25 Years Of Marketing Consulting Experience Bottled Into One Short Hour This is one of my favorite interviews. It was conducted in 2004 but it’s just as impressive today. In it, you’ll hear from a 25-year sales and marketing veteran named Richard, who also happens to be the founder of the HMA consulting system. As soon as I met Richard, I knew the wealth of information he held was different than anything I’d heard before. And after you listen to this audio, you’ll know exactly what I mean. The best thing about Richard is: he’s never stingy with information. He shares knowledge that most marketing consultants would keep under lock and key. So what you are about to hear is a detailed interview full of useful tips, techniques and secrets that were collected for more than 25 years. Here are just a few of the topics discussed… • What kinds of businesses are the easiest to close deals with • What exactly to say when cold calling that will pique interest, qualify prospects and save you time • How to form and use alliances to promote your consulting business -- without ever touching your wallet • What the number one killer of the consulting business is -- and how avoiding it can make you thousands of dollars every year • The steps you should take in the first 30 days as a consultant to successfully launch your career with no money at all • The problems with contingency agreements and why you should always charge a fee upfront • And much, much more A little bit about Richard… Back in 1990, Richard was one of Jay Abraham’s protégés. And since then, he’s taken that experience and expanded on it to form a consulting system that works for everyone – even people with NO money or experience. You see, his HMA system approaches consulting from a different angle, using practical methods and step-by-step modules. So before you jump into the field of consulting, you’ll want to listen to this audio at least once because it will arm you with a complete plan for success. And Richard is the best person to provide it. So sit back and listen to his many years of experience. This is an hour-long interview, broken into 20-minute segments. And at the end of the last segment, I’ll have a special offer you won’t want to miss. Enjoy.

PDF transcripts download mp3 part one   download mp3 part two   download mp3 part three

Hi, this is Michael Senoff with www.HardToFindSeminars.com  It’s ten o’clock Thursday morning. I just got off the phone with Richard a veteran Marketing Consulting expert. Richard has been working as a full-time marketing consultant for the last 14 years. Now, when I meet a man who’s out there still working in the trenches, still calling up clients, still active in the consulting business, I stop and take note.

When I found out Richard was a Jay Abraham original protégé all the way back in 1990, then I knew that I had really struck gold. I had to talk to Richard. I had to get inside his head, and I had to ask him every imaginable question about how he operates his consulting business. I’ve worked with other so-called marketing consultants in the past. Consultants that say they have experience, but when it comes down to it. Their experience claims fall short. I want to learn from an expert sales professional, still out there in the field doing consulting, and that’s why I’m proud to introduce to you such a man.

Once Richard and I started talking, I never knew where the conversation would go, but by the time we ended this conversation, I think I have captured one of the most specific, detailed dissertations on the inside workings of how to operate and run a marketing consulting business. I had Richard take me through every single step of his process. I had him use real-life client examples to illustrate his points.


You will hear Richard’s system for getting clients. You’ll hear how to improve your practice if you’re a marketing consultant. You’ll hear what to do, how to qualify, how to set-up an appointment, where to meet – do you meet over breakfast? Do you meet over drinks? Do you meet in is office and why? – the questions to ask. You’ll hear about a PowerPoint presentation. You’ll hear his Opportunity Analysis Worksheet, how to charge, and most importantly how to close a deal.

We went into so many specifics, and I learned more in this conversation with Richard than I have with any other marketing consulting trainer. I absolutely know you’re going to be thrilled with this conversation. The recordings are in three 20-minute sections. Please stick with it until the end, because I have a free gift for you, which you’ll hear how to get at the end of this transcript. I know you’re going to benefit from this valuable information on. Enjoy!






Richard: The minute we got the owner’s unique selling proposition integrated into the sales pitch of the five salespeople, we increased our closing rate from 20-40 percent, and increased their revenues from $60-$90 million dollars.

Michael: Wow.

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Richard: It was phenomenal. You have no hard costs. The consulting business and marketing consulting including is the highest profit margin business out there. I mean, I meet these business owners everyday, and there you can buy on ten percent, 15 percent, 20 percent gross profit. Marketing consulting gives you 90-95 gross profit.

Michael: So, let me ask you this –  You went through Jay’s marketing system in 1990. It’s 14 years later, and you’re still actually out there having someone telemarket for you, set up appointments. You’re calling to confirm. You’ve actually been doing this for this long.

Richard: Oh yeah, and I’ll tell you why because the number one killer of the consulting business and marketing consulting included is you stop marketing. The minute you stop marketing, you’re dead because you’re start to get lethargic. You start to get lazy. You get clients and you think you’re busy enough. So, you don’t keep marketing. I throw out this rule right now and that is anyone serious about getting in the consulting business better always be willing to market 25 percent of their time.

Michael: So, this isn’t a land a huge client, get a good contingency deal, make several hundred thousand dollars, and retire for the next year.

Richard: You’ll only find those if you keep doing what I’ve described to you to do. You won’t find those by a science. You’ll run into them, and I’ve run into a couple of them. So, I’ve had a couple of client relationships that have given me the big bucks for the short period of time, but there far and few between.

Michael: Now, let’s talk about it. You said for a short period of time. Was this contingency relationship?

Richard: Both fee and contingency.

Michael: Do they want contingency relationships?

Richard: Contingencies are hard to make last.

Michael: Why?

Richard: There are several things. One is you’re in a partnership with the business owner. You’re now relying on his honesty and his trust and his capability of doing business, but it’s not always in your control. It may not always keep working the way you want it to work.

Michael: Does it change the relationship between the two people?

Richard: It absolutely does. That’s why I don’t recommend a contingency basis to begin with. I will always charge a fee first, and then as I work with the client and they work with me, and we find out that we’re working well together, it can evolve into a contingency opportunity.

Michael: If you were dropped off in the middle of an unknown town or city with no money, no credentials and no more knowledge about business than your neighbors pet dog, and you were given just five days to make $10,000 as a marketing consultant, what would you do? What steps would you take? What mindset would you adopt? And how successful do you think you will be and why?

Richard: I would immediately find information that would act as a model or I would find a mentor. I would find someone in that community or on written material or a book. I’d go to the library. I’d go on the web, and I’d find the best marketing consultant out there, and I would read and I’d study and I would find out what he did or what she did, and I would then distill that into an approach and go immediately and begin to approach small businesses and find ways that I could leverage what the small business had already been doing and quickly generate cash for the business. If I was penniless at the time, and I didn’t have to have pennies right away, I would probably do it on a contingency basis where I would get a percentage of the increase that my marketing efforts would produce. So, that’s what I would do. I would find knowledge. I would find information. I would find a way to help start me, a way to jump-start me.

Michael: Now, is that what you did with your marketing consulting business?

Richard: I have done it, yes, and I have done it several times. I’ve done it both on a fee based level as well as a contingency based level.

Michael: Who was that expert that you modeled to start your business?

Richard: This is Jay Abraham.

Michael: Can you tell me about that?

Richard: Jay, back in 1990, was looking for a thousand protégés to train. So, he sent out some advertising and I read his ad in Entrepreneur Magazine. He took about a 27 page ad in the middle of Entrepreneur Magazine, and I was on an airline flight at the time and read it, and decided that then I would take what was my background which again in outside sales, combine it with his marketing expertise and I was intrigued then to start my own marketing consulting practice. So, I invested $15,000 in Jay, and went and spent a week with him as well as about a hundred others. I came a way with all of the information that I needed to combine with my own skills where I had been to that point in my life, and started marketing consulting.

Michael: Do you think your sales skills as an outside salesperson gave you an advantage over someone who didn’t have the sales expertise in being a marketing consultant?

Richard: I think it did with regards to my training from Jay, as Jay didn’t supply any of that in his training. Jay was strictly marketing. So, fortunately for me, I was able to supply what Jay didn’t give me. now, since then, I have been able to document the whole process from what you say to a perspective business client all the way to closing and servicing that client in a way that someone wouldn’t have to have that strong a sales background, but for me it was important that I had.

Michael: What were you selling in outside sales?

Richard: I had worked for a couple of different companies - one selling educational books to the public, another company selling software to trucking firms. I was with an auto racing firms selling auto racing brokerage services. So, it was pretty varied that I had had up to that point.

Michael: Some of the stuff was pretty high tech – the trucking software?

Richard: Yeah the software was $30,000 software, and then spent some time also selling timeshares as well. So, it was a fun background.

Michael: Here’s a question from Marty. Can a person who has no money, no credit, and no job, go out and do this thing? Or is this some kind of pipe dream being a marketing consultant?

Richard: Well, they have to have a few innate characteristics. They have to enjoy working with people. They’ve got to have some passion. They’ve got to have an ability to communicate well with the business owner and enjoy working with the business owner. Those are the required. You can have no money. You can have all of the other stuff that you mentioned, but you do have to have at least what I just described.

Michael: Here’s a question from Ken. Let’s start with my favorite question, the numbers question. You can afford $500 per month to start marketing your practice. What medium would you spend it on and what would your message be?

Richard: I would use the phone and I would save the $500 and I would get on the phone and I would be contacting small business owners and my scripting would be, “Hello, Mr. Business Owner, my name is Tom, and I have a way that I can increase your sales for your business without spending any more money on advertising. Could I take 15-20 minutes and tell you a little bit more about it?”

Michael: Is this what you use even today.

Richard: You bet. Versions of that we still use even today.

Michael: Have you tried other versions and found this to be the one that produces results?

Richard: This one is one what sets me apart from everybody else.

Michael: How’s that?

Richard: Well, these small business owners are getting contacted constantly by traditional media, traditional advertising mediums like the newspaper, the radio, direct mail, coupons, the Internet, and when the approach is on the phone saying, “I’m going to be able to increase sales for your business without spending more money on these traditional advertising approaches” it catches their ear.

Michael: It is totally opposite to what other calls are.

Richard: That’s right.

Michael: Have you quantified this? How many calls does it take to get an appointment?

Richard: We have found that talking to ten business owners, in other words making contact with ten decision makers will get you an appointment.

Michael: How do we identify? How do we get that decision maker on that first scripted call?

Richard: Two ways. One is the market that I recommend a marketing consultant to begin in especially are the smaller businesses with sales between a half a million and three million, and the reason for that is the business owner is the contact person. They’re still the one trying to do everything. They usually still don’t have a marketing director or a VP of Marketing, or they still don’t have anyone on staff qualified to handle marketing. So, it’s the business owner trying to runt he whole thing, and we’re coming in to help him. Now, once we get to about a five million dollar sales level, you begin to have different decision-making layers, and so someone else will probably answer the phone and you’ll have more difficulty getting to the business owner.

Michael: Where do you get your leads from to make the calls?

Richard: Well, there have been a couple of sources. You can get the Yellow Pages out or you can begin looking at companies that invest a lot in their yellow pages. There’s one source of lead.

Michael: What does that tell you when you see a huge ad in the yellow pages?

