Thursday, February 16, 2006
On The Road: A Ten Day Marketing Diary
Wednesday February 1.I am about to hit the road. I am going on a networking journey that will take me to Montreal, Ottawa, and Washington DC. This is a journal about this trip. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It will be a story of what worked and what didn’t. The long- term objective is, of course, to get more work. The short-term objective is just to initiate new face-to- face contacts. Stay tuned.
Thursday, February 2nd.
The morning started off to a very auspicious start - with the first of my ongoing Finding Work teleseminars getting off the ground. We had some very smart enthusiastic people on the phone - each offering the others excellent support and advice on getting their writing and communication careers moved up another notch or two. It is amazing the power of a group to energize and motivate and I can’t speak highly enough about the process. More info about these teleseminars can be found here.
Flash forward 8 hours and here I am - my red-eye flight not due to leave for another three hours. I will say this for WestJet. They make the process of hanging about as painless as possible. I am sitting in a very comfortable chair in a mini-lounge area right next door to our departure gate. My feet are up, my laptop is plugged in and I am waiting for I think a movie or a television show to come on the big screen TV. So it could be worse.
I don’t recall the other airlines doing this – at least not for discounted ticket holders. Maybe the airline industry has finally cottoned to the fact that it is people they are moving and not cattle - not that they shouldn’t treat cattle like people - just so that both species get good treatment when there is a long journey involved.
Marketing Lesson One. A small gesture to customers by making their lives just a little easier – pays big dividends in customer good will. Guess who will use this airline again. And I have just told my subscriber list this. Pretty inexpensive word of mouth.
Friday, February 3
Well the take-off was definitely smoother than the landing.
It was pouring rain in Ottawa on arrival - made even less pleasant by the fact that as I was picking up my luggage I was asked to report to the information kiosk for an important message. When you are in transit an announcement over the airport intercom can scare the hell out of you. “Who died?” you immediately think.
It was the car rental company paging me - come to pick me up to take me to my car - which apparently is not at the airport but at their location about five miles away. Turns out they lost their airport privileges and forgot to mention this on their website. I was not amused particularly when they dinged me an extra $20 bucks for what they call a prime location fee - I kid you not.
To add insult to injury, I would have to call a cab to get to the airport when I returned the car because my flight was leaving before they opened in the morning.
Marketing Lesson Two. It is very easy to piss off a customer and ruin your reputation in a heart- beat.
But what started as a bad day ended on a brighter note. I went for a lunch meeting with a younger colleague who is a full time speech writer in a federal agency. I first met with him a few years ago to introduce myself as a fellow speechwriter. We had coffee then. No hard sell, no asking “do you have any speech work you can pass on to me? - really no sell at all. We just talked about what we both loved to do - what we had in common.
My only purpose then was for him to see a face he could later associate with a name should he ever need an outside speechwriter. Sure enough, six months later, that very occasion arose. And he called. As a result I filled in for him wherever and whenever he needed a helping hand.
All because I flew three thousand miles to have a cup of coffee.
I was seeing him this time for some of the very same reasons except now he is working for a different agency. We talked a lot about the new government and what that meant for speechwriters, speech writing and freelancers.
Marketing Lesson Three Cultivate your former clients. You never know when they will become clients again.
Saturday February 3
Some years ago I met the then president of the Periodical Writers Association of Canada at their annual conference. We struck up an instant friendship.
Since then both have moved on. Liz now holds the time honored position of being an ex-president, which basically means she gets to sit in on board meetings being wise and all knowing - which of course she is - and yet not have to take on any more commitments.
Quite right too. She made a tremendous contribution to what is now called the Professional Writer’s Association of Canada(www.pwac.ca)
I wasn’t going to write about Liz or our meeting because it was just two old friends who have very rare occasions to have lunch and catch up on news. That we did.
But I write about this now because she passed on some interesting information to me - about union benefits for media freelance writers. Read about a prominent union’s organizing campaign. For those interested in plying their trade writing for magazines and newspapers, this may be a very good thing.
Check it out at www.cepmedia.ca
Marketing Lesson Four.
You just never know when or where you will pick up interesting information that you can use in your profession. Friends have networks too, and it pays to listen between the lines of friendly chit chat.
Monday February 6
I was supposed to meet with a new contact today - a referral from a current client. Such meetings with new potential clients are very important since they add to your list of possibilities.
They fall under what I call the “Rule of 12” of marketing and networking. To keep your work load consistent you have to be persistent with your marketing efforts. The Rule of 12 states that you must keep at least 12 proactive marketing balls in the air at a time. A proactive marketing ball only counts if you meet with or otherwise have an interaction with a potential client such that it initiates and sustains an ongoing dialogue.
That was the purpose of my morning meeting today. To meet someone new - meet face to face - and start a dialogue.
I arrived on time only to be passed the message that the meeting was cancelled because my contact’s dog had been hit by a car.
[Note to self: Taking care of your dog trumps meeting a speechwriter every day of the week. Quite right too!]
Marketing Lesson Five
Life happens – meetings get cancelled – and it is never personal. Shrug it off.
Tuesday February 7
Cancelled Meeting Pays Off.
The cancelled meeting was revived today but not with the dog owner, but with her assistant who happened to be the resident speechwriter. As she came out of her office to reception she saw me working on a note on my iBook. We hit it off right away because she just became a Mac convert too and fully half our conversation was about our new found religion. Of course, we talked of speech writing and so now we had two loves in common.
It turned out to be a very good connection to have made and her last words to me were that she was soon to go on maternity leave, and to keep in touch.
Marketing Lesson Six One door closes and another opens. Never discount the serendipitous events. They can be priceless.
In the same category, between meetings today I received an email from Washington DC from a PR firm – from someone who receives my We Need A Speech newsletter. We have corresponded only on a very occasional basis.
He was asking me for some information. I replied I could probably help but since I was going to be in DC in the morning anyway we could better discuss this issue in person.
Later that afternoon in Ottawa I looked up another colleague just for a chat and when he heard I was heading to Washington the next day he suggested I look up a colleague of his who worked for a NAFTA related agency.
So what are the chances of me having two totally unrelated Washington contacts fall in my lap in a 12 hours period just before I go there?
Marketing Lesson Seven
You can’t beat coincidence and synchronicity. They often come as a delightful surprise but almost inevitably can be tracked back to some networking effort you made in the past.
February 8,9,10
In Washington for the annual and excellent Speechwriter’s Conference. The first thing I did was to follow-up on the two DC contacts noted above. I fully anticipate there will be subsequent conversations as a matter of course.
As for the Speechwriter’s Conference it was a gold mine of opportunities to network (gently and softly of course) - over and above the tremendous value-added you get from upgrading your own knowledge and skills. There is also much to be said for hanging out socially with the participants in the bar!
So there you have it – in a ten day period I made half a dozen very solid contacts with half very likely to pay off in work in the short term. Plus a ton of contacts for future reference.
Marketing Lesson Eight
Nothing, not anything, can beat the value of face to face meetings.
This ten day tax deductible marketing trip cost me about $3000, less than the price of one speech. I cannot know how many speeches will arise out of this trip – but I am guessing it will be a lot more than the one needed to recover my costs. For those of you who hate the idea of networking – of selling yourselves – let me reiterate – it is just talking with like-minded people. And the more you listen the more they think you are a brilliant conversationalist
These rules apply no matter where you live in the world. The cliche you have heard a thousand times over holds true above all else - "people do business with people they like and trust."
The starting point is meeting them face to face.
