Baseball Season

Baseball season is coming up, and it reminds me of a presentation that Robert Middleton, of Action Plan Marketing, made at the 2002 National Resume Writers' Association conference.

Robert had a client acquisition strategy he called "Marketing Ball." He said you need to have a system to get consistent, powerful results with your marketing.

One of the things that struck me most in his presentation was that "If you try to hit a home run, you'll strike out." Instead, you need to make base hits.

First, you need to say "the thing" that gets prospects saying, "That's interesting. Tell me more." Middleton said, if you get that, you get to first base.

Next, you try to get to second base. The way to get there is to give people more information.

To get to third base is the sales process. It's capturing their interest and having them want to move forward.

Middleton said the hardest part for independent professionals -- like resume writers -- is getting to second base.

As resume writers, we try to hit home runs -- like getting a client to agree to a $1,000+ project (resume, cover letter, bio, branding work) without doing the work of base hits.

Remember that on Opening Day.