What Is A Brand? And Why Consultants Need One

Michael Zipursky | February 18, 2013 | 9 Comments

Personal-Branding-Consultants

You may not be Jay-Z, Taylor Swift or Tom Hanks…but you do have a brand.

According to Dan Schawbel, “each and every one of us is a brand…as a brand, we can leverage the same strategies that make these celebrities or corporate brands appeal to others. We can build brand equity just like them.”

You can position your business in the marketplace so that you are perceived as the best and logical choice.

First it’s important that you understand what a brand is.

Next I’m going to offer you a 4 part strategy to create an effective brand positioning in your marketplace.

What Is a Brand?

You will find thousands of definitions on what a brand really is. I like Seth Godin’s. He calls brand “a set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

A logo, typeface, colors, and uniforms are all part of a brand, but they themselves are not a ‘brand’. They may support your brand but they aren’t the key to your brand.

Here’s another way to think about this: Your business or personal brand is everything you do and say that forms how people perceive you. What’s important here is the “how people perceive you” part.

Because in fact, you can, by taking specific actions and steps influence how people view you.

Applied to consulting, by creating an effective brand strategy for yourself and your business, you can position your business in the marketplace so that you are perceived as the best and logical choice. CONTINUE READING »

One-to-One Marketing for Consultants – The List

Bob McCarthy | February 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

building-your-consulting-list

The second in a series of five articles on one-to-one marketing. Here is a link to the first one “One-to-One Marketing for Consultants – 4 Steps“

Everyone has a list these days. Thanks largely to the growth of email, more and more companies of all sizes are discovering the power of staying connected with their target audiences.

As a first step, before you start searching for lists, you need to know who or what you’re looking for.

You probably already have a list of your own. It may not be organized in any meaningful way, but it’s a list of your clients, maybe your past clients, prospective clients and inquiries.

We call it your House List.

Your House List is one of your most important assets. That’s because everyone on your House List has had some type of relationship with you. That alone makes them highly valuable – and potentially much more responsive than any list you might buy or rent.

Of course, your House List is only part of the equation – and a small part of this article – because what you probably want to know more about is finding new people … new prospects … new sales leads.

Defining your audience

As a first step, before you start searching for lists, you need to know who or what you’re looking for.

You need to define your audience by developing an audience profile. CONTINUE READING »

Get More Consulting Clients Using Partnerships: Interview with Aarni Heiskanen

Michael Zipursky | February 11, 2013 | 2 Comments

Raw Transcript of Interview

MICHAEL: Welcome everyone to the Business Consulting Buzz Consulting Interviews. Today we have with us Aarni Heiskanen, a management consultant and internet entrepreneur that works with government and top companies in Europe.

Aarni, every time we talk I hear more exciting news about your business. So tell us more about your specialization and what kind of work you’re involved in most recently. CONTINUE READING »

One-to-One Marketing for Consultants – 4 Steps

Bob McCarthy | February 7, 2013 | 4 Comments

1-on-1-marketing-for-consultants

The first in a series of five articles on one-to-one marketing.

Consultants are understandably skittish about marketing – especially overt methods of marketing.

Having to reach out and actually sell was never part of the plan.

The vast majority of consultants don’t have prospective clients knocking on their doors – and they can’t afford to wait.

As consultants, we would much rather have prospects call us and seek us out.  Our dream was to have a steady flow of serious prospects knocking on our doors with cash in hand.

Some consultants are able to realize this goal, at least in part, by building their reputations through speaking and writing.  By speaking at industry events, writing articles for industry publications and blogs, authoring books in their field and being quoted in the media, these consultants are well known within their fields and often do have prospects waiting to hire them.

But unfortunately, they are in the minority.

The vast majority of consultants don’t have prospective clients knocking on their doors – and they can’t afford to wait.

They need to go out and find new business.  They need a marketing program that generates leads and builds relationships.  They need to sell.

Does this sound like you? CONTINUE READING »

7 Ways to Increase Your Consulting Fees

Michael Zipursky | February 4, 2013 | 6 Comments

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Increasing your consulting fees is one of the quickest and easiest ways to earn more. But it needs to be done right.

The more ‘new’ value you provide to your clients with the price increase, the less objections you’ll face.

Many consultants experience paralysis around this topic. The idea of losing customers as a result of increasing prices leaves them in a deep chill and unable to move forward and take action.

To help you increase your own consulting fees, here are 7 questions to ask yourself:

1. Is the Time Right?

Every client and industry has cycles. Periods where they are likely to be more busy and stressed. Consider what is going on in your client’s business before you come out asking for an increase in your fees. This shouldn’t stop you from moving forward however…it’s just an important consideration. Entrepreneur writes that you should “choose a time when you’ll encounter the least resistance.”

2. Are You Focusing on Value?

The most critical part of raising your prices is that your clients perceive an increase in value. The more ‘new’ value you provide to your clients with the price increase, the less objections you’ll face.

For example, you can offer a new service or product that your clients will value…and it doesn’t necessarily need to take you much (if any) more time to provide it. It could be some kind of additional reporting, maintenance, or monitoring to name a few.

I read a great study on Social Triggers by economist Richard Thaler. In the study, people were asked how much money they would give a friend to buy a beer for them if they were vacationing and sitting on the beach. In the first situation, it was explained that the place the friend was going to buy the beer from was an old run-down grocery store.

You need to clearly figure out why you’re increasing your price so that you can communicate the reason with your clients.

