Adjusting Your Marketing Mindset

Sales/Marketing Strategies   Written by Richard Weylman on 03/2007 - Word Count: 1252
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In today's over-marketed environment, it's getting increasingly difficult to capture the  attention of the individuals with whom you want to do business. It is no coincidence that recent surveys indicate that the most pervasive interest you as a producer have, regardless of production level, is receiving more marketing support. Further, ongoing research defines marketing support as more education, coaching, and consulting on how to duplicate best clients.

Marketing support can be derived from many sources, however, to begin the process and maximize the resources available to you requires willingness on your part ­ a readiness to do the things necessary to focus your efforts, position yourself as a resource, and gain visibility. As a retailer of financial services products, you must gain visibility in the marketplace. I firmly believe that most individuals fail in the industry because people simply don't know what they can do for them.

Let's look at the issue of visibility ­ what is the most cost-effective way to become known to a specific group of people and leverage each activity that you do? The obvious answer is networking. Unfortunately, networking is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the industry. Networking, according to the late author Anne Bowe, is the art of creating your own visibility. We know that successful people are interdependent, not independent. The question then is: Is your net-working?

What are you doing to become well known in the marketplace so people can know you and trust you and are willing to do business with you? Networking is not simply passing out business cards at the local Chamber of Commerce function. It is not belonging to a lead club where individuals simply give you the names of other customers and then you hope that they will take your call.

Networking is a very focused activity designed to increase visibility in the marketplace. The way to view networking is to see it as a series of marketing events that allow people to know you and know about you and begin to trust you so that they can do business with you.

To network effectively and turn that activity into a marketing event requires that you adjust your mindset. Instead of just buying a mailing list of individuals in a specific industry or income group, consider targeting and joining the organization to which these individuals belong. This could be a professional or business organization, a recreational group, or a special interest group such as the symphony supporters, Audubon Society, etc.

By joining the organization, you are then a part of the organization, it allows you to go to meetings, attend functions, and become truly visible by rubbing shoulders with the very people with whom you want to do business.

Volunteer to serve on a committee. This gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your talent, ability, interest, and personality. There are many types of committees and you should determine the one that will best showcase your talents and give you the most favorable exposure. The finance, welcoming, membership, and fund-raising committees are excellent venues to be able to gain maximum visibility. Serving on a committee that meets 12 times a year gives you 12 marketing events to put on your calendar. If you're unsure about the best committee to serve on or where the need might be, ask the executive director or membership chair of the organization.

Conduct educational seminars for the members of the organization. A good example of this is Jim Yurman of Cleveland, Ohio who promotes his financial services practice by targeting seminars to resident physicians. He recognizes they are very busy so he occasionally puts on an hour-long seminar at local hospitals during lunch. This approach gives him an opportunity to showcase his personality and ability. This, in turn, opens the door to reach them on a favorable basis.

Submit an article or a series of articles to their newsletter or trade publication. The advantage of this is that it gives you more credibility than an ad and, most importantly, allows people to adapt that which you've written to their specific business and/or point of view. Keep in mind that a series of articles is far better than one article because one of anything has no cumulative effect.

Put your imagination to work so that you can identify and create marketing events. As an example, Cary McNeely, a financial services professional in North Carolina targets chiropractors. He's gained favorable access to these prospects by sponsoring a trick hole at their golf tournament. This event is held in conjunction with the annual chiropractors association convention. Cary videotapes and photographs the chiropractors as they take a shot at this trick hole. The hotographs are processed into color posters that day. The next day the posters are handed out to the players at his exhibit booth where the videotape is shown on a large screen. This event sponsorship creates so much prospect traffic to the booth that Cary has made it into an annual marketing event.

You can apply this idea in many ways by sponsoring a special contest or booth where everyone wins a prize; or ask your local auto dealer to provide you with an evening at his dealership where you can invite clients to a special "automotive maintenance" evening. They provide the expertise and technicians, you provide the audience.

The most important thing about networking is to realize that it does create visibility for you. As a marketing event, it's simply an pportunity for you to display your character and your caring to those who will respond by wanting to do business with you. If you feel as though you don't have enough time to be involved in marketing events, I ncourage you to review your calendar and carefully consider what you are currently doing with your time. You can continue to push your products on others or you can adjust your mindset and engage in marketing events that draw them closer to you.

By adjusting your mindset and your willingness to do things differently, you will be able to assimilate and utilize the marketing support available. Succinctly said, start with what you have and build upon it. This requires that you put in enough time and effort to get where you want to be, not just enough to justify where you are now.

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Richard Weylman, CSP, serves as President of The Achievement Group, Inc., an Florida-based consulting firm dedicated to professionally and ethically help people move to the next level of productivity and fulfillment. He is the author of "Opening Closed Doors, Keys to Reaching Hard-to-Reach People" and numerous other sales, relationship marketing and management audio and video programs. To receive more ideas and insight on how to market to high net worth people, recruit quality people, or practice management issues, schedule Richard to speak at your next meeting,



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Copyright© 2007, Richard Weylman. All right reserved. For information contact FrogPond at email susie@FrogPond.com.