The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Everything is negotiable

The other day I was heading to the airport to catch a flight. Although normally I take a taxi, I decided to save some money and park my car at the airport.  I usually park at one of the airport lots for about $12.00 per day but after getting stuck in traffic and worrying about missing my flight I decided to park in one of the airport-adjacent hotels that offers valet parking.

I pulled into the lot of the hotel I would normally park at and a uniformed attendant greeted me with a smile. I asked him what was the valet parking fee and he said $28.00 per day. I grinned and knew my money savings strategy was shot.

I looked at him and said “wow, that’s kind of high isn’t it?”. He replied “hold on, I’ll be right back” and quickly disappeared behind the valet booth in search of something.

A few minutes later he returned and handed me a discount coupon that brought the parking down to $12.00 per day. “We know times are tough so hopefully this will help”.  Without even asking for a discount, I got one.

It made me think that everything these days is negotiable. Even valet parking. Our struggling economy is creating new rules for selling. And I’m liking it. You see, I was born and raised in Israel, part of the Middle East, where negotiating is part of everyday life there. In fact, some vendors would get insulted if you don’t negotiate. It’s part of how we buy and sell.

So how does that relate to your business? You can expect your clients to negotiate with you now more than ever. Be prepared for that. And be open to the experience. Go into the selling process with “negotiation in mind”. Even if your fees have been the same for years, your clients may now expect some kind of a deal or discount because of our “struggling economy”.  So rather than lowering your fees (which you don’t want to do because that send a message that you are desperate) you can offer your clients incentives, something extra if they buy from you.  Throw in something extra.  Help your clients feel like they are getting a good deal.

New Marketing Habits: Slowly but Surely

I’ve heard it takes around 30 days for something to become a habit. 

With 35 days passed at the end of week 7, I actually feel like I’m beginning to develop some good habits (for once)!  Marketing Mentor is not paying me to say this—but the Grow Your Business  Marketing Plan + Calendar is actually keeping me moving in the right direction.  Just having the words in front of me helps me to stay on track. 

I’m not perfect.  I don’t do every task on my list every single day.  But I do them most days.  And doing something most days over a period of weeks is a big deal for me. 

Here are the things I’ve been doing on a regular basis:

Writing goals: I’ve been writing my goals.  This is something I’ve never done before.  But instead of writing my goals as if I want them to happen, I’ve been writing them as if they have already happened.  “I got 5 new clients this month!” and “I made $$$$ this month!”  I can imagine myself saying these things at the end of the month, and it helps me to approach them with confidence.

Checking blogs/sites:  I check Biznik regularly- it’s my favorite.  I read articles, leave comments, and send messages to people.  I’ve moonlighted with other sites, but Biznik is the one I keep going back to.

Googling myself:  As of today, my website is #7 in Google for “virtual marketing assistant” and #1 in Yahoo.  Not bad for a site I put up 7 months ago.  I've noticed higher rankings since I've starting creating more incoming links to the site.

Exercising:  I do some exercise every single day (just about.)  I force myself to go to the gym or go for a walk, and I always feel better afterwards—not just because I’ve exercised, but because I had the discipline to get myself out the door.

Socializing:  I’m not attending networking events per se because my prospects are in the US—but  I am getting out and meeting people.  I’m taking salsa class on Monday nights and making it a point to talk to new people every week.  Tonight, I’m attending a meetup.com event in for Americans living in the Dublin area. Ps. Meetup.com is a great site to find events to attend.

Prospecting:  I have a favorites folder where I’m adding the prospects’ websites.  I’ve got 27 of them so far.

A structured workday: I’ve been starting work every day around 9am and ending by 7pm, give a little take a little.

Accepting:  I’m doing better at accepting that I’m not going to be perfect every day.  I look at each good task like a drop in the cup.  Every good thing I do simply adds, and nothing takes away. 

Evolving: I’ve noticed that some of my clients are web design companies who want to offer additional services to their clients, such as pay-per-click advertising, article and press release writing and submission, and keyword rich web content writing.  I’m starting to consider these web design companies as a new potential market, and I’ve started to prepare a proposal specifically for them.

Are you following your plan?  Are you finding that you are developing some good marketing habits?

Where to meet people with money to spend

Although we keep hearing about wave after wave of layoffs, not everyone is feeling the pain right now. And the ones who aren't just might be perfect prospects if you have services and talents that they need.

But where do you find them? That's a question I've been getting a lot lately, from clients and other self promoters.

Here's a recent article from the New York Times called "Aimless Travel? No, It’s Networking in the Sky" about a guy who takes random airline trips to network and meet decision-makers.

It's an expensive marketing tool and certainly not for everyone. But what do you think of it? And what ideas do you have for finding people with money to "invest" or spend right now?

Anyone here dealing with clients from hell?

Given the crazy times we're going through, I'm guessing a lot of us are tolerating client weirdnesses (or just weird clients) in a way we might not have a year ago.

