Following on from my post yesterday about creating a marketing plan of action for small business called “Anyone For Coffee” Su  came back to me with a different and very helpful perspective which I really appreciated. Here it is as a bonus. It is so great when networking really works. Why don’t you visit her site at Just Professionals

Hi John,
My answer was ‘depends what else I’m doing’ because often the coffee goes cold!

But your post is useful and I wanted to share the questions I use with the architects I work with. They are inspired by Richard White on Twitter (known as The Accidental Salesman) who wrote about lead generation with these questions some years ago. They have worked very well for me.

1. Who is your client? (describe generically if you can – “Bob and Sandra the retired empty nesters in Surrey” for example)
2. What is their pain? (people usually look for help and buy more readily when they have a pain)
3. How do you take the pain away? (this is the thing they are actually buying)
4. Why you? (and not your competitors) This is where the benefits come in…
5. Where is your credibility? (how can you prove you can take away their pain)
6. Where will they find you? (do they use google, yellow pages, ask friends?)

Thought the differences might spark some discussion! Please can we hear your thoughts? Thanks….