I recently became a Get Clients Now! facilitator and look forward to having you join me in upcoming webinars and public programs! Looking to jumpstart sales? Consider our August 17th webinar. REGISTER HERE  OK, that’s our brief self promotion. Now, let’s hear from C.J. Hayden, the author of the Get Clients Now! methodology.

From guest contributor, C.J. Hayden, MCC…

What’s stopping you from getting all the clients you want? Do you know? The answer to this one question may be the key to making your marketing more successful.

It would seem from the questions people ask me about marketing that everyone is trying to fix just one type of problem — how to fill their marketing pipeline with more new prospects. 

“What else should I be doing to attract potential clients?” they ask. “Where else can I go to find people who might hire me?” or “How can I be more visible online so people will contact me?” or “Should I be finding prospects by cold calling, using Twitter, running ads, giving talks, writing articles…?” 

All their questions — and it seems all their efforts — are aimed at finding ways to make contact with new people who might become clients. And every time they identify another activity that might help their pipeline get fuller, they want to add it to their ever-growing to-do list. 

But is this really what’s stopping them from getting more clients?

Is this what’s stopping you? If you are already marketing yourself in four or five different ways, will increasing that to seven or eight different ways produce better results? Or alternatively, if you drop everything you’re doing now, and start using four or five brand new marketing approaches, will that do the trick?

In my experience, it probably won’t. Continuing to try new and different approaches to fill your marketing pipeline will more often result in overwhelm, wasted effort, and failure than it will in new clients.

Instead of trying to fix your marketing by just seeking out more ways to meet people or collect names, email addresses and phone numbers, stop for a moment. What is the problem you’re trying to solve? In other words, what’s really getting in the way of your marketing success? 

Listed below are the five most common marketing problems, and questions to ask yourself to see which ones might be yours. They’re presented in order of priority — problem #1 needs to be fixed before tackling problem #2, and so on. Consider whether making changes in one of these areas might be exactly the fix your marketing needs.

1. HANDS-ON TIME: Are you spending enough time proactively marketing? Not just getting ready to market, or thinking about how to market, or feeling resistant to marketing, but actually taking steps that will lead directly to landing clients? 

If you’re not spending enough time marketing your business, fixing other problem areas won’t help much. Start keeping track of how much time you spend actively marketing each week. Most independent professionals find they need to spend from 4-16 hours weekly — less when you’re busy with paying work; more when you’re not.

2. TARGET MARKET: Do you have a clearly defined target market which you can describe in five words or less? Does this market already know they need your services? And are you spending most of your time marketing to exactly that group?

Once you feel confident you are dedicating enough time to marketing, the next hurdle is making sure you’re marketing to the right people.

Focusing your efforts on a specific target group with a defined need for your services will make everything you do more effective. 

3. MARKETING MESSAGE: Do your descriptions of your services name the benefits you offer and results you produce for your target market?

And are these benefits and results that this market is looking for?

Do you deliver your message every time you make contact?

Letting prospective clients know exactly how you can help them will make the most of the time you spend marketing to a defined audience.

Your message needs to be clear, focused on the client’s needs, and typically delivered multiple times to the same prospects.

 4. FOLLOW-THROUGH: Do you have a system for following up with every prospect until they say either yes or no? Are you able to complete all the steps for each marketing approach you are using to make it pay off?

 Without follow-through, much of your marketing effort is wasted. The typical prospect will need to hear from you (or about you) 5-7 times before deciding to work with you. And most marketing approaches need a follow-through element to succeed. For example, attending networking events requires post-event follow-up with the people you meet. Online networking requires regular participation, not just posting when you have something to promote.

 5. MARKETING APPROACH: Are the strategies and tactics you are using to reach your market the most effective approaches available to you?

Are they appropriate for your target market, and a good match for your skills and personality? 

Only after addressing the first four problem areas above should you think about changing HOW you market. Because in truth, your tactics may not need to change. Whether you’ve been marketing yourself with cold calling, public speaking, or social networking, once you are spending enough time, marketing to the right people, delivering a targeted message, and following through on all your efforts, your results will improve dramatically.

So finding new or different marketing approaches — the place where most people START to fix their marketing — is actually the last area to consider. The most effective approaches are those that include personal contact with your prospects, increase your credibility, and lend themselves to building relationships over time. And, approaches that match your skills and personality are more likely to succeed because you will actually use them instead of resisting them.

Once you know what might be stopping your marketing from being successful, make a commitment to fix what’s really wrong. Resist the temptation (and hype) to keep trying new “silver bullet” marketing tactics or overloading yourself with endless possibilities. Finding the best marketing solutions will be much easier when you’re trying to solve the right problem.

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!™ Thousands of business owners and independent professionals have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at www.getclientsnow.com. Copyright (c) 2009, C. J. Hayden

If you are like me, you’ve thought about writing a book. And, if you are also like I was, you may still be walking around with that book in your head. A spark of an idea that was coupled with a dose of universal intervention and a terrific writing partner in Joan Curtis, and I’m thrilled to say that my first book – The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media – is available for pre-order now on Amazon.

This isn’t just another social media book…already plenty of those.

