Business Development – Getting Clients Now

As a business owner, you create your own economy.

If that means changing the way you do business or reinventing yourself, and adapting your business model to suit the needs of your customers, then that’s what needs to be done. Waiting for things to change in the economy outside of your own business will take a long time, and that’s precious time that you could be using to grow your business while others are waiting for the tide to turn.

As you can imagine quite a number of people that I meet are having difficulty in getting clients at the moment. Some are putting it down to the economy, nobody spending, a change in Government… While this may have an impact, it’s not the main reason.

I’ve put together a number of pointers so that you can check if you’re doing them for your business, and if you’re not, then it would be worth setting about making sure you have each of these areas covered for your business and if need be get help to do so.

1. Pick a niche market.

   In today’s market place, you have to specialise in what it is that you do. There’s no longer space for generalists. While you can still make good business being a generalist, you can grow your business faster and easier when you specialise. Determine who, what or where you want to develop a niche market for your business.

2. Have a clear marketing message.

   Your customers are only interested in results that will improve their lives. If what you’re selling is not going to improve their lives in some way and your customers can’t see the value in what you’re providing, then you will have a very difficult task ahead of you to convince them to work with you.

3. Have conversations that sell.

   Many people I come across have plenty of meetings and they get on great with the other person. But there’s no purpose to the meetings. They may want to have the potential customer ask for the business rather than them having to sell themselves. That doesn’t work anymore. You have to ask for the business. Otherwise you’re wasting time and energy and not getting very far.

4. Have a referral system.

   Over your career you will have met hundreds of people who know you well and like you. Make sure you have a system in place that keeps these people updated as to what it is you’re doing (see points 1 and 2 above) and ask them to refer business to you.

5. Explore opportunities.

   With all the people you have done business with in the past and are currently doing business with, have regular conversations with these people to see where else opportunities could arise. There is hidden value in every conversation. You just need to know how to have that conversation and be open to exploring.

6. Delegate and Outsource.

   If you’re currently spending a lot of your time avoiding selling and marketing, and doing the things that you don’t particularly like doing such as admin or accounts, then delegate those tasks or outsource them to a virtual assistant. The time you’re spending here is not serving your business. Get rid of those tasks and spend more time on business development and you will soon see the fruits of your labour.

7. Have many lead generating systems.

   There are many ways in which you can bring customers to your business. If you are relying on just one or two systems eg business network meetings, referrals… then add as many ways as possible to your business so that you make it easier for your potential customers to find you. There are several ways you can do this without even costing you any money.

This is my top seven list for how you can get clients now. Set an action for yourself between now and next month to implement as many of those seven points as possible. Take action now, don’t leave it till later.