Michael Katz's E-Newsletter On E-Newsletters
December 16, 2005
Issue #142
Take Me To The River
I play basketball every Monday night in my
town's
middle school gym. It's always a fun time, and
although the gap between my age and that of the
average player seems to grow exponentially with
each passing week, I don't mind telling you that it's
one of the things I look forward to most during the
winter.
It doesn't come without a cost, however.
Within
minutes of leaving the gym, various parts of my body
begin to stiffen up and hurt. My knee, my neck, my
lower back… you name it. By the time I get
home,
I'm walking up the front steps looking like Fred
Sanford (if you don't know who Fred Sanford
was,
you may be too young to be publishing an
E-Newsletter).
I go inside, eat dinner and take a few Advil. Then I
go upstairs and get in the bath, staying there for
about 30 minutes, or until my wife Linda yells through
the door: "You're not sleeping in there again are
you?!" The next morning, assuming I have not died,
I get up and limp off to my office.
In between those fun but difficult Monday nights,
I
go swimming. Swimming differs from basketball
in
two important ways.
First of all, when I swim, I rarely come in physical
contact with either the "playing field" or the other
participants. Second — and I think this is
related to
the first point just mentioned — nothing hurts
when
I'm done swimming. In fact, rather than hobbling out
of the gym as I do on Monday nights, I bound out
the door of the YMCA pool — feeling much
better
than when I came in.
The interesting thing is that both activities
— basketball and swimming — "give me
exercise."
We
could argue over which one is more effective in this
respect, but I think you'd agree that they are both
reasonable paths towards physical fitness.
When it comes to growing your business (i.e.
getting
more clients), you've also got several reasonable
options at your disposal. And, just as with
basketball
and swimming, some of these are more painful than
others.
The most common approach among professionals
looking for work is to target potential buyers of your
service, find ways to get in front of them, and
convince them to hire you. Into this category fall
such tactics as newspaper advertising, sponsorships,
direct mail and (brace yourself) cold calling. All
reasonable, all proven.
In my opinion however, this "chasing strangers"
strategy is the "Monday night basketball" equivalent
of growing a professional service business.
Because
while it may get you to your goal, it's hard work,
often painful and the longer you do it, the more you
begin to wonder if maybe you're getting too old to be
banging up against a bunch of people half your age.
Another option — and the one which as far
as
I'm
concerned, is a lot more like swimming — is to
worry
less about the strangers and spend more of your time
and effort cultivating the relationships you've already
got. In other words, instead of constantly
trying to
expand your reach, focus your attention on
strengthening connections with the people you
already know.
After all, if you've been walking the Earth for 40+
years, you've probably got hundreds (thousands?) of
names in your rolodex. Shouldn't you be leveraging
these relationships?
Not only that, if like most professionals, you've
discovered that referrals and word of mouth bring
you the "best clients," wouldn't it make sense to
shake the relationship tree more systematically and
more often before you look for ways to increase your
circle of prospects?
Bottom Line: With 2006 just around the
corner, I
urge you to dedicate yourself to maximizing your
firm's most valuable asset — the people you
already
know. Cultivating existing relationships can get you
just as much business as continually trying to
identify and meet new people. And as far as I'm
concerned, it's a much more enjoyable way to get
and keep your business in shape.
The PENGUINscore Spotlight
The PENGUINscore is an easy (and did I mention,
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communications. You can read more about it here if
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The purpose of the PENGUINscore Spotlight
is to
highlight one aspect of this newsletter each time I
publish, as an example of how to put this
approach
into practice.
This week I'm focusing on the 1st
concept: "Position."
Several times in today's newsletter I deliberately
tried to connect with middle-aged readers. First
by
talking about my own middle-aged aches and pains,
next by mentioning Fred Sanford (from the 70's TV
show "Sanford and Son"), and again by suggesting
that those reading this newsletter have probably
been, "walking the Earth for 40+ years."
It wasn't accidental — I never write
anything
without first knowing who I'm writing to. In my
case,
the people who hire me are almost without
exception, 40 or older. And while I welcome readers
of all ages, I publish this newsletter primarily to make
a connection with potential clients.
PENGUINscore concept #1 — Taking a
Position —
can mean stating a clear opinion, or in this case,
having a laser focus on the audience you're trying to
reach. The idea is to be willing to lose some
readers
(who may disagree or don't fit the target) in
exchange for making a better connection with those
people who matter most to your business.
Remember, it's not lots of readers you want
—
it's a
few dozen perfect clients.
How about you? What's your PENGUINscore?
Enough About You, Let's Talk About Us
And speaking of the PENGUINscore, thanks to the
following five newsletter readers whose terrific
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the business world earned them (each) a genuine,
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Congratulations to:
Dar Arechederra — Fenton, Missouri
Lissa Bowles — Toronto, Canada
Julie Pierce — Newton, Massachusetts
Louise Sacco — Needham, Massachusetts
Edgar Valdmanis — Bekkestua, Norway
Don't be sad, you can order one for yourself by
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About Blue Penguin Development, Inc.
Blue Penguin Development helps professional service firms get clients,
by showing them how to strengthen relationships with the people they already know.
I specialize in the development of electronic newsletters.
Click here for an overview of my services.
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