You’re looking at your books and thinking that you need to do a little business development, add some additional clients to your roster.
But, for many of us, trying to sell a product or sell ourselves sounds daunting, horrifying, tedious – any combination of words necessary to convey that it’s something we just don’t want to do.
Selling yourself doesn’t sound fun. Attracting new clients, though, that’s a different story.
Why?
Attracting clients means that you’re providing something of value and that they’re interested enough to give you a look and see what you have to offer. It’s an exchange of interest for value, which sounds a lot better than making a cold sales pitch.
When you work to attract clients – to understand the problems they’re facing, then to offer solutions – you’re working more effectively as well. Building a connection, then nurturing it, leads to a higher probability that you’ll seal the deal, that they’ll spend more and that you’ll spend less getting their business; companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at a 33% lower cost.
So, how do you attract new clients? We’ve put together a few tips:
Ask For Referrals
Social proof influences buying decisions. Nearly 70 percent of online consumers read product reviews before making a purchase. When you focus in more specifically on people age 18-29, that number goes up to 100%.
Why? People want to do business with people they know, like and trust.
By extension, if they’re considering a new partnership, they’ll be more likely to partner up with a company who’s been positively referred to them by a person they know, like and trust.
That’s where referrals come into play. If you’re looking to attract new clients, ask your existing clients and contacts to help you make those connections and build those networks.
Some people admit to feeling shy or embarrassed to ask for a referral, but that’s more a reflection of their own fears than of reality. More than 90% of customers are willing to give referrals, but only about 10% of sales reps will ask for then.
Get A Better Understanding Of Your Ideal Client
You’re competing with many other businesses and service providers for attention in the digital space. To be successful, your communications need to be highly targeted, so you don’t get drowned out in other online noise.
When you know who you want to sell to, you can target your communications to appeal to them and to drive the actions you want to see.
Building buyer personas can help you get a better understanding of your prospects, how to engage them, and what their goals are, so you can figure out which of your products meet those goals and how to encourage similar users to engage with you and close a deal.
Creating personas should include a combination of head-driven and emotionally-driven information; use your analytics and web stats to inform your persona development process, then, where possible, combine that with first-person narrative, like interviews and conversations with existing customers who align with the segments you’re researching.
Some buyer personas have a heavy empathy slant, where the teams producing them add a lot of specific details about the type of person making the buying decision. For example, if you’re a college admissions department trying to bolster your graduate program enrollment, a more data-driven persona might look like:
“Alice, 28. Completed bachelor’s degree in social work at Baylor University. In career field for 5 years, which is typically a decision point for people choosing to go back to school. Most likely to research grad school options online. Based on industry income levels, financial aid and part-time options could be attractive to her.”
An empathy map or avatar that fits the same persona might look more like this:
“Alice is a 28-year-old social worker who spends her free time crocheting. She has one sister who she texts daily, wears glasses and tries hard to keep succulents alive. Her favorite drink is Earl Grey tea with a squeeze of lemon. Her biggest financial stressor is the student loans she’s still paying off from undergrad. She really wants to decide whether to go back to school to get a master’s degree in social work or to move to a different field.”
Is a high level of detail necessary? You don’t have to get to a point where you feel silly crafting a very specific buyer persona.
The purpose of adding personalized details, if you choose, is to help you consider how you’d best communicate with that customer and to make them more real to you, so you can focus on how you’d connect with them to achieve your business goals.
- Would she appreciate a friendly, casual tone?
- Is she price-driven or does she have some disposable income to be able to splurge on occasional luxuries?
- Is she most likely to want to connect on Instagram or LinkedIn?
You speak differently to people depending on the situation, and your business should do the same – pairing crisp language and research driven content with B2B services, or not being afraid to use an occasional pop culture reference or slang phrase if you’re a lifestyle-oriented company reaching out to an audience with whom that messaging would resonate.
Building personas won’t immediately attract additional customers on its own. However, taking the time to get a better understanding of your target audience will improve your marketing efforts, drive the right customers to you and improve your potential for long-term revenue.
