How to Be a Marketing Consultant

How to become a better marketing consultant:

Being good at marketing isn’t enough to make money being a marketing consultant.  You need to attract clients.   Referrals are a great way to start, but they’re rarely enough to make a business out of it.

Buy an hour of my time  ($250) and ask me how I do it.  Or ask me anything.  Or hire my marketing consultant ($500 an hour: Ian Lurie).  And yes, I have a marketing consultant!  I’d be a fool not to.

I also have a free version of hiring me.  Fridays at 10 AM PDT – 1 PM EDT I hold open office hours for marketing consultants.  One-half hour, actually, when I am available via a net meeting.  Tune in and ask away.  The only difference, the hour isn’t all yours and others will be listening.  Paste this link into your calendar:

http://connectpro52042580.acrobat.com/consultantsupport/

If you want to to start your own practice or become a better marketing consultant, good for you.

People pay me to do what I love doing and I get to choose who I work with.

In the beginning I bought the books, networked, gave talks, wrote articles and attended trade shows.  I had a nifty logo, beautiful letterhead and eventually, a great office.  I hated networking functions, maybe because I was horrible at it.  I had a pretty good network of referral sources, but it wasn’t enough to make a business out of what I was doing.  And I’m a pretty good public speaker — I even taught seminars at a local college — but the only clients that came from my talks were tiny companies that couldn’t afford much help.  I wrote thirty-nine articles and generated two clients.  That still stings when I say it.

The truth is I treaded water for a loooooong time.  I looked the part, people were impressed that I was a marketing consultant, I was doing great work, but I wasn’t putting money in the bank.  Until I learned how to attract the right type of client.

So, where are you?  What does your gut tell you right now?  Feels good:  email me.  Don’t know: keep looking or drop in on my free version.  The only failure is in stopping.