Get Clients Now! Filling the Pipeline, Week 1
For those of you who have been following along with the Get Clients Now! posts, you know that I’ve just started a 2nd program this weekend.
If you don’t know what I’m referring to, please see the Intro Post on the series – basically, I’m making myself accountable for my marketing efforts by publicly posting my goals and progress on the program found in the book Get Clients Now! A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants, and Coaches by C.J. Hayden
This Month’s Focus
Get Clients Now focuses on the Four Stages of the Universal Marketing Cycle:
- Filling the Pipeline
- Following Up
- Getting Presentations
- Closing Sales
Although my first program focused on Filling the Pipeline. At the risk of being repetitive, I’ve decided to focus this program on on Filling the Pipeline again.
I’m doing this because primarily, with my last program, I was still juggling both a full time day job while running my business part time (approximately 20-30 hours a week on nights and weekends). With only 4-5 hours a day to spend on my business, it just wasn’t realistic for me to dedicate 1-2 hours a day of that time on marketing. So my marketing efforts were often put on the back burner.
This time will be different! I’ve just finished up my first week running my business full time (I recently took the freelance plunge, and am LOVING that I can spend so much time focusing on my business and my clients, etc.) Last week was amazing to say the least – I got so much accomplished, and really do have to wonder how I managed before. I still have so much to do (both in house projects, as well as client work).
Anyway, my last program was hugely successful, despite the fact that I was only able to spend about half of the time that I wanted to on my marketing efforts. This time around, I will be able to dedicate the proper amount of time and effort to the program, and I’m very excited about the potential that will bring.
So, without further ado, let’s begin the program!
Action Worksheet – My Program Goals and How I Will Obtain Them
Below are my program goals for my second Get Clients Now! program. If you are joining along, you can download the FREE marketing plan worksheets from the Get Clients Now web site.
Although I’m working on Filling the Pipeline again, the book has so many suggestions, that I will be varying my program specifics greatly this time. Yes, some elements are the same, but there are some new ones thrown in as well. I’m also doubling my program goals from the last time.
Start Date
- June 21, 2008
What strategies will you use?
- Networking and Referral Building
- Writing and Publicity
- Advertising
Where are you stuck or what needs the most work?
- Filling the Pipeline
How much business do you have now?
- $X,XXX / month
Yes, I’m still keeping the dollar amounts private
How much business do you really want?
- $X,XXX / month x 2
I’d like to double my monthly business income
What would that get you?
- Enough of a monthly income to not only replace my old paycheck, but to save up for a new computer, as well.
What is your program goal?
- 20 new prospects / 4 new clients
What will be your reward?
- New office/computer/organizational supplies
$50 maximum
Success Ingredients
- Description of Services
I got a big head start last month, but still have some finalizing to do. I also want to re-structure my shopping cart so the services are listed in a more user friendly format. As-is now, it’s more suited to other internet professionals who know exactly what they need. I’d like to put together more packages that would be better suited to web newbies.
by July 4, 2008 - Networking Venues
Something else I got a head start on last month, but need to finalize. I’d like to narrow down which social media sites I plan to utilize the most, maximize my profiles on these sites – and start using them!
by July 11, 2008 - Web Promotion Strategy
This might involve some paid advertising, but my primary goal here is to work on Search Engine Optimization. By the end of the month I want to narrow down a few sets of keywords and keyphrases that I plan to target, update my search engine optimization techniques, and re-submit my site to the search engines.
by July 18, 2008By the way – as part of my web promotion strategy, I’ll be reading Itty Biz’s new eBook: SEO School: How to Become an SEO Ninja. If you like Naomi’s writing style on her blog, you’ll love it in her first eBook – it definitely does NOT feel like school. If you decide you want a copy, you can get $9 OFF until July 1st with the Discount Code: MovingDay
Daily / Weekly Actions
- Daily: Spend 1 hour on my Success Ingredient Projects each day
- Daily: Post 2 blog comments each day
- Daily: Make 2 message board posts each day
- Daily: Post 1 Q/A Answer each day
- Weekly: Post 1 Q/A Question each week
- Weekly: Publish 2 posts on my blog each week
- Weekly: Make 1 new community contact each week
- Weekly: Select / maximize 2 social media profiles each week
- Weekly: Find 1 new place to submit my web site to each week
- Daily: Plan my day each morning (or the night before)
Special Permission
- I Deserve to be Successful!
A Few Changes
Now that I have 40 hours a week to spend on my business, I’ll be putting a big focus on my marketing efforts. This time around, my goal is to accomplish at least 7-8 daily/weekly actions every day (I had some much lower numbers last time around).
One thing that I found mis-leading about scoring your daily/weekly actions is that C.J. Hayden suggests giving yourself a Y for weekly items that you might not have done on a given day, as long as you had not planned on working on it. I find that to be misleading, because I could just not plan on an item all week, and give myself five Y’s. Some days my scores were elevated because of the freebie Y’s this method gave me.
