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You're an expert. Write a newsletter. Keep it short. Mail it out to people you can identify that are in need of your services---whatever they are. Be sure to put "Newsletter" somewhere in the short title. When mailed, don't put it in an envelope. Fold it title side out. It won't get pre-emptorily tossed. It'll get read. (What mental process do you go through when you sort your mail?) And if it isn't too very self-congratulatory, it will be saved for a little while. And maybe even passed on. No plain ad lasts more than a few seconds.
You're not an expert? Bull-roar. If that's really true, then go get a job at Mickey-D's, and get out of our business. Everybody's got unique expertise. Focus on, and sell that. Nobody else's got it, for one thing... Are you an avid scuba diver as well as a DP and editor? Hang glider pilot? CPA?
Rejection. The Poison to Enthusiasm.
Learn to deal with rejection. (My own hardest lesson.) Don't over-analyze when you lose one. Don't feel too over-confident when you win one. One of my mentors said you never really know why you get 'em or lose 'em most of the time. Never mind. It ain't personal. The fit wasn't perfect. To hell with it. Soldier on.
To this day, I don't "accept" rejection. I reject it. I pity the poor fool who couldn't perceive the Great Deal I was about to deliver to Make His Life Perfect. Maybe he'll be back.
And you know what? Often they do come back after other people taught have them painful and expensive lessons. Lincoln was right.
Now you get to skim the cream, all prepared for you. Now you get to make a Quality Sale, and a loyal client who respects your expertise and class. (And who will now be a rich source of referrals.)
That, my friends, is a sweet drink....
Postcards.
We keep people aware that we exist by periodic postcard mailings. Why postcards? Think about how you sort your own incoming mail each day. In the act of classifying a postcard as junk before tossing it out---GOTCHA!---YOU HAD TO READ IT! (If it was brief and punchy.) Message delivered. People are very forgetful. You gotta give 'em a swift kick in the pants periodically. They'll literally forget you're alive. Nothing personal. They're just people. Everybody's busy...
Everybody knows about Coke. They still advertise constantly. Like Coke does, change your message periodically. We've never sent the same postcard to the same person twice.
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