The More Clients Blog

Nifty Online Tools

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Today I needed to send a personalize email to the people who had attended my presentation at the ICF conference. Luckily I had one of my nifty online tools available - eMail Merge.

It's cool because you can easily import the names and emails from a text document and then write a customized, personalized letter and send them out one at a time (so you don't trigger the anti-spam police from your ISP).

This is software for the Mac: www.sigsoftware.com and I'm sure there's an equivalent for the PC.

So today's eZine is about this - Nifty online tools that make your marketing job easier. I'll list some of my favorites and if you have some that you really like, just let us know on the blog:

http://www.actionplan.blogs.com

AWeber - This is my premium email tool. It's how I manage my More Clients list. But it's also great for creating other lists, such as sign-up lists for teleclasses. Easy to use, inexpensive and tons of useful features. Couldn't live without it. Check it out!

www.aweber.com

Form to Email - I use this to create simple and very reliable response forms on my web site where I don't need an autoresponder. Costs a whopping $29!

www.formtoemail.com

Google Groups - The best way to get a conversation going with any kind of group. I use this with my Mastery Program to communicate with the participants. Great for brainstorming, networking and resource sharing. Zero dinero.

www.groups.google.com

TinyUrl - Makes long urls very tiny. Nice for long urls you want to include in an email or for affiliate links. I also like that you can create customized urls such as http://tinyurl.com/HEOB-teleclass

www.tinyurl.com

1ShoppingCart - The is the premier shopping cart system for small businesses. Enables you to accept credit cards online. You must have this if you want to take your business to the next level. I recommend a particular brand of 1shopping cart called "Easy Online Store." It's identical, except that it comes with lots of free training to help you set things up (which can be a bear).

And you can get a 30-day trial for $3.95!

www.easyonlinestore.com

Google Analytics - You do track the traffic on your web site, don't you? Well, if you're doing anything online, this is essential. For instance, if you hold a teleclass you want to know how many people went to the signup page compare to the actual signups. If you don't know this, how can you improve your page? No cost.

www.google.com/analytics

Survey Monkey - I love this. The limited version is $0. The unlimited version is just $20 per month. And if you want to do an extensive client survey just once, pay $20 and then quit.

www.surveymonkey.com

Atomz - Search tool for your web site. I don't use this anymore, but for some sites a search function is really useful. And again, it doesn't cost a dime.

www.atomz.com

Well, those are just a few. Check them out. They can all help you increase your online productivity and effectiveness.

Now please share some of your nifty online tools with us.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Don't just let your web site sit there like a lump. That won't do you any good. Make it interactive and you'll get better results. Include sign-up forms for your eZine, web stats to determine web activity, surveys to learn what people are looking for and a shopping cart to actually sell something on the site. Most are easy to use and get started with.

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What nifty online tools do you recommend? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

New Project Priority Model

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

How do you manage projects, priorities and time?

There are a lot of ways to look at this, however yesterday I came up with an interesting model that you may find useful.

One of the biggest issues we have as Independent Professionals is actually getting around to doing certain marketing activities. Some things that we want to do, we simply never get around to.

And it often seems that there are so many things to do that it's easy to get overwhelmed and start procrastinating, not knowing where to start or what to do. We're left missing a lot of opportunities to take our businesses to new places.

So here's my new Project Priority Model:

Take a piece of paper and place it horizontally. Create three columns on the page and title the columns as following:

Far Left Column - Like to Do and Engage In

Far Right Column - Don't Like to Do and Avoid

Middle Column - Delegate or Defer

OK, so in the left column, write down all the things in your business that you not only enjoy doing but also get around to doing. This might be things like working with clients, writing your eZine, web site work, and social media.

Now in the right column, write down all the things you don't enjoy doing and tend to avoid. This might be things like speaking, making follow-up calls, public relations and bookkeeping.

Finally, in the middle column, write down all the things you are already delegating (perhaps to a virtual assistant or other service provider.) This might include some administrative work and customer service emails.

This represents where you are right now.

Now your job is to re-configure the columns.

