Here are some basic questions you’ll want to make sure you know the answers to about your clients, that will dramatically help you be more effective in the sales and marketing process:

This video may take a few seconds to load:

The Mindset of your clients from Mark Satterfield on Vimeo.

If you’re ready to take the next step this will be of interest.

Good food for thought
Mark
PS: I’m looking for a small number of qualified individuals who can learn our marketing system to handle the overwhelming demand for our services. MORE INFO HERE

These questions have been extremely helpful to me in developing marketing campaigns for my clients and I think they’ll be helpful to you as well

When you’re ready to take the next step and IMPLEMENT your client attraction system

And it’s equally likely that you’ve been disappointed in the results.

Seminars seemed to work great for many years. Unfortunately two factors converged that made attracting the right types of people increasingly difficult. (And opened the door for a more effective alternative.)

The first factor was the increased popularity of webinars and teleseminars which significantly eroded attendance at live events.

That makes perfect sense.

Why drag yourself off to a meeting when the same basic information could be obtained in the comfort of your office or home? It’s far too common today that the people who come to the “free introductory” seminar are either those with little else to do with their time, or those for whom the offer of “free food” has meaningful appeal.

The second factor that negatively impacts seminar attendance (and this is also an issue for teleseminars and webinars) is that they tend to be very product focused. By that I mean the primary emphasis is on your solution. It might be your financial product or your approach to solving your client problems.

The reality is that “learning about a new investment strategy” or “your leadership development approach”, just doesn’t have much sex appeal.

Which brings me to an alternative…commonly referred to as “Intimate Client Events”. These are small (10-12 people) gatherings that focus on something of interest outside of business. When done right, these definitely do have sex appeal and you’ll find that they attract those who otherwise would ignore your invitation.

Before I go further… Intimate clients events DO NOT focus on your solution, your business, or what ultimately you want your prospect to buy from you. This is all about relationship building.

Intimate client events fall into the stealth marketing or Trojan Horse marketing category.

So what’s the lure?

I’ve worked with clients who have put together intimate client events around stamps, art, golf (albeit this is getting overdone), boating, coins and many other topics. One of my favorites (and one in which I was actually a participant, focused on Trap Shooting.)

This was an extremely well executed event, which served two purposes: 1) Cementing relationships with existing clients and, 2) Enabling the host to meet new prospective clients.

My friend Carl invited me to this event. His financial advisor hosted it and to be perfectly honest, initially I had zero interest. I really didn’t want to meet “yet one more financial advisor with some sort of unique financial strategy” and secondly, I didn’t really have any understanding about what Trap Shooting was all about.

Carl sent me the invitation anyway, and I’ll admit it was a classy invite (sort of like what a wedding invitation would look like if the groom rather than the bride got to pick out the look & feel.) The letter that accompanied the formal invitation said that this was purely a social event (it emphasized that there was no business being discussed or pitching)…but what really got my attention was when the host described the event as…

“Golf with guns.”

Now I live in the south…I’m a guy…so the appeal to go shoot at stuff was pretty strong. (My wife got invited to an equally effective intimate client event focusing on a different topic-but that’s another story for another day.)

I won’t go into all the details about how the event was organized, and some of the other steps that made it very successful, but suffice it to say it was a huge home run.

The advisor who sponsored it was true to his word-absolutely no pitching or discussion of his business. That was extremely important because if intimate client events are going to work, people have to feel comfortable bringing their friends along. This is an extremely important point if you are trying to build relationships with elite and successful clients.

There were 12 of us at the event-6 clients and 6 friends. Pictures were taken throughout the day of us attempting not to shoot each other, which provided a great excuse for the host to get back in touch shortly afterwards. Plus the law of “reciprocity” was in play, so I was happy to accept his invitation for a lunch and an obviously more business-focused conversation.

As I mentioned before, stealth marketing is fundamentally thinking about ways in which you can be less obvious in your marketing efforts. Realistically, going to endless networking events isn’t going to put you in a position to meet the clients you really want, and nobody really likes to do cold calling.

