Would you prepare a lavish dinner and just hope people showed up? I didn't think so.

Gary is a fine accountant. He's been to university. He's got all the certificates he needs. He has a beautiful office. It's a wonderful place to sit while he waits for clients to wander in the door.

Sharon is an acupuncturist. She's studied for years and years. She has a few regular clients and they tell her she does wonderful work. She doesn't understand why there aren't more.

Sharon and Gary are very, very good at what they do. But they have a problem that I see in so many small professional practices. They don't have enough clients and they're not doing a thing to remedy the lack.

That's like preparing a lavish dinner with succulent dishes and fine wines, then hoping that people will show up to enjoy it. No one in their right mind would do such a thing. Yet Gary and Sharon and too many small professional businesses are doing the exact same thing with their marketing.

To think about what you should do in your business, think about how you would get people to come to a dinner party.

Decide who to invite. For a dinner party, you invite people who will make great guests, not any old strangers off the street. For your business, invite the people you know will make great clients.

Tailor your message to the recipient. Your friend Robert loves your beef dish, so then you tell him you'll be preparing that dish. Your other friend loves your poached pears. Tell her that dessert will cap off the meal. When you present your services to potential clients, tell them about the services they're most likely to crave.

Keep sending the message. For a dinner party, you wouldn't just send out invitations and then hope for the best. Don't do that in your business, either. Most prospects need to hear about you at least four times before they even remember your name.

Ask them to come. Don't simply tell them what's for dinner. Invite them to come. In your business that means writing letters with a call to action. In person it means suggesting that your prospect should try your service.

Ask them to come back. Most of the people at your dinner will probably be people you already know. They just make better guests. It's the same in business. Make a special effort to keep the clients you have and increase the amount of business they do with you.

You wouldn't prepare a dinner and just hope people would come. Don't make the same mistake in your business.