I’m going to try to be more accurate this time, and only give myself a Y for items that I actually completed. Yes, that means I’ll get some N’s because I have several weekly items that I don’t need to complete on a daily basis. I feel this will be a much more accurate representation of my true marketing efforts, though.
Care to Join Me?
I received some interest from the last program – and I see a few sales of the book in my Amazon Affiliate account, so I’m hoping that means there are more of you out there ready to join me in this round. As you’ve seen from my first program, the book has great suggestions, and I saw great results!
So, if your doing a program, I hope you’ll join along and help create some accountability for yourself! If you just started on Saturday, great! Please post your program goals and daily/weekly actions, etc. below. If you started recently (say a week or two ago) then you’ll be a bit ahead of me, but please feel free to post your program information from your first week, etc. You’ll actually be ahead of the game, but can post your progress from the relevant week.
Good luck to everyone! I hope this is a very successful month for us all!
Read More Posts In This Series
About the Author
Selene M. Bowlby is a web designer and front-end web developer with over ten years of professional experience in the design industry. As the owner of iDesign Studios she specializes in creating custom web sites for other businesses. more » 
Related Posts
- Get Clients Now! The First 28 Days, Week 4
- Get Clients Now! Filling the Pipeline, Week 2
- Get Clients Now! Filling the Pipeline, Week 3
- Get Clients Now! The First 28 Days, Week 3
- Get Clients Now! The First 28 Days, Week 2
Hi Selene,
I just completed my week 1 of Get Clients Now! program. And I must say this is great! In fact, it worked so well that I have to postpone week 2 for a few weeks . . .
This is what happened. When I made the plan, I thought I’d focus on filling my pipeline because I am new in my Akashic Record Reading service. Then, as I worked on my my activities, I noticed I have more than 100 contacts, 80 of them bloggers because I have been writing for Yes to Me for a few months and have been consciously networking.
So I emailed some of my contacts introducing my new line of service — what the book calls Following Up. Wham! I got booked solid in a few days. In fact, because I’m taking only limited number of clients right now (I’m working on a few other projects, too. . .), I have to review my marketing target.
The program works! I did the description, which is on my website, and also wrote my 10 sec intro and 30 sec commercial, which I used in my emails. I’m also teaching myself to ask for referrals whenever I get the chance.
So good luck, Selene. I’ll be watching your progress. I’m thinking about writing about this program in Yes to Me, too, and when I do, I will send you link love.
Akemi – Yes to Mes last blog post..Gratitude Friday, Week 2, Gratitude And The Exponential Function
Selene,
Oh, I forgot to say — I haven’t emailed all my contacts. Just a few. So when I resume my Get Clients Now! program, I guess I’ll focus on the Follow Up first before I work on getting more new contacts. . .
@Akemi That’s great!! Congrats!
Hi Selene! I’m joining you again this time around. I do believe my last round was successful, but I think this time will be even better because now I could see how it works and make a better plan.
I, too, am going to focus on Filling the Pipeline again. This time my program goal is 100 new contacts in my prospect list. Last time I set only 10 as my goal and tripled that number. Although I was happy with the number, I don’t think I filled the pipeline enough for what I want to do. And, I decided I did not set my goal high enough, either. This time my goal will be 100 because I plan to add some advertising and a new ad on my website (that you will be working on, as you know LOL). I think I should be able to get that many. Let’s see! I did not set any sales goal this time, since that seemed more like “Closing the sale” which I will focus on next round (or following up).
My success ingredients are: Rewrite auto-responder e-mails (my current ones aren’t good) (due 7/4), finish re-write of my eBook(s) (due 7/4), and publish one article (7/14).
I won’t bore you with my daily/weekly actions. It’s a lot to type in a comment. But, fyi, you don’t get a “Y” for weekly items you don’t do every single day. It says to plan which day you will do it and if you don’t do your weekly item by the end of the week, you get an automatic “N”. Of course, we all can make the plan what we want. It’s for us, but just thought I’d mention it. What I do is put a circle on the items I plan to do that day and at the end if I haven’t done the circle one, I get an “N” and if I do, I get a “Y”. If I didn’t plan to do that weekly item that day, I put “Y”.
Good luck to us all!
Nicoles last blog post..Getting Your Baby to Nap
@Akemi – That’s fantastic! I’m so happy that the program worked so well for you, that you’re able to switch from Filling the Pipeline to Following Up. I’m looking forward to starting my next program with items from the Following Up actions. Hopefully this month I’ll add some new prospects that I can incorporate into the Following Up program.
@Nicole – I’m glad you’re joining in on the program again! Good luck reaching your program goals – that’s a big number, but if you did so well last time, and with added effort and advertising, etc. this month – I’m sure you’ll reach your new goal!
Thanks for clarifying the Y / N on the weekly action. I thought something was off there, LOL. I’m still going to be giving myself N’s if I don’t do a weekly item (whether planned or not) – I think it will help me work harder, LOL.