Episode 191: Marketing for a Service-Based Firm, with Steve Gordon

Steve Gordon became CEO of an engineering consulting firm at age 28, and he grew the firm's revenue by ten times in just twelve years. He's invested the last twenty years in the study and application of selling high-ticket services. He is the editor of four business newsletters read by thousands of CEOs, professional practitioners, entrepreneurs and sales pros around the world. Steve consults with businesses in thirty different industries, all selling high-ticket products and services in high-trust selling environments. He is a bestselling author, the founder of The Unstoppable CEO, and the host of the podcast of the same name.

When Steve began his role as CEO of his engineering consulting firm, he knew nothing about marketing or selling services. Steve quickly recognized the need to study sales and marketing as a way to attract new clients and keep his business thriving. Steve now shares the hard-won lessons he learned with other CEOs and growth-minded professionals through his consulting business.

Steve recognized that the same "sales" skills that work so well for product-based businesses tend to be detrimental to selling a service. Sales pitches are fine for getting a customer interested in your product, but they won't help you become someone's trusted advisor. That's why Steve developed the Unstoppable CEO and fine-tuned his marketing strategies to be tailored solutions for service firms.

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As the leader of a service-based business, the challenges you face are often very different from those of a product-based company. Growing your business has added layers of complexity because you and your team are your company's product. Marketing yourselves can be challenging, but your business can't grow or thrive without leads and without new clients.

For this episode of Absolute Advantage, my guest is Steve Gordon. Steve knows firsthand the challenge of leading and growing a service-based organization; when he was just 28 years old, he became the CEO of the engineering consulting firm he had worked at since college. One of the biggest challenges Steve faced as CEO was that he had gone to school for engineering, not marketing. He didn't know how to effectively sell his company's services, so he began studying. Thanks to his hard work and dedication to learning effective marketing processes, he was able to grow his firm's revenue by ten times in his twelve years as CEO. Today, Steve and his team work with other business leaders to help them achieve those same remarkable results.

On this episode of Absolute Advantage, Steven shares the major marketing challenges service-based firms face, and he outlines the strategies he and his team employ to help them overcome these challenges. He discusses the importance of narrowing your focus to marketing to the right clients rather than to anyone with "a heartbeat and a wallet". He talks about why improving your offer and being more valuable to your clients matters. And he shares organic and engaging marketing strategies that your prospective clients will actually appreciate. I hope Steve Gordon’s wisdom helps you supercharge your marketing.

Ways to contact Steve Gordon:

• Website: www.unstoppableceo.net/absolute