Marketing: The Putman Group

Marketing is at the core of success for every business. It is the intentional process of creating and sustaining a specific highly-valued relationship – the relationship we call "customer."

A customer pays you to make a significant difference in their life or organization. If you do a great job of making that difference they will be satisfied; if you simultaneously do a great job of building the relationship, they will choose you for future work over other equally-qualified competitors. It's as simple as that.

Simple – but not easy. Let's face it: marketing is hard work, and most professionals are not very good at it. I personally learned marketing the hard way – by making every mistake in the book. Like most professionals I was scattering my efforts like a light bulb in many directions (the powerful marketing organization focuses its efforts like a laser.)

But that was thirty-five years ago; once I learned the secrets of successful marketing (I tell the whole story in my book Marketing Your Services: A Step-by-Step Guide for Small Businesses and Professionals) I began training and coaching hundreds of business owners, helping them build and sustain success.

Over time some very big professional service firms engaged me to help them differentiate themselves from their competitors. They succeeded well in excess of expectations by creating a uniquely powerful business relationship I call the Ally Relationship. After 10 years of reserving these methods for a few large clients I "went public" with the entire story in my 2007 book Ally Relationships: The Key to Sustained Success for Your Service Business.)

If you are building a professional services business, Marketing Your Services is for you. If you have good success already and want to sustain it, work your way through Ally Relationships.

And if you want Tony Putman to personally coach you as you work intensively on building your own thriving, financially sustainable business in 2010, click here.