Here is a question I’ve recently received from one of my colleagues from the UK: “In order to provide value to a prospect, first you have to identify one. How do you do that Chad? Do you identify companies who you would like to work with, or do you use marketing to attract prospects?”
When I first started my career, 25 years ago, I used to engage in the following marketing activities to attract my prospective clients:
- Referrals
- Networking
- Purchasing databases of my target clients
- Cold calling and mailing
- Alliances
- Word of mouth
Over the years, as the success of my business grew and with it: my global brand, number of clients, credibility and thought leadership, I’ve found the following to be my most successful marketing activities:
- Speaking
- Publishing (Articles, Blog, Books, Content)
- Referrals
- Alliances
- Internet strategies
- Monetization of products and services
- Building communities
So the answer is that although I do identify the profiles of the clients I want to work with, I then engage in marketing activities that get these prospects to contact me or get referred to me.
© Chad Barr 2012. All rights reserved
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Thanks for answering my question Chad! I’m working on the same strategies myself.
My pleasure Alistair and glad to help. More coming shortly although there is much more articulation of these points in many of my posts in the past week or so.