Tuesday, November 6, 2007

How to Be a Successful Author Without a Major Publisher Half-Day Seminar

Only 10 days left to register! In the 21st century, the most successful authors aren't necessarily those signed with major publishers. With the confluence of Internet marketing, digital printing, online sales, and other current factors, it is entirely possible to achieve best-seller status on your own -- and authors are doing it. This information-packed seminar brings two publishing experts to San Diego who are on the leading edge of this publishing revolution. In this exclusive engagement, they'll teach authors exactly how to go up against "Big New York Publishing" and beat them at their own game. Jerry Simmons -- A retired Time-Warner Books vice president, Simmons will share his 25 years' experience in New York publishing, including surprising inside information about the big publishers they don't want authors to know. Based on this, he shares his method for successful authoring (using small and independent publishing avenues) with packed audiences throughout the U.S. on a regular basis. Debbie Allen -- Very few people have the expertise Allen has when it comes to self-promotion. Her knowledge of the subject has attracted thousands of people to her presentations in ten countries around the world. She has achieved best-selling and award-winning status as both a self-published and traditionally published author, and shares her techniques for success in her book Confessions of Shameless Self-Promoters. Register today to reserve your seat as space is limited! This special event, hosted by Publishers & Writers of San Diego, will take place at the Encinitas Community Center, Saturday, November 17, from 9 AM to 1 PM. The fee is $97. For more information, go to www.PublishersWriters.org or email Andrew@PublishersWriters.org.

Beauty and the Geek Present “The Science of Clients” Nov. 16 in Carlsbad

An all-day seminar on “The Science of Clients: How to Win Clients and Influence Referrals” featuring the pair dubbed Beauty and the Geek: Rhonda Sher, author of The Two Minute Networker, and Henry DeVries, author of Client Seduction, will begin 9 am Friday, November 16 at the Carlsbad Village Theatre, 2822 State Street, Carlsbad, CA 92018.

Why are these two authors nicknamed Beauty and the Geek? Sher and DeVries have been married for 27 years, but not to each other. He has an appointment at two universities. She has appointment every week to get her nails done. Both are professional speakers and authors who have teamed to train advertising, marketing, public relations and other professionals on how to find, keep and grow clients.

“You can call us Beauty and the Geek until the Fox attorneys file a awsuit,” says DeVries.

The session will cover how to get more clients, how to charge clients more money and how to smooth over client problems. Cost is $99 in advance at www.scienceofclients.com. For more information visit the Web site www.scienceofclients.com or email info@newclientmarketing.com or call 800-514-4467.Meet Beauty and the GeekClientologist Henry DeVries, MBA is a best-selling author, marketing instructor at UC San Diego Extension, and founder of the New Client Marketing Institute (www.newclientmarketing.com). Rhonda L. Sher is the founder and owner of The Two Minute Networker, one of the nation’s leading networking training companies. Rhonda is the expert at teaching others how to “take the work out of networking.”

Friday, November 2, 2007

Why Should I Give You Money?

What is a “Value Proposition?”

The value proposition for your consulting business is the statement of why your clients should give you money – what do they get in exchange for the money that they pay you?

How do you write one?

One of the toughest yet most important tasks that any business has to undertake is to explain to its customers why they should pay for the company’s products and services. Why should they (your customers and customers) give you money? What is the “value proposition?”

We fly airplanes often as consultants. A question that is often asked of us by our fellow passengers is: “What services do you provide?” followed immediately by “That sounds interesting, who are your customers for that service and why do they need a consultant for that?” In other words, “What is your value proposition?”

Bradley Gale (author of Managing Customer Value and The P.I.M.S. Principle) often speaks of customers making decisions based upon the value of the deal, not the price. After all, if price was the major factor in decision-making wouldn’t we all be driving used Yugos? We aren’t. Why? Chris thinks we make such decisions based upon the utility of what we receive as compared to the price we pay; i.e., the value of the deal, where price has several attributes. The price attributes can range from initial cost to the hassle of dealing with you as a supplier to the long-term costs and many other cost-related factors.

