3 Ways to Attract More Ideal Clients

Author: Allison Babb

 

As a small business coach, almost without exception, my clients need to work on gaining greater clarity on their target market.  We all start out thinking we are clear on it.  I know I did, until my own coach really challenged me to go deeper and deeper along the path to becoming intimately familiar with the market that I serve.

 

Here's an interesting outcome of doing that work... When business owners contact us on how to sell services effectively, they often comment that reading some of my web pages made them feel like I was reading their mind.  And that's pretty much the outcome you'd want for your own market as well.

 

You want to get so intimately familiar with their needs, challenges, frustrations and burning desires, that you can resonate quite strongly with who they are.  That's when you know you've got powerful clarity on your target market.

 

If you're not there yet, here are a few things you may want to do:

 

Who are they?

 

Start with your favorites.  Your favorites are those clients you really enjoy working with.  These are the ones who didn't even blink an eye at your fees.  They happily paid you because they truly valued what you do.  They were eager to work with you and continue to rave about your services.

 

Profile them.  Get as much information as you can about this type of client.  Demographics, psychographics, where they came from, etc.  Because this is the profile you'll use to get more of this type of client.

 

Don't have any clients yet because you're a new biz? No worries, just brainstorm on who you might want to have as an ideal client and start there.  For new businesses, resist the urge to get this perfect by the way.  The definition of your target market will evolve and will get more refined as you begin to experience working with your clients.  Just choose who you think it may be and dive right into working with them and better understanding their needs.

 

Where are they?

 

Most likely, your target market shows up in large numbers or in groups either online or offline.  Do a bit of research (google searches etc) on where they may be and show up there too.  You'd show up to make connections and to better understand the needs of your target market as well.  Listen to what's at the top of their minds, how they express their main challenges, questions they're asking, solutions they are seeking, etc., and take lots of notes.

 

If you're not quite sure where show up, an easy way to find one person and ask them where they meet with others in their industry.  Ask them if there are groups online or offline where they gather.  They'll tell you and you may just hear of meetings and other gatherings you didn't even know existed.  And what's even better is you can probably go speak at those venues too - excellent opportunity to position yourself as an expert in front of your ideal target market.

 

What do they want?

 

Surprisingly this is one of the most overlooked questions for us as business owners.  We often want to give people what we think they need.  Instead, ask them what they want. Use surveys, or listen intently to the questions they ask while they're working with you as your client, etc.  Get clarity on their most pressing problems in your area of expertise.  Resist the urge to interpret what they are saying to you by the way.  Instead pay close attention to the descriptions they use.  This is powerful information for your marketing.

 

If you have past clients, call them up and ask if they wouldn't mind helping you out with a little market research.  Most would say yes.  Then ask questions about what brought them to you, what were the key problems that prompted them to seek help, what were they hoping to have as an outcome, what did they most value, how did your services help them?  All the while, you'd want to be listening intently to their words.  Again, resist the urge to interpret.  You're understanding the language of your people so that you can magnetically attract them and to truly serve their needs in your area of expertise.

 

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And now I'd like to offer you the FREE one-hour audio seminar for solo entrepreneurs on "How to Create a Steady Stream of Clients For Your Solo Business" at: http://www.moreclientsaudio.com Allison Babb is an author, speaker and Small Business Coach to solo entrepreneurs at: http://www.GreatSmallBusinessAdvice.com

 

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1669807_15.html

 

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How to Keep Prospects From Canceling

For a lot of small business owners, one of the challenges in how to sell services is actually how to keep valuable prospects from slipping through your fingers.

As a small business coach, I've worked with business owners who tell me they find themselves chasing after prospects. It's rather exhausting and quite unpleasant to say the least, right?

The chasing happens because we fear the prospect will cancel a meeting or will be a no-show. Or we're chasing because they were a no-show.

Here are a few suggestions for greatly reducing or eliminating this experience with prospects:

Check your pressure gauge

What I mean by this is that is, if we're not careful, we unintentionally introduce a level of pressure or uncomfortable persuasion into our sales conversations with people. A prospect can easily sense the pressure and they lapse into not telling the truth about whether they are interested or not. So they say they're interested and set the appointment to not disappoint you or simply to get out of feeling cornered. That's a key reason people come up with "objections" as well - they're feeling pressured or cornered.

This is the reason I always say ditch the intent to sell. Simply have a conversation to discover whether there's a mutual fit. Don't assume the sale prematurely. When you go into the conversation with the intent to sell, you then have an ulterior motive to "make the sale." Often simple things like your tone of voice and your choice of words raises the red flag with a prospect that you're after the sale.

Your prospect can sense that you are more interested in making the sale than being genuinely interested in solving their problems and meeting their needs. So check your own pressure gauge to see whether your intentions in the conversation may be fueling the "flight response" in your prospect.

Ask the right questions

When you're in a conversation with a prospect, there are some key questions you can ask to uncover

* If they truly are your ideal client

* If they're even ready to make a decision right now

* If what you offer is a good match for their needs and their budget

Be sure you're asking open-ended questions vs yes/no questions. If your conversation doesn't reveal those key bits of information, you may be assuming the person is ready to move forward when they're not. This then makes the chances of cancellation or no-show much higher.

Share your value (vs your products/services)

When we talk to prospects, there's quite a bit of temptation to dive right into a pitch or description of what we sell. We spend time detailing our different services, prices, packages, etc. It's important to realize this is secondary to why the prospect contacted you.

Sure, they may say they want to hear about your services, but that's not really what they're looking for. They're looking for solutions to a problem, an experience, a transformation, to realize their vision for something, to get relief, to meet a burning desire, etc.

The more you're able to describe what you do in a way that resonates with what they're truly seeking, the more they value what you have to offer; and the chances that they'll cancel is greatly reduced.

Set up the meeting effectively

In setting up the meeting, I'd first ask you to consider this: did the prospect request the meeting or was it more that they felt pressured and said yes? That's a good thing to evaluate. Instead of saying "Why don't we set up an appointment to..." try something like "Do you think it would make sense, at this point, for us to connect and..." The latter makes it their decision and it also gives them an opportunity to be truthful about whether they'd actually like to meet. It's best to know the truth than to have them say yes then disappear on you.

Also, rather than just agreeing on the meeting, agree on the commitment to the meeting as well. Say something like, "Allison, I know that we're both pretty busy people and I do respect your time. I'm committed to setting aside this time specifically for you. I've set aside 60 minutes in my calendar on Tuesday for us to.... If you're unable to make it at that time, would you call me by TIME to let me know?"

This sets the tone for mutual respect of each other's time. You're saying that you respect their time and you're also implying that you expect them to respect your time as well; this reduces the chance of a no-show or cancellation.


Author: Allison Babb

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And now I'd like to offer you the FREE one-hour audio seminar for solo entrepreneurs on "How to Create a Steady Stream of Clients For Your Solo Business" at: http://www.moreclientsaudio.com Allison Babb is an author, speaker and Small Business Coach to solo entrepreneurs at: http://www.GreatSmallBusinessAdvice.com

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1658559_15.html