Pt 2

A Breakthrough in Marketing

When we think of marketing, we usually imagine things like branding, advertising, distribution channels, market segmentation and packaging. Some of these concepts apply to professional service business marketing, but the process is really quite different. The difference is in relationships. In product marketing the relationship is with a thing. In professional service business marketing, the relationship is with a person. Big difference!

Relationships with things are much less complex than relationships with people. I have a relationship with products such as Diet Coke, Suave Shampoo, Gillette Razors and Macintosh computers, amongst others. But I have a very different relationship with my dentist, my business coach and my financial planner. What they offer is more complex and more expensive than almost any day-to-day product I consume. 

Even with products, it takes a certain marketing effort to get me to give that product a try. It might be an advertisement, a store display or a recommendation from a friend. But buying professional services is much scarier. You are putting yourself into the hands of someone who knows more than you do; how their service actually works is often a mystery. They provide a service, offer advice, implement projects and then charge shockingly high fees. 

As a result, most people end up hiring a professional service provider as a result of a recommendation from a friend or close associate. But when you are new to your profession or trying to grow your client base, referrals often don’t come in quickly enough. And when you turn to marketing to attract clients more quickly, it becomes all too obvious that most marketing approaches are not appropriate for professional service businesses. Not only that, there are so many things you could do, it can be confusing where to start and where to invest the time and money wisely to get a good return for your marketing efforts.  

What this program is about is creating a breakthrough in your marketing. And what I mean by a “breakthrough” is taking your business to a whole new level, a level that many of you can't even imagine.

A breakthrough is not necessarily about doing to begin with, because in this program you'll be learning things and understanding things, but my promise to you is that you'll have a breakthrough in your ability to attract clients, and that means you'll have insights, ideas, and realizations that will make it such that when you go back to your business, in many areas, it will never be the same.

When people ask you, "What do you do?" you’ll never be able to answer in the same way, or at least you'll realize how you answer now is absolutely useless. You'll go, "Oh, I realize, I just absolutely didn't do what Robert said.” At least that's an opening to try to change it. You'll learn these kind of distinctions in this program.

You'll have breakthroughs in one or more of these seven areas. And the seven areas, or seven principles of this program are: 

Number one, the game of marketing. You'll see marketing as a game that you can play to win that actually has rules and structures that work. Virtually nobody sees marketing as a game. Nobody's playing it as a game. It's no wonder marketing is a struggle. So, you're going to learn the game of marketing.

Number two, the mindset of marketing. You're going to switch the whole way that you look at marketing, think about marketing and feel about marketing. And this is all in the first two sessions of the program.

Number three, the language of marketing. The language of marketing is how you speak about what you do, so you get attention and interest. You know, sometimes when you talk about what you do, people could care less. Have you ever noticed that? Well, you're going to learn the language, the actual language so that when you speak about your business, more people will pay attention. In this part, you’ll also create a unique marketing message for your business.

Number four, marketing and selling conversations. You’ll learn what to say, how to say it and when to say it when communicating with a prospect of your services that will move them closer to being a client. 

Number five, marketing materials. You'll have a formula for creating written marketing materials that you'll be able to apply to anything you ever write, ever in your business again. You'll have a formula. Do you have a formula now? I didn’t think so! Just in understanding that you'll have a breakthrough.

Number six, marketing strategies. We're going to have you look at and understand how to choose marketing strategies that will actually work for you based on the Marketing Ball model or the game of marketing. 

Number seven, marketing action plans. And finally, you'll learn a planning process: A very simple but powerful planning process that will show you and help you step-by-step to plan and implement your marketing.

So, if you got one or two or three of those do you think you'd have a breakthrough? The way to engage with this program is with the intention to have a breakthrough (or many breakthroughs). In most programs we’re just looking for a few tips, but I don’t think that’s good enough. Sure, you’ll get some tips along the way, but the program is about understanding these seven principles very, very deeply and then applying them to your business. 

The Fast Track Do It Sections

Let me tell you a little bit about how the program is organized. There's a lot of written and audio material, primarily in the "Learn It" sections of the tutorial. But the most important thing about the program are the exercises. Once you've read and listened to the material in the Learn It sections, you'll click on the "Do It" section for that module. In the Do It sections you'll fill out forms and do exercises that are absolutely essential for grasping the material in the Fast Track Program. 

Once you do an exercise, you'll save it and then you can always come back and access it, or edit it. You can also print out the exercises and place them in a folder or binder. I really encourage you to do all the exercises in the Do It sections. Again, they are the key to success in this program. 

After you've completed the exercises, you can click on the the "Track It" tab and check off what you've done. Finally, you can click on the "Comments" tab and enter notes, comments, ideas, questions, insights, as in a blog. You'll see both your notes and notes of others who have completed this section. 

I'm going to do my best not to give you information overload. Each of the ideas in each of the modules is extraordinarily simple. Nevertheless, like anything else, they can take some time to really understand and implement. If you persist with studying and doing the exercises, you'll emerge with a real grasp of how to attract more clients to your business. 

Before we get started with the Fast Track program, I’d like you to take a few minutes to do the following pre-work in the Do It section on your Expectations and Intentions.

Expectations and Intentions