Personal marketing skills involve creating visibility, meeting people - the right people - keeping track of them, building positive long-term relationships, interacting with these contacts to help meet work-related goals and nurturing the relationships.
The relationships you develop with clients, referral sources, alliances and others in the community must be maintained and nurtured. An analogy that paints a picture of how contact management works is to think of an irrigation system. Suppose you raise vegetables. Each vegetable has unique requirements for soil, fertilizer, water, pest control, sunlight and the growing season. (Boy, do I sound like I have a Green Thumb?) No responsible farmer, or for that matter, anyone with the smallest tomato plant, expects to water, fertilize and harvest all plants in the same fashion and on the same timetable. If you program the irrigation system, all the variables are taken into account and the water and fertilizer are adjusted accordingly.
We need to approach our clients with the same scrutiny. Not all clients need the same attention or personal contact. You should think of your marketing strategy as an irrigation system that maintains your client, prospect and referral source contacts. This can take lots of planning and follow-through but once the process is in place, it's a lot easier to maintain.
Research found that before 1977 you could sell between four and six contacts. In 1990, it took from four to nine contacts. By 1992, it was nine to 12 contacts. Today, it is estimated to take 12 to 15 contacts with a prospect to produce enough time, trust and need to convert a targeted prospect to a client.
Since few of us have the time to meet face-to-face with every single person your marketing strategy becomes critical. Only some of these contacts will be face-to-face or on the telephone. Others will be:
- Various marketing pieces
- Direct mail and advertising
- Articles you have written or you were quoted as a resource
- Newsletters
- Issue or interest-related articles
- Speeches and seminars
- Word of mouth
- Email, Internet and your website
- Personal experiences with you
Building relationships can be very time consuming but in the end it can benefit you as well as them. I urge you to put together a systematic approach that will allow you to stay in contact with your clients, prospects and referral sources and nurture them each accordingly.