Monthly Archives: July 2015

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Approach the Podium: How To Get Speaking Engagements

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One of the best ways for a Freelance consultant to demonstrate and validate our bona fides as an expert in our chosen field is to get in front of an audience and deliver a talk to peers and prospects. As we all know, billable hours and referrals are built on confidence and trust and we must do everything possible to encourage and sustain their growth. If you would like to get on the speaker’s circuit but have not yet done so, begin by acquiring some public speaking experience and as you do, think about topics that you can convincingly address.

I’ve been teaching since 2006 and I’ve found it to be a learning experience for me, as well as for my students. Teaching is a wonderful place to start building your public speaking resume and you will be (modestly) paid as you and your students learn.  Absolute beginners are advised to approach an adult learning center to explore opportunities to teach a workshop that you propose.

As your teaching skills become more proficient, browse the catalogues of community colleges and four-year institutions and contact department heads to inquire about teaching for a semester. BTW, the workshop that you proposed and taught at the adult learning center represents curriculum development and in the world of teaching, that is a plus. You could be asked to expand your workshop into a semester-long course.

Step up your activity in local business or social organizations that offer professional development or even current affairs programs. Attend a program or two, get to know and build relationships with the program organizers and make it known that you are able to serve on a panel that will address a subject in which you have special knowledge.

Speaking on a panel is a great way to let program organizers see you in front of an audience. Do well and you may next be invited to moderate a panel and eventually, receive an offer to be a keynote speaker. If you know of a potential speaker, moderator or panelist who program organizers may want to feature, do not hesitate to make the referral. That will be a feather in your cap and increase your value to the organizers.

Give careful consideration to the topics you can speak to and the corresponding prime audience demographics. Should you approach organizations where you are not known, it will be very important to help program organizers understand where your topics and their audience needs intersect. Create a one page document for each of your talk titles.

List the your name and company name at the top, followed by your talk title in a bold and larger font. In five or six bullet points, describe the primary content of your talk and the benefits that audiences gain by attending. It is also useful to write a 60 second pitch for the talk that you personally make to program organizers and to those who can make referrals for you. Add your talk titles and those descriptive bullet points to your website, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook pages.

If you have presented a webinar, or recorded a podcast or video, upload these to your website and social media accounts, so that program organizers can see and hear you in action. Larger organizations may request that you send in a few of your Power Point slides for review.

Speaking of Power Point, if you are fortunate enough to land a speaking gig that gets you in front of potential clients, strongly consider paying an experienced graphics specialist to customize slides for you. it is so in your interest to present high-quality slides that represent you and your brand well. While you’re at it, have your graphics person embed your photo into your “one sheet” talk info documents,  so that they can be used by you and program organizers to promote your talk.

To make your goal to obtain speaking engagements a true marketing plan, commit your proposed actions to writing and make a list of organizations where your speaking talents as keynote, moderator and panelist are best suited. Ask clients and colleagues which conferences they attend as you make your choices. Then, visit the program websites and find out about previous speakers and topics.

Finally, be aware that the vast majority of speaking engagements are considered opportunities for exposure and are unpaid, but that should not discourage you from selectively and tactfully asking for an honorarium.  If you speak in a location that is more than an hour away, or where the parking cost is large, ask if expenses related to getting you to the venue will be covered. If you must take a hotel room, ask if the program organizers will reimburse the cost.

Generally speaking, lining up teaching or speaking engagements is a long-term project, since schedules and course catalogues are determined far in advance. Consider it something useful to do when business is slow.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Six Steps To A Successful Marketing Campaign

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Numerous times I’ve advised Freelance professionals to launch a marketing campaign to promote themselves and their services. How about we touch base regarding the core components of a successful marketing campaign?

I.   Identify your target audience

Step One, you must understand who you want your campaign to reach and influence and that would be those clients and prospects who are most inclined to use your product or service. It is possible that along the way others may become interested in what you have to offer and new or niche markets can be recruited, but target market groups must have the motive and money to use your category of product or service.

