Let me ask you this. Have
you ever thought it was about time that you started marketing but did
not really know why or how you would start, even if you did?
If
you have, then you are not alone. The idea that a practice should market is more and more the message that we are given, but rarely
are we sure what marketing even is, in practical terms. Sure, we know the theory of it, but what does that mean to us
here and now? What exactly, do we do? How do we do it?
What actions should we take?
Many
times, solicitors and accountants with very successful businesses, and
with large client bases, tell me that they have thought about doing
marketing, or wanted to send out some letters, or something but they
never found the time, or the energy, or something happened and they just
never got around to it for one reason or another.
What
they are also saying, if they realise it consciously or not is that
the practice and the clients are not doing so well as they could be all for lack of a simple and ongoing system in place to make getting the
message out about the good work they do and the help they can provide.
Do
clients want legal services? Probably they do not. Do they want their
assets safe and secure? Probably they do. You see people do not want
the services. They want what having the services gives them.
Very
few people will get excited at the prospect of getting a new accountant.
Will they be excited about being able to see their business in a whole
way they never could before because they have better systems and know
what to look for now? You bet! Just as me offering you coaching services
would have you thinking What Is That All About? And yet still you
might be excited about being able to move forward on those areas
you have been stuck, or finally being able to articulate that vision
that you might have been carrying around in your head and never known how to
explain. Being able to articulate that now, and even better, develop
the strategies to bring it to life, now that is something to be excited
about! Remember, it is not
the service that people want. It is what the service does.
How
well do you expect your practice to operate? At one hundred percent of potential
or are you happy with less than that? 75%, 50%? Where is the line that
you draw between Acceptable, and Have-to-do-something-about-it?
Of
course, to begin making some decisions about setting standards that are
acceptable raises other questions, some of them, about costs. If I do
this, does that mean I will have less time for that? If I
get more clients, will I have less time than I do now? Sometimes we put
off implementing improvements to the business, because we fear that
there is something that we might have to trade off. We fear there might
be something that we might have to give up, or let go. Sometimes we do
not like to do what we know we should, because we just plain don not know how.
Unfortunately
when we are thinking about these costs, we fail to account for the costs
that we are already paying. Opportunity costs, that not doing what should
be the least that we provide ourselves, or our clients, would give us.
These costs though they are invisible and easy to neglect to factor in, can be substantial.
Understanding where we are
at this time, and calibrating that against where we could be; the level
that the business could be achieving, is a starting point. Developing
the strategies to go from here to there, is where the fun begins.
Knowing
What To Do is the beginning. Working
out How To Do It, comes after you reach the point of knowing in your
gut, that you want something more than you have now. You do not need to
know what, just that there is something and that your instincts are
telling you that now is the time to stop procrastinating and get
started. Learn to recognise
that signal.
When you reach that point
when it comes to marketing your practice, then its time to work out
where you are and what outcomes you would like to achieve. If it helps,
and it usually, does, then talk to someone who can help you get the
results you want.
