Look Beyond Return on Investment

• Public relations: It doesn't matter what you pay for public relations; if your client doesn't have a good story to tell, no legitimate news organization is going to write about him or her. PR people don't control the media in this country and therefore can't force anyone to report on their client.
  If you hire PR people, your only expectation should be that they can enhance your chances of gaining visibility because they can develop an interesting angle and have good media connections.
• Sponsorship: A client of mine sponsored a round-table discussion of how companies could improve their competitive positions. After the discussion, he told me it was a waste of time because he didn't get to promote his business and didn't get one lead. I asked him how he could draw such a conclusion so quickly.

  For months, he harangued me about what a waste of money the event turned out to be. He was adamant about not sponsoring another event. My client created a spreadsheet showing what his time, my time and a couple of his people's time cost and the return on that time. Ironically, six months later, the biggest client he had landed in three years came from a referral from one of the participants. The eventual return on his investment was more than a thousand percent.

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Stop thinking in terms of ROI and focus instead on EC: enhancing chances.

My biggest concern for myself and my clients is whether we're doing enough to increase our chances of getting new business.

Developing criteria for EC is a good and prudent thing to do. Here are my criteria:

• Go after the right audience: Is the publication or organization targeting your desired demographic?
• Increased visibility: Is what I am doing or whom I am employing increasing my visibility so I can attract more clients?
• Cost-effectiveness: Is what I am doing cost-effective relative to other methods of marketing? If you are a grocery store or a restaurant, running an advertisement in a newspaper is easily the most cost-effective way of building image and attracting customers, because everyone is a potential customer.

The only bad use of your time is sitting around and doing nothing. Take chances, spend money, and make something happen. Don't wait for opportunity to come to you -- reach out and grab it!