In the second situation, people were asked how much money they would give their friend if the friend was going to a luxury resort to buy that same beer.

The study found that on average people would give their friend 71% more money when the beer was to be bought at the luxury resort.

Now consider that this was the exact same beer. It would taste the same. The only difference was the perception of value associated with each of the places. CONTINUE READING »

What’s The ROI of Social Media for Consultants

Michael Zipursky | January 28, 2013 | 8 Comments

The big question with Social Media is “is this worth my time?”

It’s an important question to ask each and every time you weigh the options and decide where to invest your energy and resources. I will answer this question for you, but we need to address a few issues first…

When you think of Social Media as the ability to have conversations with far greater impact than ever before and in a way that allows you to create and foster a community more efficiently

Some people say “Social Media is a fad.”

The definition of a ‘fad’, according to Dictionary.com, is “an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something…that is short-lived.”

Most fads come and go.

And if you’re looking to capitalize on them you need to catch them well before they hit their peak.

If you jump on board too late in the game you will still need to put in as much effort as the person who got involved months or years before you…and yet the return you can expect is often far less.

The Numbers May Not Add Up

When you take a look at the infographic below from Pagemodo, your first reaction about the ROI of Social Media may not be a positive one. Take for example, that only “20% say social marketing is producing a measurable ROI…”

And while this study showed that “64% of business owners investing in Social Media Marketing were confident it will deliver a return” on the same page it shows that only 25% of survey respondents can attribute an increase in sales to Social Media. CONTINUE READING »

How to Focus on the Opportunity, Not the Obstacle

LaRae Quy | January 14, 2013 | 2 Comments

I grew up on a cattle ranch in a remote part of Wyoming and Dad made sure I learned how to ride a horse by the time I was six-years-old. So no one was more surprised than me when Dad brought home a couple of four-wheel ATVs a few years ago and used them, instead of horses, to check on the cattle.

Even the most prepared and effective people can find themselves facing adversity and will need to find ways of turning obstacles into opportunities for growth.

The ATV looked much easier to ride than a horse when I first saw it and I was anxious to try it out! Dad took off first and I followed. The terrain on our ranch is mountainous, however, so I soon found myself sideways on a steep hill and in danger of tipping over. Suddenly, this huge motorcycle on four wheels looked more dangerous than any horse I’d ever ridden.

To go headfirst down the steep hill and over the cliff appeared even more dangerous, so I continued to inch my way down sideways—it seemed the safer router. By now, Dad had stopped his ATV and was running toward me.

“Turn your wheels straight downhill,” he shouted. “Only by facing it head-on can you get safely down the cliff,” he said. Slowly, I turned the wheels straight down the steep embankment ahead of me, and the ATV started to move forward. I made it safely to the bottom.

Turns out that moving toward the threat was good advice from my Dad. While in new agent’s class at the FBI Academy, our instructors continually placed us in training situations where we were confronted with obstacles. For many of us, our first reaction was to either pull back or take circuitous routes around the obstacle. But the message by our instructors was this: Only by falling into the unknown would we be able to explore it. CONTINUE READING »

10 Referral Strategies to Grow Your Consulting Business

Michael Zipursky | January 7, 2013 | 11 Comments

You will have a hard time finding a service professional, or any business owner for that matter, that believes referrals are not their best source of business.

2 Benefits of Referrals

In almost every case, referrals are the least expensive source of new clients. That is, the direct cost to acquire them is low. Especially compared to other marketing methods such as print or online advertising.

What you will quickly learn is that what might seem like a small step you take today, done continuously, repeated often, will reap big rewards.

Another clear benefit of referrals is their high closing rate. When you generate a lead from an inbound or outbound marketing channel, it can often take several months if not close to a year to win the business. This all depends on where the prospective client is in the buying cycle…and whether they’re just feeling the options out or have a serious problem they need a solution to ASAP.

A referral comes with a layer of trust built into it. You haven’t touted your own horn to generate that lead. It has come to you through a trusted source. Which means that the prospective client does not feel the need to ‘get to know you’ and ‘trust you’ to the same degree a general lead would. Ultimately, this means you close the sale more quickly.

The question then, is how do you get referrals?

I will share 10 strategies to land an on-going stream of referral business. Though before I get to that, let me be clear. None of the below strategies is of value unless you have a great product or service. If you generate referrals and try to sell a mediocre, or worse, an inadequate product or service, the effort you put into generating referrals will be all for not.

The business may come in…yet it will go away just as quickly.

With that, here are 10 of the best strategies to generate referrals:

Compounding

Wouldn’t you love to get a ton of referrals and new leads overnight?! Well, here’s how to do it…wait a second. Stop the record. Just stop! That’s a load of BS. Like most things in business, the majority of referrals come from a systematic process you put in place and keep working on. Every little thing you do adds up. To see the real power of compounding, read Darren Hardy’s book, The Compound Effect. What you will quickly learn is that what might seem like a small step you take today, done continuously, repeated often, will reap big rewards. For referrals, this can mean reaching out to new people once a week, every week. Going to an event or networking meeting on a consistent basis. There is immense power in repetition. CONTINUE READING »

Wishing You All a Happy, Healthy & Successful 2013

Sam Zipursky | January 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

From all of us here at Business Consulting Buzz we wish you a Happy New Year!

We hope 2013 will be a year of even greater success filled with health and happiness for
you and your family.

We have lots planned for 2013 and look forward to helping even more consultants
reach success in their business this year.

Together, let’s all make it a great year!