If you know me, you know I am a movie buff. Many of the ad, digital, and PR agency owners I work with are movie buffs too.
A favorite film is The Magnificent Seven, a 1960 American western film directed by John Sturges and starring Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, and Horst Buchholz.
The motion picture is an Old-West-style remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Japanese-language film Seven Samurai.
Some prefer the 2016 remake starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt.
In my training events for ad and digital marketing agency owners, I often talk about “The Magnificent Seven” secrets to fill a dusty sales pipeline with right-fit prospects. The same secrets hold true for business consultants, coaches, and high-end services.
Here is my list in rank order:
1. Free or low-cost small-scale seminars. The best proactive tactic you can employ is to regularly invite prospects by mail and e-mail to small seminars or group consultations. If your prospects are spread out geographically, you can do these briefings via webinars and Zoominars. These can’t be sixty-minute commercials. You need to present valuable information about how to solve the problems that your prospects are facing, and then a little mention about your services.
2. How-to speeches at client industry meetings. People want to hire experts, and an expert is invited to speak. Actively seek out forums to speak and list past and future speaking dates on your website.
Don’t forget to feature podcasts in your speaking outreach.
3. How-to articles in client-oriented press and websites. Better than any brochure is the how-to article that appears in a publication that your target clients read.
4. Community and association involvement. Everyone likes to do business with people they know, like, and trust. You need to get involved and “circulate to percolate,” as one Ohio State University professor of a colleague used to say.
5. Networking and trade shows. This is an excellent way to gather business contacts and ask for permission to include them on your e-newsletter list.
6. Internet game plan. For agency authors, this is the one-two punch of LinkedIn and YouTube. Use your LinkedIn profile like a blog site. Make sure it has fresh content at least every thirty days. Create a series of under-two-minute how-to videos for your YouTube channel.
7. Paid ballroom workshops. This is the strategy of renting out the ballroom at the local Marriott or Hilton and charging for an all-day or half-day workshop. Participants should take away a substantial packet of useful information from your firm (and a delicious meal too). The secret to get them to attend is to offer research on how they compare to their peers, especially when it comes to where to invest money.