All Audiences

Are you getting leads but they’re just not closing?

It could be due to a lot of reasons.

It might be your perceived skills, prices, business model, your sales approach… or it could be something else entirely.

The first place I would check is your positioning…

Are you super specific, broad, or… somewhere in between?

Are there a lot of alternative, more specialized options to compare you to?

I recorded a video sharing my recent experience hiring construction contractors and how it applies to growing your marketing practice.

Watch on YouTube →

—kevin

Daniel Priestly shared an analogy recently that running a business is a bit like having a box of Legos without the instructions.

You can see what the final product should look like on the box, but getting there is an entirely different story.

As a business advisor, he sees his role as being the metaphorical instructions. And I couldn’t think of a better analogy for independent marketing strategists.

There’s a good chance your clients have a box of Lego without instructions, trying to assemble the pieces using just the picture on the front for reference.

Strategists are the instructions.

We don’t build it for you (what would be the fun in that?), but we are there to break down each individual step, making it easy for you to get the intended result.

Providing guidance on how to build the Lego set for people who have no instructions is precisely the type of value we create.

But that’s not all we do.

We also provide the tools to go with it, ensuring clients can be successful right away. And unlike the instructions, you can ask us questions when you inevitably get stuck. We don’t leave you hanging.

The better we detail the steps and ingredients of our methodology, the more leveraged our guidance can be because your clients will have fewer questions.

Instruction manuals have to be extremely clear and thorough because nobody is there to answer questions if people get stuck.

That’s where your documented IP Assets come into play. 

It’s one thing to have a process in your head, it’s another to document it so that anyone can build the Legos without you.

My goal is to document everything I know so that I can live at the strategic level and not get too bogged down in what can be easily taught via documented instructions or chat GPT.

I do that by:

1. Teaching Frameworks and Mental Models to make it easier for clients to think on their own.
2. Organizing my ideas into a Methodology Playbook that contains my best ideas.
3. Writing down the steps (Standard Operating Procedures) for each item that requires instructions.
4. Creating my Proprietary Templates to make running processes easier and faster for everyone.
5. Having an Inspiration Swipe File with examples to make it easier to overcome the blank page.
6. Providing a Vetted Rolodex of specialist suppliers whom I can refer when needed.
7. Operating with a Customized KPI Sheet to let my clients measure the performance of our work.

None of this is me doing the tactical execution but it makes that part easy and more efficient because the hard part (the thinking/ingredient provisions) is done for my clients.

I’ve said it before in a tongue-in-cheek way, but execution is a commodity when you have the right instructions. Almost anyone can build a Lego set with the right instructions.

The key is being the instruction manual and well-equipped guide for when things aren’t clear.

But then also making your instructions clearer until eventually, people barely need you to get the result they want.

—kevin

P.S. This is the stuff I teach in the membership, with my own suite of templates, examples, a rolodex, and more. You can grab a spot whenever you’re ready here.

 

A few weeks ago, I recorded a YouTube video on the risks and downsides of the fractional CMO model.

Subscriber Emilie gave an astute comment that I think is worth exploring:

I’ve been a fCMO for almost 1.5 years, and I resonate with the downsides you listed. I’m looking into evolving my business, but I’m not convinced about the advisor model. It can quickly look like a McKinsey type of work where it is mostly fluff and no value, which I hate. I’m still workshopping my next moves, thanks for the food for thought.

I LOVE this comment because it’s a great opportunity to go back to the fundamentals of advisory work and how to actually add value, not just provide fancy Powerpoint presentations that collect dust.

Watch my response YouTube video here.

—kevin

P.S. Whether you’re struggling to get clients or feel like it’s time to upgrade your business model, the membership is for you. The Engage plan gives you unlimited access to me via Slack plus SO much more for only $379/month.

Learn more: https://indiestrategist.com/membership

A prospect comes along and expresses interest in working with you.

You get excited. It’s been a few months since you closed a deal.

The first call goes swimmingly. The client likes you. You like them. Things are looking good.

“I’ll turn this into a proposal and send it your way by tomorrow“, you say.

Feeling good, you fire over the proposal bright and early the next day, and….

Crickets.

You follow up. No reply. That’s weird.

You leave it a week and follow up again. You’re pretty sure the email must have gone to spam.

So you send one more email the following day asking if they got your other messages. This time, in a new thread just in case the old one is in the spam folder.

Finally, another week and a half later, you get a response:

“Thanks for your patience. We ended up going in another direction but we appreciate the time you spent with us.“

What went wrong?

It could be anything.

It could be your positioning. It could be the source of the lead. It could be your prices. It could be the scope. It could be the competition.

Really though, you’ll never know.

You’ll never know because you broke the cardinal sin of sales: rushing too quickly into a proposal.

