Research has shown that the typical client/designer relationship lasts two - three years. Usually, when a relationship goes South, the communication stops. That’s understandable. Sometimes there are bad feelings over something that happened during a project and such. But, often, it’s a matter of contacts changing. People move on, get promoted, you get busy with other things and the communication fades.

Word to the wise – strive to keep the lines of communication open. With the holidays coming up, this is a great time of year to rekindle an old relationship. Consider dropping a contact a holiday card. Or, pick up the phone to say “hello.”

Let me give you a couple of examples.

There’s this guy who was my boss in the previous incarnation about 20 some odd years ago. We had become pretty good friends during the time I worked for him. When I left that position for greener pastures, we kept in touch. A phone call here. A lunch there.

After a while, he left the company to set out on his own. When he needed some design work, he called me. As luck would have it, he was something of a broker. His clients became my clients.

Several years later, he closed up shop to take a job offer that he simply couldn’t refuse. Guess what? That company became a client. This scenario repeated itself several more times over the years. Simply keeping in touch resulted in thousands of dollars in billings over time.

Here’s another example. I had a local client for whom I did a boat load of work a while back. After a few years, things changed. My key contact was promoted to a position that didn’t get involved with design. Another contact, the Marketing Director, left the company. The President launched a new branding directive and a new Marketing Director came on board. Although I had been doing much of their branding-related work, she elected to team up with her own people. That’s not all that unusual.

The work dried up, but I kept in touch here and there.

After not hearing a peep out of these folks for quite a while, I get a phone call. One of the company divisions had a trade show coming up and they needed help creating a center panel for a display. To make a very long story short, that one panel turned into designing 15 full displays. Cha ching! Not too shabby.

Then came an email a couple of weeks after I finished the displays. “Could I come in for a meeting?” Sure thing. During that meeting, I learned that the relationship with the Marketing Director’s “people” had soured. The client needed a fresh look for their enterprise-wide branding. They wanted me to redesign their web site … and every marketing material the company had in its arsenal – brochures, PowerPoints and more. This client is a 100 million dollar+ company. Son of cha ching!
The thing is, this was a result of not giving up and not burning any bridges.

So, your job-at-hand is to go through your past contacts and dig up some folks you’ve not heard from in a while. Then, pick up (or better, custom design) some holiday cards and shoot ‘em out. Or, pick up the phone and give them a call. Take them out for a holiday lunch.

This is a perfect time of year for rekindling relationships. You might just find those couple of cards, phone calls or lunches are the best gift you can give to your practice.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Since sales is probably the one business function that many designers would prefer to steer around, or completely ignore, naturally, I thought it might be good to visit it. To keep things tidy, I’m going to break things up into three posts. So, put on your favorite pair of checker slacks and that stunning plaid jacket. We’re goin’ sellin.’

In this series, I won’t be writing about following up on referrals or meeting with prospects who are already sold on your talent and abilities. That’s way too easy. Nope, I’ll be writing about finding a cold contact – someone you don’t know and who’s never heard of you – building a relationship with them and turning it into a sale.

It’s important to recognize that selling services is different than selling a tangible product. With product sales, the prospect can touch it (in most cases, anyway, unless it’s under lock and key) look it over, compares features and benefits, compares competitive prices, etc. With service sales, the “product” is largely intangible during the sales cycle. That’s one reason why the sales cycle (going from first contact to signing on the dotted line) can be six to eight months or, often, longer … a lot longer. To keep yourself afloat, you’ll need to have several irons in the fire at various points in the cycle. Some will close sooner, some later and, to be honest, some not at all.

Typically, there are three phases of the cycle: making contact, building the relationship and, finally, closing the sale. In the immortal words of Glinda, the good witch of the North, “It’s always best to start at the beginning. So, let’s start with making contact”.

Making Contact
There are several articles on BoDo’s sister site, Creative Latitude, that talk about self-promotion and marketing and plenty more on the Web – all the fun ways to get the word out. None the less, it’s always good to have a reminder. Here are some of the typical methods:

• Networking events such as ad clubs, chambers of commerce, trade shows, clubs & organizations.
• Direct Mail such as postcards, sales letters, printed samples, brochures, 3-dimensional pieces
• Cold/warm phone calls
• Speaking engagements such as seminars and/or lectures or talks to business groups
• Press releases
• Writing articles
• Online prospecting
• Working on charitable events and programs
• Award competitions
• Skywriting above your prospect’s place of business (Okay … that’s a wee bit extreme)
• Asking for referrals from business contacts, friends and family

The idea during this phase is to actively be working several tactics to get your name around, known and remembered. You want to meet people, but, not just anybody. Ideally, you want to meet and qualify folks who need what you provide and have the dough to pay for it. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to woo a prospect who really isn’t a prospect. These would be those contacts who are outside of your target niche, folks who want the world for a buck and a quarter, the ones who give you the heebie jeebies, etc. Plus, it’s a good idea it they offer the potential for repeat business.

Find those techniques that fit your style and personality. Shoot for at least three to five activities each day. Maybe you make a few phone calls, attend a chamber breakfast, shoot off an intro letter with a few samples one day. Then, on the next, you give a talk at the local Rotary Club, attend a Board meeting at a nonprofit and crank out some emails to current clients and friends reminding them that you’re always on the lookout for referrals.

If you’re diligent, you’ll meet several new people who just might become clients. But, to do that, you’ll need to build a relationship with them.

Beyond all this … or actually, before, make certain you have a strong value proposition, differentiation factor(s) and confidence that the service you provide is of value. It’s also important to to have integrity and be genuine in your beliefs, behaviors and communications.

Next, you want to make doubly sure the prospect is a decision-maker. Try to not waste your breath and efforts on someone who will end up saying, “Sounds great! But, I’ll need to get with the higher ups. They make the decisions for this kind of stuff.”

That said, it is a good idea to have someone on the prospect side who can be your advocate. Someone who can help sell you on the inside.

Finally, do things to help move the sales cycle along before you even talk to Joe Prospect. That includes the stuff previously mentioned, such as giving talks, joining a club and getting active, volunteering your services to a worthy cause, etc. It also includes emailing white papers or reports and/or making them available on your site, publishing and e-newsletter or authoring a useful, informative blog and such.

Do these things and you’ll make the path to the dotted line a lot easier, help to position yourself as an expert and for Heaven’s sake, lose the checkered slacks and plaid jacket.

Next, we talk a wee bit about building relationships … without online dating services and all that mushy stuff.

Until the next,
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt