Le Mans!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 10:38AM
This year's Le Mans 24 hour is finally here. Practice is about to start and you can listen live on RadioLeMans.com. Practice starts at 4 pm local time and runs through to midnight today and tomorrow, and then Friday is the usual rest day with the driver parade before the race, early Saturday morning here in the US.
Laynie Kelly asked me the other day in a comment about how I market myself, and I was going to send her an e-mail, but thought I might do it here for you all to read. In some respects I do not like to "market" myself too much as I get to many "tire kickers" as it is. That's how I spend a year talking to clients and would be clients without doing much design. People find me through recommendations mostly, either other people in the sport, Sanctioning Bodies like the SCCA, or insurers. My reputation and my designs are my best marketing tool. A big problem is that no one has published the fact that there are rules to building tracks since the late eighties, I guess to avoid litigation, so track owners do not know they need someone like me in the first place. They all think they can do it, or worse still find a driver to tell them. I have two things to say about that, "drivers are like lawyers, they all have an opinion," and "I won't tell them how to drive the car if they promise not to tell me how to build a track." As I have said before, not many drivers can really put into expression what they do, that subconscious bit we were talking about yesterday.
The Internet has made it easier to be found once someone decides they need a designer, so I have a web site courtesy of my lovely wife Xan, this blog and Google. Networking is the biggest single thing I do with Facebook and a professional network called LinkedIn being really useful tools, but there is always e-mail and phone. It would be really nice to go to lots of events, but either I am too busy or have no work so cannot afford to do it. Public speaking such as the Forum on track construction and operation in New York last April and the upcoming one in Cologne, Germany, are a great tool for putting yourself out there, particularly to a focused audience. I do radio or press interviews as well and write articles for other web sites.
Last, I have advertised once in a specialist track construction magazine, but it is expensive compared to my daily rates, and not being a major consulting group, hard to justify. I did get the San Antonio project as a result, but that is yet to show its full potential as a fee.
So lots of time networking via all the media available. It has taken time to re-establish myself out there in the market as I "disappear" off to construction projects from time to time when track work gets in short supply. I guess I need to do what Bernie once told me, we should always listen to Bernie, "you need talking money." I should start the clock ticking the minute I start to talk to a client because he is learning something from the get go. It is the chicken and egg situation, I need to give him enough to convince him that I am their man, without giving away the farm. If someone knows how to do that let me know.
Massa has extended his contract with Ferrari as predicted, so I think the music has definitely stopped. From what I have read or seen there are no obvious young guns in the lesser formulas waiting to replace drivers anyway. Picking up on that, I know you all think I am having an affair with Mark Hughes as I carry on about his writing on racing in Autosport, but you really need to subscribe just for his articles. He wrote a piece about F1 in the May 13 issue which is just poetry. One snippet.
"It cannot ever cease to be the pinnacle because whatever is the pinnacle becomes de facto F1. So it stands there while a tide from the lower reaches continues to lap upon it, depositing new waves of hot talent upon it, allowing no place for mediocrity. Take your foot of the gas and your history."
Lastly Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren and FOTA stated the obvious, "The US does not need F1...teams have to market themselves to the US." It begs the question of why Austin is spending the money to promote the teams and their sponsors. The F1 Rights Holder CVC, Bernie, the Teams and their sponsors should be spending the money to promote themselves to us.
Laynie Kelly asked me the other day in a comment about how I market myself, and I was going to send her an e-mail, but thought I might do it here for you all to read. In some respects I do not like to "market" myself too much as I get to many "tire kickers" as it is. That's how I spend a year talking to clients and would be clients without doing much design. People find me through recommendations mostly, either other people in the sport, Sanctioning Bodies like the SCCA, or insurers. My reputation and my designs are my best marketing tool. A big problem is that no one has published the fact that there are rules to building tracks since the late eighties, I guess to avoid litigation, so track owners do not know they need someone like me in the first place. They all think they can do it, or worse still find a driver to tell them. I have two things to say about that, "drivers are like lawyers, they all have an opinion," and "I won't tell them how to drive the car if they promise not to tell me how to build a track." As I have said before, not many drivers can really put into expression what they do, that subconscious bit we were talking about yesterday.
The Internet has made it easier to be found once someone decides they need a designer, so I have a web site courtesy of my lovely wife Xan, this blog and Google. Networking is the biggest single thing I do with Facebook and a professional network called LinkedIn being really useful tools, but there is always e-mail and phone. It would be really nice to go to lots of events, but either I am too busy or have no work so cannot afford to do it. Public speaking such as the Forum on track construction and operation in New York last April and the upcoming one in Cologne, Germany, are a great tool for putting yourself out there, particularly to a focused audience. I do radio or press interviews as well and write articles for other web sites.
Last, I have advertised once in a specialist track construction magazine, but it is expensive compared to my daily rates, and not being a major consulting group, hard to justify. I did get the San Antonio project as a result, but that is yet to show its full potential as a fee.
So lots of time networking via all the media available. It has taken time to re-establish myself out there in the market as I "disappear" off to construction projects from time to time when track work gets in short supply. I guess I need to do what Bernie once told me, we should always listen to Bernie, "you need talking money." I should start the clock ticking the minute I start to talk to a client because he is learning something from the get go. It is the chicken and egg situation, I need to give him enough to convince him that I am their man, without giving away the farm. If someone knows how to do that let me know.
Massa has extended his contract with Ferrari as predicted, so I think the music has definitely stopped. From what I have read or seen there are no obvious young guns in the lesser formulas waiting to replace drivers anyway. Picking up on that, I know you all think I am having an affair with Mark Hughes as I carry on about his writing on racing in Autosport, but you really need to subscribe just for his articles. He wrote a piece about F1 in the May 13 issue which is just poetry. One snippet.
"It cannot ever cease to be the pinnacle because whatever is the pinnacle becomes de facto F1. So it stands there while a tide from the lower reaches continues to lap upon it, depositing new waves of hot talent upon it, allowing no place for mediocrity. Take your foot of the gas and your history."
Lastly Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren and FOTA stated the obvious, "The US does not need F1...teams have to market themselves to the US." It begs the question of why Austin is spending the money to promote the teams and their sponsors. The F1 Rights Holder CVC, Bernie, the Teams and their sponsors should be spending the money to promote themselves to us.
Reader Comments (2)
Bob
Thank you, again for such wonderful insights. Your market is niche, and it's interesting to see how you target your message delivery, and sustain connection. I do like Bernie's advice about needing talking money. He is so right. Keep talking Bob, and keep it real.
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