In the left column you only want things that are high priority tasks or projects that you can't see any way to delegate right now. But you also want to notice any things that you could actually delegate such as web site work.

Move all those delegable items to the middle column and circle all those items.

Next look at the right column listing all the things you don't enjoy. You can do three things with the items in this list. You can delegate them, defer them or learn to like them.

You don't really like bookkeeping but you tend to do it anyway. Not a great use of your time. So move that to the middle column and put a circle around it.

You don't like doing PR, but you really don't see it as a major priority. This is something you can defer (maybe temporarily, perhaps forever). Move it to the middle column and circle it.

You also don't like speaking, but you know it would be a great strategy to grow your business. You can't really delegate it and you don't think you can defer it. So this one gets moved to the left column with a circle around it.

Now you have quite a different chart, unlike the one you started with.

In the left column you have the activities you like to do and you can't delegate and also a few that you need to get better at.

In the middle column you now have a few new things to delegate. The things to defer, you don't have to worry about for now.

And in the third column you have - nothing! It's all been delegated, deferred on been assigned to work on.

Now what do you do?

Well, you may have a number of new things to delegate that are circled in the middle column. You may need to find a virtual assistant or another service provider to do those things for you. You create simple plans to make those happen.

The left column is a little more problematic. Sure, you have a number of things on that list that you like to do, and are already doing, so no problem.

But you also have a number of things you don't like and are avoiding. Now you've isolated these things by circling them. It's no longer overwhelming; you can work on them one at a time.

So for instance, you take speaking and make a project out of it. There's a lot of things you could do. They might include the following:

- Make a list of speaking topics
- Buy a book on giving presentations
- Outline a talk on Powerpoint
- Hire a speaking coach
- Contact organizations for speaking opportunities
- Put together a "speaker's package"
- Work on your negative beliefs about speaking

That's just a start, but you get the idea. If you take this on as a project, not just a to-do, you'll find all sorts of ways to approach speaking until you start to make some positive headway.

By the way, what I transferred from my Avoid List was:

Study Time (books and recordings) - I never seem to find the time for this, but now that I've isolated it, I'll put together a project to make it happen.

Follow-Up Calls and Emails - Like almost everyone else, I tend to procrastinate about these. This is one where taking a serious look at my fears and beliefs will likely yield results.

Delegation - Not my strongest suit. And I need to make this a project so that I'll actually delegate some of the things on the delegation list.

Now that I have my list, I can put most of my time attention on the high-priority things I like to do, save some time by delegating things another could do, and zeroing in on a few things were I need to brush up on my skills while confronting my resistance.

I'm now starting to wonder what things will be like when all my priorities are straight and I'm on track most of the time!

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Get past the standard A, B and C priority system; it really doesn't work in my experience. You need to find a way to do what you love (as well as loving what you do), delegate what you can and forget the rest.

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What's your plan for managing your marketing priorities and projects this year? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Building Marketing Mansions

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

One month left in 2009. Do you have a plan?

Do you know what marketing activities will generate your income for next year? Would you make a bet that next year will be better than last year? What's your actual plan to make it better?

It took me a very long time to actually get the concept of planning my marketing. I'd pretty much go one month at a time, hoping my efforts led somewhere.

Yes, I planned some strategies, activities and projects.

And then I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I depended more on hope and the willingness to work hard. I figured if I did a certain number of speaking engagements or teleclasses and sent out my eZine every week, I'd be OK.

I finally realized that even this was not enough.

Now I do marketing like I'd build a house.

I'd make a plan for the house to be a certain way; I'd buy the necessary materials; I'd create a timeline for each step to be done in a certain order; I'd contract the workers and build the house.

Does your marketing look like that? If so, great! But I'll bet it looks more like this:

You think about the house and talk about it, but never write down a plan. You don't get around to ordering the materials. Timeline, what timeline? Workers, surely you jest! And you'd only fit in the actual building if you had some spare time.

Yeah, it's really that bad!

Look, it's up to you, but maybe you'll actually create a plan that's designed to bring in new business predictably next year.

What if you had a plan that not only brought in more clients, but highly committed, higher paying clients whom you didn't have to beg to work with you?

