sin #4

Missing Out On Repeat Business
You’ve heard about the back-end-sales, haven’t you? Are you doing it? It’s astonishing how many small business owners do not develop strong relationships with their customers and have no plan for generating repeat business.

You see, one of your biggest costs of doing business is marketing and getting new customers into your funnel. And once you’ve done a great job for them, and then you nurture the relationship you’ve developed, it’s so easy to ask for more business. But you have to develop different levels of products and services to offer to them.

Listen to your clients and develop new offerings to respond to their needs. Create assessments to uncover hidden opportunities for additional projects. If you can’t or don’t want to offer those new solutions – partner up with someone who does. McDonald’s made a fortune on “supersizing” their fries – time for you to start thinking about supersizing your business with each client.

Bottom line is this: when I hear businesses talk about bad economy, clients not having money and overall complaining about how tough it is to make a sale I can always pinpoint their poor performance to at least one of those marketing sins. Frankly, there is no such a thing as a shortage of business – there is a shortage of knowledge how to get that business.

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

How to Turn Your Telephone Into aMore Effective Marketing Tool withThese Three Little-Known Secrets

by Adam Urbanski,

The Marketing Mentor

One of the most effective marketing tools ever invented is sitting on your desk right now. It’s your TELEPHONE! While many professionals waste time cold calling strangers, some marketing savvy pros are using phone in unique ways to quietly attract more new clients, increase customer loyalty, generate loads of referrals and boost sales and profits - all while saving time and money. Would you like to know how?

Telephone – like other tools – can be used in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, most people settle on just one phone-based marketing activity – cold calling.

I know there are training programs out there teaching how to fall in love with cold calling. Perhaps you enjoy interrupting people, trying to speak as fast as you can to squeeze in your entire sales pitch before they hang up on you. Frankly, I prefer to chew on nails for a week than to make one cold call. But hey – that’s just me. Besides, the best cold call is when a prospect calls you – but that’s a subject for another article.

So here are my top three tips for using phone-marketing effectively.

Top Tip #1 - Call existing clients or prospects.
Remember the saying “don’t preach to the choir”? It’s wrong! You should only preach to the choir!

Instead of bothering strangers, connect with your existing customers or people who have indicated interest in your services or products.

Top Tip #2 - Have a specific reason to call.
Make your message relevant to the person on the receiving end. If you are not sure what you have to offer that’s valuable to your clients and could be shared by phone, you should be looking for a job… But if you insist on running your own business here are a few tips:

Call to say thank you. Yep, that simple! I just spoke to an internet marketer who makes it a point to call all new online customers within one day. With a bit of clever technology he often makes a live, personal call to the new clients within minutes of them placing an order. Can you imagine how blown away his customers are?

Educate customers how to better use your product or service. If you help them get the most out of working with you, they will be more successful and more likely to recommend you to others.

Introduce them to a new resource you found helpful. By the way, could you see an opportunity for making this recommendation a strategic alliance?

Invite customers and prospects to a special event and tell them to bring a friend or business associate. It doesn’t even have to be your event. Are you planning on going to a workshop with a great speaker? Why not bring along a few clients and prospects?

Make current customers aware of exclusive offers available only to them. Hey, they pay your bills, why not put something special for them once in a while.

Remind them about attending an event. Yep, sometimes inviting people is not enough. So call to refresh their memory – they will thank you for it.

Use your call in conjunction with other marketing tools to build anticipation. For example you could make a call to announce that a special mailer will be arriving in the mail-box and email-box thus increasing your chances of your written marketing message actually being noticed…
I’m sure you are now asking: “couldn’t I just use email to do all of that”? You certainly could, but… If you relay on email alone you lose a very person aspect of using your voice. Plus, with a click of a button – puff – and your email is gone! Your call has a higher chance of making it through.

Which brings me to my last point…

Top Tip #3 - Use technology to automate your calls.
Yes, I’m talking about pre-recorded messages – like the ones that interrupt your dinner. Well, actually not quite like that… Before you rush to judgment that this stuff doesn’t work, let me explain a couple of reasons why it does work.

Unlike those annoying calls from strangers pitching new credit cards or better mortgage rates I’m suggesting to leave messages for people you have already done business with in the past or who specifically requested you send them more information. That’s a big difference!

The technology today makes it possible for the call to disconnect if a live person answers so you don’t alienate people by making them talk to a computer!

Finally, distributing a pre-recorded message makes it possible to contact hundreds and thousands of people with just a fraction of the time it would take to make personal calls. Which saves you time and money.

Let’s just say that you are billing a $100 per hour of your time. Assuming that each call could take about a minute (and that’s a fast call!) you could make about 60 calls per hour. Your cost is $1.66 per call! And you will get more and more tired and less and less energetic with every call – decreasing the quality of your message.

As an alternative an automated phone broadcast can cost you about 14 cents per minute. And every message is your BEST MESSAGE!

For example, sending a 30 second message to 2000 customers would cost you $140. (half a minute x $0.14 per minute x 2000 customers). What a bargain! It’s fast, it’s cheap and it gets through! By the way – imagine personally leaving 2000 messages… That would take you over 33 hours... Good luck trying!

Bottom line to this long winded explanation is this: making THE RIGHT TYPE OF CALL THE RIGHT WAY in conjunction with modern technology and other marketing tools can make a huge difference in your business.