Richard: It tells you that you’ve got a business that’s spending a lot of money on traditional marketing. It may not be working very well. So, I might have a built in need already and he might be frustrated with his yellow page ad. He may be getting a lot of calls but not converting them. So, he’s still not making enough profit from his ads. You can also pick up magazines in your local area, and look through those and find companies that are spending money on advertising. Go through your local newspaper. Begin to build a little database of your own leads so you don’t have to spend money on a list. That’s another source. You can call a list company and you can get lists of companies in your area that have sales between $500,000 and three million, who give you the business owners name, their phone number, their address, how many employees they have. You can decide if you want to eliminate certain kinds of businesses, and you have a list that you can buy from a list broker.

Michael: If I’m going to go through your training and become a marketing consultant, is this something that you’d recommend I do at the beginning myself or can I hire this out to a telemarketer or someone working part time?

Richard: That’s a great question. If you feel that you don’t have the skills, then outsource because I have. I’ve always rather gone to someone or some company that does it already and pay them to make those calls. However, early in my career, I was making those calls. I recommend that in starting that you make the calls because you’ll have that experience. It’s even hard for you to train a caller to do it.

Michael: I was talking to a friend of mine, and I didn’t realize that he was from Israel. He wanted to get into some sort of marketing consulting, and he would always want to meet me face-to-face, and I never really thought about it, but he was insecure and didn’t have the confidence to be on the phone because he thought his Israeli accent would hinder him from doing whatever he needed on the phone. But, he had the confidence meeting someone face-to-face because he could express more, more than just his voice to communicate. But, there are a lot of people here in the United States and really all over the world where they feel their accent gets in the way of them doing that telephone work. So, by farming it out, that’s not going to keep them from getting appointments.

Richard: Right.

Michael: Here’s a question from Rose. Rose wants to know how do you succeed in promoting products and services when you have no money at all?

Richard: The best way to do that is to find individuals or businesses that could promote them for you. So, what you do is you take a look at your products and services that you have, and you’ll ask the question, “What other businesses might have customers that want my product?” So, you’re tapping into or you’re forming alliances with or you’re becoming a partner with another business who’s already paid the money, who’s already invested the marketing dollars, and they’ve generated a customer base, but you haven’t. You don’t have the money to do that, and so you’re bringing your product and service in a way they can add value to their customers, and give you a piece of that. So, that’s the best and fastest way to get something launched if you don’t have the money.

Michael: Here’s a question from Scott. Richard, what would you do in the next 30 days to get started and ran your first client?

Richard: Get on the phone. The phone is the most underutilized marketing asset that’s out there. It cost nothing, and yet you can take the time to contact enough people to find someone interested and go see face-to-face. So, if I had 30 days I would combine phone with in-person visits. “Let me show you how I can increase your sales 25-100 percent without spending more money on advertising.” And, I’d take my phone pitch that I just said a few minutes ago. I would also examine what relationships I might have developed in my community. For example, if I worked at all with the local printer or my accountant, these are two businesses or entities that have businesses as clients, and I would immediately go them and say, “Could I offer a free consultation to your client?” So, it’s a service that my accountant could offer to his small business owners without spending any money, but it’s good for the accountant because if his businesses increase sales, he’s going to be doing more accounting. So, those are the two things I would do rapidly for 30 days. I’d be on the phone. I’d be out in person meeting businesses, and then I would be leveraging any relationships that I could find and that I could partner with. Just like we described in your previous question, if I had not money and I’m just getting started, how do I take my marketing service and start to make money with it, and I recommend that you form alliances and partners. So, I would do that as a marketing consultant, which I did. Early in my career, I got leads from my accountant. I got leads from a local printer. I went to the local Chamber of Commerce and starting joining a couple of the lead clubs that cost zero to join.

Michael: Were they happy to share the leads with you?

Richard: Absolutely.

Michael: Do you have to pay them money for them?

Richard: No, they just exchanged leads. They let you get up and give a little presentation, two minutes or so, about what you do. So, all of those are workable ways to generate leads quickly.

Michael: Your favorite is the phone and face-to-face presentations.

Richard: That’s my favorite if I don’t have those relationships. If I have those relationships, those are my favorite. The consulting business, and marketing consulting included, is the highest profit margin business out there. I mean, I meet these business owners everyday, and there you can buy on 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent gross profit. Marketing consulting gives you 90-95 percent gross profit. You have no hard costs. It’s all intellectual services. So, you’re packaging your expertise. So, you should see profit immediately. You should see profit from your first fees if you can generate a fee.

Michael: Here’s a question from Carl from Phoenix. Hi Richard, the question I have is the marketing consulting market saturated here in the United States.

Richard: It is very crowded, no question, and it’s getting more crowded in the sense that you now have Internet marketing consultants who are out there, so the ecommerce and dot-comes of the world, and the website designers who now have come along, and that is why it’s even more critical that you distinguish yourself from all of those. That’s why you take the approach to marketing that I have in a way that says, “Mr. Business Owner, I know you’ve been hit with all these others, but I’m different, and here’s how I’m different. I’m going to take what you’ve already got, and create more cash flow for you. I’m going to increase your sales and your net profits, and I’m going to help you find more working capital because we may stop spending on some of these other marketing or advertising approaches, and we’re going to help you see a way to do it without any of that. Now, we might still do some, Mr. Business Owner. I’m not saying that these other approaches don’t work.” But, this is how you get in the door. This is how you separate yourself from the others. So, it doesn’t matter how many others there are, as long as you are perceived and have something different, you’re going to be okay.

Michael: Here’s a question from Rick. Richard, let’s say I’m a marketing consultant cold-calling for potential clients with no previous mailings or anything like that. They don’t know me from Adam. I’m just cold-calling the yellow pages by phone looking for potential clients. What do I say to get interest and to get an appointment?

Richard: “Hi, my name is Rick. I’m with XYZ Marketing Firm. I’m in your area helping small businesses increase sales as well as net profits anywhere from 25 to 100 percent in as little as 60-90 days without spending more money with advertising. Can I take 20 minutes of your time and tell you a little bit more about what I do?”

Michael: All right, and what if he says yes, what are you going to say?

Richard: “Great. I’m available Tuesday or Thursday at two o’clock. Will that work for you?”

Michael: Sure, where do you meet him, at his place?

Richard: Yes, I’ll go to his place of business.

Michael: Do you ever find that there could be distractions there when you’re trying to have that 20 minutes or 30 minutes with him?

Richard: Sure there are sometimes the distractions, and that’s the nature of the small business owner that you simply deal with those, and there have been times when I’ve rescheduled and come back. There’s been times where I just sat patiently and waited until the distractions passed.

Michael: Have you ever tried getting them outside of their business? Maybe meeting at a coffee shop or somewhere close?

Richard: Yes, we’ve done that as well. So, that can work. I don’t recommend that on a first visit in that I think it’s critical that the consultant kind of see the place of business, see what the business owner’s going up against, but it’s worked the other way as well.

Michael: That’s a good idea. So, you can get in there and get an idea if this is someone you even want to work with.

Richard: Right.

Michael: You’re not going to want to work with everyone you get to meet with, right?

Richard: No, and that’s a great point because you could spend a lot of energy and waste a lot of time which is money to the consultant by working with some clients that you really shouldn’t be working with.

Michael: We qualify them somewhat in the mailing list or through the yellow pages, but are there other qualifying questions that your telemarketer would do or that you would do before you meet them to alleviate that wasted time?

Richard: Absolutely. In my marketing consulting training system, we take the philosophy that it is better to qualify heavily upfront to find the right clients because just to save time, and so there are some other qualifiers. The critical qualifier is, and I will say this sometimes after a telemarketer sets an appointment or I’m calling to confirm the appointment. I’ll say, “Now, Mr. Business Owner, let me just confirm. Do you really want to grow? Is that right? Are you ready to grow your business?” Because you’ve got some business owners who don’t really care about growing, and so you don’t want to waste time telling them they ought to be growing because there are some that are happy where they’re at. They’re happy right where they’re at. So, I need to make sure that Mr. Business Owner, are you ready to grow? Do you really want to grow this business some more? Are you ready to do that? Second, I might qualify them as to how long they’ve been in the business because my marketing system is not really built and systemized for a new start-up because when you make a pitch to the business owner that you’re going to find ways to help them grow without spending more money on advertising, you’re going to be doing it through his customer base or his staff or his sales people or his relationships with other businesses. Well, if he’s a brand new start-up, he doesn’t have very much of that.

Michael: And, that’s not someone you even want to go near.

Richard: That’s right, and they usually don’t have the money to pay you. So, leave them alone, and let them build their business for a few years. Our target client is the one that’s been in business three to five years or more, wants to grow his business, and then probably the last qualify question that I might ask is, “Now, Mr. Business Owner, this investment could be anywhere from $4-$10,000 over a period of three to six months. I don’t want to hurt your business. Is that something that you could handle if this is something you wanted to do?” Now, I should qualify that qualifier because I’ll say that now after several years in the business, but you may not say that as a beginning consultant, but boy, I’d rather even get that out on the table because if he doesn’t have any money, if he doesn’t believe in investing in marketing, if he doesn’t really want to grow, if he hasn’t been around for a better so that I know that there’s other ways to find growth for him, then let him stay in the market for a while and let him change his attitude through the market. I don’t have time to change it. Does that make sense?

Michael: Yes it does. Let me ask you this. You’ve got your telemarketer setting up appointments. They set the appointment say a week ahead. In your experience, let’s say when you first started compared to what you do now, were you the person calling back to confirm the appointment? When would you call back? If the appointment was on a Friday, what day would you call back to confirm and to ask these qualifying questions?

Richard: I’d usually call back on Thursday, back a day before the appointment. I’d say, “I’m just calling to confirm our appointment for tomorrow at nine o’clock. Is that right?” They said, “Yes. I’ve got you on the calendar.” Great, and then depending on how I felt, I might ask some of those other qualifying questions.

Michael: Then based on their answers you would decide either keep the appointment or not keep it. Let’s say that you find that this probably isn’t a prospect, what are you going to say to them?

Richard: That is a great question because I just had it happen. I just had the caller set up an appointment for me with a small business owner, and I called him back to confirm, and he said, “You know, I’m so glad you called because I have a service appointment I need to make in the morning at eight-thirty.”, which was when our appointment was set. That gave me time to talk to him a little bit more, and I said, “Well, tell me a little bit about your business.” And, he told me a little bit about his business and I could tell from his attitude that he probably wasn’t ready to meet right now. So, I said, “Listen, maybe next week I’ll give you a call sometime.” So, that freed up my whole morning. I didn’t go waste it with someone I just didn’t feel was quite ready for me.

Michael: So, let me ask you this – You went through Jay’s marketing system in 1990. It’s 14 years later, and you’re still actually out there having someone telemarket for you, set up appointments. You’re calling to confirm. You’ve actually been doing this for this long.

Richard: Oh yeah, and I’ll tell you why because the number one killer of the consulting business and marketing consulting included is you stop marketing. The minute you stop marketing, you’re dead because you’re start to get lethargic. You start to get lazy. You get clients and you think you’re busy enough. So, you don’t keep marketing. I throw out this rule right now and that is anyone serious about getting in the consulting business better always be willing to market 25 percent of their time.

Michael: So, this isn’t a land a huge client, get a good contingency deal, make several hundred thousand dollars, and retire for the next year.

