Four Steps, Four Days to Marketing Yourself As a Consultant

Today's economy has turned a lot of valuable employees into consultants. You have oodles of specific knowledge, you know there are companies that can use it, and you want to launch your own consulting business. Trouble is, you are an engineer, an operations manager, an financial analyst, a technical writer... not a marketer.By now you've figured out that marketing yourself as a consultant requires specific action - it's definitely not a case of, "If you build it, they will come." Never fear, I have some ideas to help you establish your reputation as an expert, get your name out there, and begin building your consulting business by the end of the week!Day #1 - Your Marketing PlanYou don't have to spend weeks putting together your business or marketing plan, and you don't have to pay someone to do it for you. The real value of putting together a solid plan is the way it makes you think through different scenarios, the competition, and the product you will be offering. A really great plan will also keep you on track as you build your business and it should be considered a working document - edit and change it as frequently as necessary.Answer each of the following questions in writing and please don't take more than 15 minutes per.Who is your ideal client? Consider size of company, industry, for profit or not. This is your absolute ideal, not a listing of any type of company that might be able to use your services. Describe who you want to work for. Focused marketing will pay off far greater than a shotgun approach.What work do you want to do? Similar to the first question, describe your ideal work. If you would like, you can create a separate description for secondary work.How do you want to work? Telecommute, onsite, or a combination? Do you want to travel?Why does your ideal client want you? Describe your core competencies and how you are different from the average consultant.Now you need to flip it over - What type of client business do you not want to work for? What work do you not want to do? How do you not want to work?Day #2 - Your ResumeYou do need to put some time in to presenting your experience and core competencies in a couple of different ways. First, start with your standard resume. There is much material available on creating a great resume so I'll not spend time on that topic. Once your resume is complete, create the following three complimentary items:One Sheet
Online Bio
Elevator SpeechA One Sheet is marketing collateral about your consulting business, designed to pique the interest of the reader. Where your resume is a professional, legal document that describes in detail where you have been, your One Sheet summarizes where you are going. Use present tense, bullets, lots of white space. Your One Sheet should be able to be read or scanned in a very short amount of time and provide a brief overview of your talents.Next, continue to distill your marketing message down to a 30-second statement that speaks to your value proposition. Your elevator speech is not your job title. When someone asks you what you do and you answer, "I am a consultant," you've just missed an opportunity to market yourself to an interested party. Your elevator speech should tell a story about who you are and what drives you.I am on a mission to assist microbusiness owners in using the Internet to grow their business, interact with customers and clients, and level the playing field against much larger competition. The term "small business" is a misnomer -- there is a vast difference in resources between a small-business with as many as 500 employees, and the entrepreneur who is going it alone. I have first-hand knowledge of the challenges that face these solopreneurs and I help them use Web 2.0 technologies to reach huge audiences with nothing but a great product, a laptop, and a pile of creativity.Finally, create an awesome online bio to be used primarily on LinkedIn and your blog.Judi Young is a writer and entrepreneur on a mission to assist small and micro businesses worldwide in joining the online conversation. Follow her blog..., where you can also link to her on Facebook and Twitter. Day # 3 - Social NetworkingSocial etiquetteHow successful would you be at a live business networking event if you came in like a politician 10 minutes late to a campaign stop -- in a mad hurry to shake every hand and pass out brochures and free pens, spieling off your top three campaign promises, not interested in chatting with and getting to know people, only in talking about yourself, your services, your consulting business. Believe it or not, there are people right now treating social networking as a campaign stop. It's the biggest mistake you can make.Instead, treat your online socializing and networking connections as you treat real live people at networking events:Listen 80%, Talk 20%
Always be polite and respectful
Offer and provide assistance, advice, information