Step Two, decide the channels that you will use to reach current and prospective clients. Marketing campaigns are most effective when they broadcast the message through various media: print display ads, videos, testimonials on your website, or a case study. Social media can also be part of a well-designed marketing campaign, if you can engage current and prospective clients through those platforms. The members of your target audience could be reached more than once and that is a good thing.

There is also the indirect and ongoing marketing campaign that Freelancers are advised to conduct. Providers of B2B services especially should periodically attempt to line up an appearance on a webinar, a panel, or at a conference podium as a way to enhance the value of the intangible resources that you sell, that is, your expertise and judgment. Sponsorship of a local charity is also a good choice for some. Remember to send a press release to the local newspaper to try for yet another channel. A newspaper (or online) item is more believable than a print ad, because it is perceived as unbiased.

2.  Know the competition

As you create your marketing campaign message, keep direct competitors in mind. The marketing message should promote the expertise, experience, judgment and attributes that make you superior to others with whom clients and prospects might do business. Your message should be designed to overcome current or potential objections to you and persuade those with motive and money to choose you because hiring you will make them look good.

3.  Identify the key marketing message

What do you need to make known to current and potential clients that will help them to develop the trust and confidence needed to do business with you? Refer to your knowledge of the competition and also refer to client hot buttons and address those issues clearly and convincingly.

4.  Build the brand

In the marketing message and campaign, find ways to enhance your brand, that is, your reputation. Clients do business with those they know and like; they do even more business with those they trust and respect. Building up your image, or (tactfully) bragging about your already noteworthy image is a key element of your marketing message.

5.  Create a budget

Time and money are among our greatest resources. Once you have your version of the ideal marketing plan in draft form, calculate the financial cost and a roll-out timeline. Make sure that the campaign ROI makes sense for your venture. Tie your marketing efforts to expected sales, to the best of your ability and don’t squander your resources on fruitless strategies.

6. Track performance

I’m a little bit backward in that an important step in the campaign will be mentioned last. Establishing goals and objectives for your campaign are a must-do. This process will guide you in making decisions that shape what the campaign will consist of and furthermore, will help you understand what kind of influence you can wield through marketing. Decide what you want your marketing campaign to achieve and confirm the metrics that will measure and acknowledge its success or failure.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Trends That Will Drive B2B Going Forward in 2015

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July 1 carried us into the last half of the year and we are advised to take a few moments to think about what our June 30 financial statements indicated. Are you pleased with your company’s first half performance? Is your enterprise positioned to have a profitable second half? Forbes Magazine business experts predict that as we enter the last two quarters of 2015, the following strategies will drive business.

Make selling about education

High-pressure or slippery sales techniques are out of vogue and destined to fail. Solution selling is the smart choice and consultative sales skills must be honed. Successful sales pitches are those that are delivered as a discussion of how your services or products will solve or avoid a problem for the customer. Customers will value your grasp of their situation and your expertise in describing the best solution. It’s salesperson as physician, as you diagnose and prescribe the treatment. Articulate the outcomes very well.

Marketing & sales hand in glove

Recent research done by Google showed that the average customer is more than half way through the buying decision process before seeking out a vendor. In other words, customers window shop. They spend time considering possible solutions first and then think about where those solutions can be obtained.

Micro-targeted marketing strategies are recommended to not only attract your ideal client groups, but also to weed out those who are unlikely to buy. As always, one must know the customer to understand why that individual has become a customer and know how to encourage repeat business going forward. Design marketing campaigns that define, speak to and pull in excellent prospects and avoid broad-brush marketing strategies that only entangle you into engaging with those who will waste your precious time.

Appropriately written and distributed content marketing along with traditional marketing techniques are how you persuade prospective customers to picture your products and services as credible solution possibilities. Consultative selling approaches that educate the customer as you tactfully assume the role of expert and confirm or refine the initial diagnosis of the problem, that is the client’s need. Obtain client agreement on the extent of the need and then recommend treatment options, that is the solutions, that your product or services will provide. Do that well and you will generate revenue.

Price and value

According to Forbes, there are two competing forces at play in the 2015 marketplace. The first is increased downward pricing pressure on any product or service that is perceived to be a commodity. Those products and services are price dependent and will be acquired as cheaply as possible. The only ways to succeed when selling a commodity are to sell at the lowest price or deliver very efficiently to customers, that is make it convenient to buy.

