Five Questions with Joe Scherrer from The Leadership Forge
At Atomicdust, we’re lucky to partner with brilliant business owners and marketing professionals. Our clients and partners span various industries — from healthcare, to restaurants, to professional services and consumer goods — and with each project, we learn as much from them as (we hope) they do from us.
We started this series to get their take on the challenges facing marketers today, and how to prepare for the future. First up is Joe Scherrer, an executive coach and author of The Leadership Forge: 50 Fire-Tested Insights to Solve Your Toughest Problems, Care for Your People, and Get Great Results.
How do you approach marketing? What’s your marketing philosophy?
I spent a career in the U.S. Air Force, eventually retiring as a Colonel, so I naturally approach marketing from a military mindset: we put together “campaigns” to “win” clients. Using the advice of Sun Tzu, one of the greatest military strategists of all time, I seek to know the client as we know ourselves and know ourselves as we know the client. With this knowledge, I can construct campaigns that capitalize on affinities between what I offer and what potential clients needs and “in a thousand battles, never lose.”
Marketing to me is all about clearly projecting who you are and what you stand for through channels that potential clients use to interact with their environment, take in information, and seek out solutions to their problems.
“I seek to know the client as we know ourselves and know ourselves as we know the client.”
It goes back to knowing the client as well as we know ourselves, so that we don’t waste precious time, money, talent, and effort following the latest marketing fad. For example, if direct mail, seminars, or networking are modalities that clients respond to (and in my case all of these work), then that’s what I’ll incorporate into my campaigns.
What has been your most successful or favorite marketing effort? Why do you think it was successful / a favorite?
Right now, I’m having a blast building The Leadership Forge YouTube channel with the pros at Atomicdust.
I’ve tried many avenues to get my core messages out, and I believe I’ve finally discovered the ideal online marketing vehicle for me and The Leadership Forge. Since my business (executive coaching, strategy development, and business growth consulting) is based on high trust and credibility, having a way that clients can “get to know me” without actually meeting me in person is incredibly important for the client acquisition process.
“Having a way that clients can ‘get to know me’ without actually meeting me in person is incredibly important.”
On the flip side, what is the biggest risk you’ve taken? What did you learn from it?
I have an interesting relationship to risk. I consider everything new that I do in my business an “experiment.” So the idea is to always learn something whether it works out or not. I think the most significant learning experience (biggest risk) I’ve had is paying a marketing firm to build the reach and content of my blog in order to — ultimately — generate leads.
We had great success with the first two pieces (reach and content), but after a year I thought, “I haven’t received a single lead from my blog.” So the effort “failed” in that regard. On the other hand, I’m really happy with the way traffic increased and the quality of the content. I regard the whole effort as an overall success. Now, with the help of the Atomicdust team, I’m focusing on recalibrating my blog, and my entire website for that matter, to achieve results with the last objective — generating inbound leads.
“Quite simply, the biggest challenge is rising out of the noise into the consciousness of people who want what you have to offer.”
What do you think is the most significant marketing challenge facing your industry today?
For the expert industry, it’s all about generating awareness of who you are and what you do. Quite simply, the biggest challenge is rising out of the noise into the consciousness of people who want what you have to offer.
What is the most helpful business book or resource you’ve come across?
Of all the books I’ve read, I still recommend Good to Great by Jim Collins. The book is packed with scientifically researched practices that really work in taking businesses to the next level, which is what The Leadership Forge is all about.
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