The Profitable Consultant: Starting, Growing, and Selling Your Expertise

6

Seek Only to Give—Marketing That Actually Works

Effective Marketing

Here's where the real fun begins. I'll admit that so far I've covered what some might consider the mundane, or beginner, aspects of building a profitable practice. Granted that without the things you've just learned your practice will be in jeopardy, but they are still rather, shall we say, fundamental.

We're about to enter into some seriously different topics, ones that run counter to much of the conventional wisdom. For the rest of this book I'm going to cover sales and marketing in ways you've probably never considered before. These approaches may be surprising at first or completely different from what you thought you should do. Get ready to let go of any outdated beliefs you may hold about how consultants grow their practices, and get ready to do some real work!

By now you've built your practice, you know who you want to sell what to, and for how much. Now you just have to kick off a marketing program that actually works. Since aggressive marketing tactics aren't very well accepted in this industry, you need to think more like the physicians or attorneys you know when it comes to marketing and business development. To understand how to market, you need to first understand what type of marketing you need.

Education-Based Marketing

There are really only two broad categories of marketing: sales-based marketing, in which you take on the role of a salesperson and deliver a sales message, and education-based ...