Richard: You’ll only find those if you keep doing what I’ve described to you to do. You won’t find those by a science. You’ll run into them, and I’ve run into a couple of them. So, I’ve had a couple of client relationships that have given me the big bucks for the short period of time, but there far and few between.

Michael: Now, let’s talk about it. You said for a short period of time. Was this contingency relationship?

Richard: Both fee and contingency.

Michael: Do they last contingency relationships?

Richard: Contingencies are hard to make last.

Michael: Why?

Richard: There are several things. One is you’re in a partnership with the business owner. You’re now relying on his honesty and his trust and his capability of doing business, but it’s not always in your control. It may not always keep working the way you want it to work.

Michael: Does it change the relationship between the two people?

Richard: It absolutely does. That’s why I don’t recommend a contingency basis to begin with. I will always charge a fee first, and then as I work with the client and they work with me, and we find out that we’re working well together, it can evolve into a contingency opportunity.

Michael: That working relationship is really a qualifier whether he’s honest, whether he’s interested in growing his business, and whether there’s potential. If that’s going good, is there any reason why he wouldn’t want to do a contingency?

Richard: There really isn’t, and if it’s going good, he’s paid me my fees on time like I’ve asked, he’s been happy to pay them, and we’ve built up a good relationship, he knows what I’m going to do for him in this contingency relationship, I know what he’s going to do for me in this contingency relationship, and then it’s much easier.

Michael: What about Jay Abraham’s thing? You went to the training in ’90. I remember it’s “If I Could Bring Your Business A Dollar, Would You Be Willing to Pay Me 25 Cents for the Increase of The Business?” What’s wrong with that model? What did you find was wrong with that model? Did you believe in the model at first?

Richard: Oh, I did because that’s what Jay trained us. So, I came home, and I ran an ad of that very nature, and I got phone calls and I put it out there into a small business magazine that was being distributed to businesses, and it said that very thing. It said, “If I could make you a dollar, you pay me 25 cents.” And, I got several phone calls. Then, I found out the problem with starting it that way. Jay was able to do it because he had already made hundreds of thousands of dollars and had hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, and so he could afford to do a contingency, but many of these contingency clients take a lot of time to make work and before you see the sales, and it takes money to make the marketing work, and they don’t have the money. That’s why they called you to do it on your commission. Those are the obstacles I found. I found, “Oh man, this is going to take too long and I’ve got a mortgage to pay.”

Michael: Do you remember the first client that called you?

Richard: Yes.

Michael: Who was it?

Richard: They were producing a family unity tape set. They were kind of a non-profit type of entity. So, they didn’t have a budget for marketing. I guess part of the answer to the question is where are you at when you take the training. If you already have money in the bank, if you already have a career that you’ve built up a retirement and you can afford six to twelve months to make a contingency work, good for you.

Michael: Yeah, and you would invest your own money in doing it.

Richard: And your time.

Michael: Okay.

Richard: If you are like most of us, and you have a mortgage to pay, and you have bills that have to be paid every third day, then you probably don’t have the time to give that to a contingency. So, that’s why in 1990 when it wasn’t working well for me, I created my marketing consulting system which is based on a fee-based system because immediately I saw that I needed to change the way I was approaching these small business owners. I couldn’t do it right then the way Jay Abraham taught me, and so I had to change it to a fee-based structure, and that’s the way it is.

Michael: You didn’t have the assets to do what he did.

Richard: That’s right.

Michael: He was just teaching the best way he knew how from his experience and from where he was.

Richard: That’s right, and so I don’t blame him.

Michael: You’re teaching it from where you were.

Richard: That’s right, and where I think most are.

Michael: Right.

Richard: And, that’s why I think it’s the most successful system out there. I’ve had competitors who have been out there. They were trained by Jay, but they still have not figured out how to go to a perspective business owner, present him value, and charge a fee, and then present him the next value and charge a fee, and present him the next value and charge fee. That’s what’s unique about the system. It’s so systemized from beginning to end.

Michael: How long did it take you to put this system together?

Richard: At least four or five years.

Michael: Here’s a question from Peter. As you may be aware Michael, I spoke to Richard a few weeks ago about his marketing system. I’m intrigued by his concepts and program, but I’m not in a position to consider the training until I finish my move from Boston to Florida. In the meantime, here are a few questions. What advice would you give someone with previous business experience who is interested in getting into marketing consulting? And, what is the quickest way to start attracting clients?

Richard: Well, the first thing then that I would do is I would look at my business background and my business training and I would find relationships in that business world that I’ve been in, and these relationships I would cultivate with those who sell something or offer something to other businesses, in other words, the same kinds of clients that I want. So, I would leverage my business relationships the best I could. My marketing consulting system recommends you charge fees that range anywhere from $1,500 on a low end to $4 or $5,000 on a high end, and really varies with the size of the business that you’re visiting with and the amount of work that you’re going to have to do, and we teach you all of that in the training.

Michael: Now, is that per month?

Richard: That’s right, and you might have a client for anywhere from four to seven months that you’re retaining and working with, and you can work with anywhere from ten to twelve, fifteen clients at a time. So, you’ve got to kind of determine how much time it’s going to take, how large the business is, and their ability to pay and then your ability to create the value. So, there are no set fees. We teach you more how to determine those fees based on the circumstance you’re in.

Michael: Let me ask you this. It’s Tuesday, November 9th,how many clients are you currently working with right now?

Richard: Ten.

Michael: You have ten clients you’re working with, and how much time are you spending on each client per month?

Richard: My marketing consulting system is built and documented in such a way that you’re probably sending between two and four hours per week per client. Now, I’ll have to tell you, I’m spending less time than that right now because you’re only getting faster, you’re only getting better, you’re only getting more experience each year that you’re in this business, and so my per hour compensation has gone up dramatically from when I started because two things have happened. One is I’ve been able to increase my fees as I get better. It’s just like Jay Abraham. I remember early on he was charging one or two thousand dollars per hour on the phone. Now, he’s getting four or five thousand dollars.

Michael: Yes, when demand goes up, price goes up.

Richard: That’s right.

Michael: And, when your confidence goes up, price goes up.

Richard: Yes, and so starting out, the way I remember when I was sweating out trying to charge any fee at all. So, we want to help you avoid that start-up learning curve, and give you the training and the confidence so that right off the bat you begin asking for the fees because you can as a trained marketing consultant, tap into the system that’s been around for 14-15 years. So, it’s produced phenomenal results for clients. So, you’re not a start-up. You’re actually participating in part of a system that’s been around for a long time, and that should help you in setting those higher fees from the beginning as well as the training and the confidence it gives you to set a higher fee.

Michael: Here’s another question from Peter, how do you get passed the gatekeeper to talk to your prospects or to get that meeting with your prospect? And, what is the best way to track your results with a client that is not very open with his books?

Richard: I haven’t confronted the gatekeeper issue a lot because of the target market I’m recommending you go to. When we make phone calls to the target market we’re in, we’re usually getting the business owner on the phone. So, that’s one way to avoid that problem is by sticking to the target market that you’re equipped to take care of. What you have to kind of do sometimes on the other is maybe you send him a postcard or you send him a newsletter or you send him part of a book you’ve written, and that helps to get past the gatekeeper because you’re mailing it right to the business owner, and then you follow-up with a phone call. I’ve never really had to also get into the books with a company because what we teach in the system is the marketing that you do you’ll be able to track by the results of the mail piece or the results of the ad or the results of the letter. How much money that makes, and how much profit that means has been less of an issue than how much in sales it’s got. Does that make sense?

Michael: Yes.

Richard: So, you’re more concerned with tracking the sales, and when you create the pieces as you will be trained how to do in my marketing consulting system, you can track that pretty well.

Michael: Here’s a question from Dino. Richard, I’m in the UK, and I’ve got a question for you. Why is it that over 80 percent of the people who set out to become a marketing consultant fail to make more than $10,000 per year?

Richard: Because they are not persistent in their own marketing. It’s because they get into a trap that is so easy for consultants to get into, and that is they’ll get a client and so they think now that they’re busy and so they stop marketing. They stop promoting themselves, and when you do that you’ll dry up and die. So, that’s why most will not make it. That’s why a big part of the training is how to grow your practice and how to get clients and we teach them multi pillared marketing approach where they’re teaching you several ways to get clients, not just one or two ways to get clients. You have to do for your marketing consulting practice exactly what you advise clients to do for their business, and if you’re not, the same thing that’s going to happen to your client, that is dry up and die and get beat by their competition, is going to happen to you and your practice. So, I’ve published a book. I have a seminar material, and included in your training you’ll get all of that – how to put on a seminar and teach the marketing system to businesses, and you’ll always get clients that way. We teach you how to use the phone to get clients. We teach you how to use the mail to get clients. We teach you about setting up alliances and partnerships to get clients. So, we teach you a multi-pillar way to get clients because we don’t want that to happen to you, but if you are not persistent in the marketing then your risk is that you’ll be done. Most consulting opportunities don’t cover that. Jay didn’t. I spent $15,000 for Jay Abraham. He didn’t teach me how to go get a client. I had to go figure that out myself, and I’ve seen competitors out there, other marketing consulting groups, that might have great content, but what they didn’t do is what I did, and that’s spend time on the street for years learning how to identify, present and close a client so that 14 years later, now, it’s still happening.

Michael: Can you make the business work without having to meet a client face-to-face? Have you ever done any consulting that way using the Internet to send the forms and the phone to do the interviews and stuff like that?

Richard: Well, it’s good you asked that because part of getting trained in my system is that you’ll have access to an Internet based coaching system. So, yes, we’re aware that that’s going on, and so we’ve put the entire marketing system on the Internet, and you can take a business through the system that way now. Have I done it a lot? No, and I’ll tell you why. Most of the clients, the small business owners, get up in the morning and they’re at their shop and they’re working all day. If you’re going to reach them, they don’t have a minute during that day that they’re pausing to get on the Internet. They’re meeting payroll. They’re buying inventory. They’re figuring out ways to sell more. So, they need to be met face-to-face. So, you’re going to have a few, but I don’t want to give you all the impression that that’s going to be a way to generate all of their income.

Michael: That’s fair enough. Here’s some questions relating to credibility, and it seems like several people are concerned with that. One from Dave – how can a rookie consultant cover up for his lack of credibility if he still has no paying clients to give him testimonials?

Richard: Then he uses the testimonials of my marketing system that are already out there. I have more then you’ll need. When you go through the training, you’re going to be able to tap into that credibility. So, they’re not only getting the system, they’re getting the 14 years of performance. That’s one way he can cover that up. The other way is when I got started, I had been in the outside sales arena and I had performed. The prospect is less concerned about what you’ve done in the past, and more concerned about how he thinks you’re going to solve his problem, and so as a consultant, you need to be concerned more with how you’re going to be able to listen to, understand and present a solution to that business owner’s problem. If you spend your time doing that, he’s not going to worry about your credibility. If he has the confidence that you can solve his problem, and so I used stories from my sales background. They weren’t at all connected with the marketing system that I was using. So, I would also caution someone in trying to cover up, and I would rather say explore what you do have that you might be able to throw out there as some credibility.

Michael: Now, can you think back in all your face-to-face presentations when you’re meeting with the clients, how many can you think of that said, “Tell me about why I should?”