Here's what I recommend you do:

1. Decide on exactly what kind of clients you want next year. Why settle for the level of clients you've been getting? Might as well aim for the ideal clients as you tend to get what you intend.

2. Determine the services or programs you want to offer to these clients. Don't just think about it. Write it down in great detail and make it real. It's not a plan unless it's on paper.

3. Now do a write-up about that service or program and put it prominently on your web site. Not a paragraph or two, but a detailed description of what your clients will get and how your services are structured. Yes, several pages!

4. Add a response form at the bottom of the page which prospects fill out. Ask questions that will let you know if the person responding is a qualified prospect or not.

5. Next design several marketing activities designed to drive people to that page. Anything and everything can work here. You need to experiment and test.

6. Use everything from email to social media, speaking engagements to networking. Don't try to sell but to inform and to build trust and credibility. Get enough qualified people to that page and some will respond.

7. For everyone who responds, offer some kind of complimentary "strategy session" designed to get to know these prospects' situation, as well as understand their goals and challenges.

8. Then present the benefits and advantages of your service or program (as you did on your web page). Be concise, and demonstrate how what you offer will meet their needs and provide the value they're looking for.

9. Ask them to work with you if you know you can help them accomplish their goals. Don't be wishy-washy about it. Show the confidence you have in yourself and your services.

Follow this plan and you'll attract more clients.

This is a pretty simple plan; it's not highly sophisticated or complicated. But it works. And as you get results, you can then work to fine-tune and refine it to sell more complex and more expensive services.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: You have to start somewhere with your marketing. Doing things randomly and haphazardly won't build you the marketing house you want. By taking the time and making this focused marketing effort, you'll be building marketing mansions before long.

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What's the marketing plan you plan to build for 2010? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below:

Strength Through Collaboration

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Has 2009 been a great year for you or a tough year?

What happens in bad economic times is that the weaker businesses fade away. They just don't have the persistence and staying power to succeed.

On the other hand, the stronger businesses take a tough economy as a challenge and find ways to thrive.

These businesses take risks, they innovate, they work on their marketing and they focus on customer service to keep their existing clients delighted.

They also collaborate.

I've declared collaboration to be my marketing and business theme for the year 2010. But what exactly is collaboration and how can it help your business? And what things can you actually do to collaborate?

Collaboration is defined as: "the action of working jointly with others on an activity, esp. to produce or create something."

What you're doing is working with associates, partners and even clients to create something you wouldn't have created by yourself.

And collaboration creates synergy. That is, one plus one doesn't equal two but five or more. The power of collaboration adds energy to any undertaking and tends to propel things forward.

Here are some ways you can collaborate this year.

Co-Coaching

Two heads are better than one. Everybody knows this, but as an Independent Professional, it often feels easier to go it alone. But what if you could team up with an associate?

For the past two years, I've met with my friend and associate Patrick Summar once a quarter, and we help each other with our businesses. For a full day we mastermind, brainstorm and coach each other. It's resulted in great results for both of us.

Find someone whose talents can compliment yours. I help Patrick with marketing plans and Patrick helps me with systems and structure in my business.

Affiliation

Does one of your associates, or even one of your competitors have a service or program that you don't offer? Why not help them sell this service and get paid a commission? Every month I earn from $3K to $5K in affiliate commissions.

I simply mention my affiliate partners in my eZine every week. And once in awhile I send a special email to promote the services of one of my affiliate partners. If your partner offers quality services or programs that you don't, why not?

Partnering

Perhaps you offer a business service to a certain target market. Why not partner with other professionals who serve a similar market and do co-promotion?

One of the members of my Marketing Mastery Group is putting together a group of "trusted advisors" to serve his clients. He's a management consultant and the partners are an attorney, accountant, business broker and estate planner.

They'll be putting on seminars and inviting their current and potential clients to attend. The clients of each partner become the potential clients of the other partners.

Summit Meetings

Why not put on a "Summit Meeting" of your most creative business associates and clients? In an interactive, collaborative environment you'll get to know each other better and explore ways to work with together on projects.

