Marketing is Such a Waste of Time!
I’ve been looking at all the marketing that’s worked for my business and for my client’s businesses over the last few years and the money that we’ve all spent on it. And I’ve come to a conclusion. It’s all a waste of time and effort. There is a much quicker way to get new clients.
For many years I’ve been advising clients to spend time building up their reputations by blogging and writing email newsletter and tweets, in which they share their expertise. I told them that they should be really generous with their knowledge and accept that many people will take their advice and happily never pay them for it. I told them that they would just have to accept this.
What about their websites? My advice was always to focus the content on the reader – using words like ‘You’ far more than words such as ‘We’. “Fill your website with useful resources and free advice,” I told my clients.
At the same time, I suggested to clients that they go into meetings with prospects and just ask them lots of questions. No messing around with PowerPoint presentations because prospective clients don’t want to hear about you. Instead I said they should just listen to what those prospects had to say and use that to create a tailored solution.
How wrong could I have been? All those years of getting it wrong!
So how do you quickly get new clients? Simple. Don’t share any advice without first making someone pay for it. If you’re going to bother with a website (which you don’t really need) then make sure it just talks about how great you are. And as for meetings with prospective clients – go in armed with a nice long presentation to talk through. Try not to let your prospect say too much, as it’s far more important for you to do all the talking. If you really want to save time, just do what those clever PPI salesmen do – call your prospects just as they are about to sit down to dinner in the evening and tell them why they should buy your services right now. Then take their credit card details and disappear without ever speaking to your new clients again.
Simple, quick, cheap and effective!! No need to mess around with marketing again!
Happy 1st April … the day otherwise known as …?!