Yes, we do talk about social media, of course, and a complaint I commonly hear from people is that they know social media is important, but they have no ideas what to actually with do it all. Sure, all the tools look cool, but how do I use this stuff again to actually get a sales result? As I’m fond of saying…clicking on the buttons is one thing, but knowing how to use social tools to drive specific, measurable results is something else altogether.

If you are still perplexed about using social media as a business tool, or you still think social media has no value as part of the sales process – this book is for you! Be one of the first in your company to get your hand on this vital tool.  Every sales professional will want to learn about the new world of sales and the social media.  This is the first book written that helps salespeople understand the impact of the social media on sales and gives them the tools to start a social media sales strategy.

In the end, technology doesn’t matter much if it doesn’t help you achieve your sales goals. I hope you enjoy the read!

p.s. Joan and I have created e-book that we are just about to release that includes the first chapter of the book. Interested? Until we get it posted to the website, drop me an email with “new handshake ebook” in the subject line at info@talentbuildersinc.com I’ll make sure that you receive a copy when it is ready.

LinkedIn has made the Company section more robust. It is now even easier to research companies and keep up with the people changes happening with those companies.

The Improvement

You can now “follow” companies. Okay, STOP right there! Before you close your mind to it, because images of nonsensical conversation on Twitter just popped into your head, please hear me when I say that “the concept” is similar, but definitely different. This is the kind of follow that you want to engage in, because…

Sales Benefit

You will hear about key developments such as who’s joined, left or been promoted at the companies you follow, business opportunities and job openings. This moves your ability to research target companies you want to work with to another level.

Once you elect to follow a company… when you log into the Company Home Page on LinkedIn, you will see a list of updates for the companies that you follow. You will also see a “company updates” section now showing up on your LinkedIn Home Page.

This is so much easier than tracking the individual movements of people within in a company. LinkedIn aggregates the list of changes for you. You can easily scan the list to keep up with what’s changed. Here’s a quick screen shot of the company I set up to follow today to check out how this works.

How To

Find Companies under the “More” menu. Click on Companies. Search companies you want to track. Once you’ve pulled up their company page…look to the upper right and click on “follow company”. Scan the updates once a day or once a week.

Definitely check it out! Share your success stories.

A common complaint from social media resistors is that they “don’t have time” for all of this technology stuff. Reading my post right now, you might be saying to yourself…exactly. No time – that’s why I’m not there. In the only way that I know how to say it – you are already being left behind! Make time for the important.

Making Time

I know, I know. You are absolutely positive that 100% of your business time is used to upmost effectiveness each and every day. But on the off chance that you are like pretty much every other human being I’ve ever met, everyone has time wasters on their calendar. Everyone! Evaluate your time usage for the next week, and I promise you the results will be surprising.

What do you need to do to get started?

Clock what you do each business day in 15 min increments. It may be tough at first, because you won’t be used to tracking what you are doing. Once you get going, it becomes a habit.  Don’t overcomplicate the process though. It can be as simple as keeping a legal pad of paper with you to note it all down. If you’d like to have technology lend a helping hand, I recommend TDF Tracker for the i-Phone. TDF Tracker is an easy to use, powerful tool designed to keep track of time/expenses/mileage. I’m a new user and getting the hang of it. I love that I can track my time and email a weekly report to my client, as I receive a copy at the same time. No clumsy spreadsheets to handle. For purposes of this exercise, you would use TDF Tracker to note what you are spending time on and when. Your personalized report will tell all!

Once You Know

Clear the obvious “junk” from the calendar and block that time – RIGHT NOW! – to work on your social media/social networking knowledge and experience. Business communication has changed. Sales and marketing must adapt. New worker capabilities are required. If you want to get hired, do what Laura Gainor did to gain the attention of her next employer, Comet Branding. The story is quite something and a brilliant example of using social media to further your next career move.

Ironic isn’t it? We live and work in a digital age, and the discourse about the power of social media to communicate with potential buyers and current customers in more effective ways reached deafening proportions in 2009. Yet a current poll running over on LinkedIn shows that 46% of the respondents thus far still think that the most effective way to gather customer feedback is in direct, face-to-face meetings. Hum… me thinks there is a disconnect.

Your customers and potential customers are sharing a wealth of information and insight about what they want – online. In 3 easy steps, here’s how you can begin to capitalize on the wealth of opportunity staring you in the face.

1. Determine where your current customer (or prospect) is likely to “participate” online. Don’t assume they are using Facebook or Twitter or any other social technology people tell you is the hot thing. Put your thinking cap on. Consider the demographics of your audience. What do you know about them now that can help you identify where they travel in the online space. EXAMPLE: Your customer is the VP of Sales in technology and telecommunications companies. What does he/she care about? What challenges are top of mind? In what forums or groups are they talking about what they need or wish vendors provided?
2. Listen to what is being said. Now that you know where your customers live…listen to what they are talking about. What questions are they asking? How are they gathering feedback about products and services on the market? Don’t show up in a group and start pitching your wares. Take the time to listen.
3. Engage them in dialog. Ask relevant questions and don’t argue the answers. Defending your turf  only looks and sounds self serving. Your goal is to set your agenda aside. How else can you really understand what is important to your most valuable asset – your customer? Use what you learn to innovate your products and services and build stronger loyalty with your customer base.

It’s hard to know what that 46% was thinking when they answered the question posed in the poll, but it seems certain they may be missing the entire point and opportunity that social media represents.