Provide your online business card (web or blog address) for more informationIf you connect with someone who likes and respects you, and has a need for your services, they will seek you out.FacebookYou may already have a personal Facebook page. It is acceptable, even encouraged, to provide your professional contacts a glimpse into your personal life-to a degree. If you use Facebook regularly to keep up with friends and family, post pictures, and make political statements, you may want to consider whether your Facebook activity puts you in the best possible light with your clients. Maintaining a Facebook page is not critical to your success as a consultant, so you may wish to continue using Facebook as your personal site and rely on LinkedIn to socialize professionally. Tip: Farmville, MafiaWars, and other Facebook applications are generally considered to be in bad form in a professional environment.LinkedInLinkedIn is the most important site for a consultant to be active on. How did we connect with past colleagues, current business contacts, and other professionals prior to LinkedIn? Once you have your resume and marketing plan completed, sign up for a LinkedIn personal account (free) and start connecting. The initial LinkedIn process will walk you through connecting to colleagues already in their database. You cannot have too many connections on LinkedIn, so reach out to everyone you have worked with no matter how long ago. Next, connect to everyone you currently do business with-your real estate agent, your insurance agent, your lawyer, baker, and your children's teacher.Now comes the tough part: You must get recommendations in order to build Social Proof. Ask for 20 recommendations via LinkedIn today. Right now. LinkedIn makes it very easy. Just locate the Recommendations selection under Profile and select as many as 200 of your contacts. You can use the standard LinkedIn text in your request or customize it with your own words. LinkedIn sends out an individual message to each of the contacts you specified with your request for a recommendation. Now return the favor. Without being prompted, write recommendations for people you've worked with. View a few recommendations first and simply follow the format.LinkedIn groups are an excellent way to begin to establish yourself as an expert in your field and to provide assistance to your new connections worldwide. Search out and join all groups that are interesting. You can find groups based on your industry, hobbies, geographic location, alma mater (don't forget high school), and so on. For the purposes of networking for your consulting business, select groups with more than 1,000 members. LinkedIn limits the number of groups to which you can belong to 50, and some groups require approval by a group manager so there may be a bit of a wait before you can join.Once you join groups that are interesting to you, spend a bit of time perusing active discussions for the group before you dive in and begin answering questions.Finally, status updates-it is important for you to begin posting your status at least three times per day. You can reference a good article you read online (use /bit.ly to shorten URLs), tell everyone what you are working on, or talk about what you had for breakfast. The important thing is that you provide some insight to your day, show that you are being productive, and stay connected.TwitterUnless you want to consult in social media, it is not necessary that you become a twitterer. Tweeting regularly could help you up your social cred and increase contacts, however it is something you can undertake on day five and beyond.Day #4 - Article Marketing and Your Blog LinkedIn and Article Marketing are the one-two punch of your marketing strategy. You will begin writing industry-specific articles that establish you as a thought-leader and a subject-matter expert and you will publish them to your blog. You will also blast them out to Article Marketing sites and to Digg.Article Marketing simply means publishing your original article to the Internet via sites that are dedicated to distributing such articles. Effective Article Marketing increases your overall exposure and establishes you as an expert in your field.Your blog primarily exists as a landing place to hold your articles and allow your community to connect with you. Yahoo, Google, and Posterous are very quick and easy blogs to set up. I use and love Wordpress, but will admit that there was a learning curve in understanding the interface, setting up widgets and so on. I recommend you set up a very easy blog to begin and roll that in to a more advanced platform down the road.Writing and publishing articles for mass consumption is a bit daunting, so I've come up with this quick exercise to help. Find a kitchen timer and set it for 2 hours.1. Create a free account on EzineArticles.2. Create a free account on Digg.3. Write an industry-specific article, in under 90-minutes.Unless you regularly write for your industry, you might have a problem getting started. I personally stared off in to space for two days trying to think of a topic. Just pick something, anything, to get you started. Your second article will be much better, and the third better than that. How about the top 5 things I need to know about your industry? Or top 5 things to consider when hiring a consultant?4. Publish your article on EzineArticles and Digg.Whew. You did it. Ok, so I rushed you and this first one probably won't get picked up, but the publishing process should no longer be scary. Pretty soon you will be jotting down article ideas on gum wrappers while stuck in traffic.There are many other Article Marketing distribution sites that you can use; a quick Google search will produce many hits. Try businessknowhow and buzzle, and then find more on your own.Each time you write a new article, spend a few minutes searching discussion forums for appropriate conversations. Quote your article as an answer to a question and be sure to provide a link to your blog.Day #5 and Ongoing- Use Your ResourcesJust as you will be giving away some of your key knowledge in order to establish credibility, so are others. There is much free, valuable information on the Internet. Check out my blog to find links to sites aimed at small and micro business owners and more tips.