The best clients are those who are friends of your current clients and this is a good example of a marketing strategy that everyone should at least consider implementing.

Food for thought
Mark
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Perhaps like you, I take this opportunity each year to reflect on what has taken place with my business over the past 12 months, as well as visualize what I hope to achieve in 2011.

I will admit that for many years I minimized the importance of goal setting and visualization. However, as I’m sure you can relate, once the new year hits, it’s increadibly easy to get caught up in the minutia of day-to-day activities. When that happens we often lose sight of the larger goals…the reasons we started our own businesses in the first place…what we want our business to become.

Which is why having a period of time in which we can reflect and plan for the next 12 months is so important.

Again, I wish you great things for 2011. Hopefully the work that I and my team do here at Gentle Rain Marketing will help you achieve many of your goals.

Happy Holidays,

Mark
RELATED LINKS

Can you answer them in way that would make a prospective client (one who doesn’t know you and in all candor, really has little interest in getting to know you), care about what you say?

Why should prospective clients do business with you?

What makes you different from the competition?

Two very fundamental and important questions.

To which, you undoubtedly think you have the answers to.

But do you…really?

The reason I ask this is because these are two of the questions I usually ask prospective clients when they first call.

And I’m surprised at how poorly most people answer them.

Keep in mind that I’m having these conversations with owners and partners…if anyone should know the answers, these folks should.

Yet they mumble.

And stammer.

Not meaning to be mean, but what comes out of their mouths just isn’t very compelling…or articulate.

Which I mention.

Interestingly, the response is almost always the same.

“Well if you were an actual client, I’d have a better answer.”

Really?

So here’s something to think about…Before you focus on any of these issues…

Should we use direct mail?
How about social media?
Let’s redo the website.
Where can we get some leads?

Make sure you’ve got great answers to these:

Why should prospective clients do business with you?

What makes you different from the competition?

I talk a lot about “mental heavy lifting”. It’s simply my phrase for taking the time to really think through the answers to questions like these.

Because the one thing I can guarantee you.

The very first answer that pops into your mind, is the same very first answer that pops into the mind of your competition.

Which is why so many marketing messages sound the same.

Here’s the second reality.

This is very hard to do on your own. And it’s something I’m very good at assisting my clients with.

If you’re serious about getting consistent streams of new clients you need to work on this.

Food for thought.
Mark
Related Links
I’ll Help You Develop A Marketing Message That Gets You More New Clients: Go HERE To Learn More.

While I’m not a Luddite driving a buggy, I think that a lot of time we focus way too much on technology as the solution to our business development woes. For example, want to start a passionate conversation? Ask a group of marketers or business owners, “Does social media really work?”

“Yes it does.”
“No it doesn’t.”
“My friend Al got a big account from Facebook, so there!!!”
“I don’t care, you’re still ugly.”

On and on…missing the point. (Or a large part of the point.)

It’s not the technology…it’s not the medium…it’s WHAT you’re communicating.

People seem to forget that.

But I get asked these questions a lot…

Does email really work?
Do autoresponders really work?
Does video really work?
Does advertising really work?

And the answer is always the same…”Yes, if you communicate the right message.”

Which brings me (finally) to my point.

How can we do a better job of communicating to those we want to do business with?

This all came about as a result of an interview I read in this month’s CEO Magazine with Linda Heasley, CEO of The Limited Stores. (As an aside and to answer another question I get asked, “How do you think of things to write?” The answer is “Read lots of magazines and newspapers.” If you want my list let me know and I’ll pass it along.)

I don’t know how much you know about women’s retail (I knew next to nothing until I interviewed Les Wexner for a report I was developing for a client) but it won’t come as any great surprise when I tell you that it’s brutally competitive. Lots of “me-too” stuff, harder and harder for stores to carve out an individual niche for themselves, “branding” is extremely difficult…(sound familiar?).

But Ms. Heasley’s success in reinvigorated The Limited offers all of us a specific lesson that’s valuable.

One of the top challenge she and her team faced was how to hone in on what her target customer really wanted to buy? What really was going on in her head? To figure that out, they came up with a very simple, but highly effective solution.

