Here are a few key questions that every consultant should ask when interviewing a new client:

1. What are your five biggest challenges?

Ask about the client’s overall challenges—beyond the immediate subject at hand. By getting a sense of the larger challenges facing your client, you can be prepared to offer insights and draw connections that the client might have missed.

2. What are your five biggest opportunities?

Find out what the client is truly excited about! Where are some interesting new growth areas for the client’s business? What are some new trends shaping the marketplace? What are some of the most compelling new developments that the client has in store?

3. What keeps you up at night?

Connect with the client’s challenges on a visceral level. What is it that keeps this client from getting a good night’s sleep? What are the “worst-case scenarios” that this client might be confronting? If you phrase the question in these stark terms, you might help prompt the client to answer with greater candor and specificity, allowing you to help your client focus in on the biggest problem areas.

4. Why did you decide to hire a consultant?

Clients hire consultants for different reasons. Sometimes they need help with a specific problem or in implementing a known solution; other times they need a fresh perspective to bring new ideas and divergent thinking. Some clients turn to consultants when they don’t have the right expertise in house or just need more “hands on deck,” while other clients hire consultants to complement their existing team.

And in the less-ideal scenarios (from a consultant’s perspective), sometimes consultants get brought in when a project has a troubled history or has become a political hot potato within the client’s organization. For example, if a project has a history of failing to meet deadlines or has become “untouchable” within the organization, a consultant might be brought in to salvage it. If you can get a sense of why your client wanted to bring in a consultant, you’ll have a better understanding of the internal dynamics of the client’s organization, as well as a better perspective on the client’s true needs.

5. Where is your business headed in the next year and the next five years?

It’s important to get a sense of the “big picture.” You need to find out more about your client’s overall situation. Is he or she optimistic? Pessimistic? Cautiously hopeful or quietly desperate? Get a sense for your client’s overall strategic plan and see how your project fits into that plan—and be prepared to offer new ideas to aid the client’s larger strategic goals, as well as implementing the project at hand.

Knowing how to ask the right questions is a big part of any consultant’s success. You’re not just there to do a job; you’re there to collaborate, build a relationship, and sometimes coax out the hidden needs and unspoken motivations of your clients and their organizations.

You might also like to read:
Tough Times? Stay Afloat with New Client Business
Turn Your Leads into Sign-ups

Checks

Checks have been an accepted payment practice for quite some time. In fact, they have been around since the 9th century, so that merchants could make payments without having to carry around large amounts of gold and silver. There is still wide usage of checks in the United States, mostly in business to business commerce (consultancies). Banks have figured out ways to speed up the checking process by electronically transferring checks from the drawer bank to the drawee bank. This way you may be paid faster. One thing to think about is that producing and handling checks is a big expense for banks, and they are trying to add fees to checking accounts to deter customers away from this payment type and into electronic payments, which are much less expensive for banks to handle.

Electronic Transfers

Electronic transfers (EFTS) can be especially helpful when a payment is urgent or overdue. They can simply transfer funds from their account to your account with your banking information and a click of a button.

Credit Card Processing

Credit cards are often thought of being a payment method for brick and mortar retailers and e-commerce businesses, but you can also take advantage of accepting credit cards in your consulting business. In fact you can set up monthly, recurring payments, so you and your client do not have to worry about performing an individual payment every month. There are fees attached to a merchant account including a percentage of every sale and monthly fixed fees. In my consultancy now, one of my clients is North American Bancard. One of the reasons why I have become well educated about credit card processing, is that NAB and myself have a very good relationship, and there is a reason why they serve 100,000 businesses. They have great customer service, fair policies and reasonable rates. It is important to really understand what your service provider’s pricing, policies and customer service standards are. There are many companies in the merchant account industry that do not mention the small print, so it is important to choose a company that is transparent.

Conclusion

In anything you do in your business, analyze the pros and cons and make a decision based on your own research and the recommendations of the peers you trust. Different payment methods are more relevant to your niche than others, but offering more than one payment option will be a jumpstart to greater revenue.

