A bigger client means bigger revenue for your business. And we all know that is a VERY good thing. If you have struggled landing the big fish in the past, the TPE community is here to help! Here are 44 ways to bring in the big client with the deep pockets:
1. If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try 100 More Times!
How To Land Bigger Clients: It’s all about persistence. Unlike what you were taught in school, a “No” doesn’t mean “No”- it just means, “Not now.” It is your job to persist and ask, “If not now, then when.” This doesn’t mean get done for being a stalker and having your next photo shoot be your mug shot. Rather, persistence means acting from a place of knowing you’ve got something they not only want but need and that it’s your job in life to make sure they get it.
How To Land Bigger Clients: We all have our usual safe practices of dealing with prospects and clients in order to preserve our profit margin. But for bigger clients sometimes you have to hop outside that box and invest more time/money upfront to earn the bigger reward. This might mean paying for a business trip to meet face-to-face when phone would be the norm, offering bonus free consultations when clients ask your expert advice, putting extra research or design into a proposal, or sending a special thank you gift. Bigger clients recognize you for bigger efforts, and of course offer bigger rewards.
How To Land Bigger Clients: NETWORK outside your industry to generate referrals from first rate professionals who are not in competition with you. Be visible, available, helpful, likable – send them some business so they can reciprocate.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Satisfied customers make great referral sources (recommending you to their friends, family, co-workers and colleagues) – stay top-of-mind with them by staying in touch 2-3 times a year.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Generally, we have strong relationships with one or two key decision makers (KDMs) within each of our clients. Significant events can occur to put these relationships in jeopardy such as promotion, reorganization, and acquisition. Minimize negative consequences by identifying and building internal champions. Champions are other influencers and KDMs usually related somehow to your current KDMs. Think of all the people directly and indirectly related to your KDMs. Then develop a plan (think internal networking) for gatekeepers, department/division peers, right and left hand staff, boss, etc.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Our clients are business owners and top level executives focused on pulling ahead of the competition, so it is fitting that we mirror this focus in pitching our services to them. Beyond succeeding on their own accord, what our clients really want is an edge – which is the point of the competitive analysis. After reverse engineering the client’s most impressive competitor’s website, our sales pitch would offer to tell them why Company X gets better traffic and more sales than they do, as well as what their weaknesses are, and how they can exploit them to pull ahead. Follow this with an offer to conduct a full competitive analysis on the client’s website versus that of their top competitor, and we’re there. To date, this approach has worked for us without fail.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Sell from the top down, no matter how large the company is. Want to sell to Microsoft? Call Bill Gates. You probably won’t speak with him but his administrative asssitant will point you in the right direction. Have the admin. transfer the call to the right person. When the “right” person gets on the phone say, “I just got off the phone with Bill Gates office and they said we should get together to talk.” (notice you should NOT say, “I just got off the phone with Bill Gates” unless you actually spoke with him)
How To Land Bigger Clients: The key for us to landing bigger customers has always been to build long-term relationships with the customer. Get to know them, their business and their industry. Understand their problem areas and help them to find solutions. And yes, the solution may sometimes not come out of your own stables.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Of course, you have the better mousetrap, but to score bigger clients, you must realize that “FEAR TRUMPS PAIN” every time. No matter how good your product or solution is, no matter how much better it will be at the customer or how much money they will save, you will not score a big client unless you can convince EVERY manager who’s processes are touched by your product or service that it will be EASIER and SAFER to implement your solution than to retain the status quo. So focus on alleviating the fear and you’ll make the sale.
How To Land Bigger Clients: I prove to my clients that the size of their budget isn’t a motivating factor for planning a spectacular event. My clients with more generous budgets know that I’m not going to waste a single dollar just because they have it to spend. No matter what the event budget is, I’m always looking for ways to save and come in below set budget. This has always gotten me happy clients, repeat business and referrals.
How To Land Bigger Clients: You’re going to laugh at this one, but here’s how I increase business with existing clients and maximize the revenue I get from newer, bigger clients:
I charge more.
