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How To Sell More Consulting Services At Full Price In A Shorter Period of Time Than You Have Ever Done Before. Amazing New Technique Has Clients Flooding Your Practice To Hire You… And At Full Price!!!

Doug, tell me the story how you first got involved with Marketing Consulting.

Yeah well I used to travel a lot with my consulting Company I remember it was probably around 89-90 I was on my way to Toronto. I stopped in the Salt Lake City Airport and picked up a little business publication. I don’t even recall now what it was for sure some kind of little business newspaper, and I was sitting on the plane reading that. And, in the paper I saw an ad from this guy who was doing some kind of marketing consulting stuff and said that he would work on contingency and said that for every dollar generated to me then he would only keep 25 cents of it and thought that was an interesting concept cause I had been doing a similar type thing in my consulting practice with a lot of the clients I was working with. So I thought well you know when I get back to Utah I will just give this guy a call - actually I said when I get on the ground I will give a call cause I remember I called him from Canada introduced myself and said hey you know were kind of doing a similar type thing here why don’t we get together when I get back into town.

Michael: What were you doing at that time was it your own consulting business?

Doug: I had been consulting radio stations for, oh gosh, at that point probably about six years

Michael: Doing consulting? Were you in the radio business or worked around it or what?

Doug: When I got out of school I teamed up with a couple of other guys and we bought a little radio station down in a small town in New Mexico called Alamogordo, New Mexico. We bought a little station there turned it around had a lot of success. We sold it in ‘84 and then I just kind of had other broadcasters come to me and people saying, “Gee, what did you guys do there and can you come teach us?” So, I just started working with other radio stations and before you know it was traveling all over the place training stations and teaching them what we had done at our station.

What really happened for me was when I met Richard and started integrating some of his concept into what I was doing to mark myself and market my own practice. That is when things really took off. The first year that I really integrated some of his principles I remember that first year I did that my income increased by about 600 percent. It was just phenomenal and basically it came as a result of doing three things.

First was really defining what my unique selling proposition was. Second providing a risk free guarantee, and thirdly really narrowing down my target market and focusing on the right segment of the market so.

Michael: Let’s go back to you’re at the airport you call Richard you say let’s get together and then what happened.

Doug: I don’t get back to Salt Lake for about two weeks. When I did get back a couple of weeks later I gave him a call and he came down to my office and we met. He started talking to me about some of his ideas and some of the different things he was doing and I just kind of went from there.

Michael: Once that you knew HMA marketing system was pretty much gelled had you used this with some of your clients integrated the system or the marketing system with some of your radio stations or some of your consulting clients?

Doug: Yeah, absolutely not only did I use it to market my own practice which I had dramatic results from that but I integrated a lot of the principles of the HMA system into what I was teaching my radio station clients and teaching their sale people had to do as well and working with the radio station clients.

Michael: Wit your radio station clients before you were exposed to this contingency or were you contingency or were you doing per project? How would you charge and what challenges did you have before you met up with Richard and learn these ideas?

Doug: I was really doing a lot of different things and you know none of it I can say was really totally focused. I was doing some contingency stuff. I was doing some per project stuff. I was just trying to figure the best niche, or the best way to make it work and after meeting with Richard and learning about the power of the HMA system I made a determination that what I needed to do what really focus on the contingency based clients really make it a win-win situation and once I did that things really exploded and really took off.. They made a lot of money and I made a lot of money and everbody was pretty happy.

Michael: So sometimes contingency can work for you sometimes they can be risky but using contingency with the HMA system did work for you.

Doug: It worked extremely well, but you’re exactly right when you say it has to be the right situation. It has to be in a situation where you have the control to be able to know exactly what the results of your efforts are and then to be able to get paid from that. So, it’s not going to work in every situation but what I did and the way I used it, it did work extremely well.

Michael: Tell me about the opportunity analysis when I look at the system I thought, I think that the thing is fantastic. How did you use the opportunity analysis in getting clients? Do you do cold prospecting meeting with clients taking them through the opportunity analysis to generate clients?

Doug: Oh yeah, absolutely I do that a lot. The real power of that is that what it helps to do is help to identify areas within any business whether it’s a radio station or anything else for that matter it helps to really identify what there strengths are, what there weaknesses are and some of those assets that could be deployed in a much more profitable way and could be leveraged to generate a lot more business. Once you take a client through that, it really opens there eyes to the fact that, “I can be making a lot more money and can be do things a little bit differently, and not really have to spend any more money doing this.” It is just re-deploying some of the assets in some different ways it can really mean a lot more sales and a lot more profitability.

