Article: How To Introduce
Yourself To A Market, Create Credibility & Flourish
RainToday.com, April 2007
By Vickie K. Sullivan
One of the most popular ways professional service firms
grow is by penetrating new markets. The most common obstacle:
all markets have their favorite suppliers -- companies that
have been there since the Ice Age. How do you create credibility
and attract clients when you are the new kid in town? Here
are two ways to do an end run around the Old Guard.
Apply Your Expertise To The New
Market
Most newbies don't get past the first round of consideration.
Why? It's because the buyer can't see the connection between
your expertise in one area and their challenge in the market
you've decided to enter. The Old Guard can argue, "Well,
it's a different deal over here."
Instead of answering that charge, reconnect the dots. Simply
find that one thing your new prospects will rush to and apply
what you know to that issue. Show how your current expertise
can help them in the quest they're rushing off to.
Example: Next Generation Consulting helps organizations
with multi-generational workforces. A few years ago, CEO Rebecca
Ryan put out a study called "Hot Jobs, Cool Communities"
to highlight where knowledge workers most wanted to live.
National media had a field day with this Top Ten list, and
Rebecca was flooded with calls from a new market, cities interested
in economic development. Five figure speaking engagements
followed, along with lucrative consulting contracts that had
flush economic development budgets.
Next Generation Consulting took what they learned from the
corporate arena and applied it to economic development. The
connection: both markets are interested in knowledge workers,
a group Rebecca knew a lot about. She simply applied her expertise
on this group to a challenge that keeps economic development
folks up at night: how to attract the high-wage worker.
Did buyers care that the company didn't have previous experience
with cities? Nope -- they bought Next Generation's marketing
manifesto on how and why knowledge workers choose where
they live and work.
Recommendation: don't even argue the "you
don't know us" point. Instead, focus on what you do know
better than anyone else and apply that knowledge to a new
challenge. You'll answer this standard objection before it's
ever raised.
Tap Into Trends
Another way to make immediate inroads is to tap into current
trends from the new market--trends that new buyers already
agree with and that set the stage for solutions that you are
already known for.
By taking advantage of trends, you attract the visionary
buyers who want to stay ahead of the competition. This strategy
not only raises the bar, but also takes advantage of one of
the most primitive of aspects human nature, which is the avoidance
of future pain or loss.
Example: Years ago Hollywood deal-maker Ken Kragen
wrote a book applying his star-making strategy to career development.
His best recommendations were about creating events that brand
people, organizations and ideas in competitive markets. These
solutions made, and continue to make, sense in Corporate America,
where event-based marketing and the "experience economy"
is all the rage.
The result? Ken now spends 95% of his time consulting and
producing events with companies such as Cisco, Pepsi and yes,
The Hollywood Reporter.
Ken applied his biggest asset -- prominence in Hollywood
-- to trends that his new market embraced. This opened the
door to high-end clients who respected his high-end work in
another arena. This created the peer-to-peer relationship.
Further, these buyers agreed that both Hollywood and their
markets are fight-to-the-death competitive, and, in those
situations, Ken's clients come out on top. Already-known event
consultants couldn't compete with his experience with such
projects as "We Are the World" and "Hands Across
America."
Recommendation: Look at trends as possible springboards.
Choose which trends put your prominence in the best light
and lead with those. Create a bio and business case that promotes
your work as a solution to what's on your prospect's radar
right now.
Use Marketing Tools Strategically
It's not enough to apply what you know in other areas. New
markets need to see something specific that catches their
eye. It's not enough to attract attention -- you have to create
urgency to act.
So go beyond the standards of writing articles, books or
public speaking to attract new buyers. Just one or two degrees
of specificity can mean the difference between strolling into
a new market and making a grand entrance.
Let's go back to Next Generation Consulting. Their media
campaign did not focus on articles about where knowledge workers
live. Everyone does that. Instead, Rebecca announced a new
study that mixed provocative findings with a manifesto that
redefined what this sought-after group wanted in a community.
Media loves studies, and so she got a lot more play than
if she only wrote an article and distributed it to economic
development journals.
However, many professional service firms put out studies.
So what did Next Generation do to take their study to the
next level? Rebecca got specific.
By making a list and naming names, the study took on a life
of its own. Cities that were on the list publicized the study
and called Rebecca to speak; those that weren't also called
to find out why and how they could get on the Top Ten list.
Either way, Next Generation had a slew of new leads. Best
of all, the list also created anticipation for next year's
findings. That gave the study legs and made Rebecca a rock
star in her new market.
Recommendation: Distributing articles is fine to
keep the branding fires burning. But if you want to make an
entrance, get specific and strategic. Use studies as a springboard
in which you name names. But stay positive; commentary that
diminishes can open you up for libel in this litigious environment.
Your End Run
Professional service firms who build empires hedge their
bets. They not only go vertical in their established markets,
but also do end runs against their competition in new arenas.
Buyers are always looking for a new take on their challenges.
Use that to your advantage, and watch the Old Guard head for
the hills.
Since 1987, Vickie K. Sullivan, President of Sullivan Speaker Services, has generated millions of dollars in speaking fees, book advances and ancilliary income for her clients. Sign up for her free market intelligence at http://www.SullivanSpeaker.com
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