Noun: the capacity to tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without becoming angry or upset.
Most consultants would love to see a faster return on their marketing investments. Even the purveyors of those "get-clients-quick" systems face the same dilemma: building client relationships, creating a market position for your practice, and becoming a visible expert take time and patience.
No doubt, marketing can be the most maddening of undertakings--sometimes results pour in, while other times nothing seems to happen. It's often tough to know what's working and what's not.
Yet how you react to the inevitable fits and starts of marketing drives your success in the long run. Once you've developed a marketing approach and introduced it to the world, be patient. Remember the world doesn't automatically care about your business just because you do. You've got to make people care, and that takes consistent, long-term investment of your time and energy.
I'm not suggesting that a marketing plan shouldn't be tweaked over time, or thrown out entirely if it doesn't work. But making sudden shifts in your marketing approach because of short-term blips in your results can unwind the momentum you've created and lead to less business down the road.
Patience is a personal quality of calmness, self-control, and confidence. Is patience part of your marketing strategy?
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