How to get and keep better clients

feature Get & Keep

Better Clients

by Peter Gjersoe Attend any business get-together these days, and soon the conversation will turn to the subject: “How can I get more and/or better clients?” Just like personal relationships, we may spend time identifying: ‘For my perfect partner, I want them to be so and so,’ and then in detail describe your perfect partner. That’s a good start, but it’s not enough. To be a good match, the following question is equally important: ‘What kind of partner is my perfect partner looking for?’ And unless those standards are met, you had better start developing them to have any chance of competing. It’s no different in business. Buyers today are much more sophisticated and have much less time to consider options. Part of the problem is that we are facing something never experienced before – today there are more sellers than buyers. This means that traditional selling and advertising techniques simply don’t work anymore. Today, especially for a new business, it’s fundamental to invest the time to fully understand and quantify: (1) Who is the ideal client we want, and should be selling to? And (2) How can we present ourselves as our ideal clients’ ideal provider? ‘Get and Keep Better Clients’ is a fourpart model you may want to consider when answering the above questions. And the first rule is: It’s always about the client, never about you!

First: ‘Get’ There are only two reasons people or companies spend money: to fix or avoid pain. Alternatively, to acquire something desirable. It used to be that we were more willing to spend money on fixing pain than on fulfilling desires. However, today expenditure is more often based on a desire for a feeling more than fixing a pain. Ideally, you should try and meet both opportunities. There are 7+ billion people in the world currently. Not everyone is your prospect, so you need to start identifying who are your ‘better clients.’ Better clients are those who are the biggest beneficiaries of what you offer. Then separate your better client prospects into demographics. This usually means identifying characteristics such as personal (ideal age, gender, income, marital status, etc.), organisational (turnover, employees, structure etc.) and geographic (suburb, town, state, etc.). Then consider what the optimum media channel is to attract their attention, and finally, what type of advertisement attracts your prospects? Next you need to build an attraction model based on building trust before any financial transaction, combined with a best-of-breed client support service. Bottom line: you need to get very clear on exactly who your clients are today and why they would shop at your place.

Second: ‘Keep’ One of the major consequences of living at a time characterised by having many more providers of products and services than there are clients, is that there is no longer any loyalty given, and an accepted fact is that 82 per cent of clients go elsewhere simply because they do not feel loved. To keep your better clients, you need to start with a review of every component of your business that a prospect or client can come into contact with and ask, “Is the level of quality experienced at this step of the relationship the quality I want my business to be judged by?” Note: consistency and speed of response are more important than anything else. Then review how much and how often you’re showing your clients that you love them, and are making it attractive for them to come back to you again and again.

Third: ‘Better Clients’ At least quarterly you need to review ‘who are my better clients?’ by applying the Pareto or 80:20 principle: make being a client of yours something that’s desirable. Once you’re aware of who your top clients are, you can apply ‘whole of life’ calculations. Based on whole of life, you can much more clearly determine expected profit margins, which enables you to run a better business. Further, it enables you to estimate how much you can invest in client acquisition cost to ensure you only work with the right prospects, and have a high probability of turning them into better clients.

Last: ‘Clients vs. Customers’ Clients are individuals or businesses that make repeat purchases from the same provider because that provider continues to provide the best solution. Successful businesses have clients, not customers. Customers are individuals or businesses who make a purchase based on the best price for a product or service. Next time they need that product or service they’ll look around for the cheapest supplier of that product or service. Supermarkets have customers, not clients.

GjeneSys Pty. Ltd. http://about.me/petergjersoe