Let’s face it, many self-employed professionals treat self-promotion as a necessary evil. They know they have to do it, but they just don’t like it. Professionals often say, “I love my work, but I wish I didn’t have to keep finding clients.” They describe the process of marketing as distasteful, frustrating, intimidating, and just plain scary.
Take a look at your own beliefs about self-promotion. How do you feel about it? Is it something you accomplish without too much effort, or do you put it off at every opportunity? When you tell someone what you do and ask for that person’s business, is it easy for you, or do you find it difficult and unpleasant?
Achieving marketing success may require a real breakthrough because of how professionals often think of marketing. They see a wall that must be broken down, and until they can break through it, they are battering themselves against it. They are “over here” and the clients are “over there.” They ask, “How can I find clients? How will I reach them? How do I get to them?”
All of these questions imply that there is somewhere else to get to. The truth is that you, and I, and the clients live in the same reality. There is no you and me and them. There is only us.
Instead of trying to batter down the wall between you and the clients, you need to create another kind of breakthrough. You must achieve a shift in your beliefs that allows you to find the door in that wall through which you can effortlessly walk. You don’t need to invent the door — it’s already there. You need to open your eyes so that you can see it.
Almost everyone you know is either a prospective client or a potential referral source. The world you live in is filled with business to be done. In fact, doing business is what makes much of the world you live in exist. You don’t need to find all your clients — many of them aren’t hidden. You know some of them already. To find more, whatever works for you in your personal life is probably what will work in your business.
If you tend to meet friends through introductions, ask the people you know to introduce you to possible new clients. If you often meet people by sharing activities, join in activities that you and your prospective clients will both enjoy. However your best personal relationships have started, that’s how it’s most likely that your best business relationships will start.
Telling people what you do can become as natural as breathing. They are interested, you know. There’s no one correct way of talking about your business. Just be you. That’s who people will want to do business with, not some artificial personality that you adopt to do your marketing.
A marketing conversation is just a conversation. You ask what they do, they ask what you do, and you look for something in common. If you both play tennis, you may make a date for a game. If you work in the same neighborhood, you may get together for coffee. If they need your service or you need theirs, the two of you may do business.
These three things are all really the same thing — a continuation of a relationship that benefits you both.
The breakthrough comes when you realize that you are already in your market, whatever it is. You are a human being whose business solves a problem experienced by other human beings with whom you have something in common. If what you do has value and you do it well, all that’s left is to tell those other humans about it.
Welcome to the other side of the wall.
