Archives for September, 2009

The Value of Making Mistakes — And Owning Up to Them

I sent out my newsletter this week with two major typos — one of which was in the email subject line.

When someone called me to tell me about it, I was mortified. UGH.

Another good friend, Debra Helwig (who writes a FABULOUS blog), also called to nicely point out my typos, and as we talked about our other numerous errors in the past, Debra said, “Typos are like spinach on your teeth: Only your good friends will point it out.” Indeed!

I immediately sent out a “Typo Mea Culpa” email that said yes, my newsletter had two huge typos and explained how it had happened (bad habit: I edit while proofing). I also included this wonderful quote from Ben Franklin:

Whoever accustoms himself to pass over in silence the faults of his neighbors shall meet with much better quarter from the world when he happens to fall into a mistake himself.

I then went about my work . . . and continued to silently kick myself for being less than perfect (which I really do think is a woman-only thing).

But a funny thing happened after sending my “mea culpa.”

I started receiving wonderful emails from people telling me about their own typo mishaps. And even better, people that I didn’t even know except as names on my subscriber list told me they loved my content, that I have helped them with my own hard-earned advice, and to keep the newsletter coming.

Wow! The emails, and the sentiments they contained, brought tears to my eyes.

I started The Profitable Consultant because I wanted to help people like me. I know what it’s like to have to get up every morning and confront the fact that as an independent consultant, you’re responsible for bringing in the dough — which means you have to get out there and market yourself.

And for many people, marketing one’s self is just plain hard (even for me — and I’m a marketer!).

I’ve learned quite a bit being in business for myself for 11 years now — and I want to share what I’ve learned with others. If I can help people bring in more business and find marketing fun, then I’ve done my job.

So, the moral of my typo story is this: Don’t be afraid to try new things. If you make a mistake, own up to it and carry on. As the saying goes, the mistake isn’t in making a mistake. The mistake is in not trying something new.

And, to avoid typos in your own work, download my free typo report, “12 Tips for Avoiding Expensive (and Embarrassing) Typos.” Obviously I need to re-read it. D’oh!

From Liability to Asset: Make Your Website Work for You

Do you know your average sale per customer? This is your yearly revenue divided by your total number of customers. For discussion purposes, let’s say your average sale per customer is $7,500 (or $150,000 divided by 20 clients).

Your Website, if it’s an asset, should bring in at least this much in leads and/or sales each month. If it’s a liability, you’re losing this much — and more — in potential sales month after month.

If you doubt me, consider this: in the last 60 days, I quoted projects for six new clients and have closed on four of them — with a verbal pending for one of the projects.

Of these new clients, three found me via the Web (aka: search) and three came from referrals. More important, all of these new clients indicated that it was my Website that helped educate them regarding my expertise and how I would benefit them.

When I look at one-person consultant sites, however, I don’t see Websites that seek to educate potential customers. Instead, I see brochureware sites that don’t give potential clients any idea of why they should do business with the consultant.

In his best selling book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki (@theRealKiyosaki) defines what is an “asset” and what is a “liability.”

Simply put, an asset is something that brings in money: stocks, bonds, real estate investments. A liability is something that costs you money: your car, your principal residence, etc.

For many consultants, the Website isn’t the asset it should be — meaning, it brings in leads which turn into sales (income) — and instead is a liability as in, it loses the consultant sales.

Here, then, are my six strategies for turning your Website from a liability to an asset — one that brings in leads that become sales.

1. Optimize, optimize, optimize — If you remember one piece of advice from this article, make sure it’s this one. Potential customers cannot find your site when searching if it’s not optimized for search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is something you can do yourself, but it does have a learning curve and it does take time. Consider hiring an independent SEO consultant who can help you with optimization — and who can recommend strategies for increasing traffic to your site.

2. Kill the “brochureware” excuse — Most consultant sites I see have five pages: Home, About Us, Services, Contact Us, and maybe a Resources page. And even worse, consultants will say, “My site is my brochure.”

And that is why these types of sites are b-o-r-i-n-g and do nothing to increase sales. Think about it, when was the last time you got excited by a brochure?

3. Explain what you do in plain English — One of the first questions I find myself asking when viewing independent consultant Websites is, “Ummmm . . . so what exactly do you do?”

To combat this, try this exercise: write down what you do in seven words or less.

When I first did this exercise, my “mission statement” was: “I help businesses achieve their marketing objectives through results-based marketing communications and copywriting.” Whew!

After some judicious editing, I’ve got it down to: “I help businesses achieve their objectives with results-based marketing.” Better — but I’m still working on expressing this even more succinctly.

4. Become a content creator — I’m sorry to say this, but if you want your site to bring in traffic and you want it to help sell your services, you have to create content — lots of it, including: reports, surveys, white papers, case studies, tools, articles, e-books, and information pages.

