Have you ever felt strange about marketing your services for fear of people thinking you werent successful enough or good enough at what you do? I was reading a transcript of marketer Dan Kennedys Coaching and Consulting Business Boot Camp this past week at the beach and I came across a section about the fine line between the need for marketing and not wanting to look like you NEED business.

It struck a cord with me because I remember being stumped a few years ago, when a photographer I met at a networking function asked me, So, if youre such a marketing expert and you help people attract all the clients they need, what are you doing here at a networking group each week? I didnt know what to say at first. Never had it been posed to me that way.

But then I started thinking about it all and I realized that I always have clients, because Im always marketing. I feel comfortable knowing that marketing is part of my business, a large part of it. It doesnt matter what you DO for a living, your primary job is marketing and your skill is whatever else you do to get paid by clients.

So, if youre a consultant, youre not really a consultant, youre a marketer who consults. If youre an interior designer, youre not really an interior designer, youre a marketer who happens to help clients decorate their homes. And so on and so forth.

Until a client of mine really GETS that, they always put marketing on the back burner, and as a result of not making marketing a priority in the past, theyve gotten lackluster, mediocre results. But when they realize that their MAIN job is marketing, then they just accept that thats what you do and start to do it well. Alternatively, they can just go back to the corporate world and get a paycheck again while having someone else breathe down their neck. (Ouch!)

But I think the fine line we talked about between looking successful enough not to market and needing to market is really about CHASING clients. Its like anything in life: if someone is TOO eager about something, you start questioning their motives. Heres the line I read in that seminar transcript:

The Ultimate Incongruity: If youre so good, why are you so available?...let alone chasing business ?

The first key is that you never CHASE business. Its just too cheesy and it doesnt make people want to work with you. If you seem like you need them more than they need you, then youre in trouble.

However, if you follow the Client Attraction System or are a client of mine, you know that its about creating value, trust, believability, and credibility over the long haul. Its about establishing yourself as a problem solver to your ideal clients and their biggest problems. Its about creating a RELATIONSHIP so that clients naturally come to YOU and no one else, WHEN theyre ready. Its never about chasing clients or strong-arming them to sign up with you. Heres the formula:

Value plus Trust over Time.

(As a side note, that photographer who almost stumped me with her question ended up being one of my favorite clients of all time, a RAVING fan and a consistent referral source of new clients to my practice. Shes also become one of the best and most diligent marketers Ive seen, and she markets consistently, not just when she needs clients. She GOT it.)

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

So, now that weve gotten away from any semblance of you chasing business and looking too eager, what would you say if someone asked YOU that Ultimate Incongruity question?

Heres what I say:

• I market consistently because I know that if you dont market consistently, you dont always have clients. Even when I have a waiting list of people waiting to work with me, I still dont stop marketing. Id be foolish to do that.
• Two clients recently graduated, so I have openings for just two new clients.
• I have decided to take on more clients because(tell the truth).

Oh and by the way, always tell the truth. Thats what authentic marketing is about. Thats how being a marketer with integrity makes you stand out in the marketplace. Anything else would be sleazy and thats not Client Attractive.

2006 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson

Using the very principles she teaches, Fabienne Fredrickson went from a mediocre private practice to a practice that was bursting at the seams, in less than 8 months! She then did it again with a second practice a year later, again filling it to capacity in less than 8 months.

Fabienne Fredrickson is the founder of ClientAttraction.com and creator of The Client Attraction System?, the most complete one-on-one Client Attraction training program for private practices and small businesses in North America.

Fabienne is also the celebrated author of the Client Attraction Home Study System? entitled “How to attract ALL the clients you need” and “The Secrets of Networkers".

Fabienne is known for combining a unique blend of innovative, straight-shooter, no-fluff strategies that really work, with an endless compassion for small businesses owners that are rarely seen together.

Her high-energy, cut-to-the-chase style keeps her audiences literally spellbound and taking copious notes. Fabienne’s motto about filling one’s practice quickly is, "If I can do it twice, you can do it too!" and her unique ability is getting people who’ve never had real success in attracting clients to take immediate action on a systematic basis to produce a full practice with more clients, in record time, every time.

She is a well known and respected expert on marketing for small businesses and speaks nationally to audiences whose members are looking for more clients, in record time, every time.