They created one.

The article explains:

“The fictitious, Tyler Monroe-prototypical Limited shopper-became the touchpoint for decisions at every level of the organization. Strategic decisions were based on the answers to such questions as: What were her likes and dislikes? What type of house does she live in? What car does she drive? What appointments would be in her day planner? What does she do for fun?”

The answers to these questions then drove the answers to the next set of questions:

“How does Tyler dress? What would Tyler wear for the office? For the weekend? At a picnic? At a corporate event?”

And then ultimately the answer to…

“What marketing messages would she respond to? Which would she reject?”

Everything from buying to advertising to store layout was geared towards appealing to Tyler Monroe.

So what’s the lesson? Simple.

You need to create a prototypical client. When you create your website, write marketing copy, develop ads…it’s all done with the vision of this individual (and that’s key-it needs to be an individual) in mind.

To toot my own horn, I’m told by people who allegedly know about this stuff, that my 42% email open rate is extremely high, especially given how long some of my 25,000+ subscribers have been on my list. (For which I am very appreciative-thank you!)

I believe that a large part for why the open rate is so high is because I have a prototypical client in mind when I sit down and write to you. (It was one of the early exercises my coach and I did back a few years ago and it remains one of the most productive 2 hours I have ever spent.)

There’s a series of questions I like to ask my coaching clients to zero in on who this prototypical client is but you can probably do a decent job of creating this “character” with just some good thinking.

But the real point is this.

If you want to attract more new prospects…If you want to convert large percentages of them into paying clients…

It’s not about the latest technology.

It’s not about whether social media, direct mail or advertising work…

It’s all about WHAT you communicate.

Food for thought.

Talk with you soon.
Mark
Related Links
Need some good practical marketing advice?
Sales letters that get you more new clients
The Best Self-Study Program You’ll Ever Own

For example, on the surface one might think that your local cinema is in the movie business. But they’re not.

The movie is just the “Trojan Horse” for their real business, which is selling popcorn and refreshments. As the article points out, “Cinemas are fast food businesses that happen to offer entertainment.”

So why is this worth thinking about?

Because most services business use a straight ahead-direct-battering-ram approach when attempting to get new business.

And there’s a much more effective way that achieves far better results. Let me explain…

You’d put it more elegantly, but the general gist of most marketing messages tends to be…

Hi…If you suffer from (problem) I have a solution for you. As the leading (financial planner/executive recruiter/technology consultant/Fill-In-Your-Expertise-Here) we have extensive experience working with…(well you know the rest.)

Now there’s nothing inherently bad about that. However the problem is that everyone (or at least all your competition) is taking pretty much that same approach. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so difficult to stand out.

Alternatively, the Trojan Horse strategy approaches the target market at an angle. It may not be immediate obvious what in fact the ultimate objective is.

You see this many times with infomercials. You know, the ones that sell a $8 doo-hickey like some sort of goofy lure that fisherman can use to catch “the really big one that got away”. You’ve probably said to yourself, “How in the world after spending all this money on advertising can they make any money selling something so inexpensive?”

And the answer is…”The can’t.” (And they aren’t.)

In most cases what they are really doing is building a list of buyers of fishing equipment and then selling that list to lots of manufacturers and marketers who sell rods, reels and other fishing equipment.

There’s a lot of money in fishing.

Now they could have used the straight ahead approach, “Give me your contact information and we’ll have a lot of fishing manufacturers send you stuff you might like to buy.” They’d get the really hard core fish fanatics that way. But that’s just a teensy tiny segment of the market.

But they used a Trojan Horse, and now have a list of people who have actually bought fishing stuff.

That’s worth big bucks to others who want to sell fishing stuff, since it’s a proven list of buyers (as opposed to just those who are interested in fishing).

So how does the Trojan Horse approach work with services firms?

Here’s an example.

I’m about to launch a new sales training initiative. It’s my one day sales training program, Unique Sales Stories: How To Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From The Competition & Close More Sales Through The Power Of Stories.