Richard: It’s really not a big issue and that’s because when you go in with my marketing system, it’s overwhelming. The business owner goes, “Oh wow, this make sense.” When you deliver a proven system that he can’t debate with, why is he going to say, “Prove it to me?” You already have.

Michael: Without giving away too much, can you talk about the Opportunity Analysis Worksheet – what it does, how it’s used, and what the purpose of it is in your system?

Richard: You bet. Where my trained consultants separate themselves from everybody else is the ability to go into a small business and identify what the system refers to as “hidden marketing assets”. The opportunity worksheet is simply a systematic way we train the consultants how to identify those assets, and so there’s a series of questions that the opportunity worksheet guides the consultant through so that he doesn’t miss any of the assets because the proposal then that you’re trained in solving the business owner’s problem is leveraging those assets into a marketing system. That’s why it’s so different from anybody else. Any traditional advertiser or traditional marketing consultant doesn’t care about the business’s hidden marketing assets. They just want to sell more advertising, and they want to sell more direct mail or they want to sell more coupons or they want to sell more billboard space or more radio or more newspaper ads. You’re going in and saying, “Hey, you don’t need any of that, but I do need to take you through a series of questions to see if you have what I call marketing assets. Then, I’ll take those assets and I will systematically leverage them into a marketing system to create increases for you.” So, that in a nutshell is what separates our consultants from everybody else.

Michael: From your experience, how long have you found it takes you for that initial meeting when you take that business owner through the opportunity analysis worksheet?

Richard: It’s about an hour.

Michael: Do you need a laptop to take them through that system or can you do this all on paper?

Richard: It’s all on paper. They’ll need a laptop. What you do then is take the information gathered from the opportunity session and create an outline of marketing steps that you’re recommending for the client.

Michael: You’ve got a sales background. This opportunity analysis worksheet is a well thought out sales system. Would you agree?

Richard: Yeah, that’s why it was created is I knew that if someone else who wanted to be a marketing consultant might not have the sales background that we’d have to create an almost word for word presentation, and that’s in the opportunity analysis. So, it’s there almost word for word if they want to, and in fact early on, I did. Early on, I had to take it, what I had been writing down and actually say, “Well, Mr. Owner, excuse me for a minute, I’m just going to go through a sheet here that I have to make sure that I cover everything.” They go, “Oh sure.” But, really what it was for me was a cheat sheet.

Michael: And, you have this script of exactly what to say from the time you get in there?

Richard: That’s right.

Michael: And, you just read it off of the paper?

Richard: That’s right.

Michael: Here’s a question from George. What do you find is the numbers on objection people have to hiring a marketing consultant?

Richard: I’d say there’s a close tie between two. One is the feeling that “Oh, I’m doing fine. I can do this myself.” And, then second, “I don’t want to invest the money.” So, those two are probably your top.

Michael: Now, if you’ve got a guy that says, “I don’t want to invest the money.” You’ve got a sales background. Do you have an answer for that or do you pretty much know that if this guy doesn’t want to invest the money it isn’t going to happen?

Richard: It’s one of the purposes of the opportunity and the questionnaire that we train you is to show him the money. Before you ask him to invest, you’ve got to show him where the money’s going to come, and part of that hour presentation you’re illustrating for him ways he can make more money. So, that at the end, if he doesn’t see the small investment he’s going to pay you isn’t going to bring him the returns that you’ve described, then two things. One is you haven’t made the sale or you really didn’t show him the money or he doesn’t have the money and doesn’t want to spend it regardless of how much you could show him.

Michael: And, you’re using his numbers to come up with the figures, right?

Richard: Absolutely.

Michael: Is that a challenge when you’re asking him for gross sales?

Richard: No, they’re usually very open with that.

Michael: Those have those numbers pretty much down.

Richard: Maybe, Mike, this would help illustrate. Let’s say I’m talking to a business owner, and I ask him a question. I say, “Well, you have two sales people.” And, he says, “Yes.” “What is their conversion rate or how many people are they closing right now?” And he says, “Well, I think they’re closing about two out of ten.” And, I say, “Well, that’s great. If my marketing system that I’ll help implement into your business could raise that from two to three out of ten, can you see how much more money that would make you?” And, he says, “Yeah, that would be great.” “Well, that’s what that marketing system will help you do. It will help you raise that conversion rate from two to three and you can see how that might make you another $100,000 a year. Does that make sense?” And, he says, “Yeah, I can see that.” So, see I’m showing him how he’s going to be making a lot of money.

Michael: So, it really shouldn’t be an objection if you’ve done your presentation right.

Richard: You’ve got it. That’s right.

Michael: How many can you close? Give me some numbers. You set up 100 appointments, how many appointments are you going to end up seeing? How many are you going to close? And, how many are going to stick with it?

Richard: Out of ten appointments, my closing rate right now is about five out of ten. So, I have about a 50 percent conversion rate. However, early on, in the beginning, I would expect that a beginning consultant should hold about a 20-30 percent conversion rate. So, if you’re seeing ten appointments a week, then you should pick two to three clients a week. Those two to three clients you should be servicing for four to six or seven months if you’re doing your job. So, you’ll keep a client that long. Well, that means then, that at the end of four or five months, you’re going to be finished with a client, and you better have a replacement. That’s why, again, the emphasis on marketing 25 percent of your week all the time. Then people say, “Well, Richard, then you’re going to get full and you don’t have enough.” I can tell you from experience, you’re never full enough. And, if I am by chance, then I simply tell a client, I can’t start with them right now, but I could at X-date. Or, if he gives me the luxury of saying, “I can start with you now, but the fee will have to be X.” And, I raise my fee. You see? So, consultants somewhat have to create the demand that then would generate and justify a fee.

Michael: Well, one of the attractive benefits that other business and marketing consultant opportunities are offering is a residual income, and from what you’re saying is contingency isn’t the focus on your program, but you did say there is an opportunity for that. So, a question from Larry from Florida is how do you develop the residual income from your marketing consulting practice?

Richard: That is a great question, and there are a lot of different ways to develop. In fact, one of our consultants in the Chicago area, Steve is his name, he took my training and he immediately began to work with small businesses and he charged a fee to begin with, and then he began to take part ownership of the company.

Michael: How did he do that? Give me an example of what he did.

Richard: What he did is he went in and said, “Okay, if I’m going to go ahead and lower my fees to get my marketing system in your business, I would like to work out a percentage of ownership in the company.” So, here’s a consultant then that’s taken some ownership in companies and he’s told us that it’s created his retirement.

Michael: And, it’s a lot safer than some contingency deal?

Richard: Exactly. He’s got ownership, and he said just the other day that he’s actually created his retirement. So, residual opportunities are there. It’s just I think each consultant mindset. How do they want to use the system? Do they want to use it with a few clients and get heavily involved and maybe even become part owner, or maybe find some contingency opportunities? So, the system is such that I think that the personality of the consultant can be a driving use of the system.

Michael: Here’s a question from Lee. How could you make more in consulting fees with less paperwork and report writing? Is there a lot of report writing in this?

Richard: There really isn’t. My system teaches you how to generate of course an outline or I don’t like to use the word proposal. One thing that we teach you is you’ve got to be able to go in to the client and then respond back in your proposal to the client directly. You can’t come back with a generic proposal. You’ve got to come back with a system outline that hits the points that you uncovered in your opportunity analysis. So, that’s why every outline is going to be different for each prospect. So, there is that. After that, you’re getting paid to service the client, and any other writing or any other report generating is going to be paid for as part of the system.

Michael: And, you have these outlines in the system?

Richard: That’s right.

Michael: Here’s a question from Dave. By giving the prospect good value through educating at your first meeting with the agenda you’ve created through the answers the prospect gave in response to the questions that you had gone over in the opportunity analysis worksheet, how do you not give them enough information so that they would tend to want to do it on their own?

Richard: One of the marketing principles that Jay taught me that I’ve seen come true is you can tell a prospect a lot of things to do, but it all comes down to execution and he is not trained to execute. In fact, if I were to say the number one reason clients will retain a marketing consultant. It’s less for what he told them he’s going to do, and more for that he’s going to do it. In other words, the execution, the marketing content in the system is really not new. It’s been around and used successfully for years, and so they know a lot of this stuff. The business owner already knows he should be doing this. He hasn’t been doing this. So, by coming to him with a system, and your ability to execute, that’s what he’s going to buy.

Michael: Yeah, you’re going to do it for him.

Richard: Yes, because he’s probably bought books before. He’s probably maybe hired someone before that he thought would do it and it’s still not done.

Michael: Here’s a question from Bonnie. Richard, do you deal with clients who won’t take your advice? In other words, they hire you because you’re an expert and they need your help, then when you advise them on what to do, they disagree and think that their way is better. Should you just fire them or compromise or do what they want because the customer is always right?

Richard: Part of the upfront psychological contract is what I’ve heard it referred to. “I’m going to recommend certain marketing steps, Mr. Business owner, and I’m going to make sure that we get them executed. I do need your total support behind that, otherwise my guarantee is void. I’m guaranteeing to you that the system will perform, but unless everything is done the way I say it should be done and in the manner that I recommend it should be done, I can’t guarantee my performance. So, if you want to change it, if you want to do something else, or if you say, ‘I don’t want to do this.’, then it just voids our guarantee. Is that okay?” Cover all of that ahead of time. Now, certainly there’s going to be cases, and I’ve had them. I’ve had clients who have paid me and some of the marketing hasn’t worked, and yet the reason they know it hasn’t worked is they haven’t done their part. So, I still fulfilled my guarantee, but the results didn’t necessarily happen yet, the recognized it’s because they didn’t do their part.

Michael: Do you have a specific script or format that you use when asking for referrals and if so what is it? Do you have different approaches when seeking referrals from non-clients as opposed to clients? At what point in the relationship do you start asking? Now, this would be for building your marketing consulting practice.

Richard: The point that you might ask for referrals is going to be different with every client. Sometimes my clients are so excited after step one that I can ask for referrals. Sometimes it takes three or four months before things start working and start generating that I can ask for referrals. Really the right answer that it’s kind of whenever the client gives you a buying signal. And, that might be at any point in the steps.

Michael: How would you do it? What would you say?

Richard: I would say, “Listen, I’m excited that this is working for us. You feel like it’s working for your business.” And, they say, “Yes.” And, I will especially ask for referrals from a client who has other small businesses as clients, and I’ll say something like, “Well, would it be okay if maybe we sponsored or if you’d like to sponsor a little workshop for some of your clients that I can share these marketing ideas with some of them?” So, I’ve done sponsored workshops as a way to generate referrals.

Michael: So, they’ll send out something to their list a letter or a mailing?

Richard: Yes.

Michael: And, you’ve got that in the system.

Richard: Right. So, you can generate referrals through a seminar or they might give you, “Do you have one or two business associates that you think this might work for and that I can use your name in approaching?” And, that might give me one or two referrals.

Michael: How much are you using referrals in your consulting practice?

Richard: I probably right now I would say that 80 percent of my income has come from referrals because I’ve built up enough relationships where I get referrals. These are with groups and associations that we have trained to do on how to set up some of these same relationships.

