Our client pinky promise

Do you guarantee or promise anything when you talk to prospects or clients? I have a promise which I tell everyone before I work with them. It shares something I’ve always done and in the early days of my consulting business (nearly 20 years ago), I naively assumed that everyone did the same!

However, I started sharing it with clients, and in presentations and proposals when I realised that some others – whether purposefully or subconsciously – didn’t.

My promise is this:

Always confidential, with no judgement or jargon… just practical and easy to understand advice.

Always confidential:

The most effective marketing supports the delivery of company objectives. Which means I’m involved in discussions about ambitions, target markets, opportunities as well as potential threats which might affect a company’s business. Much of what I do is covered by NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), hence I rarely share the name of my clients. However, even when there isn’t a formal agreement between us, whatever we speak about is kept confidential!

No judgement:

My role is to support, guide and enable my clients (whether they’re an individual or company) to develop their marketing impact. By looking at the ways they have generated leads and sales to date I can then give guidance on how to make it more effective, so that it increases sales and fuels growth. Asking for help can be hard, with people often not realising that they’ve done a great job so far without any marketing advice or training!  So, I’m not going to judge – preferring to applaud their progress to date before identifying how we create even more impact, increase sales and fuel the growth to meet their ambitions.

No jargon:

Every industry has its own terms, acronyms and pet phrases. But have you noticed that the most effective spokespeople, scientists and even news presenters are those who can explain complex topics in language we can all understand?  Whilst I’ll use marketing terminology and shorthand with my marketing peers, I always promise to explain ideas and strategies in plain English with clients.

Practical and easy to understand advice:

Effective marketing needs to be delivered using the resources a company has available. Strategies and marketing plans need to ensure that they are practical and achievable given the people, time and budget available.

They also need to be presented in a way that they are easily understood and in a format that means they are followed! Often this is using the tools and systems a client is already using and in addition to the dashboard-style summary I’ve developed. These often include Excel and project management software / apps, although my most unusual request was probably for a marketing strategy mind map!

#marketingconsulting #promise

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I'm Hannah Welch, a marketing consultant helping companies develop effective marketing strategies. My advice is bespoke to your organisation so your marketing builds on the brilliant work to date, strengthening your brand and fuelling growth.