FREE BONUS GIFT:Want to hear four sample marketing recordings and read my comments what makes them effective? Listen to them here…

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

Boost Your Biz With These Hot Tools

Every week I get emails asking me what system I use to send out my ezine or how to put audio on your web site. This last week I must have answered about 30 of those emails - so I figured I might as well save the rest of you the hassle of emailing me and just give you all the scoop on the cool tools I'm using. So here is goes.

QUESTION:"What program do you use to send your ezine?"
ANSWER:There is a number of systems for sending out your online newsletters, but once I started using www.KickStartCart.com I got hooked! And here is why: It completely automates my subscribe/unsubscribe process so that I don't ever have to think about it.

It gives me unlimited sequential autoresponders (automated email replies)
It allows me to easily broadcast my ezine with just a few clicks of the mouse.
It makes creating input forms for my web site as easy as 1-2-3.
It allows me to track how many subscribers actually read my ezine and monitor how many messages get "bounced".
I gives me a shopping cart to automate the sale of information products, services and seminars right from my web sites.
I can use one system and connect it to all my web sites.
It provides me with an "affiliate module" so that other people can automatically register to become my "independent sales reps".

There is a whole lot more of other, more advanced tools to monitor and measure my online marketing efforts.
Frankly, I used to recommend a different system to clients who were just getting started online because I wanted to help them save a few bucks. What a mistake! If you are serious about promoting your services online - you've got to get serious about the tools you are using. In my opinion - www.KickStartCart.com is a must (take advantage of the free trial)

QUESTION:"I like how you put the recording of your voice on your web site... How did you do that?"

ANSWER:When Armand Morin came up with his www.AudioGenerator.com I didn't like the idea of paying a monthly fee just to have my voice on my web site. So I found another service and for a $100 I purchased a complete system. Well, about a month later I still subscribed to AudioGenerator.com.

Here is why:
There is no need for any additional recording equipment. You can use a telephone to record professional quality audio messages. If you can leave a voicemail you can use AudioGenerator.
It is super easy to add to my web site or email. Without any programming skills, anyone with just a basic knowledge of web sites can do this. Or you can simply email a "snippet of code" to your web master and it will take him or her no more than two minutes to add it to your site - that's how easy it is. But that's still not the best...

I can easily record and send an online "audio postcard". The last one I did, took less than 10 minutes to create and send out to 5,000+ people (all with no additional cost on my part!)

I now have a private, toll-free testimonial collection hotline. Clients can record an audio testimonial for me as simply as leaving me a voicemail.

Again, this is just a tip of the iceberg. If you are selling on eBay, want to greet your web visitors with your own voice message, or need to collect client testimonials easy - www.AudioGenerator.com is the only way to go. Take advantage of their $1 test for 20 days!

QUESTION:"This survey was really cool! How did you put it together?"
ANSWER:I have to tell you - this is probably the coolest tool of them all. I first used www.AskDatabase.com to collect feedback from web visitors when promoting a seminar earlier this year.

It's essentially a web based data base compiler. It allows me search the data for specific words, analyze density of specific words among all the responses, eve export the data to an Excel spreadsheet.

If you are thinking so what's the big deal about this, let me put it in the proper perspective for you. Have you ever said to yourself: "Boy, I wish there was a way to get inside my customer's head and figure out what they are thinking?" Well, that's exactly what AskDatabse.com allows you to do.

Find out the exact thought process and the language your customers are using when they talk about their problems. Find out specifically what aspects of the problem they want to solve the most, etc., etc. Can you begin to see how powerful this could be?

Frankly, I only wished that I used it a lot more a lot earlier! A critical tool to have for any business. It doesn't matter if you are just getting started or if you've been in business for a while. It's a real revelation to read you customers' mind! Take advantage of their $1 for 20 days trial offer!

QUESTION:How do I promote and sell my services online?
ANSWER:There is really only one product that I'll recommend to you without any hesitation - "Make My Knowledge Sell" and "Make My Site Sell" by Ken Evoy. This is almost like an encyclopedia of online marketing.

Ken doesn't leave anything out. You'll learn how to extract the knowledge you already have, publish it and market it online. Find out how to successfully build a site, submit it to search engines, write persuasive sales copy and more. At just about $30 this is the best investment you'll ever make in your business. Very highly recommended!

Well, there you have it - serious tools for serious entrepreneurs. I hope that you'll find this information helpful.

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

Get More Clients By Learning To Overcome These Top Five Objections

by Adam Urbanski

When five years ago I was faced with having to sell my services for the first time I was terrified. I hated asking for the sale. I dreaded the part where my potential clients inevitably came up with objections why they couldn’t use my services.

I’ve since learned that lack of objections is not necessarily a good thing. In fact, I now welcome it when prospects tell me “why they can’t”.

Frankly, when a potential client shares his reasons why he or she hesitates to take advantage of my offer, to me it’s a sign of two things; one – they are interested in my services, and two – I’m getting closer to closing the deal.

But many professionals find “overcoming” objections and “closing” the deal stressful, unpleasant and “pushy”. If that’s you I want to share with you two lessons that helped me develop a different mindset around this.

First, a “no” doesn’t always mean “no”. Mostly it simply “not now” or “I don’t have enough information to say yes.”

