No matter how ambitious your goal, you CAN achieve it. You do it by taking one little step at a time. Here are a few tips to help you:

1. Visualize Your Goal: The first step is to create a mental picture of your goal. Get very clear on what you want. Are you gaining a new skill? Hitting a new revenue goal? Landing a new important client? See and feel it.

2. Define Your Goal: Be very precise and write your goal down. Outline how much and by when. Add in specific information and resources (money, marketing materials, software, etc.) you will need to acquire to achieve your goal.

3. Post It: Put your goal in a place you can easily see it: next to your desk, on your mirror, in your wallet… Read it several times throughout each day.

4. Support: Who can help you achieve your goal? Who are your cheerleaders? List the people and companies you will need to contact for assistance.

5. Action Plan: When a goal seems too big, we tend to procrastinate because it is too overwhelming. Breaking it down and focusing on one piece at a time makes large goals more attainable. Develop a series of action steps with dates attached. As you finish each task, check it off and acknowledge yourself.

That’s it — five simple steps to achieve anything. As you move along, enjoy the journey. You are learning, growing, and accomplishing. Take time to appreciate your progress. Reaching a goal does not happen by accident. It is a series of intentional small steps, proper planning, and a stubborn commitment to make it happen.

ACTION STEP: Why not begin right now? What do you really want to achieve? Write down your goal. You CAN do it!

As Business Author and Entrepreneur Mark Victor Hansen says, “By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own.”

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Have you clearly defined your target audience? These are the prime buyers of your products or services. It is the people or organizations you are pursuing actively as customers.

You don’t need every customer in the world! You need the ones who are a good match for YOU. The more specific you are, the more effective your marketing campaign will be.

But, let’s take this concept one step further. You can develop specific strategies that will attract your DREAM customers. These are the people who are best suited to purchase your product or service.

A dream customer is someone who:

• You want to work with and enjoy. For example, if you’re wild about horses, why not specialize in the riding industry?

• Needs and values the product or services you provide.

• Is willing and able to pay what you need to charge.

• Views you as an important resource - an expert.

• Has problems and goals you care about.

• Is loyal to your business and not easily swayed by competitors.

• Is delighted to do business with you!

I can hear you asking: “Is it really possible to attract dream customers?” My answer is a resounding YES! The key is to absolutely know what sets you apart and to make a DIFFERENCE for your customers.

ACTION ITEM: Write down the characteristics of your DREAM customer and then write down the unique ways your business can meet their needs. This week, take one step toward making your company a customer magnet.

Hugs, Wendy Maynard
Your friendly marketing maven

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One of the areas that consultants avoid is value-based pricing. Now, it’s not that it makes sense to avoid it. It’s just that we’ve always used hourly rates to determine our pricing, and we tend to believe we have to price services this way. Well, throw that idea out of your head RIGHT NOW!

Value-based pricing is an arena that my business partner and I are continuing to move toward at Kinesis. We still tend to rely on hourly-based pricing because it’s the way we’ve always done it and our clients are used to it. We have worked on the premise that the way to estimate the price for a project is to make an educated (I think!) guess as to how many hours a project will take and then multiply this number by an hourly rate.

As far as I can tell, this is not the best way to increase company profitability. First, because we are not always exact in our estimates. Yes, it is an estimate, but our clients don’t particularly like paying more, even when they are the ones who request additional work.

Next, over time our designers and other team creatives get more efficient. They can do the same work faster and they are continuously reaching new creative heights. This applies to myself, as well, when I offer marketing consultation. It just doesn’t make sense to base an estimate on the actual time it takes for a very experienced creative or consultant to complete a project. Otherwise, the better you get, the LESS you MAKE!

Finally, we will always be trapped under a ceiling of the number of hours we can work. There is always an upper limit if pricing is based on billable hours. Not to mention, the non-billable hours we spend on increasing our expertise - training time, proposal development, reading, and attending workshops are never given any value except by raising the hourly rate. And so, I am advocating value-based pricing as a methodology that makes more sense. Restructure project estimating to reflect the VALUE the client gets, not the TIME it takes.

I came across an entry written by Michael McLaughlin at Guerilla Consulting. He has an excellent entry about this very subject. So I bring it to you:

Hourly Rates—Confusing Effort with Results

On one of my very first consulting assignments, I neglected to regularly back up data on my computer and lost an elaborate analysis in a sudden power failure. I bemoaned my lost hours and valuable work to the project manager but, as you might expect, got little sympathy. I did get some good advice though: Never confuse effort with results.

I flashed on that advice recently as I was sitting across the table from a client who asked the inevitable question, “What’s the hourly rate for the people you are proposing for this project?” That led us to discuss if the proposed consultants were “worth” their hourly rate. Sound familiar?