Avoid Major Pitfalls of Promoting CPA Offers - Be Assured of Creating Wealth

CPA marketing is a great way of making money from the comfort of your own home. Lots of people have tasted success by doing things right but more people have retired discouraged. If you know how to avoid the major pitfalls of promoting CPA offers you will be able to take your internet marketing business to great heights.There are undoubted advantages of doing CPA marketing. You may have heard stories of the millions of dollars that expert marketers have made because of their knowledge of how to work the system. You too can make a lot of money if you avoid committing certain common mistakes.The first of these mistakes is promoting a product that is, simply put, bad. You may be tempted by the higher commission that this product offers, but if it is a bad product you may not be able to make any revenue off it. A wiser decision would be to check if there is a similar product that fits your niche that is very popular with customers. You may earn less per customer but your total revenue could go through the roof. This was just one example of the major pitfalls of promoting CPA offers but it indicates that you have to have your wits about you.Another mistake is to be inflexible. Don't be afraid to shift to another niche if the one you are focusing on does not have enough customers. Your objective, after all, is to use the internet to make money. Don't go for products that offer smaller commissions. You will simply be wasting your time on them. It would be far easier to promote a similar product that gives you better returns.A big mistake that many marketers make is that over time they gain confidence in their abilities to convert customers that they even consider promoting shady products with fantastic claims. Never commit this mistake because it will cause you to lose your credibility with your regular followers.Another common error that marketers do is to ignore important numbers such as conversion rates and pay per click bids. You should never invest disproportionate amounts of your precious time on a project that does not yield much. You should be adept at number crunching so that you can move onto something that rewards your efforts better.These pitfalls are very easily encountered and therefore you require to be equipped to handle them better. Learn from expert marketers on how to make your internet business a profitable proposition. There are many resources that you could choose from and learn step by step methods on how to make money by internet marketing. This is the best way that you can learn how to make money on the internet rather that lose heart and drop it entirely.These training materials are very easy to follow and are written in a language that even absolute beginners can follow. Buy one now and see your profits begin to multiply in no time at all.

The Tortoise and the Hare in MLM

We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare, right? They are in a race, the hare starts off fast and looks as though he will win, but he tires himself out and the tortoise wins after all.This story is especially dear to me since I have a pet tortoise. She is stubborn, persistent, and seems to be fearless. I SO admire Gertrude!In the MLM world, I would liken the hare to the person who sponsors a ton of people very fast. This person makes a bunch of money and it looks like they are destined for success. So what's the downside?To be a great leader, you need to take the time to ensure that the people you bring in are successful too. You need to coach and mentor people until they can stand on their own most of the time. Now, if you have a good system to use then some of this work will be done for you. But I feel you still need to make personal contact with your team members to point them to resources, reassure them that they are on the right track when they aren't getting results, and answer their questions. You need to do 3-way calls to their prospects with them, or help them with presentations, until they can do these on their own. How many people can you effectively coach at one time? Maybe 10 or 20? I talked to one man who sponsored 1500 people in a couple of months. How much coaching was going on there? If you can place people under someone else who has time to help them, that is fine. But if you have done a good job of training your people, they won't need you to do that for very long.What I think typically happens to "the hare" in MLM is:People don't duplicate
People drop out
People consider changing sponsorship if possible to find a good coachSo they build a big team fast, but it just might fall apart on them if they don't have some tortoises on their team.What does the tortoise do differently?Builds relationships
Chooses the people they really want on their team
Coachs and mentors everyone until they can work independentlyThe tortoise's team will not grow so fast at first. But it will endure. The people will be loyal and productive because they got the education and help they needed. In the end, the tortoise can retire with a nice residual income because there will be plenty of leaders to keep the team going. And isn't that what we all want from MLM?

Internet and Network Marketing - How Does the Internet and Network Marketing Relate to Each Other?

I have been told, that at least 50 million people all over the world are engaged in some kind of Network Marketing. Why is that? It is because people are not stupid, and it does not take a financial expert to see, that times have changed. No employment or pension is secure anymore, and we as individuals have to think in terms of taking charge of our own life and thinking in completely new ways of making a living.Remember: To get what you have never had, you have to do what you have never done...Network Marketing contains that. A way out of the rat race...To do Network Marketing successfully, you need to get in contact with a lot of other people to create a network of people you can do business with. In the days where the concept of network marketing was developed, the networking part was naturally based on personal contact and the telephone. The amount of people to reach at a time was limited to how many people you were able to gather at a meeting or how may people you could call in a day. From this comes probably the phrase: "It is a numbers game. You just have to talk to enough people to get success."There was no internet at the time, so we have to bear with them ;-)Today the internet is a HUGE, unbelievably fast growing and very effective way to reach out to thousands and thousands of people. In a way, it is still a numbers game, but do you believe that the numbers are just a teeny weeny bit bigger than before? And there are numerous ways to let people find YOU, instead of you chasing THEM. THAT is the only logical way to approach network marketing today. Many, many people are already using the internet to promote their business. But most of them do not even begin to understand its full potential. To do that, you must be willing to spend the time and effort that it takes to gradually learn how you can use it.Do not try to figure it all out by yourself!It does not require a higher technical examination but you can easily get lost in the vast jungle of different concepts and options. With the right teachers who really know what they are talking about you can learn, step by step, to navigate around on the internet, to benefit from its huge potential and possibilities and choose exactly THE marketing strategy, that is right for YOU.I repeat: To get what you have never had, you have to do what you have never done... But who said you have to do it alone?