Dr. Gale’s book addresses several issues: What is customer value and how is it managed? Who “owns” it? What are the specialized tools that are used to manage it? What data is needed? The market research elements that Dr. Gale discusses include the “Pain of the Customer,” customer satisfaction survey data and the “House of Quality.”

A value proposition captures the essence of these ideas: what is the utility you receive from our products and services versus what does it cost you? Of course, the better the utilities are described by the marketer or salesperson, the better is the perceived value by the customer. This is where the “Pain of the Customer” fits in. Marketing professionals have known for decades that customers respond best to ads that speak to their pain, both the fact that you understand it and the fact that you can solve it. Recent literature has shown that businesses behave the same way, especially with respect to “hi-tech” products and services. They want their risk of pain alleviated.

Thus, for your value proposition to work, the customer must perceive that his pain or risk of pain will be reduced, or there is an excitement about the positive attributes (features) of your product or service with minimal risk (pain avoidance).

Checklist of 5 Keys to a Great Value Proposition

1. Be able to express the value of your product or service in terms of how it solves or deals with the customer’s pain, or how the customer benefits with minimized risk of pain.
2. Make sure you understand how much that pain costs them in terms of dollars, staff, time, hassle and energy; i.e., the total cost.
3. Be sure to understand the costs of your product and service, both initially and long-term, including the hassles for the customer, if any.
4. Make sure you can articulate the value (the return) on the investment with your company in dollars and cents and when payback should be expected; this necessarily involves analysis of the dollar value of benefits that may not be easily quantified.
5. Be aware of their alternatives (competitors to you or the option of doing nothing) and what advantages you have over each alternative; proper value proposition analysis includes head-to-head comparisons with all of the customer’s choices.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

For Those Who Dream of Writing A Business Book

Being a published author is the quickest path to becoming an expert that attracts new clients. So why doesn’t every professional and consultant have a book?

Thanks to new technologies, today it is not only possible to produce a professional-looking copy of your book for under $1,000, you can also market the book through reputable sales channels.

A decade ago, there weren’t too many options for professionals and consultants to get into print as a book author. If a traditional publisher wasn’t interested in your manuscript, your only other option was to spend tens of thousands of dollars with a subsidy press or custom printer. And then, without ready distribution, good luck trying to sell the books.

But that has all changed because alternative publishers are able to print both paperback and hardcover books as they’re needed due to the bold new digital publishing technology known as “print-on-demand.” Going digital allows books to be produced in small quantities – even one at a time – almost instantaneously. No longer does publishing require behemoth offset presses, hangar-size warehouses, and fleets of trucks.

These alternative publishers have made a conscious decision to offer their services to everyone, rather than give control to an elite clique of editors and agents, as is often true in traditional publishing. While incoming manuscripts are checked for formatting before a new title goes online, alternative publishers do not edit for style and content. These companies do not make value judgments about the literary merit of books. The author decides what the public reads, and the public decides if it makes good reading or not. It is a purely market-driven approach, and allows almost anyone to make a new book available to millions of readers, at a small fraction of the cost of traditional publishing methods.

There are challenges, of course. Because print-on-demand books are not typically stocked on bookstore shelves, authors need to do a good job of marketing through publicity, direct mail and the Internet. But if you are a nonfiction author willing to be a self-promoter and whose book targets an identifiable market, then alternative publishing may be right for you.


Print-on-demand has enormous implications for writers, readers, publishers and retailers. Because titles are produced “on demand,” there are never wasted copies (“remaindered” as they used to be dubbed in the old days). Paperbacks and hardcover books are priced competitively, with authors receiving royalties of 30 percent or more. Compare those with traditional publishing industry standards of five to 15 percent, and the appeal becomes a bit clearer still.