You thought you heard them. You thought they liked you. You thought you were on the same page.

But there’s a good chance you missed something. You didn’t get a conceptual agreement going.

And so you sent a proposal that didn’t exactly fit their needs. That’s what happens when you try to rush through the sales process.

But to make things worse, you also broke the second cardinal sin: you didn’t walk them through the proposal over a live call. 

Your initial sins could maybe have been forgiven if only you had booked a call to walk through your proposal.

Maybe your proposal would have missed the mark. But at least you’d be there to try and salvage things.

You would have been able to ask questions like, “Did this proposal meet your expectations based on what we discussed?”

But now, the prospect thinks you can’t solve their problem. Or they can’t afford your solution.

They don’t want to negotiate you down, so they look for other options.

There must be a better way to do things…

When I approach sales, my mindset is to be a co-buyer with the client. To shop my services with them to come up with a solution that feels like a home run for them.

Everything is treated as custom—even if they go for a productized service in the end.

I aim to get super clear on where they are today, where they want to end up, and the obstacles they’re facing between those two points.

That’s the transformation I sell.

But to truly understand the project, I then need to figure out what the value opportunity is so I can propose something appropriate.

And that, my friend, is a story for another day.

For now, I want you to remember two things:

1. Slow down the sale.
   You can’t in good faith put together a well-considered proposal if you’re in a rush. This is your opportunity to go slow and solve the real problems your prospect has.
2. Don’t send proposals by email.
   No matter how tempted you are, just don’t. Walk them through it on a call because it’s your moral duty to make sure you understand their goals, obstacles, the value of achieving those goals, and how they plan to measure success.

If you do these two things, you’re well on your way to putting together more considered options that set your engagements up for success later on.

Slow… down… the… sale.

Your (good) clients will appreciate it.

—kevin

P.S. The doors are open again for the membership. You can go deep into topics like this with dozens of hours of recorded training, coaching, templates, and more. Sign up here: https://indiestrategist.com/membership

I recently spoke at a conference for the industry I consult with (coworking spaces).

And while speaking on stage was valuable, the real value I got was from the conversations.

There’s something magical about relationships. Whether it’s knowing other consultants, industry vendors, or operators—you gain so much by getting to know people.

The reality is, we’re all in one big ecosystem. Everyone serves a function—sometimes with a little overlap—but ultimately each contributes a small part to the big picture.

More often than not, it’s the referrals that happen during and after the event from the people I chat with that drive the majority of my returns.

In some cases, it can lead to even more speaking opportunities for adjacent communities and events, which further drives the same flywheel.

Whether you’re attending or speaking at a conference, remember the goal: meet and chat with as many people as you can.

It’s not about trying to get clients directly. That’s only going to distract you.

The better approach is to meet the rest of the ecosystem. Build relationships with zero angle. See what happens.

I suspect this approach will be your most valuable mindset at the next industry conference you attend.

Have fun!

—kevin

 

P.S. In case you missed it, Liam Curley is teaching his magic sauce around “insight marketing” and long-form content tomorrow at 11 am EST. Register here if you haven’t already.

 

 

Do you want to do “content marketing” or do you want to do insight marketing?

Subtle rebranding of terms? Not so much.

Mindshare member and marketing strategist, Liam Curley, has a unique ability to extract expertise from his clients’ minds and help convert it into long-form insight pieces.

But don’t call it content marketing. His approach is all about articulating deep insights with long-form pieces. He calls it insight marketing.

Liam’s own marketing is also super interesting.

He spends upwards of 50+ hours researching and writing Case Studies on well-known consultants—like David C. Baker, April Dunford, and Louis Grenier to name a few—proving just how effective this strategy can be.

So, I invited Liam to teach his approach to “insight marketing” for this month’s training session.

Normally, these training sessions are for members only, but we decided to make this one open to the public.

The session will be held on Thursday, April 25th at 11am EST/4pm UK.

If you’re interested in attending live, you can register here: https://lu.ma/insight-marketing

The recording will only be available to members, so be sure to attend live if you wish to join for free!

See you there,

—kevin

P.S. I am going to open doors on the membership again in case anyone wishes to join before/after the session. Stay tuned for that.

Let’s talk about soft skills.

Soft skills are the interpersonal skills we bring to our work.

They’re things like empathy, kindness, navigating politics, work ethic, and maintaining positivity in difficult circumstances.

If I could guess, I’d say more than half of our long-term success depends on these skills. Probably more.

Technical expertise is table stakes. It’s expected and not that difficult to find.

And while technical skills might get you a gig, it’s your soft skills that often keep you around and get you referred.

One of the reasons I don’t need to promote my consulting services as much anymore is that my clients stick with me for so damn long! 2+ years in most cases.

I’d also guess that about half new my business comes via referral.

