How Can I Attract Clients?

One of the most popular questions I am asked is “how can I attract clients”.  This is not always a question from brand new business owners. It is quite common for a business to have had a burst of energy where family, friends, connections online did become clients, but they drifted away and it was back to square one all over again. The question is why did they drift away?

Going Backwards in Order to go Forwards

There is a well known fable which is a favourite of mine, A Tortoise and Hare decide to race. The hare is so confident in the lead that he naps while the tortoise keeps going to win.

Slow and steady wins the race.”

The moral of the story is, some business owners think fast growth is the best way to go, but often see clients trickling away until they have none left. There is a reason for this which I will cover later in this post.

The business owners who prefer a slow, but steady growth, see a surge in their clients and their retention rate is overall much better.

Why is Fast Growth Not Always a Great Idea?

The question to ask yourself is this – is fast growth sustainable on a long term basis? If you don’t know the answer then research this topic. But, for the purpose of this post I do have some simple answers.

  • If your product or service is offered to the marketplace as soon as it’s ready, without prior trials, or customer feedback, the obvious can happen – your product fails to give satisfaction, breaks, or your timeline for delivery is over zealous. You over promise and under deliver.
  • You failed to invest in the right people. Your marketing team, as an example might not be in place yet. This might be because you see no need to have a marketing plan because your product has gone straight to market and it’s making an impact. Your sales team jumped in, sold your products/services and there is not a strong foundation for future growth at that point in time.
  • Cash flow is another part of the equation. Your growth happened too quickly, your accounts receivable is lagging behind, meaning your clients are not paying you so your cash flow has stalled. You failed to work on a budget that took into account short and long term expectations, did not put in place a reasonable forecast for expected revenue and of course your start up costs.

Attracting Clients

In order to attract clients and retain loyal clients a strong brand, with credibility backing the brand up, along with a business plan that allows for change, growth and other such related items, should be in place.

Be ready for your growth, by having strong foundations at the beginning, then those foundations will continue to grow stronger. Cutting to the chase means your scant foundations will crumble.

Whether you are a sole proprietor, a tech start-up or a medium sized business, it’s always a gamble when things take off quickly. Not being ready is obviously one of the most common challenges, which could lead to costly mistakes down the line.

Being Ready

It’s not about turning clients away. It’s about continually planning for now and for the future. Short and long terms planning pays off big time.

Know how to continue to offer your clients an exceptional experience, with great customer service, after care and of course special offers along the way.

Complacency and thinking you have the first ever widget that everyone wants will lead to your downfall. There are many famous named companies that have fallen to the wayside, thinking they are the one and only.

Being in business means you are in constant change mode, new technologies, new trends, new demographics and of course new generations are the factors that lead the way. Stay in touch with all of the new trends and technologies, and of course your customers needs.

More people are shopping online, but what percentage of businesses are ready for that not so new trend? For the customers who don’t want to always shop online are you still able to take care of those customers?

We come back to being ready, to having the knowledge to know your target market, your customers needs, before you can offer a solution.

You might not win the race, but you will still reach the finishing line. That’s when you will realise your competitors are no longer in the race, they failed to keep up with their fast pace growth and their customers walked back to where you were waiting.

As always I am happy to read your comments here, via your emails and of course when we meet at the many events I speak at. Your feedback is very important to me, thank you.