Growing your business with marketing, week 34: It’s all in the “ask”

This is Week 34 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I’m applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week here, on the podcast, and at the Marketing Mix blog.

I’m not the world’s greatest self-promoter, which is why I think that the work I do resonates with my (right) clients: they feel a little funny about getting out there and mixing it up themselves.

Like cold calling, though, some of the work of marketing (and I’m including self-promotion under the marketing umbrella, at least, for indie biz types) can be critical to your growth even though it feels awkward or downright unnatural to your soul (and I’m including indie biz types under the umbrella of “people who have souls”—at least, some of them.)

Favors vs. consideration

Asking can take a couple of different forms. Well, tons, probably, but a couple that leap to mind:

1. There’s the asking for a favor
2. There’s the asking to be considered

Asking for a favor includes…well, any kind of having to ask someone for something: a retweet on Twitter, a plug on their blog, a set of eyeballs for the draft of your promo piece—you get the idea.

Asking to be considered is a whole nuther animal. That’s where you put yourself out there, looking for the gig. When I put myself out there and “jokingly” (as if!) said to Pam Slim that I should present a bit on branding at her Escape from Cubicle Nation workshop in Chicago, that was asking to be considered; when I very seriously asked her to submit a piece of video for my Southwest Airlines contest entry last year was a favor. (A big one, too, since I was asking for a super-quick turnaround.)

I look at both favors and considerations as debits in the capital department, albeit mild ones (we hope!). I don’t have a formal ratio for my ask-to-give ratio, but I know that anything more than 1 (ask)-to-5 (give) gives me hives, and 1-to-10 is probably more like it for me. (This is down from 1-to-1,000, so easy on me, please.)

I’m not 100% sure about this, but I think part of my problem to date with this asking stuff is that I was confusing asking for a favor with asking for consideration. Cold calling aside—because (a), there the line is pretty clear, and (b) I loathe talking on the phone in general, anyway—asking for consideration when it comes to jobs, gigs, or other types of work-related inclusion with acquaintances or colleagues is probably too hard, and something I need to examine.

In the meantime, I thought I might start by looking at my “asks” for this week. They’re work-related, because that’s the thrust of this blog, but I’ve been noting my other “asks”, too.

Favors I asked for this week

• Help from colleagues with writing I’ve finally homed in on what my first “real”* book will be, and both because it’s kind of a hot topic and I’m hot to get started, I reached out to several friends who have either published what I feel are great books or who are smart and have landed decent deals. My request? To share their proposals with me. I have a couple to look at, but I figured that these will make it more real to me. Plus I know these people pretty well, as well as their books and ideas, so it’s easier for me to tease apart how they did it.
• Help from colleagues with accountability I love my little mastermind-esque group. In addition to their weekly insight into my stumbling blocks and progress, I asked if they could review my card and marketing scheme for the upcoming Creative Freelancer Conference (still a couple more days, West Coasters—sign up! Don’t miss it! Add “CW9″ at checkout for an additional $25 off!
• Help from my readers in getting published I’d read about a publication looking for essays from bloggers a while back. Finally, I screwed up my courage and put my request front and center, on my blog. (I’ll do it again: if you like my writing and have a few minutes to enjoy some curated best-of posts, please nominate one for me! Or come back and do it by August 31st!)

Consideration I asked for this week

• To speak at the upcoming Twitter Conference LA I’ve already decided to attend anyway, as there are several people I know who will be speaking there, and a few more I’d really like to meet. But I saw the note about submitting yourself as a speaker and thought, “What the hell?” If nothing else, it was a chance to write a creative self-promotional letter.

I feel pretty good about my favors. Not that they were easy to ask for—the proposal requests took me two weeks to get off my to-do list, and I gave myself a stomach ache screwing up the courage to post that request to the blog. But I do a lot of favors for other people as a matter of course, both friends and strangers, mostly because it makes me feel so damned good. (Don’t worry—I do my fair share of acting like a idiot asshat to balance it out.)

I feel like a grade-A boob looking at the “consideration” list. That’s where opportunity lies, and I need to start jumping on it. I do like it when projects just come to me, but like counting on referrals to keep your pipeline full, it’s a fool’s game as a business strategy.

To that end, I would love your help in figuring out how to go about the “ask” in a better/stronger/faster (and, god willing, funner) way. My copy of The 25 Sales Skills They Don’t Teach You in Business School came in the mail this week, so maybe I’ll start there for inspiration. But for all I know, you might have the “ask” all figured out—or at least, are further along that path.

And yeah—that’s a favor I’m asking…

xxx
c

*Where “real” is “published via traditional means, not DIY”—I have plans for that, too. Say a prayer for me; it’s gonna be a busy Q4.

REGULAR MARKETING ACTIVITIES for the week of August 17, 2009:

• WEB: six blog posts (one here, five at the main blog)
• WEB: “twitterview” with Bryn Mooth about Twitter, on Twitter, in preparation for the upcoming CFC
• WEB: updated several posts on my site, added tweaks to sidebars and one new page (you’ll see it next Monday, but if you’re at the CFC, see me for a sneak preview)
• WEB/Real Life MKTC: Researched new communications services to improve Full Monty experience.
• WEB: wrote & submitted my monthly column for the Networker, LACasting’s member newsletter
• PRICING: (remember: it’s marketing, too) Brainstormed/sketched out new pricing structure for consulting I’m launching in September (for my birthday!)
• EMAIL MKTG: wrote one item for next month’s newsletter (I’m learning!)
• REAL-LIFE MKTG: picked up new business cards! yay!
• NETWORKING: one-on-one meetup with my good friend (and social networker extraordinaire), Chris Guillebeau. Hoo boy, did we talk shop!
• NETWORKING: hosted/attended Chris Guillebeau meetup in L.A.
• NETWORKING: catch-up call (mmm…ketchup) with my friend/colleague, Matthew Cornell (we met through the interwebs!)
• …and the various and sundry daily tasks (have you seen Chris Brogan’s great Daily Chores list?): Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.