How To Get More New Clients-Free Report

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Before I go further, let me share with you a little bit about my own business, and how I developed the Gentle Rain process. I think that it will give you a helpful perspective on whether it’s right for you.

I came into starting my own business having worked in advertising and with Pepsi and Kraft Foods. These were great experiences and I learned a lot about marketing.

However, when I decided to hang up my own shingle as a marketing consultant, I discovered that I really didn’t have a large network of contacts. Pretty much everyone I

w w w . G e n t l e R a i n M a r k e t i n g . c o m

Quickly. Easily.With No Cold Calling or Hard Selling

Mark Satterfield

Gentle Rain Marketing Inc.Gentle Rain Marketing Inc.

Dear Friend,

First, thank you for requesting this free report. If you’re a business owner, consultant or entrepreneur, what I’m about to share with you will be enormously valuable.

It’s my heartfelt belief that any company can implement a marketing system that will generate for them consistent streams of new clients with no cold calling or hard selling.

And, that they can have it up and running, doing what it’s designed to do, in less than 45 days.

In this report I’m going to show you precisely how to do that.

Who Am I And Why Should You Pay Attention To What I’m About To Share?

How To Get Consistent Streams Of NEW BUSINESS

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knew, worked where I had worked. Thus, it wasn’t long before I had lapped the track more than a few times hitting up my meager list of contacts for leads and referrals.

Like most people, I heard that networking events were a good way to meet prospective clients, so I joined a few groups, went to Chamber of Commerce meetings and even tested a couple of Rotary groups. The problem was that I’m just not real good at “meet & mingle” events, so I never got much out of them. Most everyone I met “said” they got a lot of business from these things, but for some reason they never worked for me-I found myself falling into that trap of hanging out with the few people I already knew.

To tell you the truth, I was getting a bit desperate when I borrowed an old cassette program from my cousin Jerry. It was Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it transformed my life.

At first I rejected the program because what Dan was teaching focused on restaurant owners and plumbers, and his sales letters were pretty over the top. I thought to myself that my clients were different-they’re too sophisticated for the type of marketing that he advocated.

But, I really liked the idea of using free information to get prospects to raise their hands and then a pre-planned drip marketing sequence to build trust, credibility and eventually turn these prospects into paying clients.

I figured that I really didn’t have anything to lose, so I modified what I learned from Dan to focus on my niche which was consultants and small business owners.

Anyway, to make a long story short…it worked. Really well as a matter of fact. I went from making $45,000 to $97,000 the following year. For someone like me, who had $1,800 in my checking account, that was a huge leap forward.

And it got better.

I kept experimenting with ideas, some didn’t work-but a lot did, and in two years my business up to around $250,000. That was in 2002, and as you may recall, that was the year that the internet really started to take off. All of a sudden websites became a lot easier (and cheaper) to put up. Now there were these programs called autoresponders that enabled someone like me (who had absolutely no technical skills whatsoever), to automated almost the entire marketing system.


“After using your Gentle Rain program for a year, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate its effectiveness. We tripled our

inquiries from qualified prospects and doubled our contact-to-close

ratio. Not bad for a “gentle” method that runs on autopilot. Your

systems approach was just what we needed to grow our consulting

practice.”- Van Lanier, Managing Director,

Lanier Turnaround Group, LLC

“I’m most comfortable when there is a game plan or system that one needs to follow. Mark’s approach,

while flexible to accommodate individual needs, leaves no doubt

about what must be done at each stage to keep the business

development process moving forward.” - Shannon Anthony

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My income increased by 50%. And then it did it again.

I’ll admit this was pretty great. Instead of having to go out and try to strike up conversations with strangers at networking events, I literally had a waiting list of clients. Which meant that it could raise my fees and even more importantly…choose whom I wanted to work with. (If you’ve ever had a jerk as a client you know how valuable it is to be highly selective about who you decide to work with.)

Anyway, that was my life for the next 3 years, and it was great.

But things change, and in my case the change came in the form of the international management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. You may or may not have heard of them, but they’re one of the world’s elite consulting firms, up there with McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Accenture.

A.T. Kearney was going through a tough patch. Surprisingly, for a $1 billion consulting firm, they didn’t really do any marketing. Virtually all of their business came from referrals and repeat assignments.

Which worked fine until a number of their long-term clients didn’t renew their contracts, and the referrals started to dry up. Then they started to get worried about how they were going to fill their pipeline back up with new business.

One of their senior partners, Bill Jeffery, read a book I wrote called, Power Prospecting, liked my non-hard selling approach and asked me to fly up to New York to meet with him and some of the other senior partners.

That conversation led to a 5-year engagement in which I trained 275 of the 350 partners at A.T. Kearney on my Gentle Rain methodology.

Did it work? Obviously I wouldn’t be telling you this story if the answer was “No”, and to be totally honest the success they achieved was mostly due to their willingness to implement what I taught, and embrace new ideas and approaches.