Second, you can’t “overcome” your prospect’s objections – but you can give them information and tools that allow them to make a new decision.

If you too experience anxiety around “closing sales” here are my favorite responses to the top five objections your prospective clients are likely to raise.

OBJECTION #1: I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT
--> "I don't blame you. Hiring a can be a big decision. Can you share with me what specific aspect of my services you are concerned about?”

--> “Yes, I can see how this can be a big decision. You know I found that typically my clients are initially concerned with one of the three things: is the problem important enough to solve it now, is this the right solution for your situation, can you afford the solution? Which one of those concerns you the most?”
--> “Hmmm... I see. Let me ask you… Let’s say we get started on this project – what are the downsides?”

OBJECTION #2: I HAVE TO TALK TO MY PARTNER ABOUT IT
--> ”Great. What kinds of questions do you think they might they ask?”
--> “Good idea. I always discuss decisions like this with my partner (or spouse). But let me ask you a question – what will you do when your partner doesn’t like the idea of us moving forward with this?"

OBJECTION #3: IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE
--> “Expensive comparing to what?”
--> “Yes, it’s a sold investment. I tell you what - I know this is only worthwhile if you produce solid results, right? What's the one result you would want to be absolutely sure we could produce in the next that would have you really happy you hired me? … Great- why don't we make this our top priority and get started right away?”
--> “Not really. How does this price compare to what it’s costing you to do nothing about this problem?”
--> “Frankly, that’s exactly why you need me.”

OBJECTION #4: I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO IT ON MY OWN
--> “Hmmmm…how long have you been dealing with this issue? If you haven’t solved it on your own so far what makes you think you can do it now?”

--> “Yes, I suppose you could. But let me ask you something – when was the last time you saw (heard) of a heart surgeon performing an open heart surgery on himself?

--> “With all the respect…I must disagree. If you thought you could solve this problem on your own we wouldn’t be talking right now. Tell me, how would things be different if you could rely on an unbiased opinion to give you a fresh perspective of this problem?”
OBJECTION #5: I DON'T HAVE THE TIME RIGHT NOW

--> “Yes, it will take some time to address this issue. How much more time per week could you devote to other, revenue-generating activities if you could eliminate dealing with this problem on ongoing bases?

--> “That’s funny; you just told me it takes you 10 hours a week to deal with this problem – wouldn’t it make sense to hire someone like myself and solve it so that you can use your time on more productive tasks?”

--> “Wow, if you are that busy and you are still not getting the results you want perhaps it would make sense to start the project by helping you better prioritize your activities and leverage your time more effectively?”

These are only a few examples of responses I found helpful in getting to a “yes” in negotiating a sale. Rather than trying to memorize those specific sentences learn the underlying concept.

On objection is a cover for a deeper concern. By voicing it your prospect gives you an opportunity to address it and provide information to eliminate it. So quit trying to prove your point and instead ask thought provoking questions. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the outcomes ;-)

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

Win More Sales With a5-Step Sales Process

Facilitating the buying process can be very straightforward and fairly uncomplicated. Yet most professionals have no idea what it takes to guide a potential client through a decision making process. They are completely lost when it comes to effective follow-up and unsure how to best get prospects to take the “next step”.

If they are lucky to get to a face-to-face meeting, they “show-up and throw-up.” They spew all there is to know about their product or service and leave the meeting hoping for a favorable decision sometime in the near future.

Their follow-up consists of a few phone-calls that go somewhat like this: “Hi, remember me? We met last week? Anyway, I just wanted to know if you’ve made a decision yet? No? Oh, OK, I’ll call again…” Soon they discover their prospect got stuck in a “12-month meeting” (every time they call over the next 12 months the prospect is in a meeting). Sounds familiar?

What’s missing is clear, consistent and easy to duplicate sales process. In a nutshell sales process is a sequence of steps that predictably moves potential clients along the decision-making path.

While your unique process will be based on the type of product or service you are selling and who the buyer is, here is a simple five step model that’s guaranteed to help you close more deals.

STEP ONE: Generate Leads
The number one reason most promotional efforts don’t get the desired results is trying to make a sale too soon. Advertising should be designed to generate leads - inquiries about your product or service from qualified prospects – not to get an order!

Generating leads is relatively easy - there are hundreds (if not thousands) of ways to get potential clients to contact you. Speaking, publishing articles, referral systems, press releases, internet marketing, networking, print ads and direct mail are just a few ways that work well for attracting prospects interested in your professional services.

STEP TWO: Pre-qualify Prospects
Your promotional efforts are bound to create some responses from tire-kickers. Unless you have unlimited resources (namely money and time) to follow-up with people that will never make a purchase or create a referral – you want to eliminate the least ideal “prospects” right from the get-go.

The best way to separate lookie-loos from genuine prospects is to ask them to invest a small amount of effort or money before they can receive more information. Have prospects fill-out a short questionnaire or request a small fee to cover your expenses of giving them additional information and only the serious candidates will move to the next step.

STEP THREE: Send Positioning Materials
Depending on how you generated the lead in the first place you may need to send out “fulfillment package” – the information promised in your advertising efforts.

You can’t give someone a “test drive” of your service – but you can illustrate your expertise through the materials you send out. White papers, special reports, articles, audio CDs and videos can give prospects a good insight into your level of expertise and “whet their appetites” – compelling them to ask how you can help them.