This isn't something you can do by conference call. Getting together physically and letting the chemistry happen can lead to places you can't imagine.

I'm doing an InfoGuru Summit Meeting at the end of January with the professional experts I've interviewed for my Marketing Club. For a weekend we'll make new connections, brainstorm, and emerge with new business collaborations for the new year.

Mastermind Groups

These groups can be done by teleconference or in-person. The format is to meet regularly - weekly, bi-monthly or monthly and support each other through idea and resource sharing.

My experience with groups like this is that everyone starts to put out ideas of things they've wanted to do but didn't have the confidence to start. With the support and encouragement of the group, new projects get launched, many with great success.

Those are just a few of the ways you can collaborate.

I encourage you to make collaboration a centerpiece of your business in the coming year. You can only get so far by doing things all by yourself - especially in a tough economy. Who knows how far you can go if you creatively work together with others?

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Collaboration makes your business stronger. It helps you discover new ways of doing things and new avenues of expansion. When you lend support to others and receive support yourself, business also becomes a more enriching and fulfilling experience.

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How are you planning to collaborate in 2010? Please share ideas of successful collaborations. Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

One More Thing

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Last week I challenged my subscribers to let me know "Just One Thing" they do to consistently to market their businesses. I got a lot of answers with many excellent ideas but there was one that really stood out.

John Paul Engel was the clear Winner. He got a complimentary 3-month membership in the Marketing Club. He more than deserved it!

One Weekly Action That Transformed John's Business

Every week I volunteer at a local middle school in the poorest area in my town. I teach leadership and public speaking to the kids. When I began doing this a little over a year ago I had no idea it would totally transform my business, my marketing and my life.

One day a 13 year old boy got up and gave a speech about how he wanted to be an engineer, but he didn't know any engineers. I thought, "That's a need - I can help him!"

I gathered some questions from the boy, I asked a college student, and I came up with some questions myself. We also asked an engineer, and he was happy to help. When I gave the answers to the young man he loved them. He was that much closer to his dream. His teachers told me he was more focused in school and his homework had improved.

I thought: "I know lots of successful people, why don't I do this for all these kids?" So I went out and got advice from Ph.D.s from Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge, graduates of Tokyo University, Stanford, London School of Economics, and the University of Chicago - some of the smartest, most successful people in the world, and I gave it to the kids.

The class was so inspired that I decided to turn it into a book and give it away for free. Everyday I give this book away for free to any student, parent, teacher anywhere in the world who wants it. All they have to do is download it from my website at:

www.projectbethechange.com

In a couple of weeks I will be giving away 2,000 copies of the book to area students.

You might be asking, "Fine, John - its nice that you are doing such a good thing but how is it helping your business?" My answer is in several ways...

1. Each book gets my name out there and makes people aware of my business

2. Because of the book I am getting high profile speaking engagements

3. A local TV station did a story profiling me, as did the University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni magazine

4. One of the contributers in the book referred me to an RFP worth tens of thousands of dollars

5. I am building a list of successful people and of people who downloaded the book

If you help someone everyday in whatever way you can, you will supercharge your marketing. A portion of every dollar I make in my business I now reinvest into "Project Be The Change" and this helps me help more students.

It's a wonderful virtuous marketing cycle!

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The More Clients Bottom Line: I hope you are inspired by John! His one selfless weekly action ended up transforming his business and his life. John just didn't go through the motions; he put his focus where there was a need and it mushroomed into something that will benefit thousands of people - and his own business in the process.

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How are the contributions you are making to the community not only making a difference, but transforming your business as well? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the comments link below.

Just One Thing

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Every Monday I do just one thing in my business to move it forward. I write this eZine.

That's certainly not everything I do on Mondays, but for over 12 years I've set this time aside to communicate with my subscribers.

What difference has this made?

It's transformed my business to one that was struggling to meet the rent every month to one that is financially abundant. There has been no recession for Action Plan Marketing.

And it's also made me a better coach and consultant.

When we think of marketing, we think of all the thousands of things we could do. And yes, there are thousands. But that is simply overwhelming.

