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Bringing
Clients In The Door: How Professionals Can Encourage Business
You're a professional
- either a doctor, or a dentist, or an artist. Maybe you're an
independent sales person who works on commission, or a speaker
who must sell yourself.
You might even be a
B-C business whose product depends on a product or service
you've developed.
You've been trained
well; you went to a professional school, or positioned yourself
as an expert, and you're very good at what you do. And now
you've gone into business to give others the opportunity to pay
you to do what you do best.
You rent space, hire
staff, take out a loan - possibly a very large loan - to
populate your office with the best: technology, staff, ambiance.
And a few of your friends come in as your first clients. And
then you wait for others to walk in the door.
And you wait.
You're not a business person and you've not been taught the fine
art of marketing. Not to mention that it's embarrassing to have
to tell others how good you are and that they should pay you
because you're good.
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"Hi. I'm Joe Smith.
I'm the new doc in town. You oughta come in and see me. I'm
really good and I'll take good care of you. When can I expect
you? I've got time to see you, um, all day today, and, um, well,
whenever you want to come in I could make time for you. When are
you coming in?"
WHY CONVENTIONAL
SALES DOESN'T WORK IN THE PROFESSIONAL MARKET
Part of the problem
is that ‘sales' has been based on some rendition of a push
strategy, or, the newly coined approach of a ‘relationship'
(which does nothing more than try to have the prospect like you
- and of course all of your competitors are doing the same
thing). But the model as we've known it is inefficient.
Statistically, the very model brings in no more than 7% of its
target (obviously leaving a 93% failure rate).
Following the
conventional sales model, you'd have to sell your services by
influencing/convincing/persuading folks that you are better than
your competitors, that you are to be trusted, that you are price
competitive, and that the buyer needs you and your product. And,
whatever else they might be basing their decision on.
Indeed, that is the
problem: who knows what buyers base their decisions on? They do.
Only the client knows the criteria that help all of the internal
factors come up with a decision to fix or change something. It's
been a fallacy, all these years, to believe that because the
vendor (you, in this case) can understand the problem (and you
do! You do!), and your product can solve their problem (you can!
You can!), that your product is a natural fit - and that of
course you are the best vendor.
But, only those who
live inside the problem have the capacity to understand the
problem and resolve it. While a solution may look obvious to you
as an outsider, it isn't obvious at all to them. They've had the
problematic issues, along with a certain set of ‘givens' and
expectations and work-arounds, in place for a long time; it
feels normal to them. And until/unless they are willing and able
to do something different, they won't change.
At the end of the
day, you will never fully understand the client's criteria, or
system, or viewpoint, or set of systems that hold the problem in
place; and you can't know their criteria for making a change or
for using you over their current provider (and everyone has some
sort of ‘provider').
When I moved here to
Austin, I obviously had to change my long term dental providers.
After working with a new periodontist for a while, he suggested
a regular dentist for a cap I needed. Of course I went on his
recommendation. But as I sat in the chair with a numb mouth
filled with dental paraphernalia, this guy began telling me
about his political convictions which were very, very opposite
to mine, and frankly, offensive to me. Next.
Was his care good?
Probably. Was he a nice guy? Um… well, maybe. But I'm a highly
political animal and couldn't abide by political opinions being
spouted at me when I was helpless to object. He had no idea what
my criteria were. In fact, he was actually surprised when he
called me months later to get my ongoing business and I told him
no.
It's not about the
product. It's not about how wonderful you are. It's about the
internal systems - the beliefs, the tangle of relationships and
policies and historic remedies and people issues and and and.
HOW DO WE FIND THE
RIGHT CLIENTS?
Given you know your
craft but may not have the same level of savvy to garner all of
the patients or clients that you deserve, how indeed do you get
the business to come in the door?
Remember: it's not
about you. Remember that it's about how the client makes their
best decision. Your job in finding business is to help your
clients decide to come in.
Here are some ideas
that might help. Pick the right ones for you:
1. send out a monthly
newsletter with an article of interest. Make sure you mention a
new product or service that you have somewhere in the
newsletter, but ensure there are articles of interest written by
you as well as other colleagues. This makes you an authority and
keeps you top of mind for when your client/prospect is ready to
make a new decision. Of course, the article itself might help
people decide to come in.
2. contact colleagues
in adjacent industries (like periodontists if you're a dentist)
and arrange some form of referencing model so you both help each
other get business. Getting a referral from a current provider
is a great help in the decision process.
3. hold monthly lunch
sessions that teach aspects of your business to
prospects/clients. Either do it yourself or invite some of your
business partners (see #2) to speak some of the time. That will
bring in their clients to meet you, help them highlight their
skills so they can get new business also, and will offer your
current clients new data.
4. write interesting
articles in local magazines. This will get you natural press.
5. write interesting
articles in e-zines that your client base might read - or that
will get you local notice.
6. hire someone to
call your current clients to find out how you are doing; have
them tell you what you can do better, what they'd like to see
that they currently don't get from you, and mention you'd like a
referral if they would feel comfortable doing that. Use
facilitative questions like:
a. What would you
need to see from us to ensure you get all of your needs met?
What would that look like for you?
b. What would you
need to see from us to feel comfortable recommending us to a
friend?
7. give your current
clients 50% off on X if they send a referral. This will not only
get you a new client but will ensure that you keep your current
client base. It's easier to keep current clients then it is to
get new ones.
8. set up a website.
Have a page for each of your services, and have links to your
business partners/colleagues (see #2). Have your newsletters
accessible, and have links to other authorities who are
affiliated with your work. Make it a site that your clients or
prospects can come to ‘meet' you, and determine that you're a
professional. By the way, make your site stand for who you are:
make your personality shine through. For example, I have 2 main
sites: one is to introduce my Buying Facilitation Method, and
it's mainstream looking to make a large number of people
comfortable with a revolutionary idea. My keynote site is
creative, flowing, powerful, and fun: this introduces my
character as a speaker - very different from an information
based site as my other one is.
These ideas should
get you started. Just remember to stay ‘open' and flexible to
whatever will be necessary to have people decide that you will
be part of the solution they need to embrace to solve their
problem.
M
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About the Author:
Should you wish to learn more about this, go to
www.buyingfacilitation.com and purchase my ebook Buying
Facilitation: the new way to sell that expands and influences
decisions
www.newsalesparadigm.com
www.sharondrewmorgen.com
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