Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants
– Breakthrough tactics for winning profitable clients
By Jay Conrad Levinson and Michael W. McLaughlin. Published by John Wiley and Sons Inc, New Jersey, USA, 2005. 294 pages (pb). RRP $32.95. ISBN 0 471 61873 X.
Don’t be fooled. Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants is not for zoologists working with large apes. Jay Conrad Levinson and fellow American Michael McLaughlin have combined marketing and management backgrounds to write a ‘how to’ book to help professional service providers build their business. The book is intended for those supplying consultancy services: people like IT specialists, management types, lawyers, medicos, and a range of other professionals.
It seems that everywhere you look, there are consultants helping someone to do something. “Bring in the consultants” is a common cry when government agencies and businesses face tough decisions or have to change what they do.
While the work may be there for consultants, winning it is often a different matter. Firms at the top end of town may have the marble foyers, more black suits and be better known, but smaller consultancies can often match brain power and experience to deliver comparable results at a fraction of the cost.
But to win business, these one- and two-person outfits have to stand out from the pack. Who better to provide marketing advice than Jay Conrad Levinson, the man who started the guerrilla marketing movement more than 20 years ago.
Levinson coined the catchy phrase ‘guerrilla marketing’ with his first book in 1983. Since then he has become its high priest through numerous books, articles and speaking appearances. His concept is simple. Consistently use creative, low-budget marketing techniques and deliver outrageously good service and you will always beat bigger competitors who are slow to adapt to change.
In Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants, Levinson and McLaughlin explain why clients buy consultancy services and how to overcome the cynicism the word “consultant” often inspires. They preach on the need to develop relationships with clients rather than just do their projects, and cover in detail low-cost ideas to help create a profitable practice.
You would expect the book to include the usual marketing issues: market research, planning, direct mail, using the media to gain profile, and online strategies. The book provides fresh insights into these well-trodden areas and also explains how to set prices, win business by beating out incumbent consultants, and when to submit proposals (the answer: don’t submit proposals unless you absolutely have to).
I particularly enjoyed reading about strategies you rarely see Australian consultants use. Few independent professionals produce short, sharp white papers on topical industry issues to demonstrate their thought leadership. By thinking outside the box, smaller firms can grab attention by commissioning surveys that forecast industry trends.
This book provides straightforward, well thought out advice. It is an easy read and would be a good addition to the bookshelves of people starting their first consultancy and those with well-established businesses. |