Michael: Would you ever charge for the opportunity analysis or would you always do it for free, did you ever play around with that?

Doug: Yeah, I did and I still do with some of the things I do. I do in fact charge for that.

Michael: How do you set that up? How would you structure that for a charge? When you first talk to them, how would you position yourself to charge for the meeting, the opportunity analysis rather to do it for free?

Doug: Well, I position it as a marketing audit. I just use that as a door opener to get in to do other things, but the clients would be often times willing to pay just to find out, “Do I have hidden marketing assets? Do I have things that I can do that maybe I can be more effective with?” and essentially that’s what the purpose of the marketing audit is - is to help identify those hidden marketing assets and we just brain storm with them a little bit on how they can use that a little bit more effectively.

Once you do that their eyes just kind of open up and they say, “Huh, yeah, maybe this you know I should go further and take it to the next step.” But, yeah in and of itself it is a valuable tool just to help a business owner to see where they can maybe be doing things more effectively.

Michael: I get a lot of questions from people and it is a credibility question. People feel like they don’t have marketing experience and what I tell them is that the credibility issue is almost a non-issue because once you take someone through the opportunity analysis, and they see where the money is you have established your credibility and they don’t care who you are they want what they see that they are loosing out. What would you tell someone who maybe doesn’t have a lot of consulting experience, maybe doesn’t have a lot of confidence when it comes to the credibility issue? What would you advise someone is thinking about coming into this about that situation?

Doug: Well, that is a great question because I have worked with many, many people that are in that situation. Just tell them, “Hey, follow the process and use the system.” because just doing that in and of it itself leapfrogs you so far ahead of other people out there that are so called consulting or marketing experts, it is not even any comparison. And, you’re right once you sit down with a client, and you take them through the opportunity analysis, and start pointing out the hidden assets, you start showing them ways to play to that in a more effective way where credibility becomes a non-issue. And the reason is why because what you’re really focusing on - and this is critical - to really overcome that lack of credibility or lack of experience, you have to take the focus off of you and put the focus on the system and their business.

The system itself has tremendous credibility and tremendous impact, but you have to focus on that and focus on there business and not focus on you and if you do that it becomes a non-issue.

Michael: How about this? Another question I keep getting is people listen about the system and the understand what it is, they go thru all the steps and they believe they don’t have the talent to actually follow thru to deliver on the system. Getting a client, there is confidence in that because they have the opportunity analysis and the training. They believe that they can get a client. But what would you say to someone considering it a question of, “Am I really going to be able to learn how to do a USP?” “Am I really going to be able to learn how to write an ad and follow through?” “Do I need to know how to do all of these things to make results for a small business?” What would you say that?

Doug: Well, I’d say that is the beauty of the system because it is a step by step process. It’s like a formula, like a recipe. If you just follow the steps you’ll be able to do that. Yeah, if I went to somebody just up the street and said , “Hey go find a USP for that business.” Well, they’d have no idea where to even start or begin to even think about that, but with the system it is a very methodical step by step approach.

Step one do this, step two do that - by the time you take them through the four steps of that project the answer becomes fairly apparent. And so it is not that you have to have a great deal of expertise in marketing or be real creative for that matter. You just have to follow the system and follow the steps it pretty much comes self evident.

Michael: As far as the USP, a lot of businesses want to see quick results and establishing the USP is the first step of the system, but not necessarily is going to bring a lot of quick results. What would you say to the consultant why the USP is so important? Why is positioned first?

Doug: It is because it forms foundation of everything else that you do. Once you have identified that USP, then that is integrated then into all the other steps in the marketing system, and t it really forms the foundation of everything else you do. So, just by saying, “Okay, oh, here’s our USP” you’re right that’s not in and of itself going to generate a lot of results, but it’s through integrating that into the other things that you are going to be doing that generate the results.

Michael: Alright so when a business owner says, “Okay we’re going do this USP but when am I am going to see some quick results?” You want to be able to perform and show some quick results to the business, right?

Doug: Right.

Michael: What would you say to the small business to not pacify them but to explain to them and educate that the USP isn’t going to be a quick result system but the quick results can come?

Doug: Typically, the quick results come in step two When you take a look at the current marketing and looking at how you can leverage that and make it more effective. For example, if they are already paying for an ad in the newspaper or on the radio or the TV, for example, they’re already paying for that. Every time they run that ad, if they are getting five people through the door, if you can instinctly by integrating the USP and doing a few other things that are going to make that ad more effective instead of bringing in five people through the door, it brings in twenty then right off the bat you’ve seen some pretty significant result.

