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How to Attract Clients With Ease
by
Bernadette Doyle
Whether you are already running your own business, or still thinking
about starting your own business, I suspect that deep down you know you
have gifts and talents that can really make a difference to others.
In an ideal world, you'd spend the majority of time doing the work
you love to do, with a steady stream of clients knocking at your door as
and when you want them. The reality, however, can be somewhat different,
and the whole process of finding new business can be a time consuming
challenge full of uncertainty.
Some would be entrepreneurs are so intimidated by the idea of finding
clients that they never put their dreams into action. Others start
promising businesses, yet give up disillusioned by the frustrating lack
of clients. Some die-hards persist, but at
great emotional and financial cost as the uncertainty about attracting
and maintaining clients takes its toll.
But it doesn't have to be this way. There is a way to reverse the sales
process. Imagine, if you will, a situation where instead of having to go
out and chase new business, qualified buyers are seeking out YOUR
expertise.
Imagine putting your marketing efforts on 'automatic pilot'
so the right work turns up as and when you need it. Imagine being able
to pick and choose which projects you want to work on. Can you imagine
having the confidence to turn down work that doesn't meet YOUR criteria?
Here's a metaphor that nicely sums up this approach. Imagine two boys in
a garden. Both of them want to catch birds. One of them is frantically
chasing after birds; the other just stands still holding out birdseed in
his hand and waits.
Instinctively, most of us recognize that the second boy will be more
successful. Yet most sales techniques used by businesses today involve
some form of 'chasing' with the net result that prospective clients are
scared away. In this article you will discover how the birdseed approach
can help you attract rather than chase clients, and even get them eating
out of your hands!
'But that doesn't apply in the business world', I can hear you say. 'If
it were that easy, why don't I already have all the clients I want?'
Well there are a few possible answers.
Some of us have entered the
commercial garden, but forgotten the birdseed! Others haven't even taken
the birdseed out of the packet. Some of us have the birdseed in our
hand, but clenched so tightly the birds can't get to it. If you are to
adopt the latter approach, it's important to spend some time selecting
the right birdseed.
So what's your birdseed? To answer this question you need to know who
you are aiming to attract, so that you are offering the birdseed which
is most tasty and appealing to your target clients.
1. Take a moment to think about your prospective clients. What
are their concerns and fears? What problems are they struggling with
right now? What are their hopes and desires? Be willing to think
laterally as you think about what is most important to them.
2. The next step is to align what you have to offer with their most
pressing concerns and needs. How can you help your target clients
even before they become a client of yours?
3. It's important to
emphasize that you already have skills, knowledge and expertise that is
valuable to your prospective clients. The trouble is most of us take
what comes naturally to us for granted, and completely underestimate the
value of what we know to our prospective clients.
Not only is what you know very helpful, you could be using it to attract
your prospective clients, by packaging your knowledge and expertise in a
form that meets one of their current needs. A classic way of doing this
would be to offer a free report or information pack which answers a
question or solves a problem that your prospective clients have.
For example, if you are a recruitment consultant, you have probably
noticed that some of your existing clients are more successful at
attracting and retaining talent than others. Now if you sit down and
reflect upon this, you could probably come up with five things that the
companies who are successful at retaining talent do that others don't.
This could be based entirely on your personal observations over the
years. Voila!
Flesh out your opinions and you now have a report, '5 ways attract
and retain talent' or ''What companies who are successful at attracting
and retaining clients do that their competitors don't'
This does not need to be a ground breaking piece of academic research. I
want to remind you that you already have an opinion on this, which may
well differ from the mainstream view, and if I asked you this question
over lunch, you would have no problem in coming up with an answer.
4. Once you have your article written, you could offer this free
report by placing a message or short ad in a place where your target
clients congregate. I call this a magnet - something that provokes
prospective clients to raise their hands and say, 'I'm
interested!' By requesting your report, responders indicate that they
are interested in this topic.
Now, not everyone who requests your report will be a hot prospect, but
there will be some potential clients within this group. The free report
would just be the starting point of your relationship. From this point
you could offer more 'birdseed' each time demonstrating your credibility
in this subject area, up until the point when the prospect asks, 'can
you help me', or a one-to-one conversation is necessary.
This is a low cost way to generate leads and position yourself as an
expert in your particular field. Yes, it takes a little brainstorming,
imagination and creativity on your part, but the knowledge which shapes
your 'birdseed' should come naturally anyway, and the time spent
thinking about the needs and desires of your prospective clients will
never be wasted.
About The Author:
Bernadette Doyle is dedicated to helping self-employed and small
businesses become Client Magnets. Get her FREE 7 part mini-course 'How
to Become A Client Magnet', send a blank email to mailto:minicourse@clientmagnets.com.
(c)Bernadette Doyle, 2004. Reprint rights granted to all venues so long
as the article and by-line are reprinted intact. This article may not
be used for any publication unless it is opt-in.
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