This is a critical step but professionals often skip it altogether. I recommend that you never meet with a prospect unless he or she had a chance to read a special report or an article you wrote, listen to an audio-program you created, participated in a teleclass you facilitated, or had a chance to “experience you” in some other form.

This gives you a chance to demonstrate your understanding of their problems, prove that you have the know-how needed to provide an effective solution, and position you as the expert who will not waste their time.

STEP FOUR: Get an Appointment
If you’ve done a good job in the first three steps – this will be easy. Your best prospects will actually look forward to meeting with you and exploring ways you can help them.

While scheduling an appointment you can further qualify the prospect’s level of interest and determine if you want to invest your time in getting together with them. However, avoid the pitfall of giving away too much information at this point. Remember your goal as this point is just to get the prospect to meet with you.

STEP FIVE: Face-to-Face Meeting
The content of your in-person meeting depends on the service or product you are selling and your target market. It could be a simple consultation that results in closing the sale or an elaborate presentation designed to moved the prospect to the next step in the process – like an “exploration meeting” with the purchasing committee or an “in-depth needs assessment”.
This is obviously a simplified model, but it identifies the five critical elements of the selling process. There are countless variations and tactics you could employ in each step, but each of those elements has only one objective – to move prospect to the next step!

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

11 Ways to Turnaround a Cash-Strapped Business or Practice

This past weekend I received a disturbing message from a dear friend. His business wasn’t generating all the income he needed. He’s exhausted all savings, started depleting credit card reserves and badly needed money to pay this month’s mortgage... Ouch! I wish I knew sooner...

Whether it’s pride or just human nature that keeps professionals from asking for help sooner, it’s just plain silly to keep “toughing it out” when there are so many strategies for generating new business fast.

You see, there is really no shortage of new business, there is only a shortage of knowledge how to get this business.

So if you are one of those professional folks who could use a few hundred bucks to help out with this month’s mortgage, here are a few strategies to get your business buzzing with new customers or clients:

1. Get on the phone!

Pick up the phone and call everyone you know. Contact all clients, prospects, friends and family. Make sure they all know what you do, who you are looking for as a client, and how to "give you away."

2. Get out and meet people!

Sitting in the office, shuffling paperwork and piddling around with emails will not take you far enough fast enough. You need to be talking to people who can buy your product or service. Set a goal of how many people you want to see in person every day and find ways to meet that goal!

3. Stop competing and start leveraging!

Instead of being mad at your competitors for stealing all your business, approach them and offer to help out. At times we all get projects that are too big, too small, or too “whatever” for us to take on.

Contact your competitors and ask if they would be willing to outsource their “too whatever” jobs to you - so that you can both make some dough. (Yeah, I know, it sounds like eating some humble bread – but hey, I think it beats living under a bridge ;-)

4. Ask for referrals!

You should be doing this anyway. Have a conversation with all clients (past and current) and help them think of people they can introduce you to right away. Oh, and don’t forget – just because a prospect says “no”, it doesn’t mean he or she doesn’t know someone who would gladly say “yes”.

5. Crank up your follow-up!

Do you have a stack of cards from people who turned you down once before? Maybe it’s time to resurrect them. Reach out to your “old” prospects - even if you previously gave up on them. Give them a call, send them a postcard or an article, and give them a special reason to say "yes" now!

6. Forgive your ex-clients!

Frequently ex-clients realize they made a mistake by getting involved with another vendor – but they are too embarrassed to admit it. Give them a way to gracefully come back to you and many will do it.

7. Catch a COI!

Form an alliance with Centers of Influence who can introduce to a large number of prospects at once and give you instant credibility. Well thought out and carefully executed strategic alliances with COI can infuse your business with all the new sales you can handle.

8. Educate, educate, educate!

Regardless of what business you are in you can always find things your clients and prospects would appreciate learning from you. How-to tips, informative case studies, industry reports – those are all great tools that can easily attract prospects hungry for your “stuff.”

9. Start thinking strategically!

If you are having trouble attracting enough new business, the marketing tactics above should help you get things hopping, but to achieve a long-term sustainable success you’ll need to address your marketing on a strategic level.

Identify or re-evaluate your ideal target market, clearly describe the benefits your product or service provides, create a compelling marketing message, re-evaluate your business model and re-define your methods of delivering your product or service, etc., etc.

10. Stop getting and start giving!

When you are in the “how I can GET a client” mode, you are focused on you – and that doesn’t make you very attractive. Shift your thinking to “how I can GIVE clients more VALUE” and you’ll become an irresistible client magnet!

11. GET HELP!

When you are in the midst of a demanding situation you cannot always have the clarity needed to creating solutions. Collaborate with a successful associate, start your own board of advisors or a mastermind group, or hire a marketing mentor to pull you out of the quicksand. Remember, when time and money count – you can’t afford the expensive “trial and error” learning curve!

Oh, and one final thought – now that you are done reading - get busy implementing!

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

How to Save Time and AchieveMore by Creating High-Leverage Marketing Assets

The single biggest, non-renewable asset you have is your time. There are only three things you can do with it: waste it, sell it, or invest it. As an entrepreneur or a service professional, what you do with your time acutely impacts how much money you can make.