The good news is that you don't have to do thousands of things to market yourself. You don't even have to do an eZine. But you need to do a least one thing religiously every single week (and sometimes every day). This is what forms the foundation of effective marketing.

So I'm going to keep this eZine very short today.

The question is: What is one thing you'd be willing to do every single week, perhaps every single weekday to market your services?

Not ten things or even five things, just one thing.

And for those who are already doing this one thing, I'd like to hear from you and the difference it has made in your business.

You can write me back or post on the blog and I'll reprint some of the things you are doing.

The best one gets a free copy of the InfoGuru Manual, or the Web Site ToolKit, or a 3-month membership in the Marketing Club (your choice).

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Pick just one thing to do weekly in your marketing and make a commitment to do it for a whole year. If you do, I promise you'll transform your marketing and your business.

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What is that one thing? Let me know! Please share on the More Clients Blog:

Client Satisfaction or Delight?

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Here's what most business owners don't get:

It's not enough to satisfy clients, you need to delight them. The good news is that this really works. The bad news is that it takes more thought and effort than the average business owner is willing to give.

I recently went on a vacation to Sedona Arizona, as I mentioned last week. Well, Sedona itself certainly delights. It's a natural wonder and the spectacular red hills, desert pants and breathtaking hiking trails don't need any marketing help.

But it's a different case with the restaurants.

I'd like to compare two for you.

The first night we went to Hiro's Sushi. Like most Japanese restaurants, the food quality was excellent. Everything tasted great and the portions were generous. We enjoyed our meal. They were definitely giving us satisfaction for money spent.

But the place was the definition of boring. They had taken over from another restaurant six weeks ago. The previous restaurant had bad food, so at least they were an improvement. But other than putting in a sushi bar, not one thing had changed.

They were just marking time. Just getting the food out there. Nothing special. It could have been any other Japanese restaurant in the world. As they say, nothing to write home about.

Then a couple days later, on a recommendation, we were sent to a Mexican restaurant called Elote.

The location wasn't too exciting. We had to wait an hour to get in. But when we did - ay caramba! This wasn't an ordinary Mexican restaurant. In fact, it was better than any restaurant I'd been to in Mexico.

The dishes were indescribable, but I'll try. Their signature dish is called "Elote" which consists of roasted corn scraped off the cob and then mixed with mayonnaise and spices. Beyond belief.

We weren't that hungry, so we ordered appetizers. There was more food than in most main courses. I got chicken mole tacos and my wife got shrimp tacos. The sauces were unbelievable. I can still taste them.

The service was also spectacular. We felt we were the most important guests in the world with a waitress who appeared to be the most cheerful person on the planet.

Now that's what I mean by delighted.

When you go to Sedona some day (and you must!) what are you going to check out first, Hiro's or Elote?

Wish they delivered to Boulder Creek!

www.elotecafe.com/

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The More Clients Bottom Line: If you're only satisfying your clients, I promise you, it's not enough! These days people want even more value for their money. You have to delight them, go the extra mile and provide more than service, but an experience that is memorable.

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How do you delight your clients? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Launching a High-End Service

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

What if I told you that *THE KEY* to growing your business and multiplying your income was creating, developing, launching, and selling high-end services and programs?

Well, it is.

In my Mastery Marketing Program this is all we focus on. In the past few months, my group members have successfully developed and sold many high-end services by following the plan below.

Two of our members got clients worth over $1 Million each. Many others are gearing up to market and sell high-end programs in the next few months. Others are having the best months ever in their businesses.

But it doesn't happen by itself. It takes a plan and very consistent follow-through. Let me share the basics of this plan.

High-End Service/Program Launch Plan

1. Create and Develop a New High-End Service or Program

This may be the hardest part. This is the equivalent of product development. You need to know your ideal clients, their needs, the results you can deliver and the structure of your service or program. It can't be another "me too" program.

Ideally you want to develop what I call an "HEOB" - High End, Outcome-Based Program. These programs offer much more value and tend to require a larger commitment from the client. They are also more expensive, but they pay for themselves many times over. Could you offer such a service or program?