As you may be aware, A.T. Kearney stage one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the consulting industry. They recovered so well that the partners bought the firm back from their corporate owner EDS, and today are once again one of the most profitable firms (on an income per partner basis) in the world.

That’s when the word got out about me.


“I love “Gentle Rain Marketing. The first batch of letters I sent out netted me a fee for over $20,000

and several inquiries. In less than a month, I picked up 3 more assignments that I can contribute directly to my ‘gently raining’ on prospects. I have only targeted

about 25 prospects at this point - so that is a fantastic response rate. I am adding 5-10 prospects a week to my system and I am generating at least 2 inquiries a week. I am

becoming more choosey in picking assignments; working less hard and

earning more. I recommend your marketing plan to other business

owners frequently.”- Dianna Rudd,

Sales Search Associates, Inc

“I consistently was someone who would start a marketing initiative

with great enthusiasm only to have it sputter out due to lack of follow through. Gentle Rain

ensures that I focus on the most important activities and that the

initial enthusiasm doesn’t turn into vapors.”

- Daniel Berger

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It was a pretty heady period of time. But there was a price.

A lot of my work wound up being in Europe. In the beginning it was terribly glamorous and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. But it does wear on you. The 17th time you go to Düsseldorf, it really becomes little more than just a v-e-r-y long consulting trip.

Plus, while I really enjoyed working with some of the world’s top consulting firms, I had a desire to teach and apply the Gentle Rain methodology on a smaller canvas. Working with small businesses who really want to make a mark in a particular niche. That’s what got me the most excited.

Which leads me to where I am today. My clients are in consulting, insurance, financial services, real estate, training and over 75 other niche businesses.

The Gentle Rain SystemThe unpleasant reality is that most marketing doesn’t work. Doesn’t produce the results people want.

However, the reason “why” is actually fairly simple. In fact it boils down to just a couple of things.

You focus on activities rather than a system.

What do I mean?

Ask most people what they are doing to get more new clients, and what do you hear?

“We’re updating our website.”

“We’re doing social media.”

“We’re doing some email marketing.’

But let’s drill down a bit.

OK, you’re updating your website. But how are you driving traffic to it? What’s the call to action once people are there? What do you want people to do? (Call you for a “free” consultation is too big a request for someone coming to your site for the first time-you need to make an offer that’s easier for them to say “Yes” to.)


“I hated to admit it but my “unique marketing message” sounded

just like everyone else’s “unique marketing message”. We’re now much more effective at

differentiating our services and it’s paying off with 3 new clients.”

- Peter Long

“The ideas for what to put in a marketing letter-and even more

importantly-what not to put in the letter, has proven invaluable. We’ve

increased our response rate by a factor of 35% based on what we

learned.” -Vance Sheinfeld

“A very easy to implement yet sophisticated approach for

attracting new clients. Excellent advice on everything from getting initial attention to accelerating the

sales cycle.” - Jeffery Hagen

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OK, you’re doing social media. But do you really know what that means? “SocialMedia” has quickly morphed into a generalized term. It’s a bit like saying, “Let’s go eat American Food.” Way too general.

Social media encompasses everything from blogs to LinkedIn to Twitter to Facebook to countless other resources. What REALLY is going to be most effective for you? (And despite what the zealots say, Twitter is not a great investment of energy for many b2b businesses.)

But even more important is…there are a lot of dots that need to be connected between setting up a Facebook or LinkedIn page and getting those people to pay you money for your services. Do you know what the dots are? Do you know how to connect them? If you don’t, it’s likely you’ll become “Socially Popular” but see nothing added to your business bottom line.

Finally…OK your doing some email marketing. But to who? Where are you buying the list? How are you going to get it opened and read? And…most importantly…what are you asking readers to do? Again, “Call you” is way too big a request. Hardly anyone will respond.

Here’s what you need to do.STOP focusing on ACTIVITIES (websites, social media, direct mail, smoke signals, whatever) and START thinking about a MARKETING SYSTEM.

It’s not that complicated. Especially if you remember that marketing has two distinct components.

First…Get people to opt-in to your list…get them to express a tiny bit of interest in who you are and what you do by OFFERING THEM SOMETHING OF VALUE FOR FREE. The easiest option is some sort of article, report or mini-course. Go HERE... to see some examples.

This is how you get people into your Circle Of Relationships.

Once they’re in the circle (and not before) THEN you can start selling them on why they should do business with you.

Trying to sell people on doing business with you that you do not have a relationship with, is the definition of cold selling. The rejection rate is huge and it just crushes most businesses.


“Previously we had spent considerable money on

appointment setters and got nothing for our money. Gentle Rain enables us to control our marketing

ourselves by knowing precisely what to do at each step.”