If this year you want to make clients come to you, earn a six figure income, become the expert in your chosen field, positively impact lives of many people, gain fame and earn respect of your peers – you have to invest your time into creating marketing assets!

Just like the wealthy invest in assets that continuously appreciate and generate more money – like real estate, the savvy entrepreneurs invest in creating marketing assets that grow your business with no additional expense.

What are those assets? Here is just a short list:
Content
Info products
Referral partners
Ezine subscribers list
Customers list
Incoming links to your website
Testimonials
Education

So if you want to become the “top dog” in your industry, you've got to start doing what the “big dogs” do. To begin investing your time into creating high leverage marketing assets use this short checklist:

DON'T design expensive logos. While establishing your uniqueness is important, people will not do business with you because you spent money on a cute graphic!

DO survey your ideal clients. Learning and understanding their needs allow you to offer them solutions they want – and that makes you incredibly attractive to them.

DON'T place ads that feature little more but your logo, phone number and address. Stop kidding yourself thinking you are the next IBM or Coca-Cola and that merely mentioning your name will get people pounding on your door!

DO create content that addresses the most pressing needs your prospects and clients are desperately trying to solve! Write articles, create special reports, publish an e-zine or e-book (or regular book), and record audio/video products. If you advertise – advertise those products not your services.

DO take time to learn and leverage free publicity. Research media contacts, take time to understand what type of information appeals to them, and become good at presenting your information in the format they like best.

DON'T attend every networking meeting you can find. Your time is much too valuable to try to attract business in one-on-one fashion. Contrary to the popular belief – networking isn’t cheap!If you sum up the cost of your time, the price you pay to eat all that rubber chicken, and the energy to follow-up with people who will likely never do business with you – it’s a very expensive (and ineffective) way to find only a handful of qualified prospects!

DO develop informative presentations. Find large gatherings of your ideal prospects and become good at getting yourself invited as a speaker.

DON'T fiddle around adjusting the shades of colors on your web site!

DO look for online communities that already attract your ideal clients and find a way to make them link to you. Ask them to post your articles. Make your site content rich so they will want to list it as a resource. Or sell an info product and invite them to become an affiliate.

DON'T beg for referrals!

DO create ways your current clients can easily “give you away” (like an article or an audio CD)

DO build relationships with referral partners. Create ways in which they can introduce you to hundreds or even thousands of prospects at once!

DON'T try to figure everything out on your own – that’s a very expensive way to learn marketing and build your business.

DO invest in knowledge products and access to experts. An hour or two with a knowledgeable advisor can save you th0usands of dollars in time and money wasted on wrong strategies and improperly implemented tactics.

Providing people with easily accessible information about solutions will position you as a valuable resource and an expert. These tools will not only attract all the new business you want, but they will allow you to charge the money you deserve and create the lifestyle you desire.

So stop wasting time eating all that rubber chicken and chasing people who will likely never do business with you nor refer a single client. Instead, start creating high-leverage marketing tools that over time will generate an avalanche of new business!

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

5 Marketing Lessons from Apprentice: How a Team of Donald Trump Apprentice Wannabes

Made $12,788.94 from Thin Air in Just One Day
The highly entertaining Donald Trump’s search for an apprentice turned into a hit reality TV show captured attention of millions of Americans and week after week delivered great insights into leadership, business and marketing savvy.

In one of the episodes Trump challenged the two opposing teams of apprentice wannabes (Apex and Mosaic) to put together a bridal gown sale.

Each team had to contact vendors, secure inventory, and most importantly, attract qualified prospects to generate the maximum profits. And here is the kicker – they had just 24 hours to do it.

(For more details see the blow-by-blow outline of this episode.)

Mosaic moved very quickly. They…
1. Zeroed in on a specific strategy: give other bridal shops’ opportunity to sell their discontinued designs at drastically discounted prices.

2. Formulated a marketing plan: send 23,000 highly targeted email announcements to brides-to-be for a cost of $1,000

3. Divided and delegated the tasks and got busy implementing their plan.
As a result of a clear and attractive offer Mosaic easily attracted local bridal shops eager to get rid of their discontinued lines.

Meanwhile Apex jumped right into chasing potential vendors and – without a clear and enticing marketing message - endured one rejection after another.

Discouraged, they almost gave up before stumbling onto a helpful local bridal shop owner who managed to point them in the “right direction”.

But just as they had no plan to attract vendors to their gown sale, Apex didn’t give any thought as to who their target market was and where they could easily and quickly find large groups of prospects.

Their marketing strategy of handing out fliers at Grand Central and Penn Station (in New York) was unfocused and unnecessarily tied up team members’ most precious asset – time.

The results?
Mosaic attracted a city-block-long line or eager-to-buy prospects and generated $12,788.94 in profits in one day! Apex brought in only a handful of buyers and a measly $1,060.47.

Wow! By following solid marketing principles Mosaic beat their opponents by generating almost 12 times as much profits as Apex. So what were their marketing secrets? Well, here they are:

1. THINK STRATIGICALLY!

Before you get busy peddling make sure your boat is pointed in the right direction. Take time to formulate your strategy and outline a specific action plan and you’ll save a time, energy and money, and create the desired results a whole lot faster!

2. Focus on a SPECIFIC TARGET MARKET!

If you remember nothing else from this article – remember this one thing – to be successful you must focus your marketing efforts!

