7 excellent tips to win new clients

7 excellent tips to win new clients

As we know there are loads of ways to generate more business and win new clients however, we’re going to focus on one particular area to help you gain and win new customers.

One of the main focus areas for any company is to evaluate your repeat business strategy. It’s changing the mindset from the ‘1st sale mentality’ into the ‘2nd sale mentality’.

Customers who have already dealt with you in the past would be ready to use you again providing they enjoyed the products, or services you’ve offered. A lot of the hard work and initial sales and marketing campaigns has won them through the door, so the questions now are ‘how can you get them to come back again?’ and ‘how can you get them to bring someone else with them?’

Before we get started on the tips, it’s a really good idea to check your current referral processes with the goal of encouraging previous buyers to recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues.

Example: Local fitness clubs are very good at this by offering free day passes to friends and family, as well as cash incentives to get someone new in the door. These offers are well displayed in the clubs, on their websites or you may receive regular mail shots. Part of your strategy plan with us would be to cover referral areas with you and see what tactics would be best suited for your business. Please contact us for a free SEO chat.

Getting an existing source to give you a contact name and number is classed as a ‘low-grade referral’, however having someone walk in and sign on the dotted line would be classed as a ‘grade A referral’. So, how do we achieve those grade A referrals? These leads can be scored and measured by tracking and calculating the NPS (net promoter score).

Here’s a case history example of a client we’ve helped: They sell loft conversions and extensions. Their focus is on repeat business and win new clients. We recommended that once a satisfied customer had their loft conversion built and were satisfied, then why not offer a cash incentive (£50) for every new client that views their home and goes through to sale. This worked really well as it built confidence with the prospective buyer, but also brought in some weekly cash for the happy new loft homeowner. This boosted their sales by 30% and needless to say the existing customer were double excited to be promoting the loft conversion firm for only 15 minutes work to show someone around. The existing customer became an ‘active promoter’ for the business, and even referred more sales through their local football club.

7 easy steps to win new clients

1. Set up triggers for your referral plan. Some referral business will just happen, however one of the big mistakes is that you can just assume they will just come in. This isn’t always the case! You will need a plan that has triggers events based on events that will attract those referrals to come in. You will also need to get all of your staff onboard to execute the plan. Here’s a tip: don’t ask for referrals as the customer is about to pay, set the triggers in motion either before, or after and make sure you show appreciation to customers who give you a referral.
2. Offer Incentives. Most people like to save money where they can, but coming up with the right incentives will need to be tailored to your business. McDonald’s would be quite happy with 2 for 1 offers, however Mercedes would steer clear of any of these types of offers. So, coming up with the right incentive scheme takes care and evaluation with some clear market research based on your target audience. You can then test these incentives by targeting a small number of customers to help you collect the data for future campaigns.
3. Target the most influential customers. These would be people who represent a group of others and should be discovered when reviewing your process (just like the customer we mentioned who run a football team). These customers may represent others in the community or industry, but finding them would definitely be of great benefit for recommending your services. How many friends do they have on social media networks etc.? These are the people to target first. Do they have a website? If so, bear in mind that links do matter.
4. Target other businesses related to your industry. An example here would be a solicitor who specialises in personal injury claims would want to get local doctors on their side and target some adverts into their waiting rooms. Make sure you contact other organisation’s that could really promote and enhance your services, but not be in competition.
5. Provide marketing materials. Don’t just rely on word of mouth, but give customer’s something that they can pass onto their contacts. This materials could be a link to an online flyer, or an enticing page on your website, recent newsletters detailing offers, products and services with the clear benefit of buying from you. Remember, your prospective clients will be thinking ‘what can you do for me?’, so your message will need to reflect that.
6. Build relationships. Gaining trust is vital to bringing in more referral business and also win new clients. It’s great that someone has trusted you and bought from you, so if you’re going to start contacting these customers you haven’t spoken to for a while, you will need to re-establish that trust.
7. Keep your records up straight. When gaining information such as contact details this may just be a lead, but store this information for evaluation and future communication. You may want to run surveys, checklists or web based programmes to capture more details, BUT, always remember to keep your records up straight. This will really help to chart the success of your referral campaigns to help you measure and fine tune them for the future!

Summary

Aim to save people money, give them a great deal with excellent levels of service and provide clear ongoing communication to keep the relationship alive. This will keep people keep trusting you and spreading the word.