Are You Ready for a Personal Marketing Plan?

How you feel about promoting yourself may determine how successful you will be as a businessperson. In fact, if you are an owner of a service business, or are a person trained in a technical profession, your financial success arguably depends on your commitment to "selling yourself."

It would be nice if we all were perceived as "trusted advisors" and people naturally flocked to us when in need of architectural, accounting, engineering, legal, marketing, medical or financial advice. However, unless you have built your business to the point where your income is not only abundant for your current needs but also takes you, your family and possibly your own parents well into the future, you probably could benefit from engaging in some "sales" activity.

To see how you REALLY feel about self-promotion, take this short quiz:

  1. If someone asked me to describe myself like a product, I would:

    A. Not know where to start

    B. Be really embarrassed

    C. Have to think about it, but could come up with something

    D. Have my "features and benefits" ready and be able to describe them
  2. I believe I can meet my personal marketing goals by:

    A. Doing more of what I’m already doing

    B. Clearly defining my goals, and putting them in writing

    C. Just letting things happen

    D. Waiting until it’s a good time to start marketing
  3. I eat lunch with business prospects and referral sources:

    A. At least once a week

    B. At least twice a week

    C. Hardly ever

    D. More than twice a week

    E. Only when a colleague asks me to go along
There are no grades for this quiz, but you can no doubt gauge your own level of interest in, or commitment to, promoting yourself in order to build your practice or client base from the answers you chose. If you already sell yourself like a product, have your goals in writing and quantitatively defined, and initiate regular meetings with lead sources, then you’ve got a good start.

However, there is much more to do. There are many low-cost, effective tactics you can use. And, it takes a commitment of time, energy and focus to achieve the level of success you will find acceptable for your own needs.

What type of activities you engage in, and the level of involvement you dedicate to each, will also likely be determined by how mature your businees is.