Network Marketing Today - Why So Many Struggle in Network Marketing Today

If you have ever been in a network marketing company you already know how closed minded the leaders are. If it's something they don't know anything about they say it doesn't work. The MLM leaders built their business the old way and just don't want to believe that some new marketer can come into their business and blow them away with a few simple internet strategies.Do you know how many times I used to hear, our product or services can't be marketed on the internet. If you use your companies sales page to market your business, they are right, pasting your companies web site all over the internet doesn't work, yet I see people doing it all the time.You don't have to go door to door and pester all your friends and family anymore. You can literally build your downline and start getting those fat residual checks in a fraction of the time those closed minded leaders in your company did. You need to learn how to use technology to your advantage and learn how the masters are dominating the Network Marketing IndustryTo many people put to much emphasis on building their business through their network marketing company and that is exactly the wrong way to look at it. All those top producers that have been leaders in their company for years have earned a lot of money building their business around their company. What happens if that company falls on hard times or gets sued and has to close its doors. What happens to your residual income that you worked so hard for. Its GONE! If there is no more product or services, there is no more residual.Learn to brand yourself and build your business around YOU not your company. When you learn to use these strategies you will be able to dominate any MLM company out there in a very short time.

Three Reasons People Struggle Within Multi Level Marketing - Is Your MLM Biz Stuggling?

Just the other day I ran into a long time friend of mine and he told me how he was having a lot of success within a couple different multi level marketing companies. When he told me about his success I was quite shocked, everyone that I've ever talked to that was involved with a MLM company usually would tell me how they were struggling to make any money.I told my friend about my frequent conversations with people that were struggling and close to failure within their multi level marketing company. My friend gave me a few tips of having success within any MLM company and I would like to share them with you.1. Lack of TrainingA lot of people that get involved with MLM companies have never had any prior experience in networking, selling, business communication, etc. You'll find that once you get involved with a MLM company that they don't provide you with much training. You pretty much receive your products, get a few words of encouragement, and then you're on your own. If you get involved with a multi level marketing company and you don't have any experience at all, you've got to hound those people above you for information and tips.2. Laziness and InconsistencyOne of the biggest appeals to multi level marketing companies is that they allow you to work from home and create your own schedule. What a lot of people don't realize is that I can be awfully hard to motivate yourself to work when you don't have a boss looking over your shoulder. There are a lot of things at home that can distract a person from working, things such as: family, TV, errands, neighbors, pets, etc. You can't work for a couple hours a week and expect to make tons of money. You've got to work hard for a consistent period.3. Inability to Follow Up with ProspectsSome people are really good at finding people and getting them to hear about a certain business opportunity but they fail to follow up with the prospect. Most people will not get involved with a business after hearing about it once, meaning you've got to follow up with them. You can be afraid to ask them what they're thinking and if they see themselves getting involved or not. A business owner will have a hard time making any money if they don't follow up with their prospects.A lot of people have this idea that stay at home businesses are easy and that with hardly any work a person will make millions. If this was the case everyone would have their own stay at home business. Creating success while working from home requires a lot of hard work and dedication.

Do You Have a Subconscious Desire to Win in Your Network Marketing Business?