Now I could just create a nice PowerPoint presentation, brochure, website, direct mail campaign ect and market this to sales executives and training directors.

Might work.

But the sales training field is very competitive. Lots of programs vying for attention.

And there are a lot of heavy hitters, companies with far bigger budgets than mine who are mailing their brochures to the same people I want to hire me.

So I need a Trojan Horse.

And I’ve got one.

It’s a book. Not a eBook but a real paperbound book, published by a real publishing house -it’s even got some pictures in it. Pretty cool if I say so myself.

I wrote this book over a 6-week period of time this spring and early summer.

Was my goal to have a best seller?
Was my goal to sell a lot of books?
Was my goal to get “famous”?

Nope.

My goal is to sell a lot of sales training programs. And my book is my Trojan Horse.

Instead of doing what all my competition is doing…sending sales training brochures, having their sales reps cold call training directors and sales executives pitching their sales training programs…guess what I’m going to do?

I’m sending some very targeted direct mail and implementing other very-focused marketing to one niche market that I think has a burning need for this program. (After I hit that one market I’ve got 9 others that are on the list.)

But I’m not going to be talking about sales training in my sales letters, emails and ads.

Nope.

What I’m going to be doing is offering this very targeted and very specific audience a FREE copy of my book.

Guess how many of my competitors are doing this?
What’s their approach?

The straight-ahead-direct-battering-ram approach.

I’ve done this before, the last time I was in the training business. (For reasons I won’t bore you with I’ve been in and out of the training biz periodically for the last 12 years.) The last time I was marketing a program on how to gain access to top decision makers.

Similar model.

Wrote a book. You may have heard of it, Power Prospecting: How To Gain Access To Key Decision Makers (http://www.gentlerainselling.com)

Direct mail to partners at large consulting firms offering the book. Had a small sales team follow up with those who “raised their hands”. (Gave them a great incentive: 50% of the fee for the first training program a company bought and 20% ongoing for all subsequent sessions. With initial commissions of $2250 and then $900 for each subsequent program, my sales team made some serious money…BTW I’m offering the same sales incentive program again so let me know if you want in on it.)

The seminar went head-to-head with at least 7 other programs focusing on the same issue-all of who had been around for at least 5 years.

Using the Trojan Horse strategy we sold $1 million of training in the first 18 months.

All because my team and I were able to get attention by offering something that was “one-off” from the standard straight ahead-direct-battering-ram approach.

And I’m going to do it again.

But the really important point is…so could you.

It doesn’t have to be a book or a movie theater. What it does have to be is something creative that gets people to initially raise their hands. I’ve helped my coaching clients strategize on these and we’ve created some outstanding programs in over 17 different niche markets.

But here’s why most everyone won’t do it.

It requires a lot of thinking.

And planning.

There are a lot of moving parts.

It’s not quick…

But projects that have a potential $1 million payoff seldom are.

So what might be your Trojan Horse?

Summer is good for lots of things. One of which is planning how you’re going to grow your business in the fall.

I’m launching my Unique Sales Stories Sales training program. (And maybe helping some of you with your business launches.)

What will you be doing?

Food for thought.
Mark

Related links
http://www.gentleraincoaching.com
http://www.gentlerainblueprint.com
http://www.gentleraincopywritng.com

Although selling his company was not his objective when we first started working together, it became clear about 2 years ago that this would become a distinct possibility if a few of the cards fell right.

And they did.

And today Sam’s net worth has been increased by a bit more than…(well, he asked me not to mention specifics but suffice it to say, Sam doesn’t need to work anymore.)

Anyway this got me thinking about why Sam was able to build such an attractive business in less than 5 years that he had not 1 but 3 bidders.

What I’ve concluded is that Sam thought differently about his business than most of my clients.

It also raises the question…Do you have what it takes to create a million dollar business that someone would want to buy?

You may think of yourself as a financial planner, HR consultant, executive recruiter, coach-whatever. But suppose you’re wrong? Suppose you’re actually a million-dollar business that could be attractive to a number of buyers?