- James Cassidy

“I immediately implemented his techniques and saw significant

improvement in the results of my sales team. Mark is an expert in his

field and I highly recommend his consultation.”

- Bill Campbell,Regional Business Director, ChoicePoint

“Since 2002 I have found Mark to be both insightful and creative

when it comes to developing new business and reinforcing relationships with clients. The

material and advice he provides is consistently first class.”

- Garry King

http://www.gentlerainsalesletters.com

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So to reiterate…

Step 1: Get people into your circle of relationships by offering them something for free.

Step 2: Once they’ve opted-in and raised their hand, then send a series of messages that are design to build trust, credibility and convert them into paying clients.

I know…I know…you probably have heard all this before.

But, here’s the question…

Are you doing it?

Odds are you’re not.

The reality is that there is a huge missing link between what we know we should be doing…what would really work and help our business…and actually implementing the system.

And you really should implement this type of marketing. It’s not that difficult if you take things step by step. In fact after 18 years of doing this, I’m more than ever convinced that anyone can have a marketing system up and running inside of 45 days.

So let’s take a closer (and deeper) look at the Gentle Rain system and how the components fit together

How The Gentle Rain System WorksTo start it’s important to remember the philosophy behind Gentle Rain is that selling is first and foremost about building relationships.

It’s not about trying to get someone who you just met, to buy stuff from you. It’s about initially building trust and credibility and then moving prospects along a safe path that makes them willing to invest in what we have to offer.

Here’s what I suggest you do.

Step #1: Focus on a very specific niche market. You may have multiple niches that you do business with and that’s fine, but for the purposes of a marketing campaign we want to be laser focused on just one target.

“What I find most helpful about Mark Satterfield’s Gentle Rain process is that it is an easy to

implement system that focuses on building long term business

relationships.” - Adam Zak

“I have looked at a number of marketing consultants and found

Mark’s approach far and away the most logical, structured and

supportive method for businesses to use to generate real sustainable

growth.” - Peter Robson


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Step #1A: If you have multiple services you offer, you want to select one for the purposes of this marketing campaign. Again, the way we attract new prospects is by having our marketing very focused.

It’s far better to have multiple marketing campaigns, each micro-targeted, than it is one general marketing effort. I know if would be easier if we could just create one message and have it resonate with everyone, but unfortunately that’s not how the world works. If you go down that road,you’ll just be ignored by those who you are trying to attract.

Step #2: Answer the following questions: (This is what’s called the “mental heavy lifting” of marketing. Your campaign will live or die based on how you answer these questions.)

What is the biggest problem this target market is facing?

What are the consequences if they don’t address the problem?

What are the other options they might consider to solve this problem?

What is your solution?

What results do you get? (You also want to collect your testimonials.)

Step #3: Write a short article incorporating the answers to these questions.

Step #4: Create a one-page micro-website that will be used to get prospects to request the article you’ve just written and opt-in to your circle of relationships. You can see some examples HERE...

Step #5: Write the first 3-5 messages that will be sent out by your autoresponder to build trust, credibility and motivate your prospect to become an actual paying client. Don’t have an autoresponder? The one we use and recommend is HERE...

Step #6: Drive targeted groups of prospects to visit your site with online advertising, direct mail, email marketing and through social media. (The program we recommend that teaches you how to do that is HERE...

If you follow these six steps in order, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot have a very effective marketing system up and running, generating consistent streams of brand new clients for you, inside of 45 days.

“Mark has an excellent take on how to market to new clients in a soft but determined manner. Great material and well worth

connecting.” - Rob Hook


“There are many programs that one can choose from and while

I have experienced many of them, Mark’s down to earth and practical approach is accessible and without hype. When I use Mark’s materials I feel like he

has developed them just for me. Thank you Mark, you are a real straight arrow. I look forward to

working more with you in the future.” - Carol Pilkington

Managing Director, Lanier Turnaround Group, LLC

http://www.gentlerainmicrosites.com

http://www.gentlerainautomation.com

http://www.gentlerainblueprint.com

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But…Will This Really Work For Me?

That’s a good question and it’s one that I’d be asking myself if I was in your shoes.

The honest answer is, “I don’t really know.”

But this much I can tell you.

Gentle Rain has worked very well for me, and for my clients. I truly think that it will work well for you too.

One thing I will tell you is that I sense you recognize a need for change. That whatever you are doing now, or have done in the past, isn’t producing the results you want. I also have the sense that you would like some assistance. (Since, from a purely practical perspective, if you were going to do this on your own, you probably would have done so by now.)

However, regardless of whether we ever do business together, I want to thank you very much for requesting and reading this report. I hope you have found it to be helpful and that it’s provided you with some good food for thought.

And naturally, if I can ever be of assistance to you, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best Regards,

Mark SatterfieldGentle Rain Marketing Inchttp://[email protected]: 770-643-8566

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