2000 Professional's Guide to Target Marketing: How to Gain Profitable New Business

The approach to marketing set forth in this book is more than a sales technique. It's a philosophy that allows the professional to turn the right prospects into great lifelong clients. This book is not about closing sales; it's about opening relationships.

Truly professional marketing is not about trapping prospects into buying. Successful marketing results in clients who are greatful for the help and guidance the professional provides. Clients can discern in expert marketing that the professional is genuinely concerned for the well-being of others.

As a professional, you already have most of the skills you need to become more valuable to your clients and also to become a better salesperson. The suggestions in this book will help you: Be an expert diagnostician of client problems; be good at asking questions; deal with people in a non-threatening way; be trustworthy; be organized and systematic; be good at learning the why; and, be able to get to know your clients well.

This book gives step-by-step processes to help you market and sell services to both current clients and new clients. While acquiring high-quality new clients is a challenging opportunity, retention of current clients is the most important part of any marketing program. The primary focus should be on rendering high-quality service that clients perceive as valuable. Client service and communication skills are covered in this book to help you improve your ability to retain these clients.

This book offers practical guidance in how to prepare for a meeting with prospects or clients, how to conduct an interview, how to offer a solution, and how to obtain a firm commitment.

The biggest marketing mistake most professionals make is that they look, act, and talk like their competitors. Your business is unique. Finding the value in your uniqueness is the basis for improving both your client relationships and your bottom line. If prospects see no difference between you and our competitors, then they must make decisions on the basis of price. Target Marketing provides an effective way for you to soar above the crowd of competitors, expand your services, charge higher prices, and (for accountants) avoid the workload compression problems of traditional compliance work by creating work to be done in the off-season.

Using the material in this book, you will be able to accomplish the following: Decide what kind of clients you want to build your practice around; learn what clients and prospects look for in their professional relationships; see your relationships from the point of the view of the clients; learn how to develop contracts that result in prospects; understand and discover the needs and wants of a prospect or client; and, learn to present to prospects the benefits of your services in a manner that increases your percentage of engagements obtained.

David Cottle consults with professional firms and service businesses on profitability improvement, partner/executive incentive compensation, marketing, client service improvement, executive leadership skills, and strategic planning and management.

This is his fifth book based on his experience working with clients in 40 states in the United States and 15 other countries. Mr. Cottle speaks often for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and more than a dozen State publications. He has authored more than a dozen seminars on marketing, profitability improvement, management, and executive skills.

Mr. Cottle practiced accounting for 12 years in Dallas, Texas, in the 1960s and 1970s, working his way up to become a partner in a successful local firm. Since 1979, he has consulted with professional firms and owner-managed businesses on profitability, practice management, and marketing.

Mr. Cottle is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, the Institute of Management Consultants (which granted him the designation "Certified Management Consultant"), the Florida Institute of CPAs, and the Texas Society of CPAs. He is also a member of the National Speakers Association.