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This Week Featuring: Marcia Yudkin

Marcia Yudkin creates cost-effective, creative marketing plans for clients all over the world. You can learn more about her reputation-enhancing marketing plan service at http://www.yudkin.com/marketingplan.htm and view excerpts from a sample plan at http://www.yudkin.com/sampleplan.htm

Creating a Reputation

Want to shorten the sales cycle for your professional
services? Want pre-sold prospects who need fewer or no
face-to-face meetings before hiring you? Create a
reputation.

Recently a room full of consultants agreed that you had to
meet with potential clients at least twice -- better, three
times -- before winning the business. "Then how do you get
business outside the area?" someone asked. The consensus:
Forget it.

Yet I've been hired by companies in Australia and elsewhere
without even phone calls, much less a face-to-face. Like
nearly all my most congenial clients, they weren't choosing
candidates to compare with one another. They weren't
shopping, weren't engaged in a systematic search. If
hunting, they stopped when they found me. Or they hadn't
thought of spending money on their problem until my
reputation gave them the idea.

Publishing books, as I've done, is just one way to establish
a reputation that pre-sells prospects on what you can do for
them. For image consultant Mary Lou Andre of Needham,
Massachusetts, a reputation-building tool has been her Web
site. In addition to descriptions of her services, her site
at http://www.dressingwell.com chronicles the media
publicity she's received and highlights her approach to
fashion through profiles of prominent individuals and
corporations that she's helped.

"Last fall I closed a national retail chain that found us on
the Web and e-mailed us in June," says Andre. "When I told
them I was about to give birth, they said they'd wait. In
September, they signed the contract. We never met face to
face! They modeled the entire project after the work I did
for Bose Corporation, which is featured on our Web site. I
firmly believe our reputation (and Web site) closed the
deal."

For translation industry consultant Sarah Pilgrim of
Wilsall, Montana, a reputation-building tool has been a
half-page ad she's run for years in a trade journal for
translators. A signed testimonial in it from someone in the
business and a credential of having been in the business
herself for 20+ years gives her high credibility with her
target market.

"When translation agency owners read my bio, they recognize
the name of the translation company I founded and sold,
which has a good reputation," Pilgrim adds. "When they call
to find out more, they can tell I know the business. And
therefore when I've gone to visit clients it's always been
as a paid consultant, with the client footing the bill."

Whether you use publishing, the Internet, advertising,
promotional newsletters or media coverage to build a
reputation, it takes time. Each piece of visibility
reinforces previous effects. With a reputation, you get
more inquiries like "Do you do...?" and fewer along the
lines of "We're looking for a _____ who does..." With a
reputation, pre-sale meetings drop to one or zero. E-mail
or phone exchanges can suffice. Powerful stuff!
 

Clone Your Best Customers

Two businesses -- a women's clothing boutique and a mail-order operation --
recently consulted me about the same dilemma. Each had achieved satisfying
sales through channels that didn't allow for further growth. They needed a
fresh marketing program that would yield a steady stream of new customers,
and they were confused about where and how to advertise.

Like Dorothy with the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, they already had
most of what they needed for a solution, but they didn't know how to use
what they had. They needed to investigate who their buyers -- especially
their highest-spending and most frequent patrons -- were. In doing so,
they'd learn how to clone their best customers.

The general principle: Discover the characteristics of your current
customers and use that knowledge to reach more shoppers just like them.

The clothing store already knew the age range, income level and some
cultural interests and hobbies of its clientele. I suggested that they find
out which newspapers, magazines and TV and radio programs their buyers
read, watch or listen to, as these might prove prime advertising vehicles.
Once ads are running in many places, you can also ask customers which media
outlet persuaded them to come into the store, although many buyers don't
remember this information.

The mail-order operation had little knowledge of the income or the
educational level of its purchasers, since orders so far had come in
through the anonymity of the Internet. However, it was relatively simple
for them to send a follow-up questionnaire by e-mail, which asked a buyer's
age, educational background, employment status (employed or self-employed),
income bracket and profession. The brief questionnaire also asked how
satisfied they were with their purchase, generating glowing testimonials
along with a few complaints. Questionnaire answers would help this business
intelligently choose where to advertise.

To the clothing store, I suggested marketing strategies besides advertising
for cloning its best customers. Since many store regulars were involved
with charitable organizations, the store could let buyers know, through a
postcard to its mailing list or a flyer slipped in with purchases, that it
might produce a fashion show to benefit their favorite charity. Most
likely, customers' dearest non-profit organization appealed to others who
would also be attracted to the boutique's distinctive style of clothing.

Since many patrons had creative hobbies, like painting, music, weaving or
writing, it made sense to appeal to others who spent spare time on the
arts. I suggested selecting a different customer's creative work to feature
in the store every month. I envisioned a display of one woman's pottery or
poetry, with a color photo of her wearing the store's clothing. Surely the
woman in the spotlight would bring in friends like herself and patrons
would urge their creative women friends to apply for the honor.

Scientists say human cloning isn't quite on the horizon, but in marketing
cloning techniques like these already produce new customers!