If you're grappling with nightmare clients—or just want to be prepared should one come down the pike—this webinar from our friends at Freelancers Union may be just the thing for you:

Dealing with Nightmare Clients Webinar

Wednesday, February 25
7 - 9:30 PM EST
$30 FU members/$40 non-members (membership in Freelancers Union is free!)

Ever deal with a client who constantly changed the deadline, tried to increase or decrease the scope of the project halfway through it, or didn’t know what they wanted and asked for multiple revisions as a result? If this sounds familiar, take comfort -- you are not alone.

Join Freelancers Union and Michelle Goodman, author of My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire, for advice on dealing with the nightmare client. 

Michelle will discuss how to:

• Sniff out a client’s reputation ahead of time
• Chase down missing checks
• Set better boundaries with clients who make excessive demands on your time
• Close up contract loopholes that could come back to haunt you later
• Decide whether a relationship with a client is salvageable
• Gracefully let a troublesome client go

To sign up, go here!

Guest Post: Networking smarter, not harder

Colleen's note: Today's guest blogger, Donna Gordon, is a contact I made via the social networking, specifically the Ask Liz Ryan group (covering the nexus between work & life) on Yahoo. Donna is a shining example of how to use social media well—i.e. be brilliant and helpful, and people will come to you. Her take on networking etiquette was so terrific, I asked if she'd agree to elaborate on best practices here at The Marketing Mix. I think you'll love the very useful stuff she has to share...

Okay. So you're a solopreneur, or a small business with lots to do and you're supposed to NETWORK on top of everything else. As a solopreneur with the gift of gab, I loved the idea of getting out, meeting new people, and building my network..  But while my calendar filled up, my bank balance was shrinking.  Hey wait I'm networking, right? Where is all this new business the networking gurus promised?

Turns out not all networking is created equal. As I struggled to make sense of it all, a book called Business by Referral by Ivan Misner and Robert Davis somehow landed on my desk, and helped me trim the fat from my overly bloated networking calendar. The book argues that you should have a goal for your network; that your contacts should belong to one of 3 categories: information, support or referrals.

• Information contacts are those you can call on the fly when you need to know the answer to 'who should I contact if I need an HR perspective on my problem?'  Information is the lifeblood of any business, especially for a research business like mine, so keeping in touch with those whose expertise complements your business is worth your time.
• Support contacts are those who you can grouse to, cry to, or ask for honest feedback on that new website.  As a small business you can't keep a staff on retainer to vet your ideas, so an informal group of trusted advisors is critical to keep you on the right path. And remember this cuts two ways-don't be too stingy with your time or you might find it comes back to bite you.
• Referral networks are the holy grail for those who are looking to land that next big client or project. While there are marketing experts who claim that a contact that does not produce a referral should be dropped and given voice mail, I don't think it's that simple.  If you list someone as a referral contact, make sure they have the willingness, the tools and the incentive to send business your way, and don't just assume that they will think of you when the right situation pops up. Keep these contacts in the loop, and make sure they understand how much you value them.

Having a goal for your contacts means taking a good long look at how you spend your time. For example, the roundtable group of small business owners that filtered in and out with no stability was taking several hours of my could have been billable time but not producing any tangible benefit. Instead I joined a 'masterminds' group – 6 of us, all small business owners or solopreneurs who meet monthly to discuss our businesses and seek each other's advice. We've been meeting for over four years now, and the group is much more valuable than a packed Chamber event with dozens of people like myself, looking to commiserate but not really do each other any good.

For you, your results may vary. While having information, support and referral contacts are all important, your mix is determined by the work you do and your target market.

• Where do your customers hang out?
• Who do they turn to for advice?
• Where have your previous clients come from?
• What do all of your clients have in common?

If you can answer these questions, you've taken the first step to clarifying how you should be spending your networking time, and which contacts you should go the extra mile for to keep in your network.

Happy networking!

For more than 10 years, Donna Gordon has been dedicated to helping entrepreneurs. As founder and president of Investment Resources, she taps her vast network of contacts and information sources to help businesses start, grow, expand and acquire. She's counseled hundreds of clients in industries ranging from banking to life sciences and is often invited to speak on the topics of profitability and Internet research.

Growing Your Business with Marketing, Week 8: Newsletters and other webalicious marketing

This is Week Eight of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. You can follow along here every Monday; check in with my companion blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for additional links and information.

This week's official task was to pull together samples of great newsletters in preparation for putting together your own or, if you already have a newsletter, to aggregate past issues into an archive on a page of your own website. My own tasks this week centered around updating and adding to my online content as needs arose, in addition to keeping up with the relentless, now-regular cold calling duties.

I'm sort of a militant fanatic-maniac when it comes to newsletters.

They have such tremendous potential to deliver great information (to the reader, your prospect or future fan) and they are such a great resource for you (hard to get an email list off of a blog), it horrifies me to see them abused. And they are—so much so that I wish there was a better name for them than "newsletter" (and no, "ezine" is most decidedly not better) so that I wouldn't have this uphill climb to get other militant fanatic-maniacs to at least test-drive mine.

