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If you’re like many of the business professionals I work with, you have a pressing need to build strong relationships with your clients, so you can get more repeat engagements without having to constantly hunt out new clients.
One way to do that is through standing out as offering something extra.
One way to do that is through standing out as offering something extra.
Suddenly, podcasting is hot. It’s taken a combination of smartphones that can download online files easily, earbuds and noise-canceling headphones, easy-to-use recording hardware and software – and not the least, places like iTunes and Stitcher to make one’s podcast findable online. But podcasting has moved from geeky to cool, when it comes to getting your ideas in front of potential clients.
Do you offer services that can be filled by other business professionals? Almost certainly, yes. If your service is so narrow that there’s no competition, there’s probably not much of a market for it either.
So how do you give clients a reason to choose you over a competitor? The procedures you follow may be the same – and may actually be dictated by regulations or professional practice. Your pricing is about the same. So how do you stand out, and also avoid a race to the bottom regarding your fees?
So how do you give clients a reason to choose you over a competitor? The procedures you follow may be the same – and may actually be dictated by regulations or professional practice. Your pricing is about the same. So how do you stand out, and also avoid a race to the bottom regarding your fees?
Why do you divert time from other uses (like sleep, or billable work …) to create blog posts, prepare and present speeches, as well as write articles for publication? I’d say that this activity has just one purpose. It’s to help you get noticed and stand out, so you can get more of the work you want to do, become the preferred choice in your field, and earn more.
Given that focus, wouldn’t you want those blog posts, speeches, articles and other content to be as effective as they can be?
There’s a story of a visitor to a rock quarry in mediaeval Europe. The visitor asks one stonemason, “What are you doing?” and the mason replies, “I’m chipping flakes off this stone.” A second mason replies to the same question, “I’m cutting stone into square blocks.” But the third mason says, “I’m building a cathedral.”
How do you gauge the effectiveness of a presentation you’ve given? Some people might say it was a success if they got through the whole event without an anxiety attack, or if they finished on time, or if they got through all the points they planned to cover. They might say it was a success if there were a lot of people in the audience.
