In Part 2, you applied your mediator’s knowledge of framing to begin explaining how you help others attend to their conflicts and disputes. The exercises you completed in that section will help you launch more fully into Part 4 of the book, where you’ll actually begin to craft your marketing messages and strategies.
Before that, though, let’s get clearer on what you’re trying to accomplish with your marketing efforts. For many of you, Part 3 may be an exercise in reframing your thinking about marketing.
As I’ve said before and you well know as a mediator, the way you frame a problem has an impact on the path you take to solving it, the solutions that are visible to you, and the long-term success of the solution(s) you finally choose.
The same is true for the way you frame your marketing challenge. In a recent one-on-one experiment with several dozen mediators, I asked each to frame the problem they’re trying to solve with marketing. These were some of their most common answers:
- How to convince people to give ADR a try.
- Get more comfortable with selling.
- Learn to like schmoozing.
- Figure out why people aren’t buying.
- Educate the public about the benefits of mediation.
- How to advertise a lot without selling the farm.
- How to sell intangible services that have no guarantee of success.
- Figure out how to get people to want what I have to offer.
- Get more clients.
Now it’s your turn.
Exercise 3.1.1: What is the problem you’re trying to solve with marketing?
How would you frame the practice-building problem you hope to solve, at least in part, with better marketing? You may have more than one and if so, list them all.
If you’re a mediator who typically works without using problem frames, or are new to the concept of problem framing, try using this language as a way to get started: “How to…” or “What to do about…”
Exercise 3.1.2: What do you dislike about marketing?
Consider the idea of marketing for a moment. What parts of it turn you off? What about marketing fails to get you out of bed in the morning?
Copyright © 2006 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.
Liked this post? A few others to consider:
- Reframing Your Offer: Finding the Overlap and Noting the Gap
- Making Mediation Your Day Job, Part 2: The Art of Framing How You Help
- Reframing Your Offer: What Kind of Help Do People Want?
- Setting Your Mediation Marketing Agenda: Offer Compelling Services
- Making Mediation Your Day Job, Part 4: Creating Dialogue with Your Market
Tammy –
The tip for non-meidators on framing is great. It seems to me that a good portion of the people who read your book will be those trying to figure out if they should become mediators.
Really interesting that you ask “what is the problem you are trying to solve with marketing?” Even before thinking of answers, it makes the reader look closely at what they’re doing and why. Reminding the reader at this point in the book that they really need to know why they’re doing this marketing in the first place is excellent. You’ve probably mentioned it previously in the book, but it really hit me now and is an excellent question