Expertise from Denver
I addressed about 140 consultants, coaches, speakers, and trainers in Denver yesterday and today. Here are a few of my most critical points.
• You must focus on the highest value market you have, not merely the most possible people.
• Powerful communities draw high-powered people, who attract still others in their own right.
• You can cite exceptions all day long, but the fact is that cold calling and social network platforms should have only a tiny investment of your marketing time and funds.
• High tech creates more ambiguity, not less (there are more choices and alternatives, for example). This can paralyze people who aren’t comfortable with high degrees of ambiguity.
• Trade associations that don’t evolve into true communities—and offer only a monthly publication and annual meeting—will disappear into irrelevance.
• Before approaching the buyer, put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and ask, “What would prompt me to do business with this person?”
• You must create “low barrier to entry” offerings so that prospects can be exposed to your value at low risk and no trouble.
• Most speakers bureaus have it all wrong. YOU are the talent, and the client is YOURS. The bureau is merely a middleman. (Speakers could exist without bureaus, bureaus couldn’t exist without speakers.)
• Consultants have characteristically coached throughout their careers because they help key individuals through changes.
• When you attract people (as opposed to reaching out to them) your credentials and fees are no longer factors.
• If you don’t create you own direction and strategy for the next year, then the market, competitors, or economic factors will. Then you’re just one of the herd.
© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.
