So I see this question come across my Google Alerts:
“I have a client who wants to get more calls with potential clients and she wants me to create a plan for this. Any ideas?”
I find these kind of questions irritating when they come from people who are supposedly in the administrative support business.
Why are you even entertaining this kind of request? Oh, are you a marketing consultant/lead generation expert now, too?
It’s exactly like if a customer were to ask their plumber to fix their car.
Plumbers don’t fix cars. That’s not their expertise or the business they’re in. If someone needs their car repaired, they need to go to an auto mechanic.
Just because a client requests something doesn’t mean you are the proper professional for them to be asking or that you need to accommodate it.
This person doesn’t know what business she’s in or where to draw the line.
Her client needs to be informed that this is not administrative work and they need to consult with the correct professional who is actually qualified and in that kind of business (which in this instance, as mentioned, would be some kind of marketing consultant and/or lead generation expert).
(And this client very likely knows this; he/she is just trying to take advantage of someone who doesn’t know any better than to let cheapskate clients who don’t want to pay proper professionals lead her around by the nose on wild goose chases.)
You are needlessly complicating and muddying the waters of your business scope and distracting yourself from that focus.
And contrary to popular belief, trying to be anything and everything, taking on anything and everything, actually keeps you from earning better in your business. (It’s also the dead give-away of a rank amateur. Experts focus.)
Likewise, if you are asking your colleagues for their “ideas” on how to do something, that’s the first clue you don’t have the proper knowledge, background or qualifications, and have no business taking on that work. It’s unethical.
Just because you own Illustrator doesn’t make you a designer any more than owning a camera makes you a professional photographer or wearing a stethoscope makes you a doctor.
There is industry-specific knowledge, education and training, experience and talent that qualify someone for a specific expertise, which is also what defines and distinguishes industries/professions from each other.
Stop wasting clients’ time and money.
You do them a far better service by clearly educating them about what you ARE in business to provide and informing them that they need to consult with the proper professionals in X industry when they need something that is not what you are in business (nor qualified) to do.
And PS: doing so will garner you infinitely more trust, credibility and respect when you do.