Seriously – Bigger clients expect it as they’re used to
paying out the nose, and I explain to existing clients that they’re getting a higher level of service then anywhere else and most of them go along. A bit counter-intuitive, but it works.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Understand your current customers that you want to create more of. 80% of our business comes from 20% of our customers but 65% comes from just 4%!!! What do they have in common? Create a profile of them including demographics, psychographics, socioeconomics, etc. What commonalities make them a great customer? WHere did they come from? Now create a marketing plan focused only on those types of customers. A narrow focus is what allows light to cut threw metal in the form of a laser. Everything you do should focus on making it easier for these Core customers to come to you
How To Land Bigger Clients: Look for businesses/individuals that already have the relationships you are looking for (in a complimentary field) and work to get the introduction. Research is the key to finding these folks, through your social networks and offline. Someone you know, knows someone you want to know!
How To Land Bigger Clients: The way that I have landed better paying clients is by tightly focusing on my target market and then offering mind blowing “platinum style” programs and services that address the issues and concerns my clients have. My clients see these programs as extremely valuable even though they are paying top dollar. This powerful method has allowed me to work less hours while making more money; and isn’t that what every TPE would love to see happen in their business?
How To Land Bigger Clients: I use all forms of social media to attract, land and socialize clients. My clients are everyone from the one-person operation to the Fortune 500 corporation. Disseminating information about my company and products is vital to my profit line. With the advent of social media, and the free to low-cost of it, I find this is the BEST method to use to attract and socialize clients. Any business worth their weight today is using and watching the social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, and many others. In a recent research project I conducted over 200 organizations replied to me that they were making full use of these sites to not only get their corporate word out, but also to attract clients BIG and small.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Don’t wait for the bigger clients to find you, find them! I find that by approaching organisations I feel would have a need for my products I have had much success. You’ve got to make things happen sometimes!
18. Partner With Companies Already In Verticals You Want To Target
How To Land Bigger Clients: We’re facing exactly this issue, having grown too big for the micro business market we’ve usually served in the past. We’re seeking out strategic partners in verticals where our services have real value, and
offer our services as implementation experts. The partners help sell us into the vertical, while we focus on delivering solutions.
How To Land Bigger Clients: The smartest thing that I’ve done to get in front of clients that I’ve really wanted is to invite them to present at speaking engagements and guarantee a captive audience. We then generate press releases and capture presentations digitally, those we later turn into collateral material. Giving my speakers useful digital content and creating a wonderful a PR opportunity using our current press relationships etc. always makes them love me and clears the road for client or referral conversation. I suggest reading Thomas J. Stanley’s “Networking with Millionaires” to get some serious ideas.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Make it as easy as possible for your existing customers to buy more of your product. Remove all the barriers (red tape, costs, setup time, etc.) and make it as painless as possible for your customers to increase your product’s presence in their business. If what you offer is truly valuable and you make incremental purchases simple, you’ll sell more.
In short:
1. Provide something that people want
2. Make it easy for them to get one more of what you sell
How To Land Bigger Clients: Go where they are. This should go without saying, but to play with the big boys you gotta go where the big boys are. This might include industrial or manufacturing committees that are part of your local chamber (instead of the typical networking opportunities) it might also include working your way on to boards and committees where you visibility and an opportunity to work with executives from larger businesses.
How To Land Bigger Clients: I have found a varied range of audience and client by NOT limiting my marketing target. Most products and services CAN fit more than one niche. Example: Cat owners are possible home owners; there are two large markets right there! So I try to expose marketing to both niches for the cat behavior book that will help many more people.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Mindset is the key to turning around the quality of the customers you attract. If you’re thinking small -thinking that what you offer isn’t so special -guess what..that’s the type of client you’ll attract. Start today to acknowledge that what you offer is of high value, great quality and has the power to impact others profoundly -and you’ll get to work with great people who want to thrive and not just survive.
How To Land Bigger Clients: We’ve been profiling our existing clients and then running credit reports to identify others that match the profile. This way, if there is a need and they do become clients, we’re sure they are the right type of clients. We’ve also sought government certification to boost our business with different branches of government. Since the government is still spending, that makes them the ideal client.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Yes YOU can. Customers come to you because of YOU. So focus on what you love to do. Work on what you’re good at. Focus on what makes you unique. Then delegate or outsource the rest. A coaching client of mine – a successful consultant – has got better quality clients and increased business with her existing clients just by focusing on what she can do. She has hired an assistant and uses that time to focus on building her relationships and getting sales!