What about the writing? If you can write articles, then you can write a book. And if you can’t, hire a freelance writer to help you do it.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Attracting Clients With Marketing DNA

Before you can begin attracting clients, you need to create a marketing genetic code that is attractive to clients. All of your marketing messages, from networking discussions to speeches, will contain the elements of this marketing DNA. Here are 10 steps that will help you create these all-important marketing genes.
1. Create a business name or a Web site name that gives potential clients a hint at the results you can produce for them. The worst possible name or Web site name is your name. Sorry to say, clients don’t want us, they want results.
2. Write a headline for your Web site and marketing materials that describes your audience and the results you produce for them. Do this in no more than 10 words. Mine is “We help professionals and consultants attract all they clients they need.”
3. Name your client’s pain. What are your client’s worries, frustrations and concerns that you help solve? This is also called the FUD factor: fear, uncertainty and doubt.
4. Describe your solution or methodology for solving these pains. What process do you follow to produce results? Offering a proprietary problem-solving process that you name and trademark is best. This answers the all-important question in their minds: “Why should I do business with you instead of one of your competitors?”
5. State the common misperception that holds many back from getting results. Why doesn’t everybody do what you named in step 4?
6. Tell your clients what they need to do in general to solve their problem. Pretend they weren’t hiring you and you had to describe the steps they should take for success.
7. List any other benefits they get from following your methods. What other good things do people get when they do what you advise?
8. Elaborate on your track record of providing measurable results for clients. Be specific as much as possible. Use numbers, percentages and time factors.
9. Create a Web site with free tips articles on how to solve these pains. Each article should be about 300 to 600 words. What’s a good format? Consider the numbered tips approach you are reading right now (easy to write, easy to read).
10. Make prospects an offer of a free special report on your Web site. You are offering to trade them a valuable piece of information for their email address. Tell them they will also receive a tips enewsletter from you. Assure them you will maintain their privacy and they can easily opt off your list any time they want.
Want to learn more tips for creating Marketing DNA that attracts more clients than you can handle, without breaking the bank? Attend our one-day workshop in Carlsbad, CA on November 16, 2007. For more info visit the Web site www.scienceofclients.com .

Friday, October 5, 2007

Four Ways To Win Clients

Here are the four conversations you need to master to optimize revenues:

1. What to say to attract more potential clients to contact you (how to get more at bats)
2. What to say to get to yes with more clients (how to raise your batting average)
3. How to talk about money in non-manipulative yet persuasive ways (how tomake more money per client)
4. What to say to up sell, cross sell and help sell existing and past clients (how to increase the lifetime value of clients)

With clients, there is a big difference between the right word and nearly the right word. Based on our research with more than 1,000 clients, we take a fun approach to the biggest mistakes people make with clients and how to overcome them. In addition to our own surveys, we’ve also tied in with research findings from the Harvard Business School.

Our seminars include detailed instructions on how the most successful small business owners and professionals handle four conversations that increase revenues: how to attract more potential clients to contact you (how to get more at bats), how to get to yes with more clients (how to raise your batting average), how to make more money per client, and how to increase the lifetime value of clients.

You will gain hundreds of pragmatic, real-world strategies for immediately filling your pipeline with qualified prospects and easily converting them into clients. Plus many, many tips on what to say to smooth over the inevitable rough spots with every client.If you’re a consultant, independent professional, business coach, service business owner, trainer, author, speaker or infopreneur of any kind, this program is designed specifically for you. Or maybe you’re reading this because you’ve had the urge to lead workshops or retreats…to connect on a profound level with a group of people for a few hours, or a full day or even a weekend. This is the program that will get you in front of prospects.

Here is an invitation to a coming event:

How To Win Clients and Influence Referrals
A Full-Day Science of Clients Seminar
Presented by Beauty and the Geek, Rhonda Sher and Henry DeVries
November 16, 2007 in Carlsbad, CA

Who Should Attend?

A fun and profitable day for everyone who works with clients, including insurance agents, real estate professionals, consultants, advertising and PR pros, accountants, small business owners, attorneys, and financial planners.