What if by making a slight change in how you think about yourself and your business you could create opportunities beyond your imagination?

Now, in reality building a multi-million dollar business is not for everybody. It may not be for you. But here’s an interesting question…how can you know?

As I do every year at this time I reread Michael Gerber’s wonderful book The E-Myth. I’m sure you’ve read it or are at least familiar with the basic argument he presents.

To put it far less eloquently than Mr. Gerber does, the reason so many businesses fail to reach their potential is primarily due to the fact that owners define their business as what they do.

I’m a financial advisor.
I’m a HR consultant
I’m a technology expert
I’m a leadership coach

Rather than thinking that they are in the Business of what they do.

That’s a significant difference as I’ll explain more about in a moment.

But first, let’s go back to the question I raised…Are you just a consultant, advisor or solo-entrepreneur, or do you have the potential to someday sell your business for a 7-Figure sum?

Here are 5 short questions that will help you determine the answer.

1. Do you believe you deserve this level of success?

I find it surprising that so few people really believe that they’re worthy of this level of success. Somewhere along the path of life something happened that made them believe that outsized success is for “other people”-not them.

What do you believe?

I’m very fortunate. From an early age Mom & Dad ingrained in me a fundamental core belief that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. While I never took success for granted, my goals have always been set high.

I was talking with a client the other day who wanted to write a book. I mentioned the books I had done for McGraw Hill and the writing I did for the Wall Street Journal. “No, no, no”, he said. “I don’t think I’d ever get published by a real publisher, I just want to self-publish this”

Well why the heck not!

If you are doing the book primarily to promote your business (as I’m doing with my next book Unique Sales Stories-which is designed to market my newest sales training initiative) self-publishing is fine. But that’s not what he planned to do.

No, he thought he could never get published by a large prestigious publisher because he wasn’t worthy.

Self-fulfilling prophecy.

You’ve probably read the study of the public school teachers in Chicago. A small group of them were told that they were going to be teaching the top 5% of the students in the public school system and that it was the school board’s expectation that these students be accepted into top universities.

The teachers took the task seriously and met the school board’s expectations.

Which was great.

Except for one thing.

The student’s weren’t the top 5%. They were randomly selected.

This was one of the first (and very powerful) studies on the role that positive expectations have on performance.

So, what about you? Does your belief filter send the message that you’re not worthy of the same level of success as my client Sam?

If however you said to yourself, “Yes I DESERVE to be just as successful as those entrepreneurs I read about who sell their companies for millions of dollars”, then CONGRATULATIONS, you’re taking the first step in making this a reality.

2. Do you have a dream?

Of course you do. Everyone does.

So let me rephrase this…Do you have a dream that so motivates you that you are willing to do whatever it takes in order to turn it into a reality?

And let me be specific here. I’m not talking about a dream of having a “successful” business. I’m talking about what comes along with the dream when you achieve it. The money…the prestige…the visibility…the freedom to focus on doing what you’re interested in doing-not what others dictate you should do.

If your dream is so strong that you will sacrifice and do what is necessary in order to turn it into a reality-then you have an excellent chance that you have what it takes.

3. Are you willing to learn what you need to know in order to be successful?

Sam is the third person I’ve been personally involved with who’s sold his business for large sums of money. One thing they all shared-and this is true about every successful person I’ve ever met…They were willing and interested in learning new things.

Obviously you know a lot about your particular area of expertise. But my question is, Are you willing to recognize that you don’t know it all-and are you willing to do what must be done in order to fill in the gaps?

Unless you have financial resources and can afford to hire top experts to do the work for you, you’re going to have to learn how to create a business plan and a marketing system.

For example, I often ask people who come to me for advice, What type of marketing budget are they working with?

I’m amazed at the small percentage who can formulate a coherent answer.

That’s the difference between an “individual contributor” and a business owner.

You need to know which media is most promising for promoting your services, what your most effective sales message and offer is…how to position yourself against your competition….

And much, much more.

The good news is that the sources for your education are all around you and the Internet has made learning so accessible that anyone with the desire can acquire the knowledge they need.

