Marketing Ball:  

Why marketing is a lot like baseball and how this can help you attract more clients

by Robert Middleton

You're not attracting enough clients to your business for a very simple reason. You're not doing the right things.

Not only are you not doing the rights things, you actually think you know the right things you ought to be doing. You most likely think you should be doing more networking, have a better web site, and do more speaking engagements. You think you need to "get out there more."

But those are not the right things. After all, you've tried all of those things to some degree, haven't you? If they really worked, how come you're not doing them consistently? If they worked they would bring you all the new business you needed. Right?

No, doing the right things first means understanding how the marketing and sales process actually works and then following a proven system for attracting new clients. Perhaps one of the best ways to look at this is through the game of baseball.

To win at baseball you need to do a lot of things. You need to throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball and run. Pretty simple, right? But consider this: I can take a bunch of people and put them on a baseball field and have them throw and hit and catch and run and you don't necessarily have a baseball game going on. You just have a lot of activity that leads nowhere. You get some exercise but that's about it.

And that's how most Independent Professionals approach marketing! They get on the field of business and do some networking and calling and mailing but not a whole lot happens. They certainly aren't playing the marketing game. Because if they were, they would be attracting more clients than they could handle. In baseball you'd never settle for those kind of results. Why would you settle for it in something that's responsible for your livelihood?

Now interestingly, baseball is not only a good analogy to marketing your professional services, it's an excellent model to use. If you want to win at "marketing ball" you need few things:

1. Knowledge of how the game is structured and what the rules are.

2. The skills to play the game.

3. An organized plan to play and win.

 

1. The Structure and Rules of the Game

Click here for a more detailed model

The object is to start from Home Base where you don't have a client, go all around the bases and then get back to home again where you have secured a new client. The number one rule in baseball and also in "Marketing Ball" is that you have to touch each and every base before you get to home plate. If you miss a base you're out of the game. Here are the steps:

Home Plate Objective - You have identified your Core Marketing Message and what game you're going to play.

You can't play marketing Ball until you are crystal clear about what you are selling and who you are selling to. This sets the foundation for everything else that follows. Who are your ideal clients? What problems or issues are they facing? What results are they looking for? And what is it about your service or approach that is going to interest them and make them remember you?

Once you're up at home plate you then need to pick your game. To go around the bases you can use several vehicles. You can use networking, speaking, publishing, direct outreach or a number of others. Which game you play determines the moves you will make on the playing field. And the great thing about marketing ball is that you can play many games at once. The more you play, the more clients you can attract.

First Base Objective - The prospect knows you exist. You have their attention and interest and they want to know more.

To get from Home Plate to First Base you need to get the attention of your prospective client. You do this through effectively communicating an attention-getting message. This generates interest so they want to know more. It all comes down to what you say when people ask you what you do or what headline is on the letter or brochure you send or what title you use for the talk you give. Words matter here.

The key to generating interest is focusing on results, not process, benefits, not features, stories, not concepts. Tell people what they'll get, not what you'll do. One of the things you're doing wrong is talking about YOU. You need to start talking more about THEM.

Second Base Objective - The prospect sees you as a possible help and has identified both a need and a want that you just might be able to fulfill. At this point they are ready to explore working together.

To get from First Base to Second Base you need to give them more information, in the form of an article or report or other valuable ideas that educate them about your thinking, capabilities and results. You want to build a case for your solution. Many miss this step altogether. The purpose of this information is to warm up your prospect so that they will be willing to meet with you and discuss their needs.

Realize that it sometimes take a LOT of information to move from first base to second base. That's why marketing isn't about one-shot deals but about building long-term visibility and value. Keep-in-touch marketing strategies such as newsletters, eZines and invitations to presentations will keep the information flowing. Sooner or later you'll get to second base.

Third Base Objective - You have agreed in principle that working together is the right thing to do. The conceptual sales has been made. Now you're ready to finalize the deal.

Getting from Second Base to Third Base is the whole "selling conversation." This is where you talk to the prospect and determine needs. You explain more about what you do. Your present ideas and solutions. You work at coming to a conceptual agreement about how you can help your prospect.

Ideally, marketers are never trying to convince prospects to do business with them. Instead they are in effect saying to the prospect, "You already understand the value of my services, now lets discuss if these services are right for you or not." Smart marketers are able to do this because they've built up trust through the information they've provided. Nobody wants to discuss business with a complete stranger with a great idea. This is why so many get tagged out early in the game.

Home Plate Objective [$core] - You have a win-win contract or agreement and are ready to move to implementation.