2. Write a "Marketing Letter" for Your Service.

You can't just let people know, "Here's my new service, are you interested?" You need to build a solid case for it by writing an in-depth letter for it. This includes the purpose and benefits of this service, with a detailed outline of the deliverables and structure.

Usually this letter will be online on a web page. Don't think people will read a long letter? They will, if it communicates true value, not hype. You need to tell a complete story to convey the value.

3. Pre-launch Your Service/Program

Utilize email announcements, social media, teleclasses, intro workshops, and talks. You want to generate interest in what you're offering before you actually launch the service or program.

For instance, let those on your current list and your existing clients know about this new service. Direct them to a web page where they can sign up to join a list to learn more. Give them value just for checking out this service, such as a complimentary teleclass or intro workshop.

4. Launch the Service/Program on a Pre-announced Day

Let people know that there is limited space in your service or program (because there is). And if you offer a high-end program, have people apply for it, not sign up for it.

If you have dozens, or perhaps hundreds of people anticipating the launch of your program, you'll create both excitement and urgency. Many more people will want to learn about the details of this program they've been hearing so much about.

5. Conduct Strategy Sessions

If your program is $2,500 or more, have prospective participants apply and offer them a "Strategy Session" to explore whether or not the program is for them. In this session you'll discuss their goals, challenges, and opportunities, and explain exactly how your service/program works to produce results.

This is the exact opposite of high-pressure selling (which you hate to do anyway). Instead, you put a high value on your services and have low-key conversations with those who have self-selected.

Of course all of these steps need to be customized for your particular audience. But the basic approach can be used to offer high-end services to everyone from solo-preneurs to multi-milllion dollar enterprises.

I don't want to pretend that putting these five steps into action is easy; it's not. But if you really want to take your business to a whole new level, you can't keep marketing your services as you have in the past.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Marketing and selling high-end services or programs takes more than jacking up your prices, it's positioning your services to not only appear more valuable, but actually delivering more value. In hard economic times, one strategy is to lower value and prices. But this is not a long-term sustainable practice for your business.

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What's your plan to launch high-end services this coming year? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Pricing in Tough Economic Times

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Today I met with one of my Marketing Mastery Program participants, Dave D., for his monthly coaching session. Dave is having a banner year with the fourth quarter numbers looking very, very good.

Dave shared how he had just implemented an idea he had learned in the program.

Dave just pitched a $25,000 project to a client, but he got a little pushback. With the recession, and budgets being tight, they wanted to know if they could get a better deal.

These days, many of us would find a way to knock off a few thousand, go the extra mile and hope this would translate into more work down the line.

But this would be a mistake.

This is something I learned from Alan Weiss years ago. If you are asked to reduce your price, you need to make a corresponding reduction in the value you provide.

And that's exactly what Dave did.

He went down the list of the twenty or so things included in the proposal and suggested they cut back on a few of them. These were things they could for themselves quite easily.

So this cut back Dave's workload with his client and he was able to cut $5,000 off the project. The client readily agreed and signed a $20,000 contract without delay.

Another variation of this, which fits well during tough economic times, is to offer three options for every proposal you submit: Deluxe, Standard and Basic.

Again, Alan Weiss emphasizes that it's better to have a choice of yeses instead of a choice between yes and no. This way your clients are still able to take advantage of your services while maintaining some control over their budgets.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: In recessionary times it's more important than ever to offer you clients some choice. But if they can't afford the full fee for your services, you must cut back the scope of the projects. If you don't do this, it's an automatic invitation to keep pushing the price down while your workload remains the same.

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How are you pricing your services these days? Please share on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below:

Action Plan Marketing Survey (And Club Membership Drive)

I got lots of very useful information from the survey I posted last week. I'll be reporting on this in more depth later, but let me give you a few highlights.

Most Important Area of Marketing - The area that got higher scores than any other were challenges with marketing messages and branding, Each got about 44% of you saying these were important to you.

Biggest Marketing Challenges - The areas that got the highest scores were things like time management, procrastination, lack of focus and perfectionism. Dislike of marketing had a very low score, proving that just getting it done was the bigger issue.

