Mel,
Once I was coaching a business consultant who was sick of puking his guts out on the "feast-or-famine" client rollercoaster.
The service he was selling was quite sophisticated. He'd parachute into your biz, identify the bottlenecks that were squeezing your profits, and show you how to fix them.
He had no trouble getting prospects to **talk** to him.
They were happy to get on the horn and pick his brain for as long as he'd let 'em.
And then they'd disappear without paying a dime.
His back was against the wall now—he had to make this work, and he was scared.
How do you troubleshoot when you find yourself in this position?
Here's what I told him:
Marketing campaigns succeed because what you assume to be true about your audience is true (i.e. what they want, what they fear, how they need to be talked to) and marketing campaigns fail because what you assume to be true about your audience isn't true.
In this case it has little to do with your formula for analyzing sales and all that stuff once you start working with a client, it has everything to do with hitting their felt needs, their emotions about what they're doing, and making a promise they believe and are willing to act on.
So the first question is, what are you assuming to be true that isn't?
When you're getting phone calls and interest that means you're close to the sweet spot. But you're not getting the orders because he's not making a promise they believe and are willing to act on.
Often the missing piece is one or more of the following:
1) You're talking to someone who can say no, but can't say yes. That happens a LOT; it sure happened to me. You gotta talk to the guy who writes the checks. Make sure your intake form has a blank to answer this question.
2) You're not getting to a vivid, ugly, bottom line reality of how expensive their problem is.
A conversation about a potential consulting opportunity will meander aimlessly until you can clutch this problem solidly in your fingers. Imagine getting your hands around the heart of the problem so you can feel it beating in your fingers.
The very first consulting gig I landed, the one that came 19 days out of the Dilbert Cube, came because I found this.
I flew to Arkansas and met with the president of the company. We talked about all kinds of stuff—his products, his new product plans, how his company was structured, all the people that worked for him.
We were going nowhere until we started talking about how much it cost him, and how much effort he had to expend, to get a new customer. Turns out he would fly all over the country, talk to all kinds of people, make enthusiastic presentations, and all told a new customer cost about $50,000.
Until we got to that number, and I heard it from the horse's mouth, nothing was going to happen.
After we got to that number, the problem was defined. We had agreement that this problem needed to be solved.
3) You have to prove that you can solve it for less than it costs—that the solution is less painful than the problem.
In the case of my client in Arkansas, he had a $50,000 cost per customer acquisition and I told him I could get that down to $15,000.
He agreed to a 2-month, $15,000 assignment because all I had to do was help him get one customer, for less than $50,000, and I'd pay for myself.
He knew from my previous track record that I had the marketing skills, there was little doubt about that.
Had I been an "unknown" then my job at that point would be to prove that I could do this.
Prove beyond reasonable doubt that you cost a lot less than the problem—that is your challenge, that is your job.
These steps are ALL mandatory. Leave one out and you'll chase your tail while your bank account dwindles.
Nail all three, and getting new business is a slam dunk.
Carpe Diem,
Perry Marshall
P.S. Another "must-do" item for all Planet Perry consultants:
Fill out your profile on Marketers 24/7 and put up an offer.
Marketers 24/7 is a fast-growing community of savvy entrepreneurs and marketers. Even if they don't need your particular service, chances are they know someone who does.
Climb aboard here.
***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:
support@perrymarshall.com
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