No Marketing? No Business!

Stephen Fairley, M.A.; www.businessbuildingcenter.com

Stephen Fairley, the author of Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching and Practice Made Perfect, claims, “Most people who start their own professional practices are technicians—the people who really just want to do the actual work of consulting, coaching, law, etc., which is great and necessary. However, technicians typically underestimate the difficulty of the other three essential roles; that is, starting, building, and maintaining a successful practice. They also typically overestimate their ability to market and sell their services.” Fairley adds,

Other than the actual decision to start the business, the sales and marketing aspects are the most important function of your business. If there is no sales and marketing, there are no clients to service. If there are no clients, there is no revenue. If there is no revenue, there is no business. It is all a big cycle, and that cycle starts and ends with sales and marketing. To be successful in your professional practice you must accept that you are the chief marketing officer as well as the vice president of sales. There is just no getting around it. If you don’t market yourself and sell your ability to help people, you will never get clients.