Michael: Give me an example of one of the workshops you did.

Richard: Elko, Nevada is one good example. We did a workshop there and it ended up selling both one on one consulting services as well as selling some of the web coaching services. So, that was fairly successful. I’ve also done a lot of the workshops for Chambers of Commerce who has these luncheons, and they sponsored me as a speaker. Almost always I’ll get clients from those workshops. So, the seminar and you get all of this in your training is very powerful because it’s a good balance of teaching and not giving them too much. It always intrigues them enough that they want to follow-up with a consultation.

Michael: Here’s a question from Mike – where do you see small business growth in the future, and where will a small business marketing consultant be seeing the biggest area of growth to tap into – specific areas, niches, markets or services? Any ideas on that?

Richard: Well, the Internet definitely is a big area. I see that growing. I see more and more of my own clients over time are getting involved in the Internet. So, I’m having more opportunity with them, as they build their business models or change their business models to accommodate the Internet. What’s great is that my system works whether it’s with a brick and mortar company or on the Internet, it still applies. So, all steps of the marketing consulting you can do, you can do either with a web-based company or a brick and mortar company. So, I see that as a big one. Retail is struggling, and so retail is an opportunity. The small Mom and Pop retail stores are getting beat up by Wal-Mart. They’re getting beat up by the big Home Depots and all of those big box companies are threatening them. So, they’re looking for answers. They’re looking for help. I think another big opportunity is going to be more and more small business owners are starting their own businesses. They’re buying franchises and sometimes the franchise has all the marketing laid out for them, but sometimes they don’t. I’m working right now with a franchise client that just doesn’t feel that he’s getting any help from headquarters. So, there’s going to be a lot of people getting into business by themselves being that that whole sector is growing. So, those are the opportunities that I see.

Michael: Here’s a question from Margo. Although no two businesses are exactly alike, generally speaking what are the three surest methods of immediately increasing profits in a small business?

Richard: I would say the three are number one, creating a really good unique selling proposition and then integrating that into all of their current marketing processes.

Michael: Give me an example.

Richard: I worked with a client that was in the employee leasing business. He was the owner, the sole owner, and he five salespeople. Well, the sales were not doing as well as he would’ve liked, and so he hired me as a consultant to create a Unique Selling Proposition. So, we did that, and part of that process is asking the owner what he really thinks his Unique Selling Proposition is. So, I got that from the owner. Well, in step two, you go about integrating that Unique Selling Proposition into all of the sales process.

Michael: What did he come up with as his Unique Selling Proposition?

Richard: He said, “Richard, I don’t sell life insurance. I don’t sell health insurance. I save a small business owner time and energy in complying with all of the legal rules of business.” So, really you’re not selling product. You’re not selling payroll services. You’re selling time, and energy and liability for the business owner. You’re taking away all of these things so he doesn’t have to deal with, and he said, “Yeah, that’s why my USP is.” Well, I went and asked his five salespeople what they sold, and they were not selling that. Instead, they were selling health insurance or 401(k) s or payroll service. Well, the minute we got the owner’s Unique Selling Proposition integrated into the sales pitch of the five salespeople, we increased their closing rate from 20 to 40 percent and increased their revenues from $60 to $90 million dollars.

Michael: Wow.

Richard: It was phenomenal.

Michael: And, that’s just one thing.

Richard: That’s just one thing. So, to answer her question there’s number one and that is getting a good, unique selling proposition from the very beginning and getting it integrated. A second way to see money real quickly is improving the sales performance of sales people, and that’s done by giving them a good unique selling proposition, and then maybe doing some basic sales training. A third quick way-

Michael: Do you cover sales training in your system?

Richard: Yes, in fact we have a module in there that is a sales training module that they can use as part of their consulting.

Michael: And, I don’t have to be an expert at it? All I’ve got to do is follow along?

Richard: Just follow the outline. The third way that would be fast is the customer base. I’ve seen a lot of money raised quickly be reactivating inactive customers.

Michael: Give me an example.

Richard: I had a doctor who was in the weight control business. In other words, he would advise patients on how to lose weight, and he had his own product, his own protein drink and cookies and things that were used in helping his patients lose weight. Well, he had about 500 patients that he had taken care of over the years, probably 50-100 that were active at any one time. I said, “Well, what’s happened to the other 400?” He says, “Well, I don’t know.” So, we put together a little simple letter to reactive those patients, and his revenues went up 25 percent in 30 days. So, that’s a big and fast and can be a very quick way to make money. So, those are your three.

Michael: Would you be willing to share with my listeners the series of 15 or 20 case studies that you’ve experienced in your consulting business?

Richard: Oh, you bet.

Michael: We’ll save that for another recording. I really appreciate you taking the time and handling all these questions from all my subscribers. I really appreciate it.

Richard: Thank you, it was a pleasure.



58 Minutes

Questions Answered About The Marketing Consulting Business



Interview By Michael Senoff


58 Minutes Of Relentless Nonstop Q&A From Existing HMA Marketing Consultants And Potential HMA Consultants. Part One.

Part One

Presented & Published by: JS&M Sales & Marketing Inc. Hidden Marketing Assets Marketing Systems



You're going to like this recording. We had hundreds of questions come into Richard about the HMA system and about the marketing consulting business. Here is Richard the founder of the HMA system fielding some tough questions from expert marketing consultants and students from all over the world. It's 59 minutes long and is pure Q&A style. The two winners of the $500 Gift offer will be announced shortly. For more information about a systemized way to sell consulting services call 858-274-7851 or send me an e-mail to michael@michaelsenoff.com  and in the subject line write "Michael Send The Pink Toaster Agreement" and I'll send you to a link with more details.



Michael: What’s the difference, and why are you any better than the other marketing consultants in training out there such as Y2 Marketing, Jay Abraham, Top Line, Quantum and any of the others.

Richard: Ken, the difference in the HMA System for any of the others out there.

Music

You’re going to hear the answer to this all important question later on in the interview, but first I want to introduce what I have here for you. We’ve got 59 minutes of nothing but questions and answers. I sent out an email to my list of some of the HMA consultants and other interested parties for questions for Richard regarding marketing and consulting and the marketing consulting business. You’ve got no fluff here. All you’ve got are questions from folks from all over the world and Richard’s straight to the point answers. I hope you enjoy this recording. Let’s get going.

Michael: All right Richard. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all of these questions from a mix of both HMA consultants and people who have listened to some of our recordings up on my site at in the Consulting Secrets section of www.HardtoFindSeminars.com Now, here’s a question actually from one of our new consultants Louisa in the UK, and I think it’s going to be perfect for you because of your involvement with the manufacturing sector, but here it is.

“What are the main points to bear in mind when working with manufacturing companies? Manufacturing in the UK is under considerable threat from cheaper imports from Asia. One manufacturer I know of has a USP based around higher level of quality of components in finished products manufactured in the UK, but now increasingly the customers, i.e.; large chains of do it yourself retail stores, are buying solely on price. They have already lost a couple of key contacts due to the cheaper imports, and they are also excluded contractually from selling direct to the public. How would you help them in this situation?”

Richard: I’ve had a chance to work with manufacturers for several years, and understand their situation and the UK is similar to many firms here in the United States. One of the things then that you first have to do is, are the marketing their value consistently? Many times manufacturers will just sit on their value and they’ll sit on their product line and they’re really not educating and they’re really not teaching their distributors or helping their distributors to sell through the channels. They’re not educating the distributors about the value so that the distributors can focus on value rather than price. They’re not educating the end user at all about the value.

So, first you want to help them understand that as a marketing consultant, you could develop marketing communication that teaches and educates about the value they have. There’s a great book out there I’ll refer to you. It’s called, “How to Grow and Market Stones” by Richard Weiss Reece, and you want to maybe take a look at that. It was a great book that talked about innovative demand.

It may be that your manufacturer has to shift the way his buyers and distributors are looking at his product. Maybe he was selling them for some demand and price wasn’t an issue, but now that price is an issue, you have to maybe help that manufacturer create a new way to look at demand for his product. It’s called innovative demand and very insightful in helping these manufacturers in these times of price competition.

Of course, you want to then help them understand that as a consultant, you could take them through a marketing system that will do all of that and will accomplish those objectives.

Then, finally, it may be that he’s got shift markets. It may be that he has to do a little bit better on a target market, do a little bit better with fewer customers who care about his value and will give him the margins, and then simply try to sell more to that narrower customer basis.

Michael: Richard, who were your mentors other than Jay Abraham?

Richard: Jay, of course, is important to me, but there’s some great marketing authors out there – Jay Conrad Levinson and the Guerilla Marketing and the Guerilla Advertising series is really quite phenomenal. He’s done a great job in breaking many of these aspects of the marketing system that I’ve been using into some real direct application.

Another great author and mentor is Jack Trout. He’s got a great book out called, “Differentiate or Die: Survival in our Era of Killer Competition.” So, those are a couple of the other mentors that I’ve enjoyed reading over the years.

Michael: Here’s a question from Wayne in the United States:

“It’s natural for a business owner to be skeptical or indifferent when initially contacted. In the absence of a trusted referral, what is the most effective way to connect with an owner and capture his or her attention and interest during the initial contact?”

Richard: Good question Wayne because that means that you have to really do something in the first 60 seconds since you’ve got about a minute to two minutes to make an impression either positive or negative, and I have found that the best way to do that is when you have an appointment, you go in and you sit down, and the first thing you do is you say, “Mr. Prospect, tell me about your goals. What would you like to accomplish? What would you like to see happen to your business?”

If you’ll start with a focus on them, and not on you, you’ll go a long way to establish that trust that they want, and then after you give them time, and you give them attention, and you maybe say a couple of tings, but not a lot just listen. Listen to where they’re at, then they’ll be happy to listen to you. When you can then demonstrate that you can help them meet those goals or solve those problems, or end those frustrations, then you’re on the way to a relationship.

Michael: Here’s a question from John Liska.

“Richard, what would be your profile of the ideal prospect?”

Richard: John, I think the ideal prospect has to have a couple of things. They have to need. They have to want, and they have to be able to afford your service, and that’s why we do the opportunity analysis, and that’s because you want to determine if they need it and if they want it and if they can afford it.

So, throughout the presentation, you’re taught how to ask questions that determine those three qualifiers. If they’re growing and they’re growing as fast as they can grow and they have all of the business they can handle, and if you gave them any more business they couldn’t handle it, they don’t’ need it.

If he’s an owner who’s attitude is such that, “Oh, I could do this.” Or “I know what you’re saying, and I’ve done it before. I don’t need any help. I’ve got a marketing person. We’re all taken care of.” Then, he doesn’t want it.

Then, if he’s a business owner that’s saying, “Gee, I’d like to do this, but I’m barely making payroll, and I just don’t have cash flow.” Then, he probably right then can’t afford it.

So, those are the three areas that really help you determine if you’ve got a qualified prospect.

Michael: Dan Haley from the United States ask:

“Richard, I currently work full time for a big bank. I have a wife and two kids and I value my time with them. I’d love to get into the consulting business, but can’t make the break and start full time doing it. It is something I’m willing to do on a part time basis and hopefully build into a full time career. Along those lines, what is the best way to get started and would you even recommend going part time at first?” I’ve studied your stuff, Michael’s stuff, Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy and countless others. So, I feel I have at least a working knowledge of marketing and consulting.”