It can be all too tempting for freelancers and contract consultants to limp along, hoping to sustain ourselves on existing client work and old standbys until the economy turns around. So is it realistic to expect a boon in new business? In a word, yes—with a targeted strategy and a little creativity:

1. Network, Network, Network

Yes, we have heard this one before, ad nauseaum and ad infinitum, but the power of ‘who you know’ cannot be underestimated. A few tried-and-true tips:

• Expand your network in non-traditional ways. ‘Who you know’ can include contacts from places of worship, schools and universities, hobby and interest networks, alumni associations and career placement offices in addition to former clients, colleagues and supervisors.
• Subcontract. Even if you prefer the ‘call the shots’ aspect of consulting on your own, consider subcontracting to a larger firm or consulting organization. Many consulting firms maintain an affiliate or subcontractor program through their recruiting departments. Registering with these firms/recruiters can help you fill in the gaps as your own client work ebbs and flows.
• Nurture your network. Stay connected to your contacts, even during the flush times. Sharing updates and new client success stories, and inquiring about your contacts’ recent work helps keep the lines of communication fertile during the lean times. Janet Borggren, a Chicago-based consultant has been freelancing for over 6 years. She offers, “(Be) the person your client wants to work with again. Being that person goes beyond producing great work. You have to nurture the relationship. It’s hard to impress strangers with your portfolio. Be someone your clients want with them in the trenches, and they’ll do your marketing for you.”
• Share the wealth: Pay your network back in kind. Pass along leads for projects or positions that may not fit your skill set or utilization. Make introductions between contacts across your network, offer recommendations to your colleagues on social media sites and suggest they use you as a reference should the need arise. Making yourself available to scratch others’ backs, helps ensure your own back never itches!

2. Offer your network something of value

Rather than reaching out to your network over and over with a vague message such as, “I am available for project work immediately,” offer your network something of value. Write and publish an article, then share it with your network. Join a panel discussion and share the recorded version. Attend a networking event and invite your contacts to join you. Offering insight, thought leadership or other points of value to your network:

• communicates your worth to the market
• emphasizes your ongoing achievements and connection to the market or industry you serve
• provides your network with direct examples of your skills
• and encourages your network to open and respond to your messages, allowing you the opportunity to communicate with your contacts regularly.

Ongoing ‘value’ communication will help to keep you top of mind, should an opportunity arise to consider you and your talents, without always having to say ‘Keep me in mind if you hear of something.’

3. Utilize technology to complete the ‘push-pull’ cycle.

Think beyond the ‘push’ communication process of online job/project searches and application submission. Job search sites are numerous, unwieldy and often a black hole of information input and output. While it is important to visit these sites and maintain a profile, searching and applying for positions online can be an overwhelming process, and can often feel fruitless. Consider using technology to ‘pull’ opportunities to you.

• Create and publish your own web site. Detail your talents, service and project success through inexpensive site build and hosting sites such as www.intuit.com or www.wordpress.com. Register your site with the major search engines and optimize your site so it is more attractive to spiders. Regular updates to the content, using keyword-rich text, can help to improve rankings.

• Post regular updates. Post to your blog and/or profiles on social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, detailing project work, recent successes, networking events you plan to attend, industry insight and other news about your work and services.

• Stay current. Subscribe to newsletters, blogs and other industry information sources to stay current on trends and to join online networking groups with similar interests and goals. Join network discussion groups and ask for ideas and advice from these contacts, in addition to your core network.

• Watch for trends. Stay abreast of events in capital project approvals within industry organizations. A major area of opportunity for consultants in a soft economy is to backfill or temporarily fill a project or position need associated with a capitalized project. Many companies are not able to hire a full-time permanent employee, but can justify the capitalized cost of hiring a consultant for part or all of a project’s duration. Use your network to target these opportunities and/or introductions to the department managers who may make these decisions over the next year.

The prospect of keeping the pipeline filled during difficult economic times can, indeed, be daunting. Tough times do call for tough measures – but a little creativity along the way can literally mean the difference between feast or famine for self-employed consultants industry-wide. Good luck!

With an email newsletter, you can broadcast your blog posts, send out information about industry events, provide targeted product and book reviews and so on. The key is to always be sure that your newsletter will be of interest to most of your audience. Experts suggest it is ideal if your newsletter is delivered on a regular but non-intrusive schedule, such as once a week or bi-monthly.

How To Get Started

To get started, first check out the email marketing services listed below. These are a few of the many respected email service providers that prohibit spam. The best email marketing services, as they are often called, have built relationships with large Internet Service Providers based on the fact that they do not allow spam. The ISPs know that these services use a permission-based model for building email lists.