What You Will Learn

  • How to bring in more business
  • Five ways to easily manage clients
  • How to smooth over problems with clients
  • Where to network, what to say to connect with people and how to grow relationships
  • The only three ways to increase revenues
  • The seven deadly sins of working with clients and how not to fall prey to temptation
  • How to fill your pipeline with qualified prospects in 30 days
  • The three biggest communications mistakes and how to overcome them
  • Why you need to do more listening and less talking to prospects and clients
  • A proven process for getting a 400% to 2000% marketing ROI
  • How to increase new client sign up rates by 50%


What Others Say

“Client Seduction is indeed an alluring process to attract prospects cost-effectively and rapidly. This is an ideal resource for the entrepreneur beginning any type of professional services firm.”
Alan Weiss, author of Million-Dollar Consulting


“Thank you Rhonda for this gem of a book.”
Bob Burg, author Endless Referrals

“The 2 Minute Networker identifies the personal characteristics and information necessary to be successful at networking the first time you implement them. Thank you Rhonda for such a comprehensive yet easy to implement networking bible!”
Scott Shilling, speaker, author, and “Streetwise” Sales Consultant

“Your new-client-generating process has created a real advantage for us in the IT consulting marketplace. Overall we estimate that our closed deals have increased by about 25%, and the quality of our leads has dramatically improved."
C. David Brown, Solutions Consulting Group


“There was nothing in the least bit racy about Client Seduction - but then, we were probably foolish to expect it. What we found, instead, was tip after useful tip to help professional service firms generate and follow up on client leads. Author Henry DeVries, of the New Client Marketing Institute, has assembled a trove of lead generation and marketing information that ranges from the common sense to the revelatory.”
Practical Accountant magazine


“The author exposes the myths that often cripple well intended marketing efforts and provide a step-by-step approach to strengthening your ‘Client Seduction’ plan. A practical reference every IT services executive should read.”
Michael R. Thomas, Unisys


“I attended Henry’s half-day presentation to the PRSA San Diego chapter this summer and walked away with so many solid, business-generating ideas that I knew my practice would grow to the next level. And it has! Henry’s ideas are energizing, make sense and best of all, make money. If Warren Buffet is the guru of stock investing, then Henry DeVries is the guru of how to win clients. He gave me an idea that cost me $150 per month that immediately netted me an $18,000 contract (with an option to renew for another $18,000 in six months).”
Marisa Vallbona, APR, CIM Incorporated


“In addition to our mini-seminars, a local business newspaper with circulation throughout the county agreed to publish my own column on a monthly basis directed specifically at one of our most desirable target markets. We accomplished more in six months with Henry than in the past three years on our own.”
David R. Hickey, Corradino, Hickey & Hansen

“Finally, an actually easy to read system that guides the reader through the process of networking at its essence. A simple masterpiece.”
Greg Reid, #1 best selling author, the Millionaire Mentor


“Thanks for contributing your talent and expertise to the MBA-In-A-Day Forum. Your evaluations were 4.9 on a 5-point scale!”
Tom Stubberud, MBA-In-A-Day


“Client Seduction will help you attract more prospects and generate more business than ever before. Read this one over and over, and refer to it again and again.”
Mark LeBlanc, author of Growing Your Business! and president of the National Speakers Association


"We saw 5 times ROI within the first 12 months we began working with you, and with your help we were able to double the size of our business in a little over a year."
Steve Fabry, President, Master Manuals, Inc.

“Client Seduction will shorten significantly your learning curve on how you could get and keep clients. This book is packed with research- and experience-driven lessons useful for anyone who provides professional services.”
Glen Broom, Ph.D., author of Effective Public Relations


“Your ideas in the past year on how to promote our services through educational forums like Webinars have been real winners. These events have boosted sales and helped position us as the thought leaders in our industry. The response rate for these online seminars has ranged from 2.1% to 7.5% and our return on investment to date has been more than 2000%.”
Natacha Hosy, Harte-Hanks


“My revenues for this year will be at least double to what they were last year.”
Nancy Juetten, Nancy Juetten Marketing


“Thanks to the help of Henry and the New Client Marketing Institute I was able to add more than $100,000 in additional income in two years."
Boaz Rauchwerger, author and one of top three speakers for Vistage (formerly TEC)

Meet Beauty and the Geek

Clientologist Henry DeVries, MBA is a best-selling author and founder of the New Client Marketing Institute (www.newclientmarketing.com). His mission is to provide the latest knowledge to small business owners who want to grow their business and professionals who want to sell more products and services. Henry says his life highlights include teaching at UC San Diego and Cal State University Northridge, completing specialized studies at the Harvard Business School, and coming within one question of winning $13,000 on the TV game show Jeopardy!


