The hit show “Desperate Housewives” has got me hooked. I REALLY hate to admit it. I’m not one to sit in front of the TV every night, but it’s a good show filled with humor, drama, and a few hotties.

Although I like the show, I don’t like the word “desperate”. Mainly, because I’ve been desperate before and it ain’t a good place to be.

The term “desperate” is a deep word. It has a few different meanings. In fact, the definition from Dictionary.com says:

des·per·ate
–adjective
1. reckless or dangerous because of despair or urgency: a desperate killer.
2. having an urgent need, desire, etc.: desperate for attention.
3. leaving little or no hope; very serious or dangerous: a desperate illness.
4. extremely bad; intolerable or shocking: clothes in desperate taste.
5. extreme or excessive.
6. making a final, ultimate effort; giving all: a desperate attempt to save a life.
7. actuated by a feeling of hopelessness.
8. having no hope; giving in to despair.

Look at the some of the words above. Words like “reckless”, “dangerous”, “urgent”, “extremeley bad”, “extreme”, “excessive”, “hopelessness”, and “despair”.

Have you ever felt one of these adjectives in your life or your business?

I remember when I just started out with my consulting business, I had no clue what I was doing. I was a Marketing Consultant who didn’t really know how to market my consulting services. So, when someone said “yes, I’ll use your services”, I jumped through hoops to do some work and get paid.

The problem with that was that I DID look desperate. When you look desperate, people WILL take advantage of you.

I took clients that I wouldn’t even be friends with. They were not good people sometimes. I also took work beyond the scope of my expertise, just to get paid something. It was survival. I know that. But, it wasn’t good for my longterm ambition and goals.

Once I got more educated on how to market my consulting services, I came across a valuable strategy.

In simple terms, it is “don’t appear desperate”.

We know that, right? But, the great lesson I learned was “Make prospects think you don’t need the work.”

I used to appear so eager and desperate, I would take anything I could. And, so many of the people who took advantage of me prior continued to feel like they could just call upon me at any time and expect me to jump whenever they asked me to do a project for them.

The great thing was, once I learned that the most successful consultants show a feeling of respectful indifference to their prospects, my life changed.

Sure, there will still times when I DID need the business. But, what it did for me was two things: 1. It taught respect to the people who were trying to take advantage of me, and 2. It started generating more interest in other people because they thought to themselves, “He’s doesn’t need the work. He must be good.”

If you do need the work, do other things to generate income for yourself so you don’t have to do business with just anyone.

Devote time each weed to developing one ore more proprietary products or services (such as seminars, newsletters, manuals, ebooks, etc.) that you can sell through different media channels. Don’t rely just on face-to-fact meetings. Create a variety of ways to share your expertise…and profit from it.

Developing different information products and valuable services not only give you viable options, but it will help you to determine the true value of your time and allow you to set the most appropriate fee to charge your clients.

The lesson is, don’t come across desperate. Come across as “I am an expert in my field. If my time allows, I’d be happy to see if I can help you. If I’m not able to help you in person, perhaps one of my products can help you solve your problem in the meantime.”

They will be begging you to do business with them.

Keep Marketing YOUniquely!

Craig Valine
blog@craigvaline.com
www.CraigValine.com