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11 Marketing Section 3 Do what you can to demonstrate a positive image of your special expertise and experiences and make it clear that a professional service is being offered. Tailor your approaches whenever appropriate and possible. Dispel typecasting by characterising yourself as an established expert – with "lots of clout" a source of inspiration and innovation an agent for accessing important networks and state-of-the-art facilities a counterbalance to insularity familiar with project-based work Message One of the key challenges in marketing services is the balance between being general and being specific about what you have to offer. Being too general risks reducing your credibility by giving the impression that you believe you can undertake an unrealistically wide range of activities; it also risks the target client not realising that you can address the specific issue. Being too specific, on the other hand, may give the impression that you only undertake certain types of work, none of which will be the one of interest to the client. The usual approach to resolving this challenge is to strike a balance between the two. Typically, marketing statements give information on the general underpinning skills: "Outstanding expertise in the application of leading-edge research in X to industrial problems" Creating such statements requires considerable skill and practice, and the study of competitors' or others' literature is often very helpful. Support your statement with brief case studies of successful assignments. Getting Started The first task in marketing is to understand exactly what you have to offer such as skills, expertise and equipment. What is distinctive about