Permission-based Marketing

In a permission-based approach, all potential receivers of your newsletter must opt-in or consent to getting an email from you or your business in their Inbox. This means business owners can’t buy a list of 10,000 email addresses and blast a newsletter to everyone. By going with one of the respectable service providers, your emails are more likely be delivered to the recipient than to end up in someone’s Spam folder.

How to Build a List

To begin building an email list, you’ll need to place a sign up form on your website. Email marketing services typically provide the html or javascript you need to place one in your blog’s sidebar or somewhere prominent on your site. If you’re not technically minded, you can outsource this task. Then you’ll need to encourage clients, peers and website visitors to sign up for the newsletter. Consider giving something in return for a signup, such as a well-written tip sheet, report or white paper.

Features of Email Marketing Services

Most email marketing services provide templates for making newsletters, tutorials on how to get started, and access to statistics so you can see who has signed up and how many are opening your emails. Two well-known email marketing services (who are also site sponsors) are reviewed below so you can compare their pricing and features. There are many other email marketing services that you can find online.

AWeber

AWeber is probably the most well-used of the automated email systems for sending out newsletters because it has all the features of an autoresponder, provides blog broadcasts, website sign up forms and allows as many lists as you’d like for the same monthly or yearly price. AWeber has an affordable pricing structure and provides a free “test drive” so you can check it out before signing up. For help services, they provide online chat, tutorials and live webinars. Go to AWeber site.

iContact

iContact also provides excellent service for setting up, sending and tracking newsletters, surveys, RSS feeds, autoresponders and other email campaigns. They have a guarantee to Internet Service Providers that their customers will not send spam and they terminate customers who do. iContact also has a free trial period. Go to iContact site.

Other Marketing Articles:
Social Networking: Turn Relationships Into Profit
Personal Branding 2.0

Here are ten of the techniques I share in our Time Management seminars, each one of which will help you to get at least one more hour out of your day of additional productive time.

1. Maintain Balance

Your life consists of Seven Vital Areas: Health, Family, Financial, Intellectual, Social, Professional, and Spiritual. You will not spend equal amounts of time in each area or time every day in each area. But, if in the long run, you are spending a sufficient quantity and quality of time in each area, then your life will be balanced. But ignore any one of your areas, (never mind two or three!) and you will get out of balance and potentially sabotage your success. Fail to take time now for your health and you will have to take time for illness later on. Ignore your family and they may leave you and cost you a lot of time to re-establish relationships. It is especially challenging for self-employed people to maintain balance, isn’t it?

2. Get the Power of the Pen

A faint pen has more power than the keenest mind. Get into the habit of writing things to do down using one tool (a Day-Timer, pad of paper, Palm Pilot, etc.) Your mind is best used for the big picture rather than all the details. The details are important, but manage them with the pen. If you want to manage it you have to measure it first. Writing all things down, not just incoming orders, helps you to more easily remember all that you need to accomplish.

3. Do Daily Planning

It is said that people do not plan to fail but a lot of people fail to plan. Take the time each night to take control of the most precious resource at your command, the next twenty-four hours. Plan your work and then work your plan each day. Write up a To Do list with all you “have to’s” and all of your “want to’s” for your next day. Without a plan for the day, you can easily get distracted, spending your time serving the loudest voice, the noisiest customer, rather than attending to the most important things for your day that will enhance your productivity.

4. Prioritize It

Your To Do list will have crucial and not crucial items on it. Despite the fact most people want to be productive, when given the choice between crucial and not crucial items, we will most often end up doing the not crucial items. They are generally easier and quicker than crucial items. Prioritize your To Do list each night. Put the #1 next to the most important item on your list. Place the #2 next to the second most important item on your list, etc. Then tackle the items on your list in order of their importance. You may not get everything done on your list, but you will get the most important things done. This is working smarter, not harder, and getting more done in less time.

5. Control Procrastination

The most effective planning in the world does not substitute for doing what needs to be done. We procrastinate and put off important things because we don’t sense enough pain for not doing it or enough pleasure to do it. To get going on something you have been putting off, create in your mind enough pain for not doing it or enough pleasure to do it. I prefer the pleasure approach. Take a procrastinated item and turn it into to a game. Work with one thing in front of you at a time so other things won’t distract you. (“Out of sight, out of mind.”) Break it down to little bite-sized, manageable pieces. Get it started, take the first step and you will likely continue it to completion.