Richard: Sure you can start part time, Dan. You can begin by just taking on one client, and that may mean that you meet with the client in the morning before you start work, or you meet him on your lunch hour or you meet him after work for an hour or two, and that’s plenty of time to take on one, maybe two clients. Many of your clients would be willing to do that.

I meet with clients on a Saturday. I meet with clients in the evening or early in the morning before their day begins, and before my day really gets started because that’s what’s best for the client. I think you would want to go ahead. You would want to go ahead and tackle one maybe two clients. Your bank could probably give you a list of businesses they wish they were doing. So, you probably have a list of prospects sitting right in your bank. You could start there, if they know what you’re doing, and they’re okay with that. But, if not, it’s easy to find one or two business that would be happy to work with you.

Michael: Richard, here’s a question from Ben Beasley from Birmingham, Alabama.

“Richard, how do you feel about giving away a free CD that introduces you and your marketing system and requiring them to listen to it before they meet?”

Richard: I have tried both Ben. You’ll just want to test both approaches. There’s some pros and cons with both approaches. They usually don’t take the time to listen to the CD. Sometimes they’re not motivated to unless you’re there. So, you might even try sitting down and listening to it with them. Then, I would try the personal face to face without it as well because that’s when you’re going to find out if they are a qualified prospect.

You could be handing out CD to unqualified prospects. You could be handing them out to people that don’t need, don’t want, can’t afford your service. So, they’re not going to listen to it, and you’re going to waste your time and you’re going to waste their time.

Sitting down with them, what you might do then would be to ask enough question sand then leave the CD. Once you determine that they’re qualified, they’re interested, that they can probably afford it, then ask them to listen to it, and then set an appointment when you’ll come back and review it. That’s what we’ve done in the HMA system to accomplish that and limit your costs in doing that is we’ve got a presentation that you can put on CD and use it that way. We’ve also got that same presentation and others more in depth that’s online as to where you can send the prospect to the site, and watch and listen to it with him or sent him there, and it wouldn’t cost you anything.

So, we’ve got the tools in the system that would make it very easy for you to accomplish that.

Michael: Here’s a question from Mark Waitley in Nottingham, England.

“Richard, if you had a contract in place with a client, and you’re operating on a share of the profits or a percentage of sales, i.e.; contingency only, the advice is good, but the fail to implement or they implement poorly, what can you do about it? The problem is a question of payment and managing the relationship. Let me give you a specific example. I explained how to get referrals to my client from their existing clients. A manual was produced giving them step by step instructions and I role played it with the staff. They did not get any referrals. I asked if they could tape the calls to their clients. They didn’t, and when I went to do a post mortem, I found that they were not following the scripts or instructions. So, I’ve done the work, but they failed and I didn’t get paid.”

Richard: Well, Mark that’s a classic reason that I recommend not taking on a contingency client until you’ve implemented some of the steps of the marketing system and they’ve paid for it. That is the best way to build a trust relationship with the client so that a contingency works.

So, in this situation that you’ve just illustrated, I would’ve had your referral system as part of step number four or step number three in the HMA system that they would’ve paid me for. And, we would’ve implemented that referral program.

Many times, the reason they won’t pay you and they can’t pay is that their execution is poor, just like you found out in that case. That’s why if you do the execution and you’re there to make sure it’s done right, and they pay you do that, all of a sudden now, the system starts to work and then what I would do is say, “Well, I’d love to help you keep this system going. What if we just did it on a contingency basis?”

Now, you’ve got some trust built-up. You’ve worked with the client over a period of a few weeks or a few months, implementing the system. They like you. They know you. You like them. You know them. You know they’ll pay you, and you’ve been paid. So, now you’ve got a basis for what your contingency can do.

Michael: Here’s a question from Nick Harrison of Aulten, England.

“What process do you follow prior to making a recommendation to a client? For example, say you have a client who’s industry has been adversely affected by regulatory overkill which has impacted profits severely. How would you evaluate and mind map the alternative options?”

Richard: Nick, that’s why we have in the HMA System this opportunity analysis because it’s the questions in that analysis that help you determine if you have a viable prospect. So, in this case, after doing that analysis, it may be that the regulatory overkill is just too much and you can’t move forward. And, it’s something out of your control.

At the same time, the opportunity analysis may show you that you can take him down some alternative markets, some alternative directions that don’t have those controls, or have less of those controls. What you need to be careful of if you start working with a client and you start getting them step number one which is the Unique Selling Proposition, and then those regulatory controls begin to kill that uniqueness, begin to wound it so that he can’t market and be revenue generator, then you’ve done a disservice to the client.

Michael: Here’s a question from Ulrich in Berlin, Germany.

“Richard is there a win-win way to get the clients into a situation that they are willing to make the system a repeating one so that it will return residual income?”

Richard: Oh, that is a great question, Ulrich, and that is your call as a consultant. You have the freedom to stay with a client as long as you want, and in my career I have had a few clients and I have one now that I have been with for three years generating me residual income because we keep working the system. I keep tweaking him a little bit, and I don’t spend a whole lot of time with him.

I know that there are other consultants that like to go in and stay with a client for many years, and that’s certainly a possibility with the HMA system. It’s your call. It’s all in how you want to set up your consulting career. I enjoy having impact and moving on to another opportunity because it keeps me fresh. It keeps me excited. It keeps me going. I’ve had a couple of instances where I’ve been with a client a couple of years, and three years with one and sometimes it gets old. It gets kind of stale and you’re ready to move on. But, maybe you might want to stay with one for a long time.

So, the system is set up to where you can make the call.

Michael: Here’s a question from Phillip Phong of Adelaide South Australia.

“Richard, what’s the number one expectation your customers have when they employ you as a marketing consultant?”

Richard: Well, the number one expectation is that you’ll get the job done. Your client has probably been familiar with and probably, maybe even studied the contents of marketing such that he knows probably what he should be doing. And, so you coming in to say, “Well, you should be doing this and should be doing this.” It’s not their expectation anymore. It’s evolved to where the expectation is, “Okay, Mr. Consultant, you’ve told me what I need to do. How are you going to get it done?” So, that’s the number one expectation is they want you to execute. They want you to get results.

Michael: Here’s a question from Michael Amobo of Port Harcourt Nigeria.

“Richard, your marketing techniques seemed based on sound management information systems. In a third world country like Nigeria, where I live, where most businesses don’t have any system of keeping or storing information, where can one start from building this info store because it seems like without it, your marketing system can’t really take off? Even the eMyth depends on information research storage and communication.”

Richard: Michael, a great question. So, you have to adapt to your client’s situation, and if that’s the case in Nigeria and you want to go ahead and adapt to that situation, I’ve had clients that have stayed on paper for decades.

The HMA System can operate still on paper. Yes, it would be preferred and certainly be much more effective if it was all computerized and managed information, but if that’s not available in Nigeria, than your best thing to do is to accommodate the client and that is make it work on paper. I’m assuming in this case that we have at least that available to us, and they can keep those kinds of records.

Michael: Here’s a question from Pete Bass, Evanston, Wyoming.

“Richard, there is a new web conferencing product that I’m an affiliate for. My question is what would be the best way to market this tool. I’m completely new to all this, and would there be a good way to tie this into marketing consulting?”

Richard: Pete, there are some consultants who have taken the HMA System and gone to the Internet with it. The same steps of the system apply online or offline. So, if you’ve got an online product, in this case a web conferencing product, then you’ll want to do the same thing, and you could become a marketing consultant on the web, an Internet consultant that’s using the steps of the HMA System all on the web.

So, in this case with your product in web conferencing you need a good Unique Selling Proposition because there’s other conferencing products out there. So, it has to be set apart and it has to be very unique. So, you need to do that. You could then begin to market that to clients on the web. In fact, I’ve got a client that uses the web conferencing product and he sends out emails and emails and invites these clients to participate in a web conference with him.

So, you can be doing direct marketing with emails. You can have a client that has clients that he needs to do a seminar for, and you can help with our PowerPoint presentation, and using that with his clients and do it all on the web. So, we’ve got tools in the HMA System that would certainly apply right over to you web conferencing opportunity.

Michael: Richard, here’s a question from Abraham from Pakistan.

“Richard, what’s a strategic insight that top marketing gurus miss?

Richard: I think the biggest insight that top gurus miss is execution. I think most gurus are so caught up in insights of themselves and insights of their abilities or insights of technology perhaps or insights of the latest innovation and they can go ahead and word package a lot of that, but I think the strategic insight that they miss is how to follow through an execute, Abraham.

That is why the HMA System is growing so rapidly is because it’s the first marketing system that solves that strategic insight. It’s the first marketing system out there that has taken all of this latest and newest and all of the content of marketing and put it into successful execution for the consultant and for your client.

Michael: Here’s a question from Oliver from Deutschland.

“Richard, how do you convince potential clients that you can do what you can do?”

Richard: Oliver, the best way to convince potential clients that you can get the job done is by going in and doing the opportunity analysis, and listening to them and really hearing what they’re wanting to accomplish. I’ve found that most of the time you can’t convince somebody is when you talk too much about yourself. So, if you’ll use our analysis which focuses everything on them, the analysis will help you show them how you solve their problem, and because your then able to show them how you solved their problem, they’re convinced. And, that’s why it works.

Michael: Here’s a question from Marcus from Carterville, Georgia.

“Richard, what’s the difference between marketing and advertising or is it all the same?”

Richard: Marcus, advertising falls under the marketing umbrella. So, marketing has to make certain that advertising works. Advertising is only one step of marketing.

Michael: Here’s a question from J.F.

“Hello, Richard, what do you do if you’re tried direct mail and telemarketing, but you still can’t clients because people won’t believe the things that you can do for them?”

Richard: Well, if people don’t believe the things that you can do for them, then something’s wrong in the presentation. That’s where you’d want to take a look at what’s happening is your direct mail and your telemarketing is hopefully getting you appointments. Now, if you’re trying to sell your service through direct mail and telemarketing, I think that’s a mistake because it’s hard for them to believe something that just comes to them in the mail or is over the phone.

So, I think if that’s been your objective, you may want to change that and make it an objective to get an appointment so that you can determine if they’re a qualified prospect or not. If you go through your opportunity analysis, and they don’t believe that you can do what you can do, then there’s something that’s going wrong in the presentation.

Michael: Here’s a question from Norman Conrad of the United States.

“Keeping in touch with customers and qualified prospects is usually a hit or miss activity with many small business. Richard, do you know of any programs available or companies specializing in periodically mailing a personalized four color postcard anywhere from 500 to 1,000 cards per month using the variable data supplied by the client?”

Richard: Absolutely, there are companies like that probably in your local area. I have a company that’s called Sensations here in my area that does exactly that. We can give them a database and they’ll send these postcards that are four colored post card on any interval basis that we might ask them to do it.

So, these types of services are springing up everywhere around the country, and there’s probably one in your local area. You have to kind of go look for them.