The archives page is a good way around this. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm in the process of moving all of my back issues from my old design site to my new home base, communicatrix-dot-com. If you're in a similar situation, I'd suggest at the very least setting up one page on each site you think people might find the newsletters on; I have one on the old site and one on the new, with a note on the old saying—you guessed it—to go to the new for latest versions.

Before I did so much as sketch out a list of ideas or daydream about names, I read dozens (no, really!) of newsletters to see what I liked and didn't like. You can read my findings here; they're old, but they stand.

With two years of monthly lessons under my belt, there are some additional things I'd address. I've learned a ton from producing 22 monthly missives. (And please let me know in the comments section if that's something you'd be interested in reading, and if you have particular questions you'd like to see answered.) The chief one, though, is to allow yourself enough time, so you're able to maintain a regular publishing schedule. Along with rich content, I think that's the key to building a loyal list of readers.

What’s in your ‘keep in touch’ toolbox?

You’ve heard us say this before. Networking is one of the strongest marketing tools you can use to grow your business. Well a big part of networking happens not only face to face at schmoozing events, it keeps happening if you follow up with people.

Keeping in touch is a key part of this game. It’s a big part of building a relationship and in business, relationships are everything. So what’s your ‘keep in touch’ plan? Especially as we are in a weird economy with some of us not knowing when the next client is coming from it’s a good idea to plan how to keep in touch with clients and prospects and create the right tools to do so.

So today I’d like to start a series of posts that can help you create your own ‘keep in touch’ toolbox. I’ll share some ideas that worked well for me in the past and hopefully some of them will inspire you to try something new.

First tool in the ‘keep in touch’ toolbox is the “Touching Base Connection”.  Send a short email message to the clients who you haven’t worked with in a while and to prospects just to say hello. I bet if you looked in your address book right now you can pick at least 30 people to get in touch with. Write them each a short, personalized email and say something like:

Dear Dan,

It’s been a while since we’ve connected. I was just looking through my address book and your name jumped out of the crowd!.

Just thought I’d send you a quick note to say hello and see how things are going on your end. 

Would be great to hear from you sometime soon!

Best,

Peleg

Note how this email does not ask for anything in particular. It’s simply starting a conversation. It’s casual and it’s in your own friendly voice. Let your personality come through and keep it professional. You never know where that could lead to. 

And for those of you who are brave enough to try this in person, I dare you to pick up the telephone  and over the next week call 30 of your clients and prospects and just say hello. You game?

I See London, I See France...

I went out with underwear in the hood of my sweater.

I had grabbed the sweater, fresh out of the laundry, thrown it on and ventured out the door. Fortunately, my fiancé saved the day, dispelling the situation before anyone saw me.

But then it occurred to me-- what if nobody was around?  What if I had worn that sweater when I went to the post office during the day?   I could have walked through town with underwear hanging from my sweater.  I stand out enough wearing my Yankees hat in this small Irish town, never mind flying an undergarment flag at full mast.  That could make the local news!

I realized—when you're on your own, there's nobody to find underwear hanging from your clothes, nobody to find broccoli in your teeth—there's nobody to catch your mistakes.

I was reading Ilise's post, Can you detect a "fake" mistake from a real one?  Sometimes, in the daily swing, we make mistakes.  But there's a lot of pressure when it's just you.

It got me thinking back to my days in corporate land...

I worked for a ferry company.  Things had gotten rough-- people were being let go, and I'm pretty sure they started using the hose to fill up the water cooler. I was the only person left in the marketing department.

There was a new ferry terminal we were promoting.  Someone sent me the info, and I put together a flyer.

I printed the flyer on the high-quantity copier, and flyered 600 of our customer's cars in 3 inch heels in the beating hot August sun with the help of just one other person (a security guard who I had bribed with a Snickers bar.)

Sweating and exhausted, I returned back to the office and looked at the flyer again. 

I decided I should make sure someone was answering the phone number at the new terminal-- in case people called with questions.

And someone did answer—only her name was Bubbles and she told me that for $3.99 per minute we could have some erotic fun.

Guest Post: Is BNI right for you?

Business Networking International is what it says: an international organization of business networking groups with chapters literally all over the world: 5150 chapters in 39 countries.

It's a very structured environment that requires commitment from its members, centered around a weekly early morning meeting.

I am often asked by clients whether BNI is the right group to join. Of course the answer is always, "It depends."

After the jump are the pros (and a couple cons) from Patrice Robertie of Acorn Advertising in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Social Networking for Professional Services

If you're avoiding social networking because you just don't get it, help is available.

RainToday.com has published a new report, "Social Networking for Professional Services: How to Add Social Media to Your Networking Plan," that gives a very comprehensive overview of how to use the latest online tools.

Included in this guide:

• 5 mini-cases of professional service firms (accounting, architecture, consulting, law, and marketing) and how they are using social media to provide you with ideas and inspiration (Full disclosure: I'm the "marketing" one!)
• Overviews of 11 social networking tools (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking, and more) and examples of how other professional services firms are using these tools
• and much more.

It's available free to RainToday.com members, but you can get it if join for a free 7-day trial membership. Check that out here.