6. Run an Interruptions Log

The average person gets 50 interruptions a day. The average interruption takes five minutes. Some four hours each day, on average, are spent dealing with interruptions. Many are crucial and important, like new orders, and are what we get paid to do but many have little or no value. Run an Interruptions Log to identify and eliminate the wasteful interruptions. Just use a pad of paper and label it “Interruptions Log”. Create six columns: Date, Time, Who, What, Length, Rating. After each interruption is dealt with, log in the date and time it occurred, who brought it to you, a word or two about what it related to, the length of time it took, and finally the rating of its importance: A=crucial, B=important, C=little value, and D=no value. Run it for a week or more to get a good measure of what is happening in your life. Then evaluate the results and take action to eliminate some of the C and D interruptions that have little or no value.

7. Delegate It

We all have 168 hours each week and when you subtract 56 hours for sleep and another 10 hours for personal care, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to get done what needs to be done. Delegation permits you to leverage your time through others and thereby increase your own results. The hardest part of delegation though, is simply letting go. We take great pride in doing things ourselves. “If you want a job done well, you better do it yourself”. Every night in Daily Planning, look at all that you have to do and want to do the next day and with each item ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?” If it is, do it. If it isn’t, try to arrange a way to delegate it to someone else. There is a lot of difference between “I do it” and “It gets done”.

8. Manage Meeting Time

A meeting is when two or more people get together to exchange common information. What could be simpler? Yet, it can be one of the biggest time wasters we must endure. Before a meeting ask, “Is it necessary?” and “Am I necessary?” If the answers to either are “no”, consider not having the meeting or excusing yourself from attending. Then prepare a written agenda for the meeting with times assigned for each item along with a starting time and ending time. Circulate the written agenda among those who will be attending. There is no sense in holding a meeting by ambush. Let people know in advance what is to be discussed.

9. Handle Paper

It’s easy to get buried today in the blizzard of paperwork around us. The average person receives around 150 communications each day via email, telephone, hard mail, memos, circulars, faxes, etc. A lot of time is wasted going through the same pile of paper day after day and correcting mistakes when things slip through the cracks. Try to handle the paper once and be done with it. If it is something that can be done in a minute or two, do it and be done. If it is not the best use of your time, delegate it. If it is going to take some time to complete, schedule ahead in your day calendar on the day you think you might get to it and then put it away.

10. Run a Time Log

If you want to manage it, you have to measure it. A Time Log is a simple yet powerful tool to create a photo album sort of overview of how your time is actually being spent during the day. Simply make an ongoing record of your time as you spend it. Record the activity, the time spent on it, and then the rating using A, B, C, and D as described in #1 above.

Some examples of how your time might be spent: Made telephone calls, 35 minutes, A; Made baskets, 48 minutes, A; Attended meeting, 55 minutes, C: Telephone call from Janis, 7 minutes, D. Run this for a few days to get a good picture of how your time is being spent. Then analyze the information. Add up all the A, B, C, and D time. Most discover a lot of their time is being spent on C and D items that have little or no value. Finally, take action steps to reduce the C and D items to give you more time for the really important things in your life.

What are your best time-saving tips?

There are some who think that unless you meet someone face-to-face, they don’t care enough to remember you no matter how often you converse online. There are those that say Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and LinkedIn are a waste of time and energy. Everyone likes the face-to-face meeting!

Many businesses are guilty of this type of closed-minded perspective. But just think about it. When you partner Social Media with the phone calls and face-to-face meetings, you can create double the opportunities.

The question is: Do you have to have face-to-face meetings to create real relationships (and eventually opportunities)? I find that working the whole spectrum of opportunity is best. I have been successful gaining business from individuals I met through LinkedIn as well as from people whom I have called, chatted with and met face-to-face. The bottom line is this: it is more about the person you are connecting with, not the method of connecting.

The point is that in-person methods for building relationships don’t negate social media methods and vice versa. Imagine for a moment that in your consulting business, you suddenly stopped using the telephone. You would never get any business through that channel. The same is true for those who rely solely on the Internet as a way to connect. There needs to be a marriage of the two approaches in order to make business successful.

The secret to success is finding the right balance of communication and relationship building for your clients and your business. In an informal survey of my clients’ preferences, they responded with a wide age range of unpredictable answers. Some prefer e-mails and LinkedIn, others liked meetings and snail mail, and some liked it all.