How To Land Bigger Clients: Conventional sales coaching these days is all about finding the customer’s pain and telling them how you, your product or service can make it go away. I get better results when I help my clients get where they say the want to go. When I help them fulfill their mission or do well by doing good, I have a client/friend for life. After I do, I make sure they know what I did for them that made that happen. I teach them how to talk about it so they appreciate what they got and can refer me.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Do you really know who your clients are? I mean REALLY know who your clients are? What toilet paper do they use to wipe? You MUST know your clients that well! If you know who or what your clients value about themselves them it will be easy to learn about what your clients value about your business. Once you’ve discovered what your big clients love about you, multiply that service times 10 and give them more of what they love! Knowing them intimately and servicing them 10 times better than anyone else will automatically lead to bigger and better clients!!!
How To Land Bigger Clients: I know I am good at what I do. I have testimonials to prove that as well as the best samples. If I approach a new client, I give him/her my proposal and focus on how great my work is based on my testimonials and samples. I have the client go to my website, read what others have to say, and review my samples.
I have had a number of new clients agree to my high project fees, simply because they realized I was worth it.
How To Land Bigger Clients: It has been proven empirically that the top 20% of your customers account for 80% of your revenues. Many businesses could literally lose all of their other customers (who are not as profitable) and their business would still survive.
Spend some time today going through your Top 20% of customers. Set aside time in your diary to send them each a personalized card thanking them for their business and welcoming them back again. Studies have shown that this one simple act can increase your sales by as much as 12-18%.
How To Land Bigger Clients: If you REALLY want to grow your business, you have to step way outside that comfort zone and go where you aren’t the big fish. Go to the groups, meetings, organizations, presentations where everyone is way more skilled than you are. Then study what you see the more accomplished folks doing, and start building relationships with them.
How To Land Bigger Clients: When I meet with people, after we have established a rapport, I explain that at the end of our conversation they may want to partner with us or they may not. If they want to continue the conversation the next step is to determine more specifics (that may mean another meeting or the establishment of their particular needs) and if they do not, I’ll completely understand. I tell them that either way “yes” or “no” is ok. Then I ask them if we can agree that this makes sense. (This eliminates the long never ending cycle of “think it over” and keeps you in control of the process with an already determined next step.)
How To Land Bigger Clients: As a small start-up, we pursue partnerships with companies where we have a great joint value prop, who also happen to have a great reputation and brand. Even if we have to invest in a little upfront development work on our own dime, having a well-known, large, recognized partner who can boost our awareness, bring in leads and help us thrive has been very worthwhile.
How To Land Bigger Clients: The number one mistake I witness people making in the pursuit of their desires/dreams is waiting to ask. We have been conditioned to believe that we are not quite ready yet to have what we REALLY want. And therefore we wait. And waste time. You are ready now. As Byron Katie says, we could have everything we ever wanted if only we were willing to ask 1000 people for it.
Make a list of your Blue Sky ideal clients. The ones who you feel a little uneasy approaching. And simply start to contact them from a place of expertise. Know in advance that they need you. Know that. And make yourself available to them now.
How To Land Bigger Clients: The most important thing to understand is that in order to ascend to the next level of business or clientele, you have to do more than you’re currently doing. That may mean adding new value to an existing product or adding a completely new product or service. Think about how you can exceed your client’s expectations and expansion will be much easier.
How To Land Bigger Clients: If you want to network and do business with the big boys you have to put yourself in position so that you can ask for the business. Many millions of entrepreneurial revenue goes unearned because we don’t ask for the opportunity.
How To Land Bigger Clients: In order to get the bigger fish or entice your current ones to take the next step, be the Go To Source! The “Go To Source” is the one who stays on top of what is new & hot in the industry, the one who’s clients always know if something is new in the industry they will know all the details. Today things change so rapidly it is hard for your client to know what is new and apply it before their competition, so if you have the details you will attract the big fish & develop the current ones. Be The “Go To Source” for your industry!
How To Land Bigger Clients: One thing I’ve done in the past to get bigger clients is to act like I don’t have time for them and I don’t need their money. I make them want me. And I almost always find a way for them to contact me first. Like if I meet them at a fund raiser or some mutual meeting.
Sometimes that does not always work, but more often than not, it does. They already have the business ego that every creative agency wants them as a client.
38. Partner With Smaller, High Growth Potential Businesses
How To Land Bigger Clients: I have found it difficult to go after and secure big clients. However, discovering and partnering with smaller companies with high growth potential is the best payoff -specially with exclusive arrangements- then there is no limit to product development!
How To Land Bigger Clients: Dream patients for me are professional athletes and creative artists. They are generally the most highly motivated and the boldest, allowing change to be effected more easily. When they achieve their goals and thank me, I always tell them: “The best way to thank me is to refer me 20 people just like you. You are a dream client. Send me your clones!”