Sure, the technical skills I bring to my role are important. But I have seen first-hand what happens when I let my soft skills slide.

I make the mistake of lacking empathy and someone gets offended. The next thing you know, our engagement is winding down slowly or immediately.

Or I give up being patient in difficult circumstances and I just know the relationship has been affected.

All it takes is a moment of short-sightedness to lose what could be a lot of money in direct and referral business. I don’t take that for granted.

We’re paid to do work in uncertain circumstances. If things were easy, they wouldn’t need you.

Which means we need to be ultra-aware of the soft skills we’re bringing (or lacking) and how they affect our clients.

I don’t have all the answers and I make mistakes. But I do try my best to be honest, keep things light, and see things from other people’s perspectives. Especially when it’s difficult.

Never underestimate the soft skills of marketing.

—kevin

If you’re thinking about doing fractional CMO work, I created a video that will help you spot and mitigate some of the downsides you’re likely to experience.

In this 9-minute video, we’ll explore the downsides of the model, who it might be ideal for, and what I recommend you consider doing instead.

Give it a watch and be sure to “Like” and Subscribe to the channel for more videos helping you grow a more successful marketing consulting practice.

—kevin

I remember reading the book, Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson when I was studying marketing in school.

It was written in a pre-digital era (1984) which meant attributing customer acquisition from marketing was hazy at best.

Today, we have all kinds of tools to help measure and quantify our work. And yet, we’re seeing more and more that customers live in a multi-touch, multi-channel, word-of-mouth world.

One thing he said in the book that stands out in my memory to this day is that revenue is the overarching measurement of successful marketing.

I’d personally argue that profitable growth is the key metric, but I understand his point. Our job is to drive sales.

The reality is, modern marketers need to be able to speak in terms of revenue, ROI, and profitability with our clients and not just in terms of clicks, likes, and engagement.

We need to show how the activities we’re doing are creating financial outcomes—even if it means using proxy metrics like leads and opportunities of other kinds.

We need to know how things like repeat purchase rates, average transaction value, lifetime value, and contribution margins play into our ROI calculations.

When I ran an agency years ago, I focused too much on vanity metrics like page views, website traffic, clicks, time on page, etc.

They had very little to do with actual money. I left it to my clients to figure out if it was a good deal for them.

No good.

Now, I try to sit on their side of the table. I think holistically about how I’m going to help them generate more money—and profit—in a sustainable long-term way.

If you’d like to know how I do that, be sure to register for the workshop on Wednesday at 11 am EST.

It’s for members only, but if you want to buy just the recording and not join the membership, hit reply and I’ll make it available afterward.

Let’s talk money.

—kevin

 

Nobody told me that when I grew up, I’d be a professional marketer.

In fact, when I left school, I had no idea my web development and design skills were even valuable!

I’ve been coding up websites and designing graphics for friends and family since I was a teenager. It turns out, those skills were valuable and would eventually form the basis for what I do today.

Ironically, so much of what we do as marketers is creating and articulating value. It’s our core reason for existing.

And yet, measuring and communicating value can be one of the hardest things to do.

Unless you studied business (and even if you did) it can be hard to put into words the value of our ideas and the outcomes we help create.

I’m going to change that.

Next week, I’ll be doing a training for Mindshare members titled Financial Acumen for Marketers.

Without the ability to speak with CEOs about the tangible value of our work, we can’t with a straight face justify our prices nor the added cost of implementing our ideas.

Not being able to speak in financial terms is costing you money and making your work a lot harder.

In next week’s training, I’m going to explore the various ways to “speak CEO” to help you sell your ideas and measure their results.

We’ll get into concepts like:

• Allowable Acquisition Costs
• Payback Periods
• Budgeting
• Benchmarks
• Profit Margins
• Contribution Margins
• Costs of Goods Sold
• Financial Statements
• Marketing Efficiency Ratios
• Net vs. Gross
• Return on Ad Spend
• Conversion Rates
• Lifetime Value
• Churn
• Cash Flow
• ROI Estimates
• Key Performance Indicators

… and a lot of other things that are usually boring but I will try to make fun. 🙂

At the end of the day, only a handful of these metrics and terms matter most on a day-to-day basis. But they all mean something important and you won’t go far without this fundamental knowledge.

If you want to talk like a CEO and get buy-in from the CFO at the same time, you won’t want to miss this.

For now, it’s a members-only training. And I plan to close the doors for the membership again for a while to do further housekeeping on Monday.

Consider this your second-to-last chance to get in while doors are open!

When you join, you’ll also get access to dozens of hours of training on topics like:

• Business model design
• Generating leads and opportunities
• Methodology and IP development
• Content and copywriting skills
• Templates & processes

As well as a private Slack community, live calls, mentoring, and more.

See you inside: https://indiestrategist.com/membership/

—kevin