Mel,
You've heard the saying, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM?"
That expression gets to the heart of the biggest obstacle many consultants face, especially when you're just starting out.
John Carlton likes to say that it's not hard to get a prospect to agree that you've got an interesting proposal for them. At that point all you've done is get them on the fence.
Knocking them off the fence can be a real challenge, and the reason why is RISK.
They want what you're offering, but they're not convinced that you can deliver.
A rock-solid guarantee can help you overcome this objection. But a better way is to head it off at the pass...
Before I hung out my shingle as a consultant, I had a standing deal with my boss Mike:
I'd earn publicity for the company by writing up articles and getting them placed in the industry trade magazines.
And Mike would pay me $500 for sparing him the agony of doing the writing himself.
This one time I go to a trade show, National Manufacturing Week. My mission is to book articles with every editor of every trade magazine that I possibly can. A trade show is a great place to do that. You show them some you've written for other editors, you ask them about your editorial calendar, and you come up with a hook that resonates with their particular audience.
Between walking the show and holding a small press conference, I booked something like 20 or 30 magazine articles with over a dozen different editors. It averaged out to two or three a month. For the remainder of the year, you could not pick up an industrial trade magazine and not find us somewhere.
Our tiny company was the mouse that roared. We were all over the place. In a few instances, we got on the front cover.
But here's a point that turned out to be pivotal for my future as a consultant:
It was MY name on most of those articles. I was the author. Which made me the expert, as far as all these magazines and editors were concerned.
I'd get phone calls from my friends: "Is this the world-famous Perry?" That was always good for a chuckle, but the fact was, in my teeny tiny corner of the world, I was becoming well known.
When I left the company to consult, that "celebrity" came with me.
And the fact that I had a tiny but legitimate amount of celebrity attached to my name (credibility would be a better word, actually) made me the SAFE BET—just like IBM.
While most job applicants and consultants are an unknown quantity, I was the "obvious expert," as they say.
Now maybe you're already a consultant and you haven't laid this groundwork yet.
Or maybe you're like I was—still toiling under the humming tubes in the corporate cube farm, and you don't have a lot of extra time.
Here's my advice:
Start NOW.
Invest just 30 minutes first thing each morning into becoming a "mouse that roars" in YOUR niche.
Is this hard work? It can be.
But the first time you meet with a prospect and see their eyes light up with recognition as they say, "Hey, it's the world famous Mel!"—
Well, trust me, you'll be hooked.
Carpe Diem,
Perry Marshall
P.S. I cover this in exhaustive, step-by-step detail in my Consulting Accelerator Blueprint.
A marketing consultant I know says this course let him skip right over the 3-5 year "Ramen noodle soup phase" that so many consultants suffer through, and land 4 and 5-figure clients right out of the chute.
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