Michael: Once you got comfortable with the system, how much time are you realistically working with the client? We talk about each step takes about a month, but you and I both know it doesn’t take a month to perform a USP. So, how would you categorize that and explain that to a potential consultant how much time he’s going to be investing with an ideal business to work with?

Doug: Each step is designed to be implemented for a period over a month, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to be working exclusively on that for the month. Typically, for example, on the USP step there are four steps or four things you will do in that particular project. You’ll do one typically one step every week and you may spend a couple hours a week working on that particular step of the system. You’re taking a four week period to complete the whole project but you might have five, six, eight of those going on at the same type.

Michael: What would you say is your threshold that you can work with X amount of clients each month?

Doug: Well, it’s really kind of subjective because it depends on really what it is your doing with each one. But, realistically a person can probably work with 10-12 clients at a time. Well, I’ve done that but sometimes maybe you’ll have a few more sometimes a few less just depending on how in-depth you’re working with each one.

Michael: Can you give me a couple case studies just from your experience over the years of how you have implemented the system, just maybe one or two things that stick out in your mind how powerful the system performed for a client?

Doug: Probably the best example is how I used in my own consulting practice with dramatic results there. Another company that I work with which is actually in the employee leasing business, I worked with a period over about 18 months, and we implemented virtually every part of the system. Virtually step was implemented in some way.

Michael: Yeah.

Doug: We took that company in a period of about 18 months from about 25 million dollars in sales to over 100 million dollars in sales in just a little over a year and half.

Michael: Wow. Did you set that up contingency or was that a project?

Doug: It was a combination of both. There was some contingency stuff and project stuff as well.

Michael: So, that worked out good.

Doug: Yeah it worked out real well. It worked out real for everybody.

Michael: What would you say is they key to being successful with this HMA marketing system? What would you tell anybody that you’re going to realistically need to do, if you realistically want to have some success in this business? And don’t sugarcoat it. Give them the real world since you’re in the real world.

Doug: You got to make the calls. You have to get in front of the people. You have to get out and see people. You have to prospect and sell. It’s like anything. You can have what you have with the HMA system. You have a great product and great service to offer to people, but if you don’t get out there and tell anybody, and get out there and make the sale and get people doing it, you’re not going to have any success at all. So, bottom line, you just have to go out and make the call and start prospecting and close deals to get people working.

Michael: Doug, what do you like about the consulting business you have been it in along time now how many years?

Doug: Well, I’ve been it too much since I got out of the radio station which is in ‘84 so over 20 years now. It gives you a lot of freedom. You can do really whatever you want, you can work when you want, work how you want that doesn’t mean that you don’t work at all. You’ve got to work hard, and it’s really like anything, you have to put in the time and make it work for you.

Michael: Is it fulfilling?

Doug: That’s the other thing. It’s fulfilling. You can see a lot of results. You’re helping people. You have people, but it is up to you. And I am really thankful for what you are able to help them do. It can be very fulfilling and in that way as well and of course financially it can be very lucrative you can make a lot of money.

Michael: Was there some success with some of the consultant that you broke through I know you brought through about a 100.

Doug: It was over a 100. It was a lot of people that went through that and a lot of them had some pretty tremendous success. I supposed you know that the Y2 guys, they got started coming through our class, right? Well, Ed Earl who is the president of Y2 Marketing, he was one of the first people to come through our program back in ‘95.

Michael: He came through your system?

Doug: Yeah.

Michael: I didn’t know that.

Doug: Yeah, he did, he sure did. His partner Rich Harshaw did not, but Ed Earl did. Yeah, he was one of the first come to it.

Michael: So you guys trained him or did he do a home study the videos.

Doug: He came to the in-class training.

This is Michael Senoff with www.HardtoFindSeminars.com Shoo, that was a lot of questions, and we uncovered a lot information in this recording with Doug. Richard’s proven system of uncovering hidden marketing assets in a business is based on his 15 years of marketing consulting, and it works. Whether you’re a new business looking for a way to systematize your marketing, or if you want to be a marketing consultant helping small to medium sized businesses while making a very comfortable income working part-time from home, Richard’s system can shortcut the learning process for you. For more information on Richard’s marketing system call 858-274-7851 or emailPlease continue on to some of the other recordings with Richard on Marketing Consulting at http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/HowToConsulting.htm