Way too often, such conversations degenerate into how the client can monitor and limit hours—all in an effort to keep costs down—not on how to achieve results. You can’t blame clients. The hourly rate is the gold standard for pricing in the industry. For decades, professional service providers have trained clients to expect it, and it’s now used extensively to compare consultants.

It’s time to dump the hourly rate once and for all.

To begin with, the hourly rate is a totally bogus number. It’s computed using very broad (and sometimes flawed) assumptions about a firm’s costs, volume and profit. And, many consultants toss those assumptions out the window and discount their hourly rates when they believe doing so will improve their chances of winning a project.

And then there’s the matter of results. You probably know the urban legend about the consultant who was asked to help a client restart a machine that had died and caused a halt in production for a manufacturing plant. The consultant eyed the machine from all angles, circled it twice, and whacked it three times with the client’s rubber hammer. The machine sprang back to life, and the consultant left after fifteen minutes of work. But, the client was outraged with the consultant’s high-priced invoice. “We could have swatted that machine three times without you.” he yelled. The consultant’s predictable reply was, “Yes, but you didn’t know where to swat it, and that’s why you called me.”

By charging a client for time alone, you completely undermine the expertise you’ve spent years building, and you limit the profit you can justifiably earn. Dozens of pricing alternatives exist that don’t rely on the hourly rate. Look for alternatives that lead to discussions with clients about the outcomes they want to achieve.

When pricing your next project, think results, not effort.

Read the entire entry at Pricing Redux: How to Dump Hourly Rates

Hugs, Wendy Maynard
Your Friendly Marketing Maven

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I would like to build upon my last entry Is Your Imagination Limiting You?. With great facination, I am currently reading Joe Vitale’s The Attractor Factor. In his book, Mr. Vitale asserts: “Beliefs are how we create reality.” He writes that we can achieve any level of business success by getting clear on beliefs and setting a positive intention to succeed.

He asks the reader:

“What do you tell yourself when you look at your business and see it isn’t yet where you want to be? Do you blame it on the economy? Your salespeople? Your marketing? On your own ability to accomplish anything? Whatever your answer, that is a belief…You can choose to let go of beliefs you don’t want and you can choose to replace the beliefs with ones that better serve you.”

In my own life - careerwise, personal, and romantic, I have found intention setting to be very powerful. Most of the things that I write down come to fruition. Magic? I don’t know, but it seems to work.

So, what about you? Are your beliefs your reality? What success stories do you have related to your beliefs or setting intentions? Is it as simple as changing your beliefs to accomplish anything in business? Let me know your thoughts on this topic…

Hugs, Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven

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“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.

“Can’t you?” the queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ~ Lewis Carrol

Do you believe there are certain things you CAN’T achieve? As Richard Bach says, “Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.” Which of your own perceived limitations are you using to keep you from achieving a goal? Perhaps, you aren’t sure your business will succeed. Maybe you are worried about never finding the right person for a relationship. Are you struggling to meet a seemingly impossible sales quota or revenue goal?

ACTION ITEM: I challenge you to start believing in the impossible. Shoot for the moon! Right down a goal and post it beside your desk. Also, put it in your wallet. Look at it repeatedly. Each of us is only truly limited by our ability to dream big. When we are willing to BELIEVE, the seemingly impossible transforms itself into the very possible.

Hugs, Wendy Maynard
Your friendly marketing maven

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Every good marketing plan should have a section on ongoing promotion and publicity, which outlines ways of reaching your target market. These tools can do many of the same things paid advertising is supposed to do, at a fraction of the cost. With an on-going publicity strategy, you can enhance your image and bring in new business.

Your first step: examine your marketing plan (you DO have a marketing plan, don’t you?). Does it outline a carefully selected target market and identify its needs? Does it list your products and services that will meet those needs? Your marketing plan should describe how you will make it easy for your potential customers to buy what you sell. And, it should describe how these people will learn that your business exists - i.e. your promotion.

Next, take a look at your business itself. Do you know who you are? Are you using your image as a consistent marketing tool? In a world of intense competition, credibility and trust are crucial. This stands true for corporations, small businesses, and non-profit organizations. Establish a company message you believe in and repeat it over and over in your promotional materials.

By reinforcing your image and repeating publicity, you’ll begin to see dividends accrue for your organization. As your company’s stories appear in the media, your clients and prospects will perceive you as more credible. You are positioning yourself as the expert. As you send out materials such as newsletters and ezines, you build a relationship with people over time. They feel like you are a friend, not a pushy salesperson.

Fortunately, consistent promotion IS a state of mind - once you start promoting your message, you’ll find opportunities everywhere you turn.

Hugs, Wendy Maynard
Your friendly marketing maven

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