If you approach learning as a challenge…if it excites you to develop new knowledge-muscles…you may have what it takes.

4. Are you willing to take a risk?

Sure it takes money to build a million dollar business. But, it doesn’t take a million dollars.

To start takes very little. It’s mostly mental heavy lifting. How to position yourself? What offer to make? Websites, PDF reports, autoresponder services…they cost next to nothing.

However it does take some money to drive traffic to your micro-website. You need some chips in order to play.

Yes, you are going to have to risk some money and some time to get started.

So how does that make you feel? Anxious? Overwhelmed? Discouraged? If so do yourself a favor and don’t embark on the entrepreneur’s journey.

But…if you pulse quickens with the idea of risking a few hundred or couple thousand in order to make tens or hundreds or thousands…or even millions, you may have what it takes.

5. Are you willing to be patient and persistent?

I’m an avid reader of biographies and memoirs of successful people. I’m absolutely fascinated with what they went thought before they were successful.

In every single case, without exception, no one who is successful today started out that way.

They all took risk.

They all failed at times.

But…they stuck with it

They didn’t give up.

They were patient for the success that ultimately came.

…So how did you do?

If you answered, “Yes” to all five questions perhaps you have more than just a individual practitioner business. Maybe you have the makings for building something that someone will want to pay you millions of dollars for.

As a reader of Gentle Rain you know that at a very fundamental level, Gentle Rain is all about direct response marketing.

Which is the best type of marketing to grow your business.

Because at every step in the process you know precisely how you’re doing. And that’s what prevents us from getting in too deep before we make a course correction.

As a direct response marketer and Gentle Rain reader you have the tools to make your company a big as you want.

So instead of thinking of yourself as a coach, consultant, advisor or expert…try thinking like an entrepreneur. It could be the difference between dreaming about a millionaire’s lifestyle, with all the independence and freedom that comes with it…and actually living that dream.

Food for thought

Talk with you soon
Mark

Resources related to this article:
Gentle Rain Blueprint
Gentle Rain Coaching
Gentle Rain Copywriting

I think this is the best method (aside from referrals) for getting prospects that can afford to invest in your services…

What got me thinking about this was a recent marketing conference I attended. As is often the case, one speaker after another proudly proclaimed that a certain method generated the most leads. But after a while that got me thinking.

Sure it’s good to have lots of prospects interested in who you are and what you do, but it’s even better if your prospects actually have the budget to invest in your services. While that may seem to be a blinding grasp of the obvious, the reality is that lots of people are spending lots of time attracting prospects who, quite frankly, never will never become good clients for them.

I mean it’s wonderful to have a gazillion (real number) followers on Twitter and Facebook but the likelihood that those people are going to convert into clients, willing to pay substantial fees for your services is…well, not real good.

But I understand the appeal…the primary one is that it’s free. But the old saying that there is a relationship between the level of investment and the quality of prospect is true. I have yet to see any hard evidence that ether of these social media methods attract the types of clients the majority of my readers want.

Google is a better lead generation source but I’ll admit that it’s changed over the last couple of years. Whereas the quality of prospects that myself and the majority of my clients attracted two years ago was quite high, the percentage of “Qualified” prospects has dropped of precipitously. That’s okay, since (for now) staying in touch via email is free, but there’s a lot more separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff.

So where are the best quality prospects coming from? There are two methods I think you should consider but the one that I want to focus on today has consistently yielded the highest quality of prospects. Interestingly, as Google has diminished in the quality of leads it provides, this has actually gotten stronger.

Now in all candor I will tell you, that it will not generate anything close to the largest volume of leads for you. So if you have a sales team with a voracious appetite for new people to call, this may not be right for you. But if quality is what you’re after, this is where I would focus.

I’m referring to direct mail.

Now, direct mail has a lot of moving parts to it and it’s easy to mess up.

When you’re doing direct mail you need to keep in mind that you need 1) a great offer (and “call me for a free consultation” is not a great offer) 2) a great list (InfoUSA is OK but their lists get hit a lot so I stopped using them a while back) and 3) great sales copy in the letter.

