One of the common stressors that I hear from my service based clients:
What do I do once I’ve tapped out my friends and family for finding clients?
You start the business and you have a handful of clients. And business feels “good”. But then you ask everyone in your immediate network and realize you don’t have any prospective clients to work with. And it gets scary.
Let me walk you a few steps to make this less scarier and land more clients
Start using your success stories in your networking pitch rather than your title
One of the first hurdles you’ll probably encounter is helping new people understand what you do.
Without being biased that they already know and like you.
Years ago, I used to tell people that I provided curriculum and program development for youth entrepreneurship programs. It was a REALLY complicated business model to explain and people usually had NO clue what I did.
So, I started sharing stories. I found it much easier to connect if someone had never experienced my work.
- Before – I lead youth entrepreneurship programs
- After – With my last client, I lead 300 students in sharing their business ideas in front of an audience of 500 people. It was just so crazy to see the innovative ideas that the students came up with. We were all crying afterwards.
There are gazillion reasons why you want to use stories in your networking pitch. One of the key reasons that I found it was important – It helps you develop trust much easier during the initial awkward networking phase.
So don’t be afraid to share your last client success story the next time you meet you someone
Build a beast of a follow-up machine
You know where most small businesses drop the ball in sales? The follow-up.
I can’t be the only one who still has a stack of 100 business card sitting on my desk. LOL
One of the best ways to increase your conversions to clients is to build a solid follow-up system.
Stop telling yourself
- I’ll do it later
- I have to wait until X happens
- I don’t know what to say to the person
Just start where you are.
- Can you send out an email 1x every few months and share updates?
- Can you double down on getting everyone in your newsletter or SMS follow-up?
- Could you use direct mail and send updates?
The options for HOW you follow-up are endless. My recommendation is to choose one and be CONSISTENT about your follow-up.
One of the industry stats that many entrepreneurs don’t consider is that only 3% of your people are ready to buy now. So you need to be building relationships for when THEY are ready.
Which is not necessarily when you want to make a sale.
So choose one follow-up option from the list above or another list and get started.
Set sales goals each month
I’m going to make this action item super short. I have a ton of articles on sales plans and how to create a sales plan.
- Don’t know where to start? Check out this post
- Haven’t looked at your sales plan in a while? Check out this post
Let’s all agree to stop wishing, hoping, and praying that somebody will buy from you. You have to sit down and write out the following:
- What is your monthly sales goal?
- What are action items that you need to take in order to get there?
You will probably come up with a laundry list of things that will need to get done in order to bring in those sales. Don’t get overwhelmed. Start with 1-2 ways of marketing, stay consistent and track your results. You’d be surprised how far you will be able to get of converting more leads to clients with this 1 activity.
Identify your core sales periods so you have rest time
Too many entrepreneurs wait to sell when they have energy. In today’s world where there are 100 things competing for our attention, that is a dangerous way to run your business.
Instead, sit down and create a plan.
- When are you going to go “hard core” with your sales?
- When are you are going to take your foot off the gas?
For example, I’m a Mom and plan around school breaks. I tend to plan more sales and marketing activities when the kids are in school and find ways to focus more on operations and mindless tasks when they are on vacation.
This technique works regardless of whether you serve consumers or other businesses.
If you serve consumers and want to rack up sales during the holiday buying season, you need to lay some ground work during the summer and early fall.
If you serve businesses and know their fiscal cycles, you’ll start your networking very early in their fiscal year so that you are present when they are making buying decisions rather than when they are stressing around closing out their books.
There are 100 scenarios of how this action step can play out. So don’t be afraid to outline ideas and get a coach or mentor to help you review your plans.
Don’t get stuck on any individual prospect
I’ve seen this happen more times than I care to count.
A coaching client lands an amazing new client. They start working on the proposal and getting everything together to start working.
And then everything falls through. They might move in a new direction. They might need a few months before they start. Or they might totally ghost all together.
It’s a hard gut punch because the coaching client had all of their “eggs in one basket”.’
If you ever find yourself in this position, give yourself some grace. It HAPPENS. I’ve done it myself. You get comfortable.
The key is making this mistake only once. You need to have several prospective clients at ALL times. Yes, even when you are already booked solid.
Be open to continuing to market by selecting activities that you can automate or outsource. For example, can you hire a marketing agency or team to help create awareness for new clients? Or can you hire someone to write your newsletter with prospects?
Don’t make it complicated. But do find a way to stay engaged even when you land the big client because, you never know!
I hope these steps gave you some ideas for getting started so that you can turn more leads into paying clients!