Programs and Services - The kind of programs people said they wanted most were hands-on, how-to type information programs such as teleclasses with transcripts, e-books and other tutorials, including actual marketing samples.

The Marketing Club Addresses all of these.

I'm going to do a second round of this survey soon to zero in more on some of these areas. However, the survey was a validation of what I'm currently offering in the Action Plan Marketing Club.

1. The Club has a big focus on marketing messages and branding, with several expert interviews and other material to help with this important area that is at the heart of marketing.

2. We also put a lot of focus on getting things done, including coaching calls and mastermind groups to support members in moving forward on their marketing activities and projects.

3. The primary materials in the Club are audio and written tutorials on specific marketing strategies with lots of hands-on and how-to information and examples.

So I know I'm going in the right direction with the Club and will continue to support and enhance these areas.

Marketing Club Membership Drive - If you haven't yet checked out the Club, you can do so for one month for just $1.00. Then the fee is only $29 per month, for which you get over $250 worth of tutorials, coaching calls, expert interviews, mastermind groups and more, each and every month. Go to the link below and note the "Membership Drive" link at the top of the page.

http://www.ftmprogram.com/amember/signup.php

The Arrogance Trap

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

I have to admit it. I'm arrogant.

I think I know everything, how to do anything and of course, what my clients and customers want.

I also have to admit I've been kind of lucky.

I've developed a lot of services, programs and products that have been very well received. Because I fit my "ideal client profile," I just think about what I would personally like and I create that.

But even that has its limits.

After all, there are infinite possibilities. When I was creating my Client Survey this weekend, I was amazed to see that I came up with a list of 28 different areas of marketing Independent Professionals could use.

In addition, I came up with 17 different kinds of programs, services and products. Right now I'm only offering three.

Last I checked I wasn't psychic, and although I think I know my subscribers, customers and clients pretty well, the truth is that I have no real idea what people are most interested in.

So I'm asking you to take a minute and fill out this survey and let me know. APM Survey

Ever overhear a conversation that went something like this:

"I can't believe they (added/removed) those features of that (service/product). Why didn't they just ask me? I've been using that (service/product) for years and I really know exactly what would make it better! Don't they care??!!"

But in our businesses, do we ask? Do we care? Or are you arrogant like me, putting together your service packages and programs, just trusting your "gut instincts" that they'll be right?

I actually did a survey last month for my Marketing Club.

I asked what people were using in the Club and what they'd like to see more of. I had no idea. People wanted more step-by-step how-tos. People wanted more support. A blinding flash of the obvious.

So I created detailed step-by-step checklists and added mastermind groups. We now have over 100 people in the Club who've joined a mastermind group. And it took very little effort on my part to set them up.

I still have a long list to work on...

It's funny how we know about something, have heard about it for years, and yet for some reason (must be that arrogance again), we don't check it out and give it a try.

The great little tool I knew about but never used was Survey Monkey. It's easy to use, free or very cheap, works flawlessly and makes it effortless to set up a survey. I did it from bed on my laptop on Saturday morning!

The theme of my eZines for awhile is "Marketing Strategies" and getting feedback is most definitely a marketing strategy. It's one I've personally avoided for years, but now I'm a convert.

And like all true believers, I want to convert you as well!

Ask yourself what useful data you could get from your subscribers, customers and clients if you did a survey. After all, if you can provide more of what they're looking for, isn't your business going to be better off?

Of course!

What could be more important in a down economy? Find out what people want and turn yourself inside out to provide it as quickly as possible. Developing most services takes some time but not a lot of money, so it's a low risk project.

Next year I think my main programs are still going to be the Marketing Club and the Marketing Mastery Program but when I get the results of the survey, I know I'll be creating a few more things to help you attract more clients.

Don't forget that survey: APM Survey

I'll share the results with you next week.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Find out what your subscribers, customers, and clients want by doing a survey. With a handy tool like SurveyMonkey.com you can develop a survey in a very short time and get some brilliant ideas that will help take your business to the next level. Do it!

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What kind of changes have you made in your business as a result of doing a survey? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.