How To Land Bigger Clients: Especially in this economy, everyone likes getting something for nothing. When seeking new clients, I include one of my small books as part of the letter of introduction. No book to send? Prepare a catchy, laminated list of secrets that will save your clients money or help them do what they do faster, better, cheaper. Don’t give away all your ideas–just enough to whet their appetites and have them ask for more.
How To Land Bigger Clients: Most sales people talk WAY too much, and don’t have a systematic series of questions to qualify (or disqualify) their prospects. This leads to their prospects saying, “Let me think it over.” (Translation: “Goodbye, Sales Amateur.”)
So my best tip is: STFU: Shut The ForGodSakes Up! (What did YOU think the “F” stood for?)
How To Land Bigger Clients: If you want bigger, you have to get better. In other words, you have to find a way to really make yourself that much more attractive to both your current and potential larger clients.
How To Land Bigger Clients: So many entrepreneurs are intimidated by the big businesses that they give up before they even try. The magic secret is simply seeking them out and asking for the business. You will be surprised by how many of your competitors never had the guts to call on the prized client!
How To Land Bigger Clients: When you have a regular client using your services , first up you have to be consistent in whatever you provide and the other and most important thing you have to give the client what he wants you can’t be saying no we don’t do this or we cant do this.
Because if the client has to hear anything like that he would start looking for that particular service from someone else, Thus you loose your client.On the other hand if you get them what they want, it makes them happy and let them spread the word for your service in the market thus you get more clients in return.
Believe me this really works at the end of the day that’s what you call client satisfaction.
9 Responses to “44 Ways How To Land Bigger Clients”
Devesh Says:
July 21st, 2009
Great insights! Thanks for sharing, Mike.
Mike Michalowicz Says:
July 21st, 2009
I am partial to Tip #38 – when a client says how can I ever thank you… our job is to tell them how! Refer 2 clients, or whatever the appropriate action request is.
- Mike
Jeff Krieger Says:
July 21st, 2009
Be there for the prospect, the purpose of your business is to cause the other businesses you deal with to be better off because they know you, because they relate to you, because they connect with you.
Jeff
links for 2009-07-21 | The MarketingSavant Group Says:
July 21st, 2009
[...] The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur | 44 Ways How To Land Bigger Clients [...]
It is so nice to see so many other professionals feel the same way. I teach my students and clients how to do most of the things mentioned here and now I can share with them I am not the ONLY one who beleives these truths. Thanks for sharing everyone.
My personal motto is that we all need to wake up eac h morning and promise to ourselves that we will make at least one new friend EVERYDAY. If we can turn even 10% of them into clients, that is 36 new successes I didn’t have before with potential for referrals. How could that change your business and life?
Adalia John Says:
September 3rd, 2009
So many Platinum nuggets to choose from. Thanks
W.E.B. Du Bois, Jobs, Hustler Jobs…and CAMRON!!! « The Black Economist Says:
October 28th, 2009
July 21st, 2009
Great insights! Thanks for sharing, Mike.
July 21st, 2009
I am partial to Tip #38 – when a client says how can I ever thank you… our job is to tell them how! Refer 2 clients, or whatever the appropriate action request is.
- Mike
July 21st, 2009
Be there for the prospect, the purpose of your business is to cause the other businesses you deal with to be better off because they know you, because they relate to you, because they connect with you.
Jeff
July 21st, 2009
[...] The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur | 44 Ways How To Land Bigger Clients [...]
July 22nd, 2009
Very nice collection. Here’s one more: http://www.goodlittlebiz.com/node/367
August 5th, 2009
It is so nice to see so many other professionals feel the same way. I teach my students and clients how to do most of the things mentioned here and now I can share with them I am not the ONLY one who beleives these truths. Thanks for sharing everyone.
My personal motto is that we all need to wake up eac h morning and promise to ourselves that we will make at least one new friend EVERYDAY. If we can turn even 10% of them into clients, that is 36 new successes I didn’t have before with potential for referrals. How could that change your business and life?
September 3rd, 2009
So many Platinum nuggets to choose from. Thanks
October 28th, 2009
[...] http://www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com/blog/44-ways-how-to-land-bigger-clients [...]
November 2nd, 2009
[...] http://www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com/blog/44-ways-how-to-land-bigger-clients [...]