Team Up
Is there someone else in your field of business that you admire? Do you products fit together? How about teaming up?
Depending on your field and that of your partner, you may want to work together on a collaboration, or set up a system to refer work to one another.
If you’re a photographer, for example, you might look for partnerships with wedding planners or venues, or with baby or bridal boutiques. Even retail companies can team up with one another to create deals.
Follow Up
Is there someone you’ve connected with in the past that looked like a great prospect, but that didn’t pan out?
Why not follow up with them and see whether things have changed with their business, or share new ways you’re serving clients?
If you decide to put this strategy into place, there’s a right and a wrong way to do it.
The right way is to offer them something of value when you re-engage. That could mean:
- Sending them a news article that’s relevant to their business
- Sharing a new whitepaper or case study you’ve authored
- Inviting them to a virtual or community event
Use the follow-up message or phone call to restart conversation and strengthen the relationship, then pitch your product when it feels natural as a solution to a problem they’re facing.
Another type of follow up can be reconnecting with former business colleagues or connections. Right now, there are a lot of people offering help and support via LinkedIn, because they’re seeing firsthand that the market is tough.
When you make this connection, there’s also a right and a wrong way to do it.
The wrong way is the way many salespeople handle it; acting like a long-lost best friend, then flipping the switch to high-pressure sales.
The right way is to be honest. If you’ve missed out on connecting with them in the past, mention it.
Let them know how you’re doing, ask how they’re doing, then be upfront about what you need, whether it’s the chance to pitch them a product for the first time, a request for an introduction to one of their connections, or a reference from a project you’ve managed or role you’ve held in the past.
Email Them
The best way to start an email relationship with a prospect is to encourage them to share their email by providing content or information of value in exchange for it.
In retail and B2C, coupons, discounts and special offers make great incentives to sign up for a mailing list.
In B2B, you need to find ways to attract them through high quality gated content.
If you’re looking for a way to get new prospects faster, you can buy or rent an email list of prospects that are well-suited to your business. It’s critical that you put thought and strategy into this process, because emailing a list of people who haven’t opted in to receive messages from you can impact your deliverability if you don’t do it right.
What kind of good decisions do you need to make to do it right?
- Be upfront about how you received their email and what you’re doing with it. You can let them know why you reached out to them, what you can offer them and how many times you’re going to reach out.
- Offer them something of value. For most people on this list, this might be their first introduction to you. Show them why it’s worth it to stay in contact with you. Offer thoughtful commentary on a business trend that relates to your shared interests, share a valuable webinar or executive brief you’ve created, or give them the opportunity to connect with you for a demo or one-on-one conversation.
- Give them a way to say they want more. If you’ve told them you’re going to email them three times, email them three times, then stop. But, give them a chance to say they want to hear more from you. Remind them that you’re making your last contact and ask them to opt-in to your list.
Connecting with these potential prospects through email can be an effective way to find new customers and new leads. It’s time-efficient and it has the potential to generate great ROI.
Email, by the way, is the best generator of ROI in marketing world. It has the potential to produce $44 in revenue for every dollar spent – wow!
Bonus Tip! Focus On Something Besides New Customers
You don’t necessarily have to bring new customers on board to make more revenue. How about focusing some efforts and energy on deepening your relationship with your existing customer base?
They are already well-aware of the value you provide. Do you have any products or services they might want to add? Existing customers are 50% more likely to try a new product from you and 31% more likely to spend more than their counterparts that haven’t worked with you yet.
And, upselling their business can be more efficient than focusing solely on new business. In the B2B world, it costs $1.32 to bring in each new dollar of revenue, while it only costs $0.71 per dollar to retain the clients you already have.
If you need new customers, your first instinct may be to start discounting everything you offer in hopes that someone will bite on an outrageously good deal. However, if you have the time and the patience, using these strategies will allow you to cultivate a pool of marketing leads that can lead to long-term revenue generation and success.
Need help connecting with new customers?
- Download our quick guide to making sales less sales-y
- Talk to us about our email marketing & social media kickstarters, so you can connect with new audiences and start generating leads
- Create the kind of website content that keeps people coming back for more
