Business DevelopmentIt’s times like this, I wish I could see your faces so I can ask for a share of hands.

Instead, I’ll imagine you nodding along.

How many of you are actually doing your own PR?

I know. I know.

The shoemaker’s children.

But, just like many clients don’t want to hire a firm that has a terrible social media presence, it makes sense they want to know you’ve tried your recommendations on yourself.

And yet…

Remove “I Don’t Have Time” from Your Vocabulary

I’ve been there.

I totally get it.

We used to have a managing supervisor who was, hands down, one of the best communicators I have ever worked with.

She taught me more in the few years we worked together than I’ve learned in my entire career.

She would say to me, “If we want to get the attention of the large clients we aspire to work with, we have to do our own PR. We have to apply for awards. We have to be in PRWeek. We have to go to events.”

And my answer was always:

I can’t imagine a client would be super happy to know we were spending our time building our own brand instead of theirs.

Man, was I wrong!

And I know you can appreciate that.

If you aren’t doing your own PR, no one knows you exist.

Sure, we can get by on referrals and word-of-mouth, but that leads to a feast or famine situation.

And, most times, it’s impossible to predict cash flow and head count and all of the other needs when that’s our business development model.

But we still don’t focus on a proactive business development plan.

We say we don’t have time.

We don’t get any traction with the few things we do throw out there.

So we just don’t try.

Create a Proactive Business Development Program

But, I promise you, if you take a strategic approach to business development, you will have success.

  • You will drive qualified leads to your website while you sleep.
  • You will have more work than you know what to do with.
  • You will be able to pick and choose your clients.
  • You will stop going to competitive pitches.
  • And you will have, what our managing supervisor called, F you money.

And who doesn’t want F you money?!

That is the entire purpose of The Content Secret to Closing More Clients bootcamp.

It’s to show you how to integrate owned and earned media so they support one another to build your credibility as a subject matter expert, and help you meet real business results.

And, because you will be doing this work for yourself, the results you’ll be able to get your clients will increase dramatically.

This will happen because you’ll intimately know what works and what doesn’t, because you’ll see the results—or lack thereof—in your own business.

Say Goodbye to Random Acts of PR

After working your way through the bootcamp this week, you will say goodbye to random acts of PR.

You will be on your way to increasing your website’s domain authority and visibility in the search engines.

You will show up on the first page of Google results.

You will have not just leads, but qualified leads coming directly to you.

My friend Tony Gnau posted in Slack the other day:

The process Gini teaches actually works! I just got my first client who came directly from a Google search. I didn’t even have to write a proposal. I told him how much it would cost and he hired me. I start this week.

And that is how you attract and retain the best clients.

Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model and has crafted a certification for it in partnership with Syracuse University. She has run and grown an agency for the past 15 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.

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