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3. It's important to emphasise that you already have skills, knowledge and expertise that is valuable to your prospective clients. The trouble is most of us take what comes naturally to us for granted, and completely underestimate
value of what we know to our prospective clients.
Not only is what you know very helpful, you could be using it to attract your prospective clients, by packaging your knowledge and expertise in a form that meets one of their current needs. A classic way of doing this would be to offer a free report or information pack which answers a question or solves a problem that your prospective clients have.
For example, if you are a recruitment consultant, you have probably noticed that some of your existing clients are more successful at attracting and retaining talent than others. Now if you sit down and reflect upon this, you could probably come up with five things that
companies who are successful at retaining talent do that others don't. This could be based entirely on your personal observations over
years. Voila! Flesh out your opinions and you now have a report, '5 ways attract and retain talent' or ''What companies who are successful at attracting and retaining clients do that their competitors don't'
This does not need to be a ground breaking piece of academic research. I want to remind you that you already have an opinion on this, which may well differ from
mainstream view, and if I asked you this question over lunch, you would have no problem in coming up with an answer.
4. Once you have your article written, you could offer this free report by placing a message or short ad in a place where your target clients congregate. I call this a magnet - something that provokes prospective clients to raise their hands and say, 'I'm interested!' By requesting your report, responders indicate that they are interested in this topic.
Now, not everyone who requests your report will be a hot prospect, but there will be some potential clients within this group. The free report would just be
starting point of your relationship. From this point you could offer more 'birdseed' each time demonstrating your credibility in this subject area, up until
point when
prospect asks, 'can you help me', or a one-to-one conversation is necessary.
This is a low cost way to generate leads and position yourself as an expert in your particular field. Yes, it takes a little brainstorming, imagination and creativity on your part, but
knowledge which shapes your 'birdseed' should come naturally anyway, and
time spent thinking about
needs and desires of your prospective clients will never be wasted.
(c) Bernadette Doyle, 2004. Reprint rights granted to all venues so long as
article and by-line are reprinted intact. This article may not be used for any publication unless it is opt-in.

Bernadette Doyle is dedicated to helping self-employed and small businesses become Client Magnets. Get her FREE 7 part mini-course 'How to Become A Client Magnet', send a blank email to mailto:minicourse@clientmagnets.com