Prior to founding the New Client Marketing Institute in 1999, he was a senior executive at a $5 billion insurance and financial services organization and used these systems to generate more than 100,000 qualified leads a year. He also was president of an advertising agency where his systems helped double billings and land the firm in the Ad Age 500. His work in the real estate industry won more than 100 awards and sold more than $1 billion in homes.


Rhonda L. Sher is the founder and owner of The Two Minute Networker, one of the nation’s leading networking training companies. Rhonda is the expert at teaching others how to “take the work out of networking.”


Her book, The Two Minute Networker, was a result of her “hands-on” experience in sales and marketing. Whether it’s strategic partners, new clients or simply new ways to meet referral sources, or to learn how to follow-up, Rhonda has a simple system to share with you to take your business to the next level.


In describing her book, Bob Burg, author of the mega best-seller Endless Referrals, said: “What a terrific book. Nuggets and nuggets of golden wisdom on the art and science of creating win-win business relationships. Not only has Rhonda used her system to build several of her own ultra-successful businesses, but she willingly and generously shares exactly how you can do it too.”

Admission


Normally $495 per person, we are charging only $129 at the door and $99 in advance because we are videotaping and want a big audience. Includes networking lunch hosted by edotspeakers.com, a professional group for business people who speak to promote their business and career.

November 16, 2007
9 am to 3:30 pm
Carlsbad Village Theatre
2822 State Street
Carlsbad, CA 92018
How To Buy Tickets
Visit www.sceinceofclients.com

Directions and Free Parking
Take Interstate 5 to the Carlsbad Village exit. Go west and then turn right at State Street. Park at any of the free parking lots in the area.

15 Ways to Find Clusters of Clients

Are you struggling to grow your business? Do you hate to sell yourself to prospective clients?

The secret is to parlay your expertise into great business leads through speeches and seminars. Use public speaking to position yourself as an expert, obtain valuable publicity, build your reputation and even promote a favorite cause or issue.

You probably already know that public speaking, albeit a struggle for many, is the best way to build credibility. But did you know that speeches and seminars are also the best way to keep your pipeline filled with qualified prospects? There is a proven process for marketing with integrity and getting an up to 400% to 2000% return on your marketing investment. At the New Client Marketing Institute we call it the Educating Expert Model, and the most successful professional service and consulting firms use it to get more clients than they can handle. The findings of our 8-year, $2 million research study about how the most successful professional and consulting firms use this model were published in our book, Client Seduction.

For starters, don’t waste your marketing dollars on advertising and brochures that merely assert your competence. The best proactive lead generation strategy is to regularly demonstrate your expertise by giving informative and entertaining talks in front of targeted groups of potential new clients. The trick is knowing who to contact to get booked as a speaker developing a topic that will draw the right audience.

Want proof? In 1991 a random survey of the top 1,000 U.S. law firms found that 89 percent held at least one client seminar per year. In 1999, 94 percent of law firms were regularly holding seminars. Lawyers at the top 1,000 firms ranked seminars as the most effective tool for cross-selling and gaining new clients (Source: FGI Research, 1999).

Here are the top 15 places for the professional or consultant who speaks to find or create a perfect audience:

1. Small-scale seminars and group consultations that you host with 4 to 8 in attendance
2. Public seminars that you or others promote and charge admission to attend
3. In-house workshops that pay you to present to one company only
4. Local and national association meetings where you are a break out session speaker, panelist or a roundtable moderator
5. Radio and television shows that interview you for how-to advice
6. CEO peer group meetings like Vistage (formerly TEC), Inner Circle and Renaissance
7. College courses and extended education programs, like the ones offered through university extension programs
8. Public workshop companies like The Learning Annex that pay you a percentage of the gate
9. Chamber of commerce events, from monthly breakfasts to special workshops and seminars
10. Teleseminars and Webinars that you put on or that others invite you to speak at
11. Promoter 50/50 seminars and expos where you are invited to speak and sell an information product and split the proceeds with the person staging the event
12. Pre-recorded audio and video products that you sell on your Web site
13. Service club speeches to groups like the Rotary Club and Lion’s Club
14. Multi-level marketing organizations that pull together people who sell for them
15. Churches that offer public programs