“Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.” So said Thomas Edison, echoing many professional practitioners’ sentiments as they gloomily review their marketing efforts.
What goes wrong? You show willing, put in effort, waste loads of time and money and still those new clients and increased billings remain elusive. You know you can’t give up, because marketing is the key to growing the business. So…?
Consider this interesting parallel:
Therefore, it follows that if you want to be market-orientated and/or thinner, you need to adopt a new approach. It ain’t easy, but it works - and here, briefly, is why and how:
Marketing (dieting) usually fails because it’s approached with a mindset that says “temporary”. We commonly talk about “doing some marketing” or “going on a diet” and are then caught in a struggle between what we normally do, i.e. fee-earning/eating what we like, and the need to perform other quite different and often unpalatable tasks, whether it’s marketing or boiling up cabbage soup. That’s fine when you’re initially all fired up and focused, but once the pressure’s on it’s all too easy to put marketing on the back burner and grab a Danish.
Regrettably, those who have the most to gain from successful marketing are often disillusioned. They’ve failed in the past because they’ve taken a piecemeal approach to marketing without really considering how particular projects relate to the values, management structure and operating procedures of the firm as a whole. Yet marketing, (to quote the Chartered Institute of Marketing) is “a management process” not just the toolbox of marketing (advertising, newsletters, seminars, etc) - with which it is often confused. Without an appreciation of the distinction, you can’t succeed.
“Always consult your doctor before going on a diet.” Expert advice helps ensure success - isn’t that what you tell clients? Seeking the advice of specialist marketing consultants, business advisers or professional bodies may not only identify pitfalls you may have overlooked, but can provide added know-how, confidence and moral support. Think of it as part of the investment you need to make to guarantee future dividends.
If you want to get from A to B you need to know how to get there. Whereas your firm’s overall business plan will outline the way forward for the entire firm, you need a marketing plan to detail the specifics of the marketing programme you’re about to undertake. Many firms get horribly bogged down in planning, but as there is no “right” or “wrong” in terms of content, just regard your marketing plan as a practical aide-memoire and get stuck in.
Fundamentally, marketing involves changing the way you habitually do things to achieve the best fit between your firm’s services, and the needs and wants of your current and potential clients. Therefore successful marketing involves, first, identifying the exact nature of those needs and wants; then, incorporating changes into your working routine. In dieting terms this means changing your eating habits forever; in marketing, its abandoning “quick fix” projects in favour of genuine, market-focused service delivery and improved communication.
Start small and don’t try and change everything all at once. Most disillusioned marketeers have been over-ambitious in what they set out to achieve and have fallen at the first hurdle, overwhelmed by what lay before them. Easier by far to break your plan up into discrete stepping stones (plan to lose five pounds rather than three stones) and take them one at a time, spurred on to success by what you’ve already achieved.
Successful marketing relies on the involvement of the entire firm, so - by definition- it can’t be undertaken in isolation. Your marketing activities are bound to have repercussions for your colleagues, so obviously, you must involve them. More importantly, team-working can provide moral support and a forum for discussing progress. That’s why diet clubs are so successful – mutual support and peer pressure combined.
The conjunct of having a plan is that you must review progress against it, looking at the next stage of the plan well in advance, and considering whether the plan needs amending in the light of results achieved. Although it’s anathema to the orderly legal mind, amending a plan is not a sin – in fact it can be a key indicator that your efforts are paying off. Your knowledge of the market and client relationships increases, so your plan needs amending to reflect that – what better reason is there?
The key roles played by motivation and management are usually overlooked in marketing programmes. Coming up with ideas and getting started usually aren’t a problem – but sticking with it, answering the question “why am I doing this?” when times get tough, and justifying what you’re doing to others, can be a real struggle. So, as well as self-motivation, proper reward and recognition systems are essential within the firm for driving ongoing effort, ideally with marketing forming part of a formal appraisal system.
Finally, “The real secret of success is enthusiasm”, said Walter Chrysler, and it’s a circular argument when applied to marketing. If you approach it with real enthusiasm and understanding, it’ll produce results – giving you plenty to be enthusiastic about in your future endeavours and some new Resolutions next year!
(c) Dianne Bown-Wilson, the M3 Consultancy www.m3consultancy.co.uk