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SXSW Panel: How to easily attract the right clients
On the last day of interactive at SXSW, I was looking forward to a panel called, "How to Easily Attract Your IDEAL Clients." You see, I could use a few more clients for my consulting business and I thought I would learn some tips to help. Boy was I wrong :)
The panel included three "experts" - Jen Blackert, Carlon Haas, and Steve Harper. Jen and Carlon seemed to take the mic for most of the panel and I actually think Steve may have had some good things to say. The easiest way to tell if a panel is good or bad is to watch how many people leave during the session. Many people left during this one. Including me, I held out until the 46th minute but then cut my losses.
Here are my notes:
They start by explaining that they are expert marketers. Jen is really full of herself, yet her site looks like poo :) Harper really was quiet most of the panel.
Two ways to get clients:
-- go out and get the clients
-- the attraction method
Point 1 - Before you start any marketing program or plan - figure out what you are trying to accomplish
Carlon believes Web 2.0 is about promoting others which helps promote you
Point 2 - "Tarket" - identifying your one person you are trying to attract into your business
Point 3 - make sure you craft your message to the audience
Haas - 90% of web sites suck (I wonder if he looked at Jen's site)
Jen used to be a SEO optimizer for Dell computer - and she ranks very high for her keywords
Haas explained segmentation! Don't be all things to all people - be all things to the people you want
Point 4 - Exclusion - Haas explains that you have to exclude people which is usually hard for the client to swallow
Point 5 (from Steve, a panelist) - Make your customers your evangelists! -- I agree with him on this one.
ANOTHER QUESTION HOG - this woman actually had the guts to try to push her web site on the entire audience and spoke for 10 minutes on the mic - gosh
Ohhh yeah. The nasty words that get delivered from a client because you're doing both yourself and them a favor because you admit you won't be able to meet their needs/expectations and vice versa is one of the truly surreal experience of doing business. Despite it being a necessary decision in some situations I've yet to see anyone take it well.
I had the reverse and had to tell a vendor he has no integrity. Needless to say he did not like that too much either :-)
quote: Haas - 90% of web sites suck (I wonder if he looked at Jen's site)
priceless
go look at her site and you tell me (i won't link to it because juice machine is out of order)
I did go and look and what I found even more funny was it was hard to find. google unstuck marketing or what ever its called and it does not come up.
Darren - right before the panel started, she let us know that she is a marketing expert (along with the other 2 experts) and that we should ask them lots of questions because it's rare that we get time with 3 marketing experts at once.
and no, im not making this up.
oh the irony of some people :p
Allen,
Someone just emailed me a link to your BLOG.
First, I just wanted to thank you for posting your comments on our panel. I am sorry that the panel wasn't all that you had hoped for. As I watched many panels throughout the conference some worked and some didn't for me so I can appreciate your perspective.
Since you mentioned you left early, I wanted to give you point number five which I covered. It was make your customers your evangelists! Happy to chat about it if you have any interested or desire to do it.
Again...sorry we disappointed you as a panel but I do thank you for checking us out. If you should ever want to discuss anything specific that might help your consulting business, the coffee is on me.
Either way, best of luck on your venture and as always....
Ripple On!
Steve Harper
512.577.3700
steve@ripplecentral.com
Thanks for commenting Steve, I actually think if you led the panel, it might have been better. You seemed very reserved in speaking throughout.
No reason to be sorry, I am guessing some might have liked your panel.
My comments were really targeted towards Jen as she proclaimed herself to be an expert.
I think people need to be careful when they call themselves an expert. Let others call you an expert, when you call yourself an expert, all it does is make me want to show you why you are not an expert.
You have to admit that the woman who asked you to show her site and do an informercial for her was a bit over the top. Maybe a good learning to ask her next time to see you afterwards. That seemed to really worsen the tempo for the balance.
Anyway hope I will see you back here again soon.
Thanks for the re-response to my comments. You are likely right that we let the women at the podium go on too long and we likely shouldn't have tried to get her site up but in the spirit of the topic we trying to be helpful. Alas it didn't come up and I did learn a lesson about tabling a topic so that momentum isn't interrupted.
Thanks again for the feedback.
Steve
Yep, it is hard to ask the person to move on - it's probably the moderator's job to some extent. Don't worry, this happens more often than not. I just posted about it in my wrap-up post.
An awesome panel is a combo of great panelists AND great attendees.
Allen,
Seeing that my other 2 esteemed panelists commented on your blog, I figured I should too.
Woman on the mic...man, oh, man do I agree with you there. That was actually a first for me. Good recap on that.
Thanks for coming out to hear our panel. An extra point about the 90% of web sites suck. The "suck" comment came in the context of most lack a call to action and are mostly about the company themselves as oppossd to what the company does for their prospects/clients.
I'm glad to see Steve filled you in on the last point. That one was key.
Best of luck to you. I think what you're doing is interesting given my love for most things Web 2.0.
Regards,
Carlon Haas
Thanks for stopping by Carlon - your "suck" comment was not followed by any other commentary about what you meant - so the comment came across as general.
And I almost think a bit of your panel actually disagreed with #5.
Hi There,
I love controversy :)
Remember we are marketers, not web designers. The purpose is to get people on your list and in your funnel. It's not to distract them by pretty pictures :)
I purposely have my site set up so it will be "read". It delivers me a healthy annual income and that is my intention.
Jen
I am glad your web site delivers a healthy income, I look forward to that day for me here on CN.
The web site you continuously showed during the panel looked and acted like complete spam. I didn't get a chance to jot it down so I don't know the url.
Honestly, the panel didn't really offer much in how to attract clients. It's ok though, as I said above some probably learned something.
And I completely disagree with you about pretty pictures vs. marketing. But even though I have an MBA in marketing (graduated cum laude) and a B.S. in Accounting, worked with some of the largest agencies, been a part of the web since day 1, ran campaigns in the tens of millions of dollars on multiple continents, I am not an "expert" - so I won't go there.
Good luck and continued success and I look forward to meeting you (and all of the other panelists) at a future event.