Getting from Third Base to Home Plate involves negotiation and wrapping up the deal. You're not complete until you've put together a proposal and gotten agreement from your prospect that you will proceed with the work.

The key here is to structure a win-win agreement that will ensure that the expectations of the client are met while getting them to take responsibility for the success of the project. How to do this will be covered in chapter eleven.

And of course, the more times you get around to home plate successfully, the more success you have in your business.

Dugout Objective - You have performed in such a way for the client that they refer a continuous stream of new clients to you.

After you round the bases to home you go back to the dugout. In our analogy, the dugout is where you take care of your client. Performing for the client means all the big things like doing a great job and adhering to the highest standards of excellence and integrity. It also means paying attention to the little things like returning calls, staying in communication and handling problems immediately.

The work you do in the dugout is often the most important marketing step of all. If you don't meet or exceed client expectations your business will never gain the momentum that comes from word-of-mouth referrals.

This model can be used whether you're marketing your consulting or speaking services to a multinational corporation or marketing your coaching services to a one-person business owner. The point is to know which base you're on and to do the activities appropriate to that stage in the marketing and sales process.

A lot of people tend to skip bases. For instance, you want to go directly from home to second base. You leave out the information base. This is what a lot of cold callers try to do, or those who meet someone in a networking session. They want to get right to the appointment and to the selling conversation.

Usually a big mistake. You may have their attention, but you don't yet have their trust. By providing more information you warm up the prospect. You prove that you're credible and successful. If you try to hurry and get to second base too quickly you'll get put out of the game before you know what's hit you.

Once at first base people then try to get to third base too soon. This is skipping the sales process altogether and jumping to the proposal or the close. It's all happened to us. Before we have time to really warm up to what is being offered, the close comes on strong and we get turned off. Again, you need to be patient, listen to your prospect's needs, give them more information and move naturally to the proposal or close.

Finally, many try to get to home base from second base. This means they skip the proposal or close. The purpose of this stage is to confirm understanding, work out the fine details and handle any final objections. And you need to go at a pace that works for the prospect. Sometimes the marketing and sales cycle is longer than we like, but if you try to push it too fast, you'll be tagged out once again.

Of course, once you get to home base, you've arrived at a solid agreement to work with your client. Now the work begins of performing well for that client.

You need to be patient to make this process work. Don't skip ahead or you'll end up out of the running when you're playing on the real field of marketing and selling your services.

Now you know the basic structure of the game. Like baseball, you can learn it in a few minutes but it can take a lifetime to master. Essentially what you need is the know-how to get from one base to the next as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

There's a fair amount of things to know and there are a lot of pitfalls and mistakes you can make along the way. For instance, did you know:

That speaking about your services in terms of a problem is more powerful than speaking in terms of a solution...

That long copy in marketing materials works a lot better than short bullet-pointed copy...

People may still be interested in your services even if they don't return your phone calls...

When talking on the phone with a prospective client you should spend more time trying to "reject" them than convincing them...

The very last thing you should do is develop a proposal - but when you do it should hardly tell anything about what you actually do...

You need to know how to talk about your services, write about your services, turn interest into appointments and appointments into contracts. Every one of these skills consists of dozens of tiny details and, as you know, the devil is in the details. Get something wrong and you're out.

But if you really know how to play the game you can have several games going at once. If you don't have the skills to play, you'll just be running and throwing and hitting with few results to show and lot of energy expended. You'll get frustrated and you'll probably quit, going back to relying on referrals from satisfied clients. And as you know, this is rarely enough for a viable, thriving business.

So how do you get the marketing know-how? Information and practice (with a dose of trial and error.) The information is readily available. The implementation and practice are up to you. Nobody is going to do it for you. There are no designated hitters in the game of marketing your Independent Professional business.

However you can shorten the trial and error considerably if you have detailed, how-to, hands-on information that comes from experience. You can avoid costly mistakes and take the right steps the first time.

Like baseball or any other game, you need to have a plan to win. Winning doesn't come by accident.

• First you need to get reliable, solid and proven information that shows you how to play the game.

• Next you need to develop a strategy to gain those marketing skills. You might do this yourself or get a coach.

• Finally, you need to plot out your various marketing activities and start implementing them one by one.

Sounds simple, and it really is, but it will take a certain amount of time, effort and commitment on your part. It may be daunting, but if you don't take action, you'll be in exactly the same place you are now a year from now. You need to start somewhere, but where?

This article is by Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Robert's web site is a comprehensive resource on marketing for Independent Professionals. For free marketing resources and valuable marketing tools visit http://www.actionplan.com