At the end of the day, only you know your business and purpose for using social media. Perhaps for some, social media does not yet have a place in their business, but times are changing quickly.

Consider These Three Questions

1. What worked and did not work for you in the previous year?

• Seems obvious, but people often forget what went “wrong” and repeat it again and again.  Something going “wrong” doesn’t mean that it blew up or cost you money.  It can be as simple as not achieving the results you desired  or that  it took too much of your time.
• On the same note, people often forget what went “right” in the previous year.  Funny, as this is how we succeed. Try not become too content with where you are and what you are capable of achieving. Aim high!  It is a new year!

2. What do you want to accomplish in 2010?

• Something as small as acquiring 10 new qualified Linked-In contacts this year or as ambitious as becoming the #1 in your field.
• Do you want to learn to build deeper relationships through social networking? Keep your goals top of mind in everything you do. Schedule them into your day or week so you have time to achieve your goals.

3. What new Social Media outlets would you like to try (or not) this year?

• Many people are content with the outlets they are using, which is fine.  At the same time I know (first hand) that there are so many social media outlets available, it can become overwhelming.  You either try too many at once to keep up, or avoid using any at all.
• One idea is to consider how you are going to juggle the social media you are currently using. Is there a way to work smarter not harder?  Would it be more convenient to send updates with your  a Blackberry or iPhone? What about pre-writing articles and updates?
• Like many people I have spoken to, you may even decide that in 2010 you are going to stop using some outlets for social media.  Perhaps the return on investment isn’t worth it the effort. Regardless of what you decide, it’s most important that you are thinking things through. Remember that your social media presence is your face on the internet.  Make it true to who you are and how you want to be seen!

What are your social media goals and strategies for 2010? Our readers would appreciate your ideas!

Admittedly, it’s more art than science, but you can follow a few simple steps to ensure that the best of what you offer is highly visible—and memorable.

Step 1. Know yourself and what makes you distinct.

Look around you. How many technology consultants are there? HR? Financial? Strategy? That’s right, you are most definitely not alone. So avoid the urge to cast a wide net with all the services you COULD provide. Instead, focus on what you do that no one else can. Creating your own market beats battling for someone else’s market.

Start by slicing and dicing your talents against your client experience. Say you’re a training consultant. What special expertise can you claim? Do you design interactive web-based programs? Deliver high-energy sales training live? Are your best clients from a specific function, industry or segment?
Which sounds better—“I’m a training consultant” or “I help telecommunications sales reps double their sales in 6 months?”

Once you’re clear on how you are different, you can focus your efforts (think laser not shotgun) on the people who might hire or refer you.

Step 2. Align your stories, actions and visuals.

We humans are hard-wired to learn by story. And the most successful consultants demonstrate their expertise and results by telling exactly the right story for the circumstance. How compelling are your stories? Do they align with how you uniquely serve your clients? Can you tell them winningly at a moment’s notice?

If not, spend some time recalling—and practicing—your most memorable client experiences.

Your actions prove—over and over—that you are who you say you are. Are you high-touch? Then you better be quick to respond and thoughtful. Are you the subject matter expert? Then you want to be the first out with your take on a new bill or a bold new idea. Known for your integrity? Then don’t take referral fees from those you recommend.

And of course we all know that one great visual is worth at least 1,000 words. So in addition to weaving great visuals into your work, pay attention to how you dress, walk and enter the room. It matters.

The critical piece here is alignment: your stories, actions and visuals must tell a consistent, compelling, unique story.

Step 3. Put yourself out there.

Once you’re clear on how to position yourself—and have the client stories to back it up—put yourself where your targeted clients spend their time. Focus on truly connecting with them. Provide value in your unique way every time you interact so they can experience working with you. When it’s time to discuss a possible project, they will already be sold on you.

Why restrict your circle to those you already know? Use social media—LinkedIn is a natural for most business consultants—and explore other platforms where your potential clients are spending time and open to business connections.

Write a blog—just don’t make it all about you. Give your target clients tips, ideas or your unique take on pending issues. Think hard before launching a newsletter—most are boringly self-promotional and beg for the delete key. Ask yourself, what can I give my clients that they value and don’t receive from anyone else?

The bottom line is this: You can make yourself unforgettable and literally grow your practice exponentially. It requires exceptional clarity on who you are, fine-tuned alignment of all that you do and deep engagement in connecting with the right audience.

