Let's get more clients

Marketing strategy coach

Getting clients is the overarching goal of most businesses. “Let’s get more clients!” It’s the obvious cure-all for everything financial.

Usually quotas are set by business owners or sales managers in conjunction with the leadership team. There are financial targets that must be met and each sales representative is encouraged to “sell, sell, sell” in order to achieve the goal.

At the weekly sales meeting, a rep is either celebrated or chastised depending on whether they are getting closer to the goal or moving further away from it.

If you are a solo professional, you are all the people I just described, rolled into one. And at the end of the week you usually chastise yourself for not hitting your targets.

If you read last week’s article you will understand why setting a financial goal and then chasing potential clients to help you reach that goal is not the answer.

Most prospects aren’t ready to hire you today. Only three per cent of qualified prospects are actively searching for someone who provides your services.

Those customers in the three per cent category aren’t all gathered in a room somewhere waiting for you to knock. They are scattered in between the other 90 per cent who are not yet ready to buy for one reason or another.

When it comes to actually getting things done it’s necessary to understand the fundamental difference between a goal and a system.

James Clear shares these examples in Atomic Habits:

• If you’re a coach, your goal might be to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice every day.

• If you’re a musician, your goal might be to play a new piece. Your system is how often you practice.

• If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal might be to build a million-dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.

Don’t you feel defeated after spending a lot of time, effort, energy and resources on getting clients and all you generate is a “barely covering costs/getting by experience”?

By all means start a conversation with those ready to buy now and for the other ninety percent – do this:

Assuming that you have a website (this is no longer optional; it is a necessity in this “new normal”), what you want to do is to leave a series of breadcrumb trails that lead your prospects to an opt-in page on your site.

Good trails include:

• Social media

• Your blog

• Posting on other people’s blogs

• Posting to medium

• Using YouTube videos

Once potential clients arrive on your page – offer them something of value that they can download in exchange for their name and email address.

What you offer them is described as a lead magnet and that piece of content does a couple of things:

1. It gives your potential client something of value.

2. When potential clients request your lead magnet they in fact raise their hands and identify themselves as interested in what you have to offer.

3. You now have the name and email address for this potential client and can continue to keep in touch by sending them valuable information regularly.

4. This enables you to showcase who you are and demonstrate your expertise.

Over time this builds trust, so if and when that potential client is now ready to purchase, they will more than likely purchase from you, because you’ve been there, building that trust over time.

Here’s how you use your lead magnet with your breadcrumbs:

• Put a link in your LinkedIn profile description – eg grab a copy of my new [ ] here [your website address].

• Add it to your LinkedIn publications section.

• Add an image of your lead magnet to your Facebook business page header.

• Create and share quotes or tips from your lead magnet using relevant images.

This is not an instant gratification effort. You’re playing the long game here however instead of “spray and pray” you’re being strategic.

If you are interested in developing your own process for attracting clients then send an email to possibility2profit@gmail.com for a copy of The Authority Marketing Fast-Start Guide