Target Audience: The strongest target group most likely to purchase this book is professionals who have gone the route of self-employment or are charged with the responsibility of client acquisition by their present employer.

Secondary Audience: Due to changes in the economic climate principals, partners, directors and associates in the tier-one and tier-two firms now have greater obligations placed upon them regarding marketing, attracting clients, developing new business, and creating significant opportunities for their organisations. It is a “must read” for any aggressive corporate individual who wants to climb the hierarchical stairs in any service organisation because, while any trained professional can do the work for the clients, it’s the partners and future partners who actually bring the clients into the firm.

Tertiary Audience: University and higher education undergraduates who are studying any of the professions also must read this book. In March of 2011, ABC-Radio National aired a segment where an interview with a self-employed physiotherapist, a TAFE lecturer, and a business coach discussed the dilemma that nowhere in any of the curriculums for the professions are there any subjects on how to run your own business and acquire clients. Statistics were quoted during the interview that more than 70% of physiotherapists will at some time in their career attempt self-employment. The rate of failure is horrific and of great concern.

Just a few of the service areas that are identified as key targets for this book include:

1. Comprehensive background to understanding professional services marketing.

2. Complete marketing approach that is easily adaptable to any service organisation.

3. Most effective, up-to-date, proven client acquisition techniques.

4. Ideas and concepts that are easily absorbed in the organisational processes of the business.

5. Written in a style that is easy to learn and implement by non-sales or non-marketing people.

6. Negates the need for expensive and perhaps ineffective external marketing and sales consultants.

7. Enables the readers to be in control of their own destiny.

8. Features pragmatic approaches to client attraction and acquisition, which saves time on theory and places the reader at a great advantage when being self-taught and under-pressure to achieve results.

9. The strategies and tactics provided in the book are fun, immediately doable, easy to comprehend and will generate ongoing enthusiasm and commitment because they deliver success.

There comes a time when every professional has a need to identify and pursue new business. This often occurs soon after the professional has hung out a shingle and printed stationery. But surprisingly, it often occurs only after several years when a highly successful professional – by repute, networks, and original momentum – has exhausted that fuel.

One of the primary reasons for the plateaus and even the declines is that the professional has never learned to acquire business, because it has always presented itself, opportunistically. But before you can begin to chase after new business you have to determine the type of client you really want.

A poor marketing strategy will never be compensated for with great marketing tactics. Implementing the very best marketing tactics without a sound and intelligent strategy is akin to prescribing the very best antibiotic for a wrongly diagnosed disease.

In professional services, to be successful you cannot allow yourself to be pigeonholed into a market segment that is not very profitable. And, this is rife to happen when the strategy is inappropriate or worse, there is no strategy at all. By developing the most appropriate strategy you afford yourself a much better opportunity to be the best you can be, and develop substantial growth in your firm.

When you have identified the most appropriate client-demographic to support your business strategy, you need to ascertain your market niche. Why is this important? Because it determines your fee levels. Your niche is governed by the type of service you provide and where you provide it. You can then increase revenues by expanding your geographical reach, finding additional niches, and/or providing additional services to an existing niche. Dominating your niche and keeping the competition at bay is the ultimate goal.

Thought-leadership is key not only for acquiring clients but also in attracting higher fee levels for your services than might otherwise be possible. If you do not blow your own horn there is no music. Thought-leadership is a subtle, but highly effective way to have your horn tooted for you through endorsements and substantiation. This allows prospective clients to perceive your credibility and feel comfortable in paying you a premium for your services.

Most professionals don’t stop “selling” long enough to really make a sale. Selling professional services is not like selling computers (where people want the best price) or fast food (where people want the quickest service). Quality professional service providers should compare themselves more to a brain surgeon, where people don’t care about the price or the wait. The patient just wants the best brain surgeon available, because the quality of the service has life-and-death implications.

We all tend to dance with the person who brought us to the party. That’s why so many people become specialists with no real intent to do so. We solicit clients along the path of least resistance. If we acquire a couple of car dealers as clients and can use their referrals and our experiences to get more, we suddenly become auto distribution experts and consciously or unconsciously focus our marketing efforts in that area.

Of equal importance, there are many ways a skilled professional can achieve a leading market position and make it difficult for the competition to move in on your market niche. It takes discipline, thought and effort but with a carefully planned process, you can dominate your “turf” whilst expanding your own reach.

In every single transaction with a prospect, some sale is going to be made. The only question is whether you will convince the prospect that you can help him or her, or the prospect will convince you that you cannot. Do you see the sales process as adversarial, requiring the conquest of an opposing position? Or do you see it as supportive and helping, assisting the prospect in improving his or her condition? The truth is that if you revel in adversarial relationships go into wrestling or kickboxing. The client and the professional are not on different sides.

Professionals should meet a new prospect with the philosophy and expressed attitude of finding the fastest and most effective method of helping that prospect. This helps build your esteem and repute in the eyes of the client and affords you every opportunity to ensure repeat business, recommendations and referrals. To guarantee this happens you need to think of the fifth sale first. The roots of your major clients will invariably come from just a relatively few sources. Any truly new business from new sources should then always be treated as long-term business and not as a short-term project.

The king is usually surrounded by a court. Sometimes you can simply walk the red carpet and engage the king, and sometimes you must charm the lords and ladies in waiting. The key to your success in getting clients is your ability to communicate persuasively. They have to understand the value of what you have to offer with the same intensity that you do.

Chapter 9: Rules for Results in Relationships and Proposals

A common mistake in marketing and selling professional services is the failure to build the proper peer-level relationship and using the proposal as an exploration of whether you will be doing business together, rather than a summation of how you will be doing business together given the level of agreement previously reached around the objectives for the client.

This stage in essence is the easy part if all the other building blocks have been implemented correctly and effectively. Of course, speed bumps can still be just around the bend. To ensure the journey is smooth, you engage the prospective client to help you write the proposal. This guarantees there are no surprises for the client and that they are in agreement with the premise of your submission for professional engagement. Furthermore, the client, as the co-creator of the proposal, is far more inclined to buy into the project.

When selling a service it is common for clients to attempt to negotiate your fees heavily, playing your competition against you for the best price. Nobody wins at this kind of game and you need to avoid it completely. You must build value in your business by building the most appropriate client list. By selectively choosing who you will, and who you will not take on as clients, you strengthen the value and longevity of your firm. By constantly assessing the worth to your business of your clients, you protect yourself from the vagaries of clients who will not respect you or the value you deliver.

SUMMARY

My most recent book Successful Business Writing Templates (see below) was released in August 2012 and has already been a successful and much talked about publication in Australian business circles. My goal is to position the Marketing Whirlpool book to do the same, only globally and through a mainstream business publisher. I'm seeking your help in two ways:

1) To become a backer and make a pledge.

2) To help us make this Pozible pledge project successful by helping us promote it as widely as possible and make it go viral. Please tell everyone you know about this Pozible project and ask them to support it also. Let's not just hit the minimum but reach the $40,000 to take it to the mainstream publishing houses and position Australian business authors as global thought leaders.