Getting More Business Clients
A great question a guy once asked me was about how to get business clients. The guy was a consultant – i.e. he was selling products and services to companies and he wanted to know if I could give him ideas how to get more business clients. Sure, I can give him and everybody else lots of ideas how to get more business clients and that is why I wrote this article.
When you are looking for new business clients, you should start with your existing partners. Companies you have worked for can endorse you to their customers. Chances are that their customers might need somebody with your skills and this is a win-win situation.
I know one speaker that I worked with, who delivers presentations to not only companies but also associations. Associations are great by the way because they have got people from all kinds of different companies who are members of that particular association.
When he makes a presentation for the association, he uses some cute marketing tactics, such as a referral campaign and contests. If a person wants to take part in the contest, he or she has to write a testimonial and give his or her name and contact information and then a lottery is drawn. The winners receive gift certificates, which give them the right to hire him again, so he manages to get repetitive gigs.
For example, I think he charges $5000 per presentation, so he was giving gift certificates for like $500 and I think $250 but here is the key point in this. They have to be redeemed within a certain window of time. It could be three months, four months, or six months but that is really the trigger point there because that gets people moving that gets people into action.
It is like burning money if they do not use it. We saw a huge jump in his repeat business because of that one strategy and it is great because he is giving something of value, the people enjoy him anyway, and now they have just got another excuse to bring him back.
It is important that people have a good reason to hire you again. I believe you can think of many intelligent ways to include such offers in your sales proposal. When you have the people in front of you, you can capitalize on that experience – just remind them later how much they liked your stuff and this will make them want it again.
Filed under: List Building