3. Find a “HIVE OF HUNGRY PROSPECTS”!

Hundreds of thousands of disinterested passers-by at the Penn Station can’t event compare to the power of a targeted email blast to 23,000 brides hunting for the best deal on their wedding gown. To quickly penetrate your niche find centers of influence and large networks of your potential clients and get your message in front of them.

4. Evaluate PRICE vs. COST!

One of most damaging marketing mistakes is deciding which promotional tools and media to use based on price alone. Even though Mosaic chose a seemingly pricey promotion, ultimately it proved to be less costly based on the repose and results it created.

5. Profit from CO-OPETITION!

If you choose your target market carefully there is more business out there than you can possibly handle. Don’t fear your competitors – find a way to profit from their business.

Well, there you have it. Go back and read these five points several times. Consider for a moment what implementing these ideas might look like in your business. Make these principles the basis of your business and soon you too will be making money out of thin air – I guarantee it!

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

Top Four Marketing Secrets ofBuilding a Professional Practice

Building a coaching or consulting practice can be rewarding and lucrative. Sadly, many who get started on this path simply can’t make it. Almost daily I talk to people who give up on their dream of “solopreneurship” and, resentfully, join the ranks of job seekers.

What disturbs me the most is that many of them are talented and skilled professionals; real experts in their field. With just a bit of marketing know-how they may have been able to generate healthy six-figure incomes doing the work they love.

Instead, they spend tons of money getting more certifications. They are becoming “master technicians” mistakenly thinking that alone will get them clients. But that’s not how it works at all!

Let’s take the coaching profession for example. You see, prospective clients don’t even know the difference between ICF, CTI, Hudson, Adler, CoachVille or any other certification. They have no clue what CPC, MCC or other letters you might be putting behind your last name mean – nor do they care! What they care about is results – what benefits they’ll receive.

There’s a lot of talk in the coaching community right now about certifications, and while I agree it is important, it doesn’t matter one bit if you don’t have clients! Plus, you can be the most educated, certified, qualified, and professional coach out there and still struggle to stay busy.

You might think that’s common sense, right? WRONG! I see coaches drop thousands of dollars in a blink of an eye to get another certification and agonize for months over a hundred dollars investment in a marketing course!

The good news, unlike getting certified, learning a few simple marketing strategies doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars. And it can make all the difference in the world. As a matter of fact, here are my top four “practice marketing secrets” absolutely free.

Marketing Secret #1 – Know Your “Ideal” Client
It’s critical that you know who they are, what their biggest problems are, how they make decisions, what they like to spend money on, where they hang out, etc. The “narrower” you describe your ideal clients and the more you know about them the easier it becomes to get your marketing message across.

Marketing Secret #2 – Become An Expert
And I don’t just mean be good at what you do. Heck, you should do that anyway! I mean position yourself as an expert in a specific area.

For example, you might be work with C-level executives in the insurance industry, or teach sales skills to realtors, or do turn-around consulting in manufacturing, or help working young mothers achieve life balance, or become a dating guru. Whatever makes you tick – just focus on one thing!

Marketing Secret #3 – Use Multi-Step Marketing
This is where I see so many professionals completely blow it. If a potential client doesn’t sign up for your services what do you do? Forget about them? I hope not! You work hard to get new leads and meet potential prospects so why give up on them? Many people simply feel uncomfortable doing business with someone they don’t know too well.

You should have a systematic way of keeping up with them – for years, if that’s what it takes. Let them get to know you, your company, and your services. You never know when their situation might change and they might be ready to sign up.

Marketing Secret #4 – Get Help
Just like your clients need your help, don’t be afraid to get help in the area of business and marketing. One of the most idiotic things I hear from professionals is “I should be able to do this myself.” Have you ever seen a brain surgeon operate on his own brain tumor. After all – he should be able to do it himself, right?

About 4 years ago I was struggling with closing sales and was really frustrated to see my potential clients hire other experts even though I was a lot more qualified to help them. I got the help of a successful sales coach. His advice not only quickly produced results to pay his fee but it also allowed me to make trips to my bank a lot more often.

There you have it – those are my top four secret marketing tips. OK, so maybe they are not so secret after all. In that case – I’m sure you are already happily working with all the clients you can possibly handle ;-)

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com/

Keep Your Marketing SimpleWith This 6-Step Model

Whether you are a professional in a solo-practice or own a small business, chances are you feel overwhelmed when it comes to marketing. While you may be an expert in your field, consistently attracting new clients probably isn’t one of your strengths.

Here is just a short list of "marketing culprits" that are likely keeping your business from reaching its full potential:

Unclear Target Market. It absolutely makes my marketing blood boil when I hear "our service can help everyone". How on Earth do you find everyone?

Confusing, Self-Centered Marketing Message. Since the early 1900 marketing geniuses like Claude Hopkins have been telling us that shouting "we are the best, come buy from us" doesn't work - no matter how loud you scream! Amazingly, over 90% of all marketing materials out there are doing exactly that!

'Hop-And-Drop' Approach. Any worthwhile skill takes practice. Yet most small business owners abandon each marketing tactic after just one try, without giving themselves a chance to get good at it. It's like a running rabbit - switching direction with every hop!

