Professionals who market their services can attract more clients by avoiding the following deadly business development mistakes:

MISTAKE #1: Talking about specialized knowledge rather than solutions.

ALTERNATIVE: Speak your customer’s language. Show them how you will get specific results that will help their organization, career, or personal aspirations. Demonstrate your ability to provide meaningful value, in a specific and measurable way.

MISTAKE #2: Focusing on you instead of the prospect.

Prospects are concerned first and foremost with solving their problems and taking advantage of their opportunities. Therefore, they only care about you if their experience and knowledge is directly and solely related to solving your problem.

ALTERNATIVE: Focus on the prospect’s problems and opportunities. Build credibility and demonstrate value by establishing yourself as the expert who understands the prospect’s situation and ways to get results. Be sure to use the word “you” at least twice the words “I/we” when talking to prospects.

MISTAKE #3: Letting your accomplishments or experience speak for itself.

This is a big mistake. You may be brilliant, but that doesn’t mean customers will come to you.

ALTERNATIVE: Invest in business development. Approach prospects in ways that build your credibility. For example, provide education and information that matters to them, and also show the value you offer.

MISTAKE #4: Not choosing a specific niche or target market.

This will give you the false security of unlimited prospects, but you will ultimately get fewer customers at a higher cost than if you concentrated.

ALTERNATIVE: Focus on a specific target market.

MISTAKE #5: Not reaching your target market effectively.

ALTERNATIVE: Develop a series of messages and strategies that reach and attract prospects from your target market.

MISTAKE #6: Not dominating your target market.

If you don’t dominate, someone else will and your income will suffer.

ALTERNATIVE: Position yourself as a leader by establishing your credibility and authority with prospects. If you can’t be the leader, find or define a new niche.

MISTAKE #7: Creating an incomplete or unconvincing marketing message.

With a poor message, your business development efforts will go nowhere.

ALTERNATIVE: Develop a comprehensive and compelling marketing message that describes the problem you solve for your market, how you solve it, the specific results you’ve achieved, and why you’re better than anyone else. Be especially sure to highlight your “advantage” and why it is important to your prospects/customers.

MISTAKE #8: Trying to “close the sale” too early.

Most prospects, especially in the professional services market, need a series of positive interactions with a candidate before making a decision.

ALTERNATIVE: Provide a series of educational messages to establish credibility and attract qualified prospects to you. Get rid of the tacky “sales pitch” and follow up with prospects in ways that show your value. This will establish you as the authority in your field, lead to more single-source deals, and win loyal customers.

MISTAKE #9: Misuse advertising.

Being mentioned in the news is an exercise in vanity if it doesn’t grow your business.

ALTERNATIVE: Use advertising to attract prospects to your business, capture their information, and build a relationship with them.

MISTAKE #10: Not asking for references.

Few professionals take full advantage of their opportunity to generate referrals.

ALTERNATIVE: Ask for references at key moments in the relationship with the client. Develop proactive referral strategies within your sphere of influence.

MISTAKE #11: Relying too much on referrals.

Referrals are a great source of additional business, but they put you in the position of being dependent on others.

ALTERNATIVE: Make sure your marketing strategy includes tactics to attract requests and inquiries directly from leads, customers, and your sphere of influence.

MISTAKE #12: Competing on price.

This mistake is a surefire way to not have enough high-paying clients to meet your financial goals.

ALTERNATIVE: When prospects perceive you as the authority in the field, you no longer need to compete on price.

MISTAKE #13: Forgetting to keep in touch with past clients.

Remember the old adage: “Out of site, out of mind.” You lose one of the best sources of profitable work if you forget to keep in touch and continue to support past clients.

ALTERNATIVE: Develop a plan to strengthen your relationships with past customers, maintain their loyalty, and continue to show how you can provide ongoing value to them.

MISTAKE #14: Providing poor or mediocre service during engagements.

Word spreads quickly when you do this and it can quickly destroy your reputation.

ALTERNATIVE: Develop a system to delight customers at every engagement.

MISTAKE #15: Cutting back or delaying your investment in business development, especially in bad times.

This mistake will only hurt your bottom line more.

ALTERNATIVE: Commit to invest in business development. There are many low-cost ways to attract customers in good times and bad.

MISTAKE #16: Not creating a simple, clear business development plan that sets goals and a way to achieve them.

If you don’t set goals, how will you know if you’re successful?

ALTERNATIVE: Create a plan each quarter that sets aggressive goals and lays out a path to achieve them.

MISTAKE #17: Creating a business development plan that skips some crucial steps in the process of attracting and retaining customers.

Your plan must establish yourself as a credible authority, demonstrate your value to prospects, earn trust and commitment, and maintain the loyalty of your customers.

ALTERNATIVE: Evaluate how well your business development plan achieves these results and revise accordingly.

MISTAKE #18: Not taking action on your business development plan.

ALTERNATIVE: Make business development a top priority. Budget time as if you were your own client. One of your main jobs is business development because if you don’t, you won’t be doing much consulting.

MISTAKE #19: Relegating marketing to an administrative role.

ALTERNATIVE: Marketing should be a central part of your strategy and should be managed at the highest levels of your organization.

MISTAKE #20: Not getting help.

Many professionals tend to want to do everything on their own. In business development, this can cause them to repeat common marketing mistakes and get poor results.

ALTERNATIVE: Hire competent professionals who can help you build your business. The investment will have more than return in results.

I sincerely hope that you do not make these and other costly mistakes. The market is extremely competitive, filled with professionals struggling to attract clients.