In 2006 I can make more money taking a vacation if I hire myself out in advance as a rain maker.
This year is stampeding through Q3 and next month we hit the gun lap of 2006--the 4th Quarter! So far, I've taken the advice of my friends who say "You can't work all of the time. You gotta take a break. Go on vacation."
What do they know? I know that I should have called ahead to each spot I chose for time off this year and let them pay me for my amazing rain making ability. Do you have a drought? Getting ready to lose millions on failed crops, totally fried landscapes that you'll pay big time to reinstall next season, and there's a ban on using water? I'm for hire.
My strategic mistake is not calling ahead to the governor's office at the same time I am online for my tickets. I should ask for payment in advance to come to their state. For Labor Day weekend plus a day on both side to make it the equivalent of a work week (5 days), I made my plans to go to Dallas-Fort Worth, where they have had 20 days in a row of 103 degrees or more, without a break.They are fed up to here with the drought and angry. I arrive. The clouds move in. The local residents thank me. The rains begin and go on, and on, and on. All the way through the holiday weekend.
I've taken two other breaks from work this year and in each place there were record floods, breaking records for 70 years or so and hitting the front pages of the papers and CNN the whole week I was there--rained in, with bridges and roads washed out.
This all reminds me to catch up on my reading of one of our favorite customer creation tips sheets--RainToday.com. Everything about that newsletter reinforces the principles and marketing system of Duct Tape Marketing. We just love it. This week, for example, you get 5 Ideas For Marketing Small And Mid-Sized Firms: A Perspective From Architecture, Engineering, And Construction by Virginia Daffron.
She reinforces the big message here at Duct Tape Marketing --you have to have a marketing system or it's all a big waste of energy and a world of hurt and disappointment. Virginia writes, "Of course, your firm needs a marketing plan, with strategies and tactics to guide you in building the business that you will enjoy working at each day. Of course, you need to get everyone on the same page to harness the power of your whole team to promote your firm. Of course, you need to do a million and one things that can't fit into your day, or your week, or your year. But until you get around to those, these five ideas might be a good place to start."
Virginia and the Customer Creation Queen have this in common--we work with a lot of professionals in the engineering, architecture and construction industries. By their own admission, they are not the greatest at marketing. In fact, the best attended seminar for more than 20 years at the national convention of the American Institute of Architects was the session on rain making and getting business. Not building codes. Not how to specify glass. Not how to make sure the building doesn't collapse. Marketing your professional service! That's where the need is the greatest.
Virginia offers these five ideas and we encourage you to fold this into your Duct Tape Marketing system and get on with it!
- What You Don't Do Is Just As Important As What You Do.
- A Good Public Relations Program Offers Terrific Bang For Your Buck.
- Create And Maintain A Web Presence That Makes You Proud To Give Out The Address.
- Develop A Marketing Framework To Structure And Guide Your Efforts.
- Find The Right Balance Between Talking To Many And Talking To One.
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