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
recognise 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 emphasise 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.
(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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