You’ll also like these articles:
Attract More Prospects In 30 Seconds Or Less
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Your hands are sweating; your stomach is in knots. Once again you have a client who is driving you crazy. If you say left, they say right. The hiring honeymoon is over and now you see that your client is—believe it or not—a difficult person.

Part of your challenge is that your attachment to the outcome of this conversation is both financial and relationship based. Oh and it is tied to money, wait did I already say that? Well which one of you is NOT in business to MAKE MONEY?

And what about being respected for your knowledge and your expertise and I’m sorry, dare I say it, what about your ego? How can this person, this client go ahead and hire you to do something and then turnaround and not listen to you or disregard your advice or even worse, ask for your input and then do the exact opposite? I mean really, WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?

Although your ability to get along well with your clients is a strong component of your professional reputation, I would suggest that most of the burden of making this relationship work resides with you. What is a consultant to do?

Take Control of the Situation

It is not likely that your difficult client will change for you, but you can change the way the two of you interact. You can take more control of the situation and work towards a positive outcome. In order to do that, I must ask you to do something. Let go of your attachment to finances and if applicable, put your ego aside. When you let money and ego drive the situation, it shows. If you let your concern for your working relationship take charge you are on your way to a positive outcome.

Concentrate on the Relationship

Once you are ready to speak to them consider this approach:

• Prepare for the conversation in advance. Identify what you hope to gain from the interaction and begin with this end in mind.
• Be flexible; do not be so focused on your end goal that you cannot take a detour in the conversation. This detour may help you understand the perspective of your difficult person.
• Select a time that is convenient to both of you. A time when you can both can listen and exchange information without additional pressures or distractions.
• Listen; really listen to what they are saying. If they say something like, ‘I cannot do that’ or ‘That will not work’; ask them why. Whatever issue they have may not be about you. Try to get the real problem out in the open.
• Maintain emotional objectivity. Remember, whatever drives them to be difficult is about them, not about you.
• An individual who is upset may become defensive and verbally attack you. Stay calm, take a deep breath and pause before responding.

If the discussion gets too heated, recommend that you both take some time to cool off. Then agree upon a time when you will reconvene.  No matter how difficult, deal with the situation. Agree to stick with the situation until you have both been able to understand one another. You do not have to agree, but you want to work toward a relationship where you can respect each other as individuals and professionals.

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This month, Think Like A Consultant interviewed Alan Weiss, Ph.D., a well-known consultant, coach, speaker and author of over 500 articles and 32 books.

TLAC: For some background, can you briefly tell our readers how you got started in consulting?
Alan: I was recruited into a training firm in Princeton, NJ. The search firm had read an article I had published while I was with Prudential Insurance.

TLAC: Your blog is titled “Contrarian Consulting.” How do you define this term?
Alan: Contrarian consulting means not readily accepting conventional wisdom and mainstream thinking until and unless you have empirical evidence that it produces results for you and your clients. In practical terms, this means pushing back and challenging your buyer’s thinking (never in the HR Department) about assumptions being made regarding customers, services, products, and relationships.

TLAC: Through your experience as a mentor, what do you see as the top most avoidable mistakes that new consultants make?
Alan: The huge issue is lack of self-esteem. It may not always be preventable, but it is certainly correctable. Recent studies of self-esteem support what I’ve learned and believed for over 20 years: Positive self-esteem is not a causal factor, it’s a result. That is, when I succeed at something, my self-esteem improves, creating a cycle of success.

The acquisition of skills enables us to perform better—or in new areas— thereby creating success, enhancing self-esteem, and building the motivation to acquire still more skills. That’s a great cycle, and one we should scrupulously pursue for ourselves and our loved ones.

TLAC: Can you give some advice to consultants who are having a hard time in this economy?
Alan: Yes: It’s NOT the economy. That’s an excuse. If someone, somewhere is successfully providing your kind of value (and they are) then the problem is you. Focus on market need, your competency, and passion. And build a brand.

TLAC: Regarding ways to succeed during this economy, Alan provides helpful guidance in his article, It’s Not the Economy, Though Many Wish That It Were.

1. Clearly articulate the value you will provide to a client.
2. Insist on meeting the real buyers (the people who sign the checks).
3. Internalize that you are in the marketing business.
4. Ask for help from the right resources.

Now that’s good advice in any economy.