5. Learn to love marketing — For many of the consultants I talk to, marketing is a dirty word. According to Kiyosaki in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, however, those who have a thorough understanding of marketing and sales are those who realize their goals and achieve success — no matter what they do for a living.

To increase your marketing knowledge, read books, listen to tapes, and attend marketing functions. I must receive half a dozen invitations to professional meetings, Webinars and the like each month — and all are geared toward helping me become a better marketer. I attend what I can and constantly read newsletters, articles, blogs, magazines, and books.

6. Embrace social media — We’re living history even as I write. Our culture is undergoing profound change — and how we communicate has changed forever.

This means that if you’ve ignored social media because it’s a “fad” or a waste of time, you’re doing yourself, your business, and your Website a serious disservice. With social media you can easily drive traffic to your site, communicate your expertise, and set yourself up as a thought-leader with minimal effort and expense.

Do you have a success story about how you improved your Website so that it brings in leads and sales? Feel free to share it here.

Can a Clean Car Increase Sales?

If you have kids, you know how trashy your car can get. During the school year my car fills up with my son’s old homework, dead pens, art projects, and snack wrappers.

Over the winter the floor mats become crusted with sand (put down on ice-covered sidewalks and parking lots). Dog nose prints cover the back side windows and the windshield becomes “foggy,” reducing visibility.

When you’re busy and juggling work, kids, and volunteer duties, it’s easy to not see the mess. And truthfully, spending a weekend day “detailing” the car isn’t on the list of priorities.

However, after listening to Alan Weiss give suggestions in his teleclass for moving from “panic to profitability,” I decided to take his advice. Namely, I washed my car. (I did many of the other things he suggested, too, but you’ll have to listen to his teleconference yourself.)

Not only did I wash my car, I vacuumed it out — including the trunk and under the seats. I cleaned the foggy windows and sticky cup-holder, and threw away a ton of trash. I even bought new tires.

What a difference. Suddenly, my five-year old car, which had been looking a little ragged around the edges, sparkled again. I drove it around, enjoying the clean and crumb-free interior. What a nice ride!

A few days after I cleaned it out, I ended up driving one of my clients to lunch. Now how cool was it that I didn’t have to apologize for a messy interior?

The clean car lead to some other changes . . . I started dressing a little better for work. I took Alan’s advice and bought a nice pen to bring with me to client meetings. I traded my beat up 10-year old portfolio that holds my notepad and business cards for a high-end leather one.

And, instead of reading the gloom and doom newspaper at breakfast and lunch, I started reading books about positive mental attitude.

These changes, although small, improved my attitude. I felt *good.*

And here is the crux of the matter. Although sales didn’t magically increase over night, the phone did start to ring again. Each day something good happened until one day I was just as swamped as I had been before the financial meltdown / recession hit.

The reason for the turn-around is this: Your conscious affects your sub-conscious. If you drive around in a messy car or show up at a client’s with frayed cuffs or worn heels, these “little” things affect your attitude — without you realizing it.

Change these things . . . and you change your attitude. Change your attitude . . . and you change your outcomes.

So here’s my advice: go wash your car. Really spend some time on it — make it so clean that you can drive your best client around in it.

Once it’s clean, put on your best suit and take yourself out to lunch at a nice restaurant. While you’re there, read a book such as What It Takes to Be #1 by Vince Lombardi, Jr. or Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by W. Clement Stone and Napoleon Hill.

Take notes on what you can do to improve your attitude — now, today, tomorrow.

You’ll come away feeling 100 percent better — and you’ll be open to all the opportunity that exists out there in the world.

Do you have a story for how you’ve weathered the recession? Be sure to post it in the comments below!

Simple Tips for Tracking How Customers Find You

I received a call one day from a prospect that began, “My Website isn’t working. I’m not getting any calls from it.”

After talking with him for a few minutes, I learned that he really didn’t know if his Website was working or not because he wasn’t keeping track of how prospective clients found him.

Keeping track of inquiries is important for two reasons: One, it lets you see if your various marketing tactics are working and two, it eliminates guesswork.
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Focus on Your Customers’ Business Objectives for Long-term Success

A few months ago, the owner of a small company called to see if I would give him a price for writing articles for trade publications.

“Why do you want articles for trade publications?” I asked. After talking with him for a few minutes, I learned that the company had always relied on word-of-mouth to generate leads, that they hadn’t done any advertising (ever), and that sales were down.

The owner, not knowing that much about marketing, just assumed that writing articles for trade publications would get him the exposure, and the leads, that he wanted.

We ended up having a couple more conversations and based on these, I was able to provide a quote for services.
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