Consider that in bad times most businesses are foundering. Whatever smugness the principals enjoyed has long since disappeared. They are painfully aware of the fact that they need help, from any available source. They need help purely and simply to prevent bankruptcy (they may have called you in too late), but your services are urgently needed in bad times.
In an economic recession or depression the headlines scream bankruptcy statistics. At the time of this writing bankruptcies exceed those suffered during the depth of the 1930s' depression; and editorial discussion of this fact is endless. What is seldom heard, however, is that twice as many businesses are starting up than are going under! (Only bad news is sale able in this land of ours.) This is because nothing can kill the pioneering, venturesome, entrepreneurial, gambling spirit of citizens who enjoy a free capitalistic society. Now, if anyone needs assistance, it is the person or organization starting up a new venture. And here is the most fertile ground for consultants.
So in the best or worst of times, the consulting profession has the best chances for success. But this is only true if the consultant knows how to take advantage of the opportunities described above, that is, knows how to market his expertise.
Marketing wisdom, as taught in schools and elsewhere, dictates that the market in question must first be identified and then reached. The first part requires research, study, surveys, etc. This can either be purchased or accomplished by the professional in need of identifying his or her market. The second part requires large outlays of time and expense in one form of advertising or another.
Having been a marketing professional of the old school, I had utilized these methods myself in starting up my own initial consultancy. These along with the usual procedures of making cold calls (as well as lukewarm ones), writing letters, and setting up meetings to acquaint suspects - they were not yet prospects-with my services and, worse, educating them concerning their problems, occupied all of my marketing time.
I am not in any way implying that these tactics didn't work. In fact, as you saw, they did. But I am saying that these accepted methods of starting a practice are long, hard, arduous, and fraught with risk. So another title for this chapter you are reading could well be "If I Knew Then What I Know Now." The accepted method as described above should not be eschewed. It is necessary as an adjunct to your marketing effort. But making it the main thrust allows too much time to ensue before you are making a decent living. It is for this reason that most new consultants are forced to quit and take a position in someone else's table of organization again. The drop-out percentage is higher in consulting than in any other profession.
Applying the "common marketing wisdom," new consultants almost invariably rent a "hot" mailing list, spend untold thousands of dollars on gorgeous, multicolor brochures replete with expensive graphics, and mail them out at enormous postage and handling rates to the prospective firms on that list. The results are invariably nil.
It is at this point that they seek assistance in my office. Having squandered between $5,000 and $ 15,000 in start-up costs, with virtually no income from consulting fees as yet, they are quite naturally visibly shaken.
They are at a loss to understand why they failed after systematically identifying and reaching their markets. They know that a great number of names on that mailing list need their help badly. Why didn't they respond? Every successful consultant has a brochure; what's wrong with theirs? Would I analyze the brochure copy and tell them where they went wrong?
Now there is nothing wrong with a nice professional brochure. Indeed, it can be quite a selling tool when used properly. Proper use precludes sending it out to a bunch of strangers who are not expecting it and who have never heard of you. Put simply, the brochure is to be used on second contact with the prospect and never on the first contact. It is to be left with the client after your first exploratory meeting or mailed to the prospect when he first inquires about your services.
Mailing a brochure cold to a cold mailing list never works because it is analogous to a psychiatrist moving into a new neighborhood, taking names from the phone book and sending out a mailing piece that, in effect, says, "Look, you and I know that you are all in emotional difficulty. I am a trained expert in these matters. Why not give me a call and set up an appointment?" If you received a mailing piece like this, no doubt your reaction would be the same as the reaction you will get from a prospect upon receipt of your cold brochure. It will be relegated to the "circular file," that is, the waste basket.
Your own mailing list from your own Wheel dex or address book is fine. These are people who either know you or have heard of you. But it is rare that this list exceeds one hundred people. When you rent lists of names of strangers in the thousands or tens of thousands, you are flushing money down the toilet. This is also true when you pay dearly for a large advertisement in your trade or professional periodical, describing your expertise and inviting the reader to contact you. Why is this so? Because you are dealing in expertise and advice that requires a client with an immediate and current problem. These problems may be perennial in your industry or profession in that all organizations may experience them at one time or another. But they cannot be perennial or continuous within any one organization for very long, because that organization would cease to exist. In other words, at any given time your market is both narrow and limited. Out of 10,000 organizations, 50 may be experiencing the kinds of problems that you are capable of dealing with at the time that you advertise your services. But you are paying to reach those other 9,950! "I'd be glad to get 10 of those fifty," you say. Of course you would. But what percentage of those fifty saw your ad or took the time to read your mailing piece? A busy executive is looking for information, and he or she automatically ignores advertising in his limited reading time.
"But advertising is a big business, and mailing-list houses have combined revenues totaling billions of dollars every year." Of course they do. But consider:
The most advertising money in all media is spent on reaching the most people who have a constant need for a product or service. Practically everyone drives a car, drinks beer, uses an overnight delivery service, needs a computer, plays computer games, wears shoes, and eats a dry cereal. Everyone also catches cold at one time or another or has a headache. Even if you are only communicating with 50 percent of the population, spending millions to advertise a hemorrhoid medication pays off handsomely.
With regard to mailing lists, it makes all kinds of sense for a publisher of mystery novels, for example, to rent a bona fide list of those people who have at one time or another purchased such a book via mail order. Chances are that his new mysteries will appeal to that mail-order customer now and forever. The same holds true for jewelry, church donations, professional books, etc. Those names are valuable until their bearers are deceased.
However, we in the advice business are not in that kind of ball game. People need doctors and lawyers only at certain times of their lives. Wouldn't doctors and dentists dearly love to know when someone is about to be-come ill or have a toothache! Wouldn't lawyers love to know when someone gets into legal trouble! (Ambulance-chasers do, but they are not too highly regarded.) It's the same with us. We would all love to know when that consulting project out there is about to be born so that we can pounce on the prospective client with our credentials in hand. We would pay anything for a specially constructed Geiger counter that would lead us directly into the offices of the C.E.O.s who are contemplating getting consultative help at the moment.
The answer? It lies in the new and viable marketing wisdom for consultants. We don't reach out to prospective clients. We have them reach out to us!