Yes, I said letter not postcard, but that doesn’t mean that a postcard won’t work. But if your mailing is going to go through a screener, I would not use a postcard.

If you offer B2B consulting services, nothing beats a 1-2 page letter in an envelope with a first class stamp (lots of people-myself included-look at the postage before deciding whether to open something.)

And there are lots of other considerations. Should you put promotional copy on the outside of the letter? If so, what? Should you force people to go to a website or offer other methods to take advantage of your offer? What offer works best? What’s the #1 thing you can do after the mailing to increase conversion? Ect. Ect.

Yup, there’s a lot of things to consider but if you’re willing to do so, direct mail is still the best way to get the quality of prospects that you want.

Or at least that’s my opinion. I welcome yours.

Talk soon
Mark
*******
Gentle Rain Coaching is specifically designed to jump start your marketing and get you more new clients. Learn more HERE

The honest answer is, “I don’t really know.”

But this much I can tell you.

It’s worked well for me. and since 1992, for my clients as well.

Let me share a bit more…

…Obviously I don’t know you, so I really don’t have a sense for how you’re currently attracting new clients. But the fact that you’re reading this tells me that you’d either like more clients, or desire some sort of system so that new business comes to you…rather than trying to push yourself onto prospects.

So, the question becomes, what’s the best way to do that?

In order to answer that, let me share with you a little bit about my own business, and how I developed the Gentle Rain process. I think that it will give you a helpful perspective on whether it’s right for you.

I came into consulting having worked in advertising and with Pepsi and Kraft Foods. These were great experiences and I learned a lot about marketing.

However, when I decided to hang up my own shingle as a marketing consultant, I discovered that I really didn’t have a large network of contacts. Pretty much everyone I knew, worked where I had worked. Thus, it wasn’t long before I had lapped the track more than a few times, hitting up my meager list of contacts for leads and referrals.

Like most people, I heard that networking events were a good way to meet prospective clients, so I joined a few groups, went to Chamber of Commerce meetings and even tested a couple of Rotary groups. The problem was that I’m just not real good at “meet & mingle” events, so I never got much out of them. Most everyone I met “said” they got a lot of business from these things, but for some reason they never worked for me-I found myself falling into that trap of hanging out with the few people I already knew.

To tell you the truth, I was getting a bit desperate when I borrowed an old cassette program from my cousin Jerry. It was Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it transformed my life.

At first I rejected the program because what Dan was teaching focused on restaurant owners and plumbers, and his sales letters were pretty over the top. I thought to myself that my clients were different-they’re too sophisticated for the type of marketing that Dan advocated.

But, I really liked the idea of using free information to get prospects to raise their hands and then a pre-planned drip marketing sequence to build trust, credibility and eventually turn these prospects into paying clients.

I figured that I really didn’t have anything to lose, so I modified what I learned from Dan to focus on my niche which was consultants and others who offer intangible advice and services.

Anyway, to make a long story short…it worked. Really well as a matter of fact. I went from making $45,000 to $97,000 the following year. For someone like me, who had $1,800 in my checking account, that was a huge leap forward.

And it got better.

I kept experimenting with ideas, some didn’t work-but a lot did, and in two years my business got up to around $250,000. That was in 2002, and as you may recall, that was the year that the internet really started to take off. All of a sudden websites became a lot easier (and cheaper) to put up. Now there were these programs called autoresponders that enabled someone like me (who has absolutely no technical skills whatsoever), to automated almost the entire marketing system.

My income increased by 50%. And then it did it again.

I’ll admit this was pretty great. Instead of having to go out and try to strike up conversations with strangers at networking events, I literally had a waiting list of clients. Which meant that I could raise my fees, and even more importantly…choose whom I wanted to work with. (If you’ve ever had a jerk as a client you know how valuable it is to be highly selective about who you decide to work with.)

Anyway, that was my life for the next 3 years, and it was great.