On and Off Approach. Spending a lot of time and effort on marketing when the business is slow, but then giving up on almost all promotional activities when business gains momentum!

Not Preaching To The Choir. Most businesses make the mistake of chasing new markets all the time instead of maximizing profits using their existing database of current and prospective clients.

If you can put a "yes, guilty as charged" checkmark next to any of those statements, chances are you are not profiting from your business as much as you could. To help unleash the extra profits currently hidden in your business or practice here is a simple Six Step Marketing Model.

1. Create a MAP!
You don’t need to kill a tree to create an effective Marketing Action Plan. Simply describe your target market, their problem, and the benefits your service or product offers. Identify five to ten ways in which you can get visibility and generate new leads. Finally, list all the action steps you need to take daily, weekly and monthly and assign specific deadlines and outcomes to each step.

2. Craft Your Magnetic Marketing Message!
Potential clients don't give a hoot about your titles, awards, and prestigious office location! All they want to know is that you understand their problem and have an effective solution to it. Communicate those two things clearly and new clients will flock to you like bees to honey!

3. Develop Attraction Tools!
Forget about the self-focused brochures! You need promotional materials that intrigue interest and generate response. Today’s technology allows to easily and inexpensively assemble and distribute information products - like special reports or CDs - that illustrate your capabilities and effortlessly promote your services.

4. Generate Leads.
Getting all the visibility in the world will not do any good if you are not giving your potential client an irresistible reason to contact you. Try and test several marketing messages and media to see what promotional strategies bring in the biggest bang for the buck.

The key here is testing - tweak your approach multiple times before you decide to completely abandon it. What might have been a big flop at first, with a bit of tweaking can turn into a total goldmine!

5. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!
Studies show that over 80% of all sales are made on or after five contacts with the prospect. However, more than 80% of follow-up ends after just three attempts! Creating and automating a systematic follow-up process is a must to maximizing your marketing ROI.

Develop a series of 12 to 24 meaningful communications each addressing something of relevance to your prospects and find a way to periodically distribute them to prospects and clients.

6. Learn To Sell!
The thought of selling causes most professionals to cringe. Fact is, effective selling is not about memorizing hundreds of closings tactics or becoming an attack dog that corners prospects into saying “yes”. Instead, study a consultative approach model and become a master of asking powerful questions that compel others to action!

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

Top 5 Tips For DesigningMarketing That Gets Results

”But this won't work” said Steve. “I’ve tried it in the past and had no response.” Does this sound familiar? My newer clients often resist implementing certain strategies based on past experiences. However, I usually find out that it wasn’t the strategy itself – but how it was implemented that caused the dismal results.

So whether you are designing a simple flier or developing a plan for a strategic partnership you can increase your chances for success by following these five tips.

1. Develop Your Marketing For Your Potential Clients – Not Yourself.

What looks good to you may not necessarily be appealing to your audience. It’s OK to ask your friends and associates for feedback – but their comments are only relevant if they are members of your target market. Also – just because everyone else advertises in a certain way is not a proof that it works.

2. Provide Answers To These Three Critical Marketing Questions:

QUESTION 1: What's this about?

Check that your materials immediately and clearly communicate what you offer, who it’s for and what’s the next step you are asking them to take.

QUESTION 2: What's in it for me?

Don’t make your audience guess about what’s in it for them by leaving this information out or hiding it in the small print at the bottom.Use clear language free of industry jargon. Describe your offering not from the perspective of what you do but in terms of what the clients will receive and how they will be better off as a result of it.

QUESTION 3: Why should I listen to you?

How will you establish credibility with your audience? Include your photo and prominently display your contact info. Present case studies, statistics, endorsements, testimonies from satisfied clients. If people don’t believe you they will not respond to your offer.

3. Always follow the proven A.I.D.A. format.

ATTENTION - Use a powerful headline that grabs attention. Don’t try to be cute, don’t expect that your prospects will take the time look for a deeper meaning in your clever slogans – they won’t. So be as direct and to the point as you possibly can. If you can boil the essence of the benefits you are offering to just one short sentence what would it be? That’s you headline!

INTEREST - Now that you have their attention you must quickly build your prospects interest. Use subtitles, questions and short stories to illustrate and communicate how well you understand their needs. This is a good place to allow your audience to connect with the pain their problems are causing them.

DESIRE - Technical descriptions and numbers provide information but don’t incite action. Your marketing must arouse in your prospects the emotion of desire. Show your audience how a solution is available and achievable to them through doing business with you. Offer powerful performance promise and eliminate the risk of giving you a “try” by a strong guarantee.

ACTION - Without this part your marketing is like a salesman who gives a great presentation but forgets to ask for the order. Give your prospects a compelling reason to take action. Make your offer so incredibly irresistible they simply cannot refuse!

4. Follow up, Follow Up, Follow Up…

Over 80% of all sales are made after the prospect has heard from you at least seven times. Yet a typical business person gives up after just one or two follow up contacts.

Plan your follow-up steps in advance. Use a combination of mail, email, telephone and personal visits as your follow-up strategy. At each opportunity provide your potential clients with value – this way they will forgive you the intrusion.

5. Develop a System

Most entrepreneurs and professionals waste their time and money on one-shot, fragmented promotional tactics. They practice “hit and miss” marketing system; they try a strategy and abandon it before it has a chance to produce any results.

