I was skimming Marshall Kirkpatrick’s blog the other day and noticed that he had a video on his consulting page that outlined why people should be paying him for his consulting services.
After watching the video the first thing that came to my mind was, what a terrible way to brand yourself. There is nothing wrong with using video to sell your services, but the video seemed too hard of a push, which made him seem too desperate.
If it was me selling his consulting services here is what I would do:
- Remove the video or add a bit more personality/flare to it.
- The video provides little to no value. Instead, I would have created a video that can help people who are potentially interested in consulting. An example of this would be to discuss what tactics you used with other clients how it helped them succeed. Of course, each situation is always different but selling based on results is much more effective then just creating a video on why people should hire you or telling people to go and check out your case studies.
- As a consultant, if you are charging a few hundred or more an hour you will be more likely to lock in clients if you represent yourself in more of a professional manner. This doesn’t mean you have to wear a suit, but a nice shirt and a clean shave doesn’t hurt.
- The video seems to be too much about himself. Within the video, he uses the word “I” a lot instead of focusing on why the “you” the listener needs his help.
I am not here to slander Marshall, but instead here to give advice on what not to do and how to improve. I myself have made many mistakes and still make them (my consulting page doesn’t even work). Marshall is a talented person and his blog content speaks for itself, but if you are trying to make money off of consulting you need to create an image that you are the shit and people will lose out if they don’t pay you money.
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Ha ha, thanks for the advice Neil! Not bad advice at all. You should have added, disable trackbacks to your consulting services page too. Which I will do now.
I have been wondering about that video, I’ve gotten mixed reactions to it. I recorded it just days before I left my day job and to be honest have been too busy doing consulting work since then to record a better one. I was nervous at the time and it showed.
I just took it down on your recommendation but I want you to know – if I get slammed with an even greater deluge of inquiries I’m going to hold you personally responsible!
As for a shave – maybe you should give a little beard action a try yourself, once you do you’ll never go back!
WOW, it isn’t too often that I see people open to criticism. But as everyone knows, you aren’t an ordinary person
.
As for the beard I agree that it is nice to have and I have tried growing it out. Problem is a clean shave and a nice shirt (similar to the picture in your sidebar) can make you more money. Or at least that is what I experienced.
Neil, Everyone knows you’ve airbrushed your sidebar photo to high heaven
LOL… my friend took that picture of me. I have no idea what he did, but I don’t think he airbrushed it. If he did, I would look better.
Well it isn’t very often I see people advising a shave who are open to the cult-of-having-a-beard, either
Take care, best of luck to you in your work, thanks for the support and see ya around!
Hey Neil,
You bring up some really great points, especially in the cases of #3 and #4. I would certainly agree with you in saying that Marshall, for the purposes of this video, should have dressed the part of a person worthy of a 3-digit per hour price tag, and that the over use of “I†was indeed very noticeable. However, to be honest, I enjoyed the video and thought that in some instances it was a success. In my opinion, Marshall came across as a person who is not only personable but very confident in his consulting abilities, which I firmly believe are major selling points for potential clients.
Granted, as you mentioned, the video did very little for explaining what his services were, but I don’t believe it to be a complete loss.
I do agree that the video was not a complete loss and it did make Marshall look very confident. Problem is I still think it is more effective to just have content and keep everything short. It is all about what you can do for that specific client… everything else doesn’t matter.
trolling for new clients?
http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/10/03/you-want-to-be-rich-then-start-talking-shit/
LOL! Usually when I troll after new clients, I go after large corporations. Marshall offers consulting clients similar to me, so he would be a bad target.
i figured… but couldn’t miss the chance to give you some shit there
I was actually glad that you caught that. Shows that someone reads my content.
#5: don’t let me download quicktime. Put the video in a webbased format!
Reason enough for me not to do business
Marshall made it web based… I am just not tech savvy.
All good points, but I don’t think it reflects well on you to pick on someone who’s doing it wrongly. You’ve written a negative piece when you could have written a positive piece on the right way to do it, and could have spared Marshall the negative attention. Your previous posts have created the impression that you’re a positive person, but this post unbalances that brand.
I would have considered fixing your consulting page to be a much higher priority than this blog post.
I wasn’t trying to pick on Marshall, I actually think he is a great guy with tons of potential. I do posts like these because it helps people like you learn what not to do.
one more piece of feedback – I had a feeling that Marshall was looking down on me when he was speaking. Not figuratively – but literally – the camera seemed lower than Marshal and it felt like he was up higher than me. I wonder if this ‘might’ have added to the tone of things. While it could lend itself to expertise it could also lend itself to people feeling a little ’small’ or something.
just a thought.
Good point. As we all know people like getting talked at and not to.
Looks like the guy is in a playground. I wouldn’t take him seriously, therefore I would not buy into his brand.
Good point to Marshall for posting “a not perfect” video. Good point to Neil for pointing it out. Good point to Web 2.0 because it’s free publicity. It’s all good!
Wow, nice professional response from Marshal. Usually this kind of thing would turn into a mud-slinging campaign overnight.
I agree about the beard though, there was a time when ‘guru’ meant a shabbily dressed guy with a goatee long enough to trip on, but those days are long gone.
The psychology might also be: I’m way too cool and rock way too much to be bothered to groom my beard
There can also be status in casual. Even the kind of “I think I see last night’s Taco Bell diner shimmering through your beard”-casual 
In a way, it’s refreshing- not going through the motions in order to sell stuff. I took a look at his website and it was very compelling and magnetic anyways
The pitch was worrysome, though- selling many different products to a wide variety of a broad scope of potential needs…”To broaden your appeal, narrow your position.”
but I think it costs us, too, eventually. (”We”, the people somehow involved in consultancy, marketing, branding)
We all get away with it somehow
Another risk in reviewing people’s personal branding is that you don’t know a person’s strategy, so it’s always tricky not to assume things that are untrue- what if Marshall has a carefully crafted personal branding strategy that entails looking somewhat grungy, but eloquent?
This, of course, goes for reviewing anything without strategic background info (that we often can’t get our hands on).
Gee, did I really use that many smilies?
Great post Neil. I also commend Marshall for his comments on your constructive criticism. Good luck to both of you.
Exactly, a video needs to pre-sell the idea. It has to give real value and maybe showcase case studies with successful students.
It is better for customers to say how great you are compared to you showcasing your successes.
Don’t wont to be like rude or anything, but the first keywords that came into my mind after looking at the picture was Taliban, Jihadist, extremist. Not the right image in my opinion. I haven’t seen the video though. But good constructive criticism Neil.
Marshall is a great guy! If you happen to meet him in person, you’ll see that he doesn’t look like a terrorist.
i agree, despite the first impression, never thought he wouldn’t be a great guy.
Why branding one’s self is a must: first, if you don’t someone else will and you lose control of how your are perceived, whether you work for a company, produce widgets or work for yourself.
The competition for everything is staggering and one of the best ways to succeed besides being great at what you do.
That’s right. Big companies are really afraid of this, but for this reason they should be the first to embrace the social web.