(This is part of my series on Rainmaking Problems. I hope you will leave a comment with your thoughts on a solution to this problem.)

Today I place my own problem before you.  As a person who puts himself forward as knowing something about selling professional services, I have tried to keep abreast of changes in marketing techniques.  I do so by interviewing people who have used a technique, but also by using it myself.  I’m able to talk about how to write an article, because I have written over 100.  I’m able to talk about networking, because I have a large network that feeds me business opportunities year after year.

The Internet is changing the way that professionals market and sell their services.  One of my efforts to keep abreast of these changes was starting this blog.  Having published it for about a year and a half, I feel justified in making some comments about how blogging works.  I may not be an expert, but at least I have a grasp of what I know and of how much I don’t know.

In the first category is my knowledge and that if this blog is to be truly successful I must take it to the next level.  I know what this level looks like, but I don’t how to get there.  Having looked at a good many blogs by now, I believe that successful ones move from the driving force of content to that of community and that this is done through comments.  Let me explain.

The day you start a blog, you have no readers.  You may be able to attract readers once with an advertisement or a mass e-mailing, but to keep them coming back requires content.  And supplying that content can be deliciously fun at first.  I look back on writing some of my early posts, such as He Talks Too Much and Three Ways to Get a Good Seat, with pleasure.  In this way you build your first readership base.  I will call this Level 1.  Business blogs without solid content fade quickly.

While building to Level 1, your posts receive few comments.  A low percentage of those who read blogs ever comment—the figure one percent is commonly thrown about.  You simply don’t have enough readers to spark much comment, let alone dialogues.

But many people surf the net not just to receive information, but to exchange it.  If you want to grow your base of readers to the next level, you must engage them in a dialog.  That is, you must write in such a way to attract comments; not just any comments, but the kind that attracts still others.  If you do this assiduously, those looking to participate in a dialog, plus those interested in reading debate in addition to content will form a community of readers, which I will call Level 2.  It is much larger than achieved at Level 1.  The community comes to your site to read and to be read, to agree and to disagree, and to feel.  They come to feel smart or funny or provocative, but above all else they come to feel connected.

And that’s where I need help.  I believe I have plateaued at Level 1 and want to move ahead to Level 2.  But I don’t know how to do it.  There’s something wrong with either my writing or my format or something.  Or perhaps I’m just not patient enough.  As bloggers and participants in blogging communities, can you advise me how to move from content to community, through making people want to comment to making them feel connected?

Or am I looking at the problem the wrong way altogether?

(Got a problem selling professional services? Feel free to email me your problem and it may become a future “Rainmaking Problem.”)

(This is part of my series on Rainmaking Problems. I hope you will leave a comment with your thoughts on a solution to this problem.)

I am coaching a woman whom I will call Sophie.  When I asked for her boss’s assessment of her, he said that she doesn’t put herself forward enough in client meetings and especially in sales meetings.  He cited a recent sales meeting they had gone on together, at which he felt compelled to do the most talking, she seemed so reserved.

Sophie says that her style differs from her boss’s.  She feels it natural to let the client talk, expecting to say something when she can add real value.  That her clients all adore and respect her suggests this is true.  She says that she doesn’t talk much at meetings when her boss is present, because she doesn’t want to fight with him for air space.  Knowing the man, I can believe this is true.

Still, I have never seen either one in a sales meeting.  Her boss has a track record of selling successfully and, so far, Sophie doesn’t.

What would you recommend that Sophie do? Is this HER problem or HIS problem? How should she continue pleasing her clients while gaining the respect of her boss?

Please respond below.

(Got a problem selling professional services? Feel free to email me your problem and it may become a future “Rainmaking Problem of the Week.”)

I have decided to make a change in this blog, which I hope will benefit readers as much as I think it will me.  I will continue to post on Mondays and Wednesdays, as always.  However, every other Wednesday’s post will have a new format.  It will provide an example of a problem that a client, a reader or I have in selling professionals services or in helping people learn to do so.  These will be problems that I do not feel that I have satisfactory answers for.  I will then ask you readers for suggestions.

The best part of blogging is hearing from readers.  Done right both the blogger and the reader benefit from this exchange.   Recently, Glenn Andrew provided some interesting insights on elevator speeches that gave me some useful ideas.  Ian Brodie taught me about more sophisticated applications of to-do lists than I had realized exist.  I suspect others thought so as well.  By posing more questions, I hope to generate more exchanges of this kind.  What do you think of this idea?

Please see tomorrow’s post to get an idea of what I have in mind.