Thursday, April 13, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006

A one-day hands-on, interactive seminar/workshop that guarantees to improve the effectiveness of your marketing and sales.

Offered on two consecutive Thursdays in April (APRIL 13 and APRIL 20). Registration begins at 8:00, seminar 8:30 until 4:30. Lunch and breaks included. Cost ESWP Member rate: $95.00 person, non-member rate $125.00 Pre-registration is a must, by calling 412-261-0710, ext. 10 or by email to eswp@eswp.com. Registrants may opt to split this seminar into 2 four-hour sessions by attending the morning session of April 13, and the afternoon session of April 20.

1. What is marketing? Is it really ‘everything’? The unique marketing needs of consultants. Who does it? Who are your most effective and important marketers (think repeat business). What are marketing communications, and where and how do they fit into the total marketing mix. Think strategy, not tactics.
2. The four foundations
   • Audience and purpose. What do customers want? (try money, time, prestige. Can you offer/market all three?)
   • The psychology of persuasion. Reaching common ground to get ‘em smiling.
   • Focus: Specifically, what services/expertise/products are you selling? Are they what the customer wants and needs? One quick way to go out of business: Try to be all things to all people. Resist the temptation.
   • Hype vs. hope: here’s the difference, and why hype is bad, hope is good.
3. Getting punchy
   • Getting to the point: you can if you know your audience and purpose; here are some tips.
   • Chunk: putting similar thoughts in the same pew.
   • Heads/subheads: Why they keep you and readers on message, and why ‘history’, introduction’, and conclusion’ don’t make the grade. The differences between informative and editorial heads, and why informative is better.
4. Before and after I. Getting down and dirty with your peers’ work. What went wrong, and how to make it right.
   • An open-the-door letter
   • A follow-up letter.
   • Two internal memos.
5. Before and after II
   • A one-page proposal.
   • A brochure.
   • A three-page report.
6. Have we touched some nerves, played to some needs?
7. You call the shots. What’s bothering you most? A lively, no-punches-pulled Q&A.

About your seminar leader: Pete Geissler offers 35 years experience as a professional writer and producer of marketing and other communications. He specializes in engineering, finance, and management, and has consulted with PPG Industries, US Steel, Westinghouse, Cutler Hammer/Eaton., and several smaller firms. He has given well-received seminars at ESWP, Pittsburgh Technology Council, The West Virginia High Technology Council and Consortium, Nova Chemical Company, Astorino Associates, and other groups. He currently teaches writing at the Graduate School of Environmental Science and Management, Duquesne University, and has taught advanced professional and technical writing at Carnegie Mellon University. The author of three books on management, one a publisher’s best-seller, he is now completing a trilogy on leadership that will be published in 2006. For more: www.petegeissler.com.