Norman, we’ve also learn in the HMA System that the United States Post Office has invested to allow you to do all of that online. So, you can get online from your own computer at home and you can send postcards, you can send envelopes, you can send other types of mailing materials right through the United States Post Office and do it all online. So, you can do it from home or you can outsource the task with a local printer in your area.

Michael: Okay, here’s a question from Jimmy Davis of Henderson, Texas.

“First, let me congratulate both Michael and Richard. What a site. The information that Richard shares is absolutely fantastic. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who needs to know marketing and our business consulting, needs to visit Michael’s Hard to Find Seminars site. I haven’t left since I accidentally stumbled upon it on a search engine a couple of months ago. The old saying, ‘When the student is ready, the teacher will appear’ worked for me. Both of you are very dynamic, down to earth, and easy to relate to. Okay, Richard, this is going to be hard for an old pro like you, but I have thought it over and there is something that I need to know. I want to know one or two things that I can do entering a business to interview the owner of that business on consulting that I can do that will assure me that I’m going to close the deal. If I can help before I write the first word or give him my ‘what I’m here for’ speech, there are certain things you feel about each person you approach, and I know each one is different, but how do I size them up and put them at ease? Go through that for me. I want to make filling out the paperwork a foregone conclusion. I want to impress him or here from the very first moment we lay eye on each other. Thanks Richard, Jim Davis.”

Richard: Well, Jim, first thanks for your kind comments, and to answer your question now it starts of course in the first 120 seconds, first minute that you meet your prospect across his desk and you shake his hand to make it a foregone conclusion then. Once you sit down, you need to determine if he or she is a qualified prospect.

Most sales don’t close because the sales person or in this case you the consultant are talking with an unqualified prospect. So, in sizing them up, in looking at them face to face, I first have to find out is he a qualified prospect for my service? And, that is where the HMA System comes in because we have the questions all laid out for you to ask that will determine if they’re qualified prospects.

In summary, it means that do they want you? Do they need you? And, can they afford you? So, you want to try to find out those three things right away. If the answer is no to any one of those three things, the paperwork is not a foregone conclusion. If the answer is yes to all three of those things, then you’ve gotten permission to move forward into the opportunity analysis and the paperwork becomes more of a foregone conclusion.

Michael: Here’s a question from Wilfred Tanner of Los Angeles, California.

“Richard, how can I grow my business if I’m just starting out and only have a handful of customers? How do I make use of my small customer base without feeling like I’m putting the pressure of business success in any of my communications with them?”

Richard: Wilfred, that’s a common concern that consultants have, and there’s two ways to address it. One is to be honest with your small group of customers and just say, “Listen, I just have a few customers, and I would really like to do some work for them, but I don’t want to make you feel pressured in working with me, but let me just ell you some of my ideas, and I think you’ll be excited about maybe working with me.” So, being straight and forward with them is a good approach. The other is just don’t rely on a few. Go out and start doing your marketing, and the HMA System will show you a lot of ways to generate more clients.

You want to have a handful of prospects all the time that are in your prospect file so that you don’t get burdened by having just a few. There’s nothing more painful than your feeling when you have just a few clients. So, you want to get and do some referrals from those clients. You want to see if any of them have businesses as customers and they could have you do a workshop for their customers. So, you want to kind of use the HMA System. We’ve got a whole section of it devoted to how to grow and build your practice.

Michael: Okay, here’s a question from Indigo Wings of Masala, Japan.

“Richard, how would you suggest a small, but professional offline business begin to incorporate online marketing without high costs and hours spent wading through hype.”

Richard: Indigo, that’s a great question, and a lot of consultants are asking that, and businesses are asking that. In the HMA system, we teach that everything done offline marketing wise can be done online. So, it just depends on the situation of your client. It might need to be that he just needs a little website and it’s a static website filled with information, and that’s all that he requires. A lot of people have thought that the website is going to answer all of their marketing problems, and it’s not. It’s just another tool that could be used to deliver services and products just like advertising and offline marketing does.

So, in the HMA System, we tell you to go to Elance if you’re not an expert, you can go to Elance and find experts that are willing to do projects that you can outsource them to. So, you can find web designers and you can find e-commerce specialists.

When you begin to determine if the clients is an ecommerce client meaning that it’s more than a website, that it’s now actually selling product on the web, the internet, now you’re getting into an area where expertise is needed because there’s marketing that needs to go on for search engine optimization. There’s marketing that needs to go on for pay-per-click a type of marketing. Those two things require investment. So, just like an offline marketing system that requires a couple of thousand, several thousand dollars a month to invest in advertising or to invest in database or to invest in alliances or community marketing or direct marketing, so it is on the web.

If you’ve got a client that can sell products over the web, he’s going to have to invest some serious dollars on a regular monthly basis on the web to maximize success for him.

Michael: Here’s a question from Gary Jansen of Australia.

“Richard, how can I market my business for no or very little money?”

Richard: Gary, I’m assuming it’s a marketing consulting business. If that’s not the case, these ideas will probably still apply, but the best way to market your small business without any money is finding alliances and partnerships. These might be with people that you already have as customers and they can set you up with their customers. There’s an alliance that can endorse you. So, you want to find alliances and partnerships that can lead you to customers that you want and use and leverage that relationship. That’s the best way to do it without any money.

Michael: Okay, here’s a question from Jim of Bettanfort, Iowa.

“Richard, do you think that there is a modest fortune to be made by taking over the marketing function of very small companies by beginning with the idea that you’re only initially helping them with some modest advertising and or publicity short term projects. If so, what guidelines could you provide for making the transition from being a short term outside helper to becoming a formal or informal member of the business?”

Richard: Jim, that’s an exciting concept to think about, and as a matter of fact, I’ve had a few clients that I’ve thought those very things about, and one that I’m kind of working with now in that the opportunity is so great. They’ve got a lot of marketing assets that you’ve identified and they could grow significantly, but they’re just not handling the marketing function really well.

It’s also a strategic decision that you have to kind of making as a consultant. Personally, I shy away from becoming a marketing fulfillment house. So, I stay on the front end, strategic execution of the HMA System. If I see that there’s opportunities for more fulfillment, I’ll outsource that with someone or a partner of some kind. However, the transition would be that you’ve implemented the system, you’ve been paid a fee, and you know that it is going to work and that it is working. That would then be a prospect that you would want to get more involved with, if that’s your strategic decision to do that.

Michael: Okay, here’s a question from Bill McLean of Melbourne, Australia.

“Richard, when speaking with a new client after reviewing his marketing plans, you establish that the shortcoming is within his own negative self programming that continually sabotages his excellent plans with procrastination and poor decision making and prioritizing action plans. How do you tell an ego driven business owner that the problem is himself and shift him into a program that will change his perspective and approach with a results based plan and actionable steps?”

Richard: My first response is you probably can’t do it. In other words, he’s probably not a prospect and not worth the time and the energy to do that. The thing I have found that works the best is to say, “Thank you. Good luck to you. Maybe we’ll check back together in a year.” Then, hopefully during a year, his ego’s gotten him into enough trouble. He’s continuing to have bad results in his business. He’s continuing to get beat up by the marketplace. His competition is out-performing him. His customers are leaving him because of his ego, and he’s not paying attention to them. That’s something that I would rather recommend you leave to the marketplace to help fix rather than you try to because and you’re in another business. You’re in a positive mental attitude consulting business, and that’s what you want to be in.

I would rather and I would recommend that you just leave him alone and come back and revisit him after the marketplace because what you don’t want to do is have him pay you for trying to get some marketing in place when he’s got an anti-USP attitude, and that’s is it’s going to kill everything that you do. Then, you’ll have an unhappy client. He’ll probably want his money back, and it just gets into a bad relationship.

What we teach you in the HMA System is to go in and identify and pre-qualify someone like that because what you would probably find out then by doing that is that you don’t want to proceed working with him.

Michael: Okay, here’s a question from Jose Carlos, Mexico.

“Richard, do your strategies apply to businesses in Mexico?”

Richard: Absolutely applies in Mexico. The same issues are down there as anywhere across the world, and that is how does a business set itself apart to it’s particular marketplace and get customers to come and do business with it, remain loyal, buy more from it, and set up relationships with other businesses to build customers and to grow. So, whether that’s in the United States or Mexico, it’s the same.

Michael: Here’s a question from Zach Hunt of the United States.

“Richard, what are the best ways to position yourself as an expert in your field?”

Richard: Zach, the best to position yourself as an expert in the field, there’s three things. One is provide some expert communication, and maybe that’s workshop. Maybe it’s a free workshop, a free seminar, a free article that you write in the newspaper or a book that you might put together or some series of free reports that demonstrates your expertise and get it out there. Get it out there through some press releases. Get it out there some local business organization, and you will all of a sudden become positioned as an expert.

If you don’t want to do that, then you have to position yourself as an expert one on one in front of your prospect, and that’s what the HMA System does is it teaches you how to set yourself apart, how to position yourself as the expert because of the problems that you’re going to solve for the client.

Michael: Here’s a question from Graham Perry of Middleboro, United Kingdom.

“What are your views, Richard, on the all important subject of pricing? This is a crucial point to any business. Price too high and you’ll never sell anything because you’re pricing yourself out of the market, but on the other hand, if you aim too low, people will naturally think about the old saying that you only get what you pay for. Do you have any strategies or tips to get around this issue?”

Richard: Yes, Graham, the HMA System will teach you how to do that because in the system we teach you to look at each client individually, and the price that you want to set on each step of the marketing system depends on A – the value that you’ve been able to demonstrate for that client and B – the time and energy that you know it’s going to take you to accomplish. That’s why we ask you to price only by project and not by the hour or anything like that because that way you can demonstrate the value and his ability to pay becomes a critical issue.

So, in the opportunity analysis, we teach you how to determine the ability the client might have to pay and at what level they might be able to pay. I have clients that pay me more and I’m working less than I might with another client, but it’s because of the value that I’ve been able to demonstrate will come to them, and how much time it’s going to take me to do.

So, you get around by qualifying the prospect well, listening to what they can probably afford, and then you determine if you want to take the client on or not.

Michael: Here’s a question from Andrew out of Australia.

“Richard, what is the quickest way you know to get through to the decision maker and capture corporate clients?”

Richard: Well, first of all you have to determine who is your customer. The smaller a business is, say in sales from half a million to maybe five million, you’re going to be able to get through directly to the owner, and you’re going to be able to talk to the owner either through direct mail piece or through the phone. You’re going to be able to contact them.

If you start to choose to work with larger corporate clients, then you’re going to have to get in probably at the marketing level, establishing credibility perhaps with the person in charge of marketing already, and then have them introduce you to the corporate decision making or a division head. I’ve worked with a $370 million company, public company. I never met the CEO, and worked only with a division head. So, you’re not going to have a very easy time contacting directly the corporate. It’s going to have to be more through a network approach.

Michael: Here’s a question from Brett Curry from the United States.

“Richard, as a marketing consultant, how do you divide your time between prospecting for new clients and servicing existing clients?”

Richard: That’s the classic question for consulting, and I have to tell you that I just make sure that I allocate 25 percent of my week to prospecting or client generation. I’ve learned that I can not ever let that drop. If I do, then you run into the classic struggle of, “Oh, I’m done servicing. Now, I’m out of clients.” And, I will usually use the afternoon for prospecting or a luncheon seminar or a luncheon workshop of some kind, and servicing a lot more in the morning.

