IPA post for Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Did you do some "Noah" today? Let's hear what you did to produce income in your business today?

Enjoy another article from my friend Robert Middleton on marketing:

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The Intensely Detailed Plan
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One of the more interesting books I've read recently is called "The
33 Strategies of War" by Robert Greene.

It's a brilliant piece of work, not just because of the incredible
research that went into all the stories of wars won and lost, but
because the lessons learned can be applied to our lives,
businesses and, of course, to marketing.

This brief section really got my attention:

"The strategic element comes in the planning: setting an overall
goal, crafting ways to reach it, and thinking the whole plan
through in intense detail. This means thinking in terms of a
campaign, not individual battles. The more detailed your
planning, the more confident you will feel as you go into battle,
and the easier it will be to stay on course once the inevitable
problems arise."

Now, you may not be a big fan of war analogies in marketing,
and personally, I'm not big on the strategy of "crushing the
competition to a bloody pulp," but I am a big advocate of
planning in "intense detail."

Either most Independent Professionals hate planning or don't
know how to do it, as I've seen very few plans that meet this
intensely detailed standard.

Planning is the key step between gaining knowledge and
implementation. There are three crucial steps in designing a
marketing action plan for a professional service business:

1. Planning in marketing isn't so much about what you will do, it's
about what you will communicate and when.

Marketing in essence says: Here's your situation as I understand
it; here's something I have to address that situation; this is why I
think you'll be interested in it; this is how it could benefit you;
this is what to do next to find out more.

And then your plan is to design the vehicles that will carry that
message and when and how those vehicles will be delivered to
your prospects in the most cost-efficient and impactful manner.

2. In planning your marketing you need to understand exactly
where your prospects are in relation to you and your service.

So, for instance, if you're introducing a service to a new market,
the first step of your plan is to get their attention and build some
familiarity, not to close the sale right away.

Only when you've built your credibility, provided information and
given prospects a taste of what your service can do for them do
you ask for the next step: a conversation to explore.

3. This conversation needs to be planned and prepared for just as
much as the steps that led up to it.

What research will you do before the meeting? What questions
will you ask to determine the situation, needs and challenges of
the prospect? What questions will help you uncover the
underlying motivations and desires in the heart of the prospect?

Then what exactly will you tell about your service that will move
the prospect to taking the next step? How will you appeal to both
their concerns and their aspirations?

The Plan In Action

What does a plan like this actually look like in practice? Below is
the outline of an action plan I recently used very successfully.
Every single step was designed and then executed precisely.

- Design and develop a program to offer to my subscribers.
- Send initial email to those on my subscriber list.
- From a link in the email send to a web page on site.
- At the bottom of page put a form to request more info.
- Send an automatic email in response to that form.
- Direct them to more information on a different web page.
- Have them request an appointment with second form.
- Respond personally by email to set up the meeting.
- Write a script or outline for the meeting.
- Hold the meeting by phone or in person.
- Give the prospect some final information or proposal.
- Follow up by email or phone to confirm moving forward.

Over a period of about a month this marketing action plan
generated over $100K in new business.

A plan like this is very strategic, very directed towards producing
a specific result. Nothing is left to chance. Each of the steps is fine
tuned until it performs optimally.

Will you create intensely detailed marketing plans or will you
make vague plans resulting in vague results?

*

The More Clients bottom line. You will only produce consistent
results in your marketing to the degree that you develop
intensely detailed action plans and execute them with focus and
persistence.

By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit
Robert's web site at actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional
service businesses.