5 Reasons You Aren’t Getting New Clients
If you are a business owner and are finding that no matter what, you just aren’t making the sale or getting new clients, I have some tips! This is a common theme and the truth is, there are 5 common mistakes consistently see with my clients.
The 5 reasons you’re not getting clients:
You aren’t clear on who your ideal client is.
You haven’t done enough market research.
You’re not doing the right lead generation.
You’re not following up enough.
You’re not pitching.
Your Ideal Client
A lot of my clients THINK they know who their ideal client is, but they actually haven’t taken the time to get more specific on their wants/needs/struggles and to get clear on how their service can help.
It can be easy to think “I can help a lot of different people,” and “I don’t want to turn away potential paying customers by getting too specific.”
BUT the reality is that by getting more specific about your ideal customer, you’re going to make it much easier to find them, connect with them, and sell to them. And by zeroing in on your ideal customer, you’re not deciding that you can’t work with other types of customers. You’re just making it easier for you to find and speak to those ideal customers. The reality is that your ideal customer will change over time, just like your business will evolve over time.
By getting specific about your ideal customer, you’re going to be able to grow your business much faster and more easily.
Here are some questions to ask yourself about your ideal customer:
What are their demographics (age, income level, relationship status, job status, location, etc)?
What are they struggling with/looking for that your service will provide them?
Why are they struggling with/wanting your product or service?
How will their life and/or business be impacted by purchasing your product or service?
Try to be as specific as possible when answering these questions, this will help you get a better picture of your ideal client.
Market Research
How the hell are you supposed to sell if you’ve never actually spoken to your potential customers?
It’s common for business owners and new entrepreneurs to think once they’ve decided on an ideal client and they’ve figured out their pricing and packages, that they’re done and now all they have to do is sell. But, by not taking the time to do market research, you won’t be able to market your business as effectively.
Once you have an idea of who your ideal customer is… talk to her!
Get on a few market research calls to find out how they describe themselves, and what common “problems” they have in relation to what you offer in your business. Find out what they’re looking for - then ask them for feedback on your package(s) and pricing. Ask them what the ideal problem solution / transformation would look and feel like.
Most importantly - take notes on these calls!
Lead Generation
Now that you’ve gotten specific about your ideal client and you’ve had a few market research calls, you are probably thinking about how to get those ideal clients to actually BUY from you.
I hear from a lot of new business owners that they’ve been working really hard, but they’re hearing crickets. No leads + no discovery calls = no money.
But when I ask them what exactly they’re doing for lead generation, how often they’re doing it, and how much time they’re spending connecting with their ideal customers, it’s my turn to hear crickets.
To have clients you have to get leads, and to get leads you have to tell people what you sell and how they can buy from you!
To get consistent leads you should:
Connect with your ideal clients consistently
Educate them on what you sell
Track the time and activities you’re doing for lead gen
Track the conversations you’re having
Tell them how to buy from you
Follow up
Once you start tracking how much time you’re spending on lead generating activities and what you’re doing, you can see how much (or more likely, how little) lead gen you’re actually doing.
After you start talking about what you sell and how people can work with you, you’ll find more people wanting to connect with and buy from you.
When you start tracking the conversations you’re having and relationships you’re building, you can follow up more easily and more often. If you need additional support around lead gen, I encourage you to sign up for my free get more leads challenge here.
Follow-Ups
80% of sales require 5 follow-ups to convert, but 44% of people only follow-up once.
If you’re not following up you’re creating more work for yourself and making less money.
Think about it, if most sales take multiple follow-ups but a lot of people only follow-up once, there’s a HUGE gap.
It’s much easier and faster to take 2 minutes to follow-up with someone you’ve already spent time connecting with rather than just giving up and spending a lot more time finding and building a relationship with someone new.
That’s why I included tracking as an important part of the lead generation strategies I outlined above.
By tracking your lead generation and who you’re talking to, you can easily see when you need to follow-up. That means you can keep following-up until you get a no/not right now, and you can know if/when you should circle back.
There have been MANY times where a potential client has just gotten busy and needs a reminder, or when my first email got lost in their inbox, and just by taking a minute to follow-up one more time, I ended up booking them as a client.
Pitching
How are you supposed to get the sale if you never actually ask for it?
When I’m going over sales strategy with my clients one thing I see consistently is that they’re not actually pitching.
Whether it’s via email, in the DMs, or on a discovery call, you have to tell potential customers what working with you would look like, how they can work with you (your packages and pricing), then actually ask if they’re ready to buy. This isn’t being pushy or sleezy - this is selling the product or service you’ve created!
You can get a clear idea of what they’re thinking and if they’re likely to buy when you actually ask for the sale. Then, you can tailor the rest of the conversation based on their response.
Want to know exactly how to start getting more clients in your business TODAY? Check out this free guide.