Instead of developing new marketing strategies look for ways to improve the ones your are currently using. When you find a promotional strategy that works for you build a system around it so that you can consistently implement it over and over again.

Following these tips will make all the difference in the world between struggling to get clients and becoming wildly successfully in marketing your services. They are worth investing your best efforts and getting the support you need to implement them effectively.

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

A Sure-Fire, 10-Step Formula to Get Started as a Coach or Consultant

by Adam Urbanski

“My guess is first I'll need some zippy flyers and a tri-fold brochure” said an email from Matt last week. Sadly, he is not the only one thinking that the first step to building a professional business is printing fliers and brochures. After all, that’s what everyone does, right? And it seems like a logical place to start, doesn’t it?

It’s interesting that while most people who call me about my marketing mentoring services are well established practitioners looking for a new edge, Matt’s message was one of the 14 emails I got last week from people who are just starting to build their practice.

They all wanted to know the best way to get started fast but seemed to be fixated on getting their fliers and brochures ready.

Fact is, "zippy flyers and tri-folds" are a bad idea when you are just starting out. They can be pricey if you want them to look sharp. But even worse - they are so "inflexible".

If you are just starting out, I'm more than sure, that you will quickly go through several "adjustments”. I’ve seen people spent thousands on the "zippy brochures" only to find them useless in a couple of months.

So if getting brochures doesn’t work what’s the right way to go? Here is my sure-fire 10-step formula to quickly get started as a coach or consultant. And, if you are a well established practitioner, these ten tips may just give you the swift kick in the pants you need to re-invigorate your marketing.

1. PLAN

Yes, I know you’ve heard this before, but still too few people take the time to do this.

Find out what makes you tick. Evaluate your own strengths, desires, skills. What are you really good at? What do you love learning about? If you’ve worked with clients before - what type of clients did you have best results with so far?If you don’t have at least your “who” (your ideal client), “what” (the problems you solve) and “how” (your unique solution) figured out, don’t even bother moving to step two.

2. Find a “hive”

This is a critical step that most people completely overlook. You’ve got to find a market that WANTS what you’ve got (or what you want to learn.)

Ideally, people in this market should already be aware of their problem, have a real desire to solve it and the money to do so.

Evaluate if you can easily find and reach those people. Do they have an association, annual conference? Is there a list you can buy? If you can't find a hive - look for a different target market or change your offering.

3. Listen and learn

Talk to people you want to work with. Learn their language; how they communicate about their needs and problems. Ask them to tell you what solutions they are looking for and their preferred method of learning and solving problems.

4. Develop your Magnetic Marketing Message

Learn to describe what you are offering in 15 seconds or less. Make sure your message clearly communicates three things: who you help, their problem, and your unique solution. This message is about the people you work with not about you.

This is where you get your business cards. I recommend you name your business in a way that communicates what you do and get some basic business cards to start.

The ones from vistaprint.com are great. $10 or $15 will easily get you started, although I recommend you spring the extra five bucks and opt not to have their branding on the back of your cards.

If possible, make your card an invitation to contact you. For example, my own cards advertise my free marketing report and invite people to download it from my web site.

5. Create attraction tools

Write a few "Top 10" articles and a “special report” that address the biggest problems your potential clients are experiencing.

Here is a hot tip for you: if you don’t think you have enough expertise on the topic you want to teach - start by interviewing a few experts.

6. Build a basic web site

Don’t wait for months or years. All you need are a few simple pages that communicate your magnetic marketing message, give you a place to post your articles and invite your visitors to sign up for your electronic newsletter or ezine.

Oh, I guess that would be step six and a half – start your ezine! It’s so simple to do, there is just no excuse not to have one. You can start with something like ezezine.com - it's free to send a monthly message if you have fewer than 1000 subscribers.

If you’ve got a large list already, use something like kickstartcart.com (the system I’m using.)

7. Start teaching!

Offer free teleclasses and build interest around what you are going to coach or consult on. This is an important step; it allows people to get to know you and "sample” your services while it gives you an opportunity to test and tweak your content.

8. Help your first 5-10 clients

Coach a few people in your target market for free or trade services with them to get started. This will allow you to get your first success stories fast. Make it a habit to collect testimonials from every client.

If you are having hard time getting your first few clients here is your clue - focus more on how to “create more value” for your clients and less on how to “get” clients.

9. Develop group programs

Selling open-end coaching or consulting engagements can be tough. It’s often hard to get people to see what they will get out of working with you.

You can overcome this by developing specific, close-end programs. They are easier to explain, offer more “tangible” outcomes and are more affordable since there are several participants paying for your time.

Those programs can become your “great client incubator” – a place from which your larger/individual assignments and projects will come.

10. Keep’em coming

Once you get your first few clients it’s easy to get overwhelmed and stop marketing. But you’ve got to keep your marketing machine cranking at all time.

Successful coaches and consultants learn that continuous education-based marketing (marketing by sharing their expertise) can get them more than enough business and establish them as undisputable experts at the same time.

You too can get similar results by writing and publishing articles, developing info-products and getting invited as a speaker to groups that attract your potential clients.

This is obviously only a beginning guide. But I guarantee that if you follow those 10 simple steps in just six months to a year you too can build a successful practice.

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com