| Dr. Gordon
conducts workshops and training about marketing. He
is also available for consultation about how to market.
You
always market yourself, your ideas, your values, or your
knowledge.
By using Dr. Gordon’s
service, you will learn:
- How to develop a new
attitude toward marketing
- The best behavior and
language needed for marketing
- How to relate to
different personalities and how best to market to them
- How to market instead of
sell
THE VALUE OF THE
WORKSHOP
- Higher production levels
- More profit
- Empowerment to be more
productive
- Achieve marketing goals
ATTITUDE
TOWARD MARKETING
It is very important to
have a positive attitude toward marketing because if you
start doing your marketing with a feeling of dislike, you
will not succeed in your marketing. You have to pass
some roadblocks in order to create a positive attitude
within so you can do good marketing.
Spend between 25 and 30% of
your income for marketing. If your income does not
permit that amount, have it as a goal. As long as
you do not have this amount of money, work on your
marketing and spend more time than money by going out
more, volunteering more, and being more accessible in the
community.
Examine the way you do your
marketing. If you are using the same techniques and
getting bad results, you will continue to get bad results.
If your results are just satisfactory, and you continue to
use the same marketing techniques, take into account that
the world is always changing, and this might cause you to
create less than satisfactory results.
It is important to listen
to what your client wants and not to try to guess what he
is going to say. Sometimes when we start listening
to what our clients are asking us, we try to second-guess
what they really mean and we miss their requests.
Marketing does not finish
when you start working with your client. Marketing
should continue to be an ongoing process once you have
your client. You should treat this client as if you
were just marketing him. You should continue to
cultivate the relationship.
Treat your best client and
a prospective client the same way, because a prospective
client might become a future client to you. However,
you should know when to let go and do not put all your
energy into a situation that seems futile. Remember
the 80-20 law in which you put 80% of your effort toward
your existing clients and potential qualified clients, and
20% into the unknown clients. Do not do the
opposite, where you put 80% of your efforts into looking
for a client whom you do not know to be qualified, and 20%
into existing and potential qualified clients.
Nurture every relationship
that you have and do not look only at the short-term.
When your marketing is focused only on getting your client
tomorrow and not cultivating long-term relationships, you
may get some clients tomorrow, but in the long run you
will be without work.
It is very important to
empower everyone who works for you so that they will be
able to market for you as well.
DEALING
WITH REJECTION
If you are afraid of
rejection, you have to work on your attitude toward
rejection. For example, knowing that cold-calling or
even going to do marketing is something that makes you
depressed when you do not succeed, start rewarding
yourself with the parts that are unsuccessful. If
you do cold-calling and one out of 10 calls succeeds,
forget the call where you succeeded because you know that
you feel good about it, and put it aside. Reward
yourself for every time that you fail. That will
bring a complete change in your attitude.
NETWORKING
Do your networking only
where you feel comfortable because that will bring out the
best in you. If you like to play golf, do your
networking on the golf course. If you like to go out
to eat, take people to a restaurant. If you like to
play tennis, play tennis with them. Find a common
denominator and do your networking there. Do not do
things that only others like and you do not because you
won’t be able to be at your best. If you don’t
like golf, for example, don’t play just for networking
purposes. If you like wine tasting, go to wine
tasting events. If you like the theater, go to
plays, the symphony, take classes, and be active in drama
organizations. Join a spiritual organization, or
take classes where you can excel. This will bring
out the best in you and you will get an opportunity to
meet people who will appreciate your services. If
you like a certain organization and you cannot afford
membership, start volunteering and they may give you a
membership discount. Be consistent in going to the
same organization so people will start recognizing you and
know what you do.
When you go to your
networking organization, always be in a positive mood with
a smile on your face. If you are not an extroverted
personality, prepare questions to start a conversation.
All the questions should be based on the words of “how,
what, or where,” like “How do you like this place?”
“What brings you here?” “What do you do?” “Where
do you live?” However, never have a question
starting with “Why?” Usually a “why”
question might put the other person on the defensive, and
you want to create a more amicable situation. A
question that starts with “why” might make the other
person feel attacked. Always have small conversation
prepared in your head, or your “elevator speech.”
An “elevator speech” is
a phrase that is characteristic of you and distinguishes
you from other people. If somebody asks you what do
you do, have one sentence ready. This is the
sentence you would say in an elevator if you only had time
for the elevator ride. This is the attention span that
most people have and will not remember more than the one
sentence. For example, my elevator speech is, “I
teach individuals and organizations how to replace stress
with productivity and profit.” If I have more
time, I have another sentence in which I say, “I also
teach how to turn conflict into agreement.” Be
sure to convey in your elevator speech your uniqueness.
Don’t just tell what you do in one word, like “I’m
an engineer,” or “I’m a lawyer,” but stress your
uniqueness and tell as much as possible in that sentence.
If you go to a network
activity with someone from your company, split up so that
you talk to as many other people as you can, and not just
to each other. If you are together and you meet
somebody you know, introduce your partner with a
compliment, saying, “This is my partner (or employer),
the best mediation lawyer I’ve worked with.” Let
your employer or your partner say something complimentary
about you and what you specifically are doing, for
example, “This lawyer is wonderful at negotiation, and
that’s why I hired him.”
When you give someone a
business card, give more than one card and say, “One
card is for you to remember me, and the other two cards
are for people who you might know and will need my
services.”
Find out what people like
about your competitor and provide it to your clients.
Ask a person you are networking with who uses a competitor
why he uses the competitor and what you can surpass in
your service and have him work with you.
REWARD
YOURSELF
An internal function of
marketing is rewarding yourself. If you bid on a job
and you do not succeed, reward yourself for the one that
you did not succeed in and take for granted the one where
you succeeded. Another technique is if you are
bidding on 10 jobs and you succeed in getting only one,
divide your profit from the one job into 10 and remember
that you actually made one-tenth of your profit on each of
the jobs. You did not have a losing job – you just
made one-tenth of your income on each job that you won, or
on each sale that you executed. If you try to sell a
gadget, and out of 10 calls you sell only one and you make
$1,000, amortize your profit at $100 for each call
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