Do whatever is possible to package and present your products and services in away that conveys their value to prospective customers. Additionally, Freelance purveyors of B2B services must demonstrate their expertise in a variety of ways: content marketing, case studies, webinars that feature you, teaching assignments, appearances on panels as speaker or moderator, or publishing a book. Demonstration of expertise is the number one marketing strategy in that it creates trust, enhances your perceived value and allows you to price accordingly.

An equally effective way to demonstrate your value is through customer testimonials and referrals. When those who have used your services or products recommend you to others, it is the highest compliment. Other than a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl, nothing is as effective as a personal recommendation or testimonial.

When customers consider you to be effective, knowledgeable, dependable and trustworthy, you can then command a premium (but not over-inflated) price for your products and services. Prospective customers must be assured that you will deliver the results, in full and on schedule. They must know that when they hire you, they’ll look smart to their boss and colleagues, because you are the very best.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Dr. Freud and the Interpretation of Your Vacation

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Happy summer! Finally, that sweet season is here. Outdoor activities, gardens in full bloom, warm breezes, early sunrise and late sunset are ours to enjoy. But projects often conclude in June and July – August billable hours shrink. What’s a Freelancer to do? Reviewing your client list and thinking about how to create business in the fourth quarter is always useful. Another option is to take a vacation, If you can afford it.

I’ve vacationed in every season and personally, I prefer winter get-aways that allow me to visit warm climates and escape  frigid, snowy New England for a week or two. Winter vacations are expensive though, in terms of time and money and they take business owners and Freelancers out of town when clients are in town. Might we lose business as a result?

Skiers are able to take long weekends to nearby locations, but those in search of warm weather must travel much farther and commit a much larger block of time and money. If you’re able, then do so, but many of the self-employed are better served by taking a vacation when clients are likely to be away as well.

Vacations are good for us. We need to get away from our usual workaday routines and refresh our spirits and revitalize our perspectives. Both psychologists and productivity experts espouse the benefits of getting away from it all and short vacations sprinkled throughout the year have been demonstrated to produce greater stress reductions and both creativity and productivity benefits than a single two week vacation. Besides, a serendipitous networking opportunity could fall into your lap while on vacation, or you could possibly come up with a brilliant solution to a problem, once you’ve begun to relax and unwind.

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis and the father of psychotherapy, was a devotee of the summer vacation. The project of planning his family’s annual summer vacation was a favorite project that he called the “Sommerproblem”. Vacations brought tangible benefits to Dr. Freud.

In July 1895, while summering at Schloss Bellevue, a hotel and spa located in an outer district of Vienna, Freud had the dream that gave rise to his ground-breaking theory that dreams are wish fulfillment. His book On the Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1899 and it is still in print.

In his only visit to the US, in August 1909, Freud combined business with pleasure when he came to Clark University in Worcester, MA to deliver five lectures on psychoanalysis and receive an honorary degree. On his visit, Freud met James Jackson Putnam, professor of neurology at Harvard University and a leader of the movement to professionalize psychotherapy in the US. Putnam invited Freud and two other well-known psychoanalysts who traveled to America with him — Carl Jung, who also lectured and received an honorary degree from Clark and Sandor Ferenczi — to spend a few days at the Putnam family camp in the Adirondacks and visit Niagara Falls.

Several days of hiking and feasting led Freud to later write of “the most important personal relationship which arose from the meeting at Worcester”. Putnam gave credibility to Freud’s theories about psychoanalysis and promoted its use (NY Times August 29,2009). His reputation soared and his practice was set from then on.

On your next vacation, it is unlikely that you will be inspired to author a book that becomes an international best-seller, connect with an influential thought-leader who helps to solidify your professional reputation, or encounter a venture capitalist who provides the funding that takes your fledgling business to the next level. You could find your next client, however, or maybe someone who tells you about an unexpected market for your services. If you plan well and don’t try to overdo, you will relax and feel better, whether you visit a new location or return to a perennial favorite. Whatever you do, have a wonderful time!

Thanks for reading,

Kim