Are YOU Recovering? A Consultant Stimulus Package
The economic signs are clearly improving. There will be continued bumps in the road, but the right vehicle should be able to handle them well. Here’s what you should be doing IF you are optimistic about the future:
• Contact ALL past clients to let them know what you’re doing these days (see below) and find out what they’re doing.
• Reformulate your value proposition (broaden, widen, add depth, diversify, etc.) so that you can justifiably present new value to existing clients. (It’s a “new day” and you don’t need the “same old, same old.”)
• Update and change your photos, web pages, blog, listings, and other public image factors.
• Gather examples of firms, organizations, sectors, clients, etc. that are investing at this point to good advantage. (Example: The mortgage lending industry recently had one of its best quarters ever. Example: Health care and related services are aggressively hiring.)
• Critically and honestly ask yourself where the greatest return is for your marketing time. Have you become “lazy” during slack periods, and are you mistaking Facebook postings for real marketing (e.g., publishing, speaking, networking with true buyers, etc.)?
• Begin a NEW mastermind group with different and diverse people. Try not to be the leader of it if at all possible once its organized.
• Stop reading the “doom and gloom” books and start reading the (relatively few) pragmatic books on how to innovatively and aggressively market and sell.
• Identify and articulate the specific industries, firms, and buyers you intent to try to reach, and enable to reach you, over the next 12 months. If they’re exactly the same as the prior 12 months, ask a trusted advisor to critique your choices.
• Plan and schedule a major project: A commercial book proposal; a new workshop; work abroad; a new web site or blog; a media campaign; a major self-development endeavor.
If you believe in yourself and act as if there is a recovery going on, guess what, you may just find yourself in better shape than ever before. The only stimulus package you need is to get your own mind and energy oriented toward providing value for your buyers. Enthusiasm is contagious.
© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.
