The Long Haul

You don't have to look very far these days to find someone predicting the end of the world, perhaps as early as this year, with odds even better for 2000. (Of course, who wants to live long in the year 2000, when the Y2K bug will cause planes to fall from the sky, make electricity stop flowing through the lines, even create an impenetrable wall between you and your ability to buy a loaf of bread.)

In the P.I. business, you also don't need to look far to find individuals fearful that the public's pursuit of privacy will mean the end of the P.I. profession. Thousands will fall by the wayside because one more piece of information becomes difficult to obtain from state records.

(In our opinion, the public's privacy campaign needs to be respected and effectively countered with a combination of political maneuvering with key legislators and a careful public relations campaign detailing the value and benefits of the work of real private investigators. This is a position we have previously advanced in this publication.)

Despite dire predictions, chances are good that life on this planet will continue well into the new millennium. And with the world still intact, let's assume that people throughout the United States will still need professional private investigators.

With this in mind, you need to be optimistic, tolerate pending doomsayers, and focus on the long term.

The same needs to be the case with your marketing efforts. Take the steps necessary to secure your long-term success.

"But," you may say, "I need to do something right away to improve my business." (There are many things you can do, of course, as we usually address in this column. If you need immediate assistance, you may want to order the 90-minute audiotape, "Top Ten Things You Can Do Now to Market Your Private Investigation Business," only $15 from P.I. Magazine.) Furthermore, implementation of consistent steps to assure your long-term success can eliminate many future must suddenly do it now crises."

So, what, from a marketing perspective, do you do to keep your business on a sustained growth program?

The Mindset

Develop and maintain the longterm mindset. Don't go about your business with the idea that you'll try it for a while and if it doesn't work out, you'll get into something else. While it's true that you can't ride a dead horse into the ground, you can't start your trip expecting the horse to die along the way. You may indeed some day reach the point where you need to get out of your business and do something else. But you divert a lot of creativity and energy from your success if you spend too much time watching for signs of failure instead of doing what you need to do to grow.

Instead, visualize your success, where you want to be, and how much business you intend to have by a certain date. Be specific. Put it in writing. When you are specific about what you plan to obtain, you force yourself to do the things necessary to accomplish your goals. Marketing no longer becomes something that you should get around to doing sometime; it becomes part of a comprehensive plan, which you are highly motivated to implement. Furthermore, when you act as if you have already realized an important goal, it makes the situation real, and you find yourself compelled to do things to continue your situation, rather than hoping that someday you may reach that point. This is true for seasoned investigators striving to achieve the next level of success as it is for the novice trying to establish himself or herself.

Focus on referrals

I've always considered it a sign of success in anyone's career, no matter what profession, when someone seeks them out to offer them a job. "Hey, Jimbo, you're the best architect in the world, and even though you might think you're happy where you currently work, I want you to come work for XYZ company," or so the scenario goes.

Something very similar happens to a business owner when someone refers a client to you. You just go about doing your job, and doing it so well, that other work just falls into your lap. Gee, there's no need to even market yourself anymore, right?

Wrong. Referrals don't just happen. You first have to implement continuous quality enhancement efforts (i.e., do a great job) to establish your sterling reputation.

Secondly, remember that word of mouth referrals are a top-drawer style of marketing, but it's still marketing. And a slip of your standards, an unusual rudeness to a client, or some other even temporary setback can just as quickly jump on the word-of-mouth train and work against you.

Then, you do have to make the point of advancing your own cause. If you get a great letter from a client, ask for their permission to reprint a portion of their letter, along with the individual's name and position for credibility purposes, in your marketing brochure or materials. And don't be afraid to ask someone for a referral.

Continuous mailings

A direct mail campaign in which you send out a letter and a copy of your brochure to your best potential clients is often seen as a way to generate new business.(you do have a high-quality marketing brochure, don't you? If not, check out the full-page ad for the COPI brochure development system in this issue.) However, such mailings are something you should be doing all the time, not just if and when you find yourself short of cases.

And keep these key points in mind. Just because you send something to someone does not mean that that person is necessarily in the market for your services at that time. (This truth presents itself to me every month when we get a subscription form from someone wanting to subscribe for $16 a year. Our subscription price has been $24 a year for at least four years, but there are still people out there who have hung onto a flier from an old mailing for several years before finally taking the plunge.) The same is true of every other business, including yours. Just because your local plumber sends you a coupon for ten percent off your next job with his company does not mean your pipes will burst that day. However, given a proper incentive (in this case, the ten percent discount), who do you think you'll call when you DO need someone to fix your leaky pipes.

Furthermore, just because someone doesn't hire you immediately after your mailing does not mean that they will never want to hire you. Once again, focusing on the long-term benefits of direct mail will keep you motivated to pursue this on a regular basis, and keep you from getting discouraged when you do not get immediate responses to your efforts.

Letters of thanks

Did you send a thank you note to the last company that hired you, or did you simply send them an invoice for your services? Did you recently send a letter to a client from six months ago, just to remind them that you are available for additional assignment, should they need your services?

These are basic steps you can routinely take to keep your name in front of your best potential clients. Build your own database of your best former, current and, consequently potential clients, then use your database. Remind them you exist.

Accept positive opportunities -

In the short term, new opportunities may never seem like they are something that will ever pay off. Sometimes they may not seem like they will produce immediate results, which is what you really want, so you let them pass you by.

Don't get me wrong: don't take foolish chances. But a good connection is a good connection, and sometimes you have to put forward some effort before someone is willing to take a chance on you. If there are not serious monetary risks you can't afford, and if time permits your involvement, after careful analysis it may be something that produces big benefits. You never, ever know where one effort may ultimately lead.

Use the tools

Develop and adhere to a long-term plan of using traditional marketing tools. Have memorable stationary and business cards. Develop and distribute a first-class brochure that thoroughly describes the benefits your customers receive when they hire you.

Buy an ad specialty item (pens, coffee mugs, flashlights, etc.) and give them to your best prospects. Here's something I never see enough of in the private investigation business. When I go to a P.I. conference, I might see one or two P.I.s passing out some type of ad specialty. Then you go into the vendors' area, and most vendors have a freebie to give out, AND ALMOST EVERYONE TAKES ONE! Who can't use one more free pen?? No, giving out a pen with your company name on it is not going to convince someone that you are the right person for that job. You need to convince them of that. But having your name in front of your potential clients time and time and time and time again certainly increases your chances of being remembered and thus getting the opportunity to state your case.

Taking concrete steps to increase your volume of business immediately is often a critical, very real need. But make sure you are also taking steps to ensure your success in the long haul, and many of your crisis situations will begin to disappear.

Mr. Bob Mackowiak, PI Magazine - www.pimag.com