But things change, and in my case the change came in the form of the international management consulting firm, A.T. Kearney. You may or may not have heard of them, but they’re one of the world’s elite consulting firms, up there with McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Accenture.

A.T. Kearney was going through a tough patch. Surprisingly, for a $1 billion consulting firm, they didn’t really do any marketing. Virtually all of their business came from referrals and repeat assignments.

Which worked fine until a number of their long-term clients didn’t renew their contracts, and the referrals started to dry up. Then they started to get worried about how they were going to fill their pipeline back up with new business.

One of their senior partners, Bill Jeffrey read a book I wrote called, Power Prospecting, liked my non-hard selling approach and asked me to fly up to New York to meet with him and some of the other senior partners.

That conversation led to a 5-year engagement in which I trained over 800 of their partners and directors on my Gentle Rain methodology.

Did it work? Obviously I wouldn’t be telling you this story if the answer was “No”, and to be totally honest the success they achieved was mostly due to their willingness to implement what I taught and embrace new ideas and approaches.

As you may be aware, A.T. Kearney staged one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the consulting industry. They recovered so well that the partners bought the firm back from their corporate owner EDS, and today are once again one of the most successful firms in the world.

That’s when word got out about me.

It was a pretty heady period of time. But there was a price.

A lot of my work wound up being in Europe. In the beginning it was terribly glamorous and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. But it does wear on you. The 13th time you go to Düsseldorf, it really becomes little more than just a v-e-r-y long consulting trip.

Plus, while I really enjoyed working with some of the world’s top consulting firms, I had a desire to teach and apply the Gentle Rain methodology on a smaller canvas. Working with solo consultants…helping firms with 3-25 consultants who really want to make a mark in a particular niche. That’s what gets me the most excited.

Which leads me to where I am today. My clients are in consulting, insurance, financial services, real estate, training and a lot of other niche businesses.

The one thing that they all have in common is a focus on building relationships and a desire to become very well known for what they do within a particular niche. (Not to mention also making a very nice living with plenty of free time for family and leisure time activities.)

I realize that this is a very long answer to the simple question of, “Will Gentle Rain work for me?”-but it’s a good question and deserves a thoughtful answer.

Which is…Gentle Rain has worked very well for me and for my clients. I truly think that it will work well for you too, but ultimately that’s up to you to decide.

One thing I will tell you is that I sense you recognize a need for change. That whatever you are doing now, or have done in the past, isn’t producing the results you want. I also have the sense that you would like some assistance. (Since, from a purely practical perspective, if you were going to do this on your own, you probably would have done so by now.)

There are a number of ways I work personally with clients. Everything from my elite Platinum program is which I partner with you and earn the bulk of my income from the success we achieve together (although in fairness I will tell you that it does require a $15,000 retainer)…to a la carte assignments in which I’ll write a sales letter, landing page copy or success story for you. Others want advice and answers to the questions they have about differentiating themselves from the competition, and how to set up their marketing system-for which my Gentle Rain coaching program is a great option.

And here’s one final thought…which may be the best way to determine whether Gentle Rain is right for you.

As I’m sure you’re aware, you’re experiencing the Gentle Rain process right now. As a result of an ad, a letter, a referral or some other sort of lead generation method, you went to one of my websites and opted-in to get some free information. That triggered a series of automated messages that hopefully you’ve found helpful and interesting.

And something else has happened…

You’ve started to build a relationship with me. Which is even more interesting since it’s likely that we’ve never spoken or met.

Yet, you feel on some level that you know me. Perhaps even like me.

And no matter where the relationship goes from here (whether you decide to invest in Gentle Rain or not) it’s likely that you’ll refer me to others if the appropriate situation presents itself.

And that’s ultimately what Gentle Rain is all about. Building relationships. Gaining visibility within your niche market, and ultimately, getting you as much new business as you desire.

So, if you decide that Gentle Rain is right for you, I would welcome the opportunity to be of assistance. Please let me know how I can help.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark Satterfield
Gentle Rain Marketing Inc

http://www.GentleRainMarketing.com

mark@gentlerainmarketing.com
770-643-8566