If you don't know the definition of "winning," how can you ever be a winner in your network marketing business? I would like to share with you 5 ways that people win to help you find out subconsciously what "winning" means to you. After all isn't that what "winning" it is all about...The five (5) ways people win are:1) You Win When You Are Comfortable: This is the person who feels that sense of accomplishment. His primary goal is to go through life as comfortably as possible. He does not function well under pressure. He really do not want to be pushed or challenged.He will always try to avoid conflict. Basically, he just wants to go through life on cruise control. Hanging out with his friends and having a good time! Everything is designed to support his pursuit of comfort. This would probably fit in the category of an employee. Someone who would be more than happy to have a safe, stable, comfortable job.If you challenge this type of person, you could really push a button and look out!2) You Win by Being Liked: This person's primary goal in life is to be liked by others. They want to be popular, and seek acceptance from everyone. This type of person will do just about anything to reach that goal. They would rather be liked, than to be right or wrong.A person like that in a leadership role in business will usually fail. They are not willing to make hard core decisions for fear of upsetting someone. They will try to please everyone all the time. They are motivated by being liked by others.3) You Win By Being Right: This person is usually an expert in a specified area like a doctor or lawyer. This kind of person usually wins by being right they do not accept criticism, and are close minded to new ideas.They reach a glass ceiling when it comes to relationships, money, and their career. They will end relationships, because they cannot accept their short-comings. They find it hard to move past them and achieve personal growth!!! If you debate with this kind of person, you will never win. They will always prove you wrong.This person must always be right.4) You Win By Winning: This person is an achiever. Their primary focus is to win! They are very competitive, and will do whatever it takes to win. They will not yield, and will always stay the course! This is a person who is consistently pushing to have success.Mark Twain said it best; "if you want to be successful, find out where the successful are heading and get their first"! I would describe this person as successful entrepreneurs and athletes. To win is their reward!However, some will compromise their integrity to "win". This type of person does not care if others like him or not. He always welcomes challenge because that is what provides him with new opportunity to win!This is the way I win... I win by winning. I am constantly evaluating and improving myself. I will do whatever it takes, (with integrity), to be the best. Period.!?5) You Win By Losing: This person wins by being a victim. They want sympathy and declare within that it is not possible to win.Living life always filled with problems because they do not win unless they lose. They create circumstances and excuses! The negative mindset that "You can't teach me anything new"..."I don't have the money"..."This is another one of those pyramid schemes"..."I think I will give it a try..."When I was exposed to the ways that people win, I took a long hard look at my life. There are people who are not wealthy because they want to be comfortable. There are people as well, who are not healthy because they want to be comfortable. There are many people who are stuck in the same job because they want to be liked. As well there are people who are "addicted" to struggle because they win by losing.Most likely if you are like me, you see a little of yourself in each of these 5 ways I just described. The most important thing to remember about winning is that, winning is a continuous process. It is over once you have won, and that now becomes an event!As soon as you have "won", the process starts all over again. Now you call that a victory!!!Once I am inspired by a new goal, my whole focus goes back to "winning". This is where I am right now. I do not know where you are at this moment in your life, but I do know that entrepreneurs win by winning. They do whatever it takes to fulfill that subconscious desire.If your subconscious desire is to "win", and win big in networking or your home business, you must have a strong "WHY"! If you have a strong enough "why", your "how to" will become simple! Now ask yourself, why do you really want to win?If you REALLY want to win in this industry, and recognize that you are not where you would like to be in your business I can guarantee you that it is because you haven't' mastered the art of Marketing! You have complete power over what you choose for your future! This could be your chance to reinvent yourself, and begin to win in business.Until you learn how to:a) Build a list. b) Build a relationship with the people on that list. c) Market to that list, you will NEVER get the results you want, no matter how many companies you join.If you want to "win by winning", you must first learn how to MARKET!

Cost Effective Lead Generation Strategies

Lead Generation can be one of the most costly expenses of any network marketing business. There are many what I call routes to market, but most of them cost money - lots of it. The problem with costly lead generation strategies such as Pay Per Click, PPC, buying lead lists or advertising on job boards is that a new network marketer will run out of money before they can develop an income to cover the costs. This leads to a high dropout rate in many network marketing businesses.There are two stages to a lead generation strategy in network marketing. Start with people you know and move on to people you don't know.The first and cheapest method of generating leads is your personal contact list or network. By the time you are 21 you already know about 2000 people which is a great resource, so don't discount talking to people you know. At the very least you should be telling people what you are doing so they can't turn around once you're a top earner and ask why you did not tell them about your opportunity. Many top network marketing business have started with the warm list as it is know.The next strategy is used when new network marketers claim to not have a big contact list, or may have already worked through theirs. What's next? This is where I have done several years of research and have come up with a highly duplicatable low cost lead generation system.The basic principle is that let's say you sell widgets - find people who want to buy widgets. When you're selling a network marketing opportunity, don't look for people who are looking for jobs. Look for people who are already sold on network marketing but may be struggling with their current one.The goal of any marketer is to get highly qualified leads for the lowest cost and there are a few great products on the market which help you achieve this. I have managed to develop a lead generation strategy which is largely self funding. That means that I can generate an infinite number of leads with little or no cost. In addition, the leads are highly qualified and have a high conversion ratio.In conclusion, firstly make use of your existing contact list as it's free and there is nothing to delay you. While you are doing that, start to develop your longer term suitable lead generation strategy using Magnetic Sponsoring. A combination of both will ensure you have leads to work on right away and a long term supply of qualified leads.