In this audio interview hosted by Cole Silver, author of How to Create Wealth and Freedom in Your Law Practice, C.J. describes key sales and marketing strategies for professionals, beginning with the core principle that you’ve “gotta have a system” Read more (members only)

It often happens that we follow up with prospects multiple times without getting a response. If you call them, email them, and send them letters, but you never get through or hear back, at what point should you scratch them off the list and move on? The rule I’ve always used to make this decision is: evaluate the value of the potential sale. Read more (members only)

Doing a good job at follow-up is a piece of cake. You just capture every lead or potential referral partner you run across, then place a call or send them something, or both. If you don’t make a sale right away, you calendar them for the next follow-up and do the same thing again. Pretty straightforward, isn’t it? So why is follow-up such a problem? Read more (members only)

The most important factor in getting people to return your calls is not the content of your message, but rather your pre-existing relationship with the person you are calling. If they know who you are and have a positive experience of you already, they are much more likely to return your call, Read more (members only)

“I’m really good at what I do, but marketing isn’t my strong point. If someone else could develop the leads and book appointments for me, I’m sure I could land more clients once I got the chance to talk to them. Can’t I just hire someone to do my marketing for me?” Read more (members only)

If cold calling businesses and organizations is an approach that makes sense for your business, you’ll find this activity more productive when you do some advance research before placing your call. You’ll often have more success speaking to someone live if you already have the name of a decision maker before you get on the phone. Read more (members only)

With a small number of subscribers, you can send your ezine the same way you send regular email. But once you have 50 or more people on your list, you will start encountering problems if you continue doing it this way. What you need is a mailing list management system, and there are three that I recommend, depending on your needs. Read more (members only)

You can spend hours, days, and weeks of your marketing time attending networking events, looking for places to speak, having lunch, and writing articles. But if you want your efforts to pay off, sooner or later you have to pick up the phone and call someone. Read more (members only)

Let’s face it, many service business professionals treat self-promotion as a necessary evil. We know we have to do it, but we just don’t like it. Professionals often say, “I love my work, but I wish I didn’t have to keep finding customers.” We describe the process of marketing as distasteful, frustrating, intimidating, and just plain scary. Read more (members only)

“If he who has a thing to sell
Goes and whispers in a well,
He won’t be so apt to make the dollars
As he who climbs a tree and hollers!”
Read more (members only)

This sample form for collecting and filing information about prospects and contacts is designed to be used as part of a manual contact management system, or as an input document for a computerized system. It records your prospects’ contact information, Read more (members only)

Have you ever attended a networking meeting and met someone you really liked and were sure you could help? When they found out about your services and learned how you help people like them they said, “You’ve got just what I’ve been looking for. Read more (members only)