One of biggest mistakes people make in marketing their services is to simply PUSH information about their services and themselves out to prospects and hope that this will result in attracting prospects. Unless you are already a household name and in such demand that your phone is ringing off hook, this approach rarely attracts numbers of new clients you want. The result is that most marketing falls into bottom of boat instead of propelling your business forward.

An alternative to typical push and hope approach to marketing is to PULL prospects in and then in context of a growing relationship, PUSH useful information out to them. If you want prospects to remember your firm when they have a need for your services, start by attracting their interest.

Generate interest by focusing on what your potential clients want and problems they need solved. Use this client centered marketing strategy to pull prospects in so you can push your expertise out to them. Give them ideas they can apply instead of information about credentials, or past clients. Like rowing your boat, you won’t move very far unless you repeat sequence again and again.

Are you pulling prospects in or just pushing your information out? Review your marketing materials to see if you have sequence right. Take a look at your web site, brochures, newsletters, correspondence and proposals.

Last year (in 2002) a friend of mine—let’s call him Jack—phoned and asked if I could help him with his 401k. Jack works for a large company as Senior VP of lending and is financially pretty astute. However, when it came to his 401k mutual fund decisions, he had repeatedly made same mistake most people were making. As a result, he saw his account drop in value substantially.

At time we were in midst of 2000 bear market, which showed no sign of letting up. Jack had purchased into a Lifestyle fund because someone recommended it. By time he finally bailed out, it cost him dearly. However, he continued to make same mistake by reinvesting.

He checked with 401k representative and subsequently switched to a variety of mutual funds ranging from World Stock to Domestic Hybrids, Large and Small Value as well as Growth. But nothing worked and his portfolio value headed further south.

By time we met to discuss his 401k Jack was pretty disgusted by canned advice he had received and continued losses he was sustaining.

Jack knew that I had pretty much eluded bear market of 2000 by having sold all of my clients’ positions on 10/13/2000. We were safely in our money market accounts weathering out storm (see my article "How we eluded bear in 2000."

Thinking about this, Jack could only shake his head because at no point in market slide had he ever been given what I believe was right advice. That is, no one suggested that, since we were in a bear market, he might want to step aside and remain in safety of his money market account. So he stayed invested, hoping against evidence all around him to find something that was not crashing. That was his mistake, and one shared by many.