But, if you’ve got five days a week, 40 hours, than 8-10 hours of those need to be prospecting, client generation, and HMA System gives you plenty of ways to do that.

Michael: All right, here’s a question from Neal Phillips of Cardiff in the United Kingdom.

“Richard, what plans, policies, procedures do you find the most effective to get the clients that you take on to implement the strategies that you provide them with, and what percentage do you find that actually implement the ideas that you give them? And, if they don’t implement them, how does that affect your back end?”

Richard: Well, Neal, that’s where the HMA System is different from other consulting systems. That’s why it works with clients is that you are trained as the implementer. You’re the one that’s going to charge a fee significant enough to see that you direct the implementation. Most other consulting approaches are exactly what you described. “Well, here’s what you need to do, Mr. Client, good luck and I hope it works.” And, then it doesn’t work, and you’re back-end dies.

So, the HMA System is unique in the marketplace because it’s putting you, the consultant, as the one in charge of implementation, and that’s what clients today want. They want and demand consultants that are executing and implementing, not just telling them what to do.

Michael: Here’s another question from Renee Valleys.

“Richard, what is the mindset or philosophy or approach you have that allows your business to thrive when other marketers struggle?”

Richard: Renee, the aspect of my business that allows it to thrive is its ability to break marketing down into bit by bit steps and pieces that are easy for you as a consultant to implement for the client. It’s this ability for the system to get things done for your client that makes it thrive, and that’s what causing it to be so exciting and welcomed out there in the consulting arena is it’s organization taking all of the marketing content that’s out there, organizing it into step by step execution so that you, the consultant, can get results for your client.

Michael: Here’s a question from Andrew Lee of San Francisco, California.

“Richard, from all your marketing expertise what is the one most significant marketing concept a businessman would need to master in order to sell his or her products or services?”

Richard: I’d say the number one marketing principle they have to do is communicate everything with passion. If he doesn’t have the integrity and belief behind what he’s doing with his business, his product, A – he probably won’t be doing much marketing so it will die, and B – the marketing that he does will not contain any passion and customers won’t feel it. They won’t feel why this guy is excited to sell them something, and if the customers don’t feel that passion through the marketing pieces that are going out, then they won’t sell at the highest level.

Michael: Here’s a question from my friend Kyle in San Diego.

Kyle wants to know, “Richard, if you’re limited to just three pillars to grow and sustain a service business, what would they be? And, how would those differ from a retail business? In other words, are there three fundamentals that nearly all businesses overlook that you bring to the forefront to create lasting streams of income for your client?”

Richard: Yes, the first four steps in the HMA System is what I would refer to as core modules. They have modules that every business out to have whether it’s retail, whether it’s service, whether it’s professional, whether it’s manufacturing. It doesn’t matter. They need to have number one a Unique Selling Proposition. Number two, they need to be implementing and integrating that Unique Selling Proposition into all of the current marketing and selling that they’re done. Number three, they need to have databases set up where they’re capturing prospects. They’re marketing to their current customers or clients, and they’re reactivating past customers and clients. Then, four, especially for a service business that’s probably different from retail is they want alliances, and they want partnerships. They want to set up relationships with complimentary services that can generate new prospects for them. A retail business is usually more built around advertising and point of purchase type of promotions.

So, those four are core steps for all businesses especially service businesses.

Michael: Okay, here’s a question from David Rose in San Diego.

“Richard, once you are established locally, how would you expand the market for your services? How would you expand your services globally?”

Richard: Well, David I think what the HMA System will allow you to do is create long distance clients. You can get a website that you create for yourself. You can market that website. The HMA System gives you products that you have the rights to, to resell. So, you can be in the consulting business and selling products on the web, and acquiring and servicing clients on a long distance basis.

Something that the HMA System is developing and we’re working on is a website product that you could sell where business owner goes through the seven steps with you as a coach, and they can answer the questions right on the web and email them back to you and so you could coach a client a long distance through all seven steps of the HMA System.

Michael: Here’s a question from Andy Fields of Santa Clara, California.

“Richard, regardless of copyright, trademark and other intellectual property notices, how can one develop a very marketable new concept or twist that everyone else on the Internet can’t copy cat particularly within nanoseconds?”

Richard: Andy, the way that you want to do that is individualize your product, interject you, your voice, your personality, your credibility, your background is the best way to avoid knock-offs, and nobody can become another Andy. So, you create the product or the service more around you, and you become involved.

The other thing is you create the product, and there might be plenty of knock-offs. For example, in the HMA System, there are other systems that have similar content, but what they don’t have until they purchase the systems is the steps of executing that content. So, those are hard to knock-off because if you’ve sold it, then you’ve at least been compensated for it, and then now you do run the risk of others taking that and doing something with it, but you’ve at least been compensated for it.

Michael: Here’s a question from Mark Martin of the United States.

“Richard, I have never had stellar success at being the owner of my own small business and I’ve had four. How could I go about promoting the HMA program with confidence that I’m going to be able to help someone else when I have not done it myself?”

Richard: Mark, your question represents probably the number one question that I get on a regular basis, and that is “How, Richard, can I go out and be successful with this system?” And, I’ll just have to answer that as simply as I can in that that’s why we created a system so that it could not rely on you. When you go down and sit in front of a prospect, you’re delivering a marketing system. You’re not delivering you. They really don’t care about you. They really don’t care what your background is.

Where consultants get killed and they lose their focus is when they go in and talk about themselves. That’s when the client begins to wonder who is and what’s he done, and does he have credibility is because you’re the one that’s bringing it up. You’re the one talking about yourself. He doesn’t want to know about you.

So, the genius in the HMA System is shifting the focus from you to the system, and there’s plenty of stories and plenty of credibility and plenty of success after 14 years in the marketplace that the systems delivered on. That’s what you’re selling. That’s what the client wants is he wants results, and once you’re trained in the system, you can deliver those results.

Mark, another thing that we’ve done in the HMA System to make it even easier is right in the opportunity analysis that you go through with the prospect. We’ve integrated stories and case studies. They’re already there in readable format that you can just go through and illustrate for your client, the success that the system has had with client. So, it just makes it even easier for you.

Michael: All right, here’s a question from Randy Cole of Portland Oregon.

“Richard, I’m a firm believer in giving to my clients when consulting with them about my services. Have you found lately that the quality of truly wanting to give to the client and see them prosper has come much more to the forefront in your business practices, and that is increased the quality and satisfaction of the transactions for both sides? I guess what I’m trying to ask, Richard, is does it seem like to you like quality, ethics and morality in doing business now a days has created a much better environment and thus better earnings for both sides because of the moral bar being raised as opposed to either “get rich quick at any cost” attitudes?”

Richard: Randy, I think you’re dead on in your perspective. I’ve seen it in my own consulting practice. I’ve seen some of my competitors who have tried to go in and they’ve tried to short cut the delivery, and that’s resulted in over time, clients getting unsatisfied and results not getting documents, and results not taking place.

The market is tired of that. The market is through with that kind of performance. They’re weeding those out more quickly than they have before. I’ve seen competition for my services get weeded out much more quickly than they used to because of not delivering on what they said the would deliver. That’s why I think the HMA is poised to just fill a great void, and the void that’s been left by deliveries that have not taken place, and that have not done what they said they would do.

So, the HMA System is all built around results. It’s all built around integrity. It’s all built around the consultant saying, “I will do this and we will get this done and this is how I am going to do it.” And, because results take place, the fees go up. The value goes up. Prosperity for the client goes up, and when prosperity for the client goes up, then you’re welcomed to more prosperity as the consultant.

Michael: “Richard, here’s my question, because certain words and how you say them can make all the difference, what wording can we use during the first phone call with a potential prospect to really nail down whether they are truly a prospect or not while getting them interested and motivated to take the next step forward with a face to face meeting or a longer phone interview. Thanks, Vince Carnigan.”

Richard: Well, Vince, we’ve got the phone approaches that are documented in the HMA System and we’ve been using them for 14 to 15 years in the process of acquiring new prospects. Vince, here’s an example of what we’ve been saying, “Hello, is Mr. Brown in? Mr. Brown, this is Richard. We have a marketing approach to grow your business 25 to 100 percent or more without spending more money on advertising. Could we take 15 minutes to tell you a little bit more about it? Is that something you’d be interested in?” It’s very short. It’s to the point. It’s a hook, and the purpose of the hook is to buy 15-20 more minutes.

So, then you go in for a face to face 15 minutes, and it’s in that 15 minutes that we’re going to take you through some more qualifying questions. You’ve got to find out if the guy has interest. You have to find out if he has a need. You’ve got to find out if he can afford you. Then, we’re going to go into the opportunity analysis. So, all of that wording, and all of that scripting has been packaged and put together in the HMA System for you.

Michael: Here’s a question from Reswan.

“Richard, suppose you are not a marketing person, but an accountant with no formal credentials or experience in marketing. How do you convince your first consulting client that he should try out your services?”

Richard: Reswan, we’ve taken care of that. Your question is probably one of the more frequently asked questions and that is, “If I don’t feel real confident in a marketing background, how do I convince my client to give me a try?” So, we’ve solved the problem in two ways.

One is we’ve given you and delivered to you a marketing system that if you will go through and be trained in, you can deliver the words and deliver the need and the results that your client is interested in that will convince them to go ahead and give you a try.

What I would do and what I did early on is I knew that I might have lacked some credibility, and so I took on a client or two without any fees. And, I just worked the system and got results. Then, I started getting more confident and charging the fees. So, if you want to start out that way, that’s fine. I don’t think you need to.

One of the things that we’ve tried to do in the system is you’ve got 15 years of credibility. You can start charging fees right away. But, if you’ve got some income from some other sources for a little while, then do a couple of steps of the system with no charge.

Michael: Okay, Richard, here’s my final question. It’s from Ken Ellsworth of Vancouver.

“What’s the difference and why are you any better than the other marketing consultants in training out there such as Y2 Marketing, Jay Abraham, Top Line, Quantum and any of the others?”

Richard: Ken, the difference in the HMA System from any of the others out there is its ability to get things done for the client. I have studied these others. I know my competition, and I know what they’ve delivered, and I can give you an example. Jay Abraham has delivered. Jay has gotten results. He’s a multi-millionaire. However, what he didn’t do is break it down for someone like you and me into a system of execution. He knew how to execute, but he hadn’t been able to teach it or break it down into others like we’ve done, and that’s the key difference.

Now, some of the other competitors, they’re very, very good at their content, but so is the HMA. So, the HMA content is the same or better than anyone else, but what the HMA System has done is break it down into an organized, step by step systematic plan for execution so that you as a consultant can learn it and be taught it and the client can get the results that he wants.

Many of the competition, they’ll spout off what they’ll do, but then the results don’t take place. So, we’ve just been creating results for 15 years, and that’s a pretty good differentiation.

We’ve covered a lot of questions in this recording. I hope it’s been beneficial for you. If you’d like any additional information on how to get going as an HMA marketing consultant, please call me at 858-274-7851 or email me at Contact by Email. I look forward to speaking with you.