Signing clients - the mistakes.

I'll start this blog with a disclaimer.

I'm not a sales expert. I have no professional qualifications. The suggestions that you read below are my own opinions and won't be right for everyone. Etc etc.

For some reason, of all the posts and blogs that I write, sales/lead gen/new business provokes the most opinions.

So, take any of what you're about the read with a pinch of salt. They are purely my observations having spoken to over 200 business founders, built my own 80 person agency and sold it, and now managed to turn this little blog into a profitable enterprise.

I'm rubbish at languages, history and beach volleyball. But I'm good at selling.

That's the legal fluff out of the way. On with the blog.

Of the 200 founders I've spoken to, I've seen a definite trend with the activities being done by the winners. So I'm going to share them with you. And if you still have cause to complain after reading - blame the data, not me.

Plain, boring, uninspiring proposition

If your business is "The Most Trusted Agency for Healthcare Brands" I'm talking to you.

Most businesses, whether selling a physical product or a service, are solving problems that people have. In general, people hand over their hard earned cash in order to take their problems away.

As the founder of your business you will of course know all of the many ways that you can solve problems for your customers. But the winning companies are the ones that tell the best stories of how. How does their product solve the problem? Or in some cases, even having to educate the customer that they have the problem in the first place.

I see so (so, so, so, so, so, so, so) many companies that don't figure this bit out before they try and put their foot down.

They remain as "The Most Trusted Agency for Healthcare Brands" and solve the problem of lack of new business by hiring sales people, buying email lists and engaging external appointment setters.

You might bring in a few good leads by spamming 10,000 cold emails with your pitch. But eventually you'll run out of emails. You need to focus on getting your proposition and story to a position where you send 100 emails and get 20 leads. That's scalable.

Give up too soon

Us founders are impatient.

We spend half of our waking hours stressing that we're going too slowly.

But the best way to win clients is by building awareness and authority amongst your target clients.

Creating content that educates them, not sells to them.

But this is a strategy that takes time. Months, not days. But once it starts working, it makes everything easier. Clients start to come to you, instead of you having to reach out. Your cold emails aren't cold anymore, because people have already heard of you.

My previous and current businesses were built off this strategy. Focus on giving free value and it will turn into revenue over time.

It's so easy to quit after a few weeks of posting Linkedin content because you haven't had any leads. But people often quit just before it starts working.

Prioritising partners

I appreciate that referrals are important in business. I'm certainly not saying that you shouldn't have a strategy for partnerships. But I've seen lots of occasions where the main client acquisition strategy is partners.

If I'm running a business, I want to be in control of how quickly I grow. Indirect sales referrals are reliant on someone else. And no matter how good your relationship with that person, they will always prioritise their own business over yours.

I'd be much more comfortable thinking of referrals from partners as a bonus rather than a necessity. Instead, focus on networking and building relationships with the end customer that's holding the budget.

Too good for outbound

No matter how fancy a job title you've given yourself, or how successful your last quarter was, no one is too good for outbound.

As I said above, you want to be able to grow your business on your own timescales, and that means you can't just rely on inbound leads. Platforms like Linkedin make it so easy to contact anyone that you want to work with.

In my own business, if I had half an hour spare, I would fire off 50 outbound messages on Linkedin. Maybe it was asking how their quarter was going, or to get feedback on a new service offering. But constant communication with the clients that I was targeting.

It meant that I always knew that I could find another £5k or £10k if we were behind target.

Trying to sell too much

It's very unlikely that a cold prospect will go from never having heard of you, to buying everything you offer on one call.

Instead, use the discovery call to really drill into the clients goals and challenges. And use this information to identify a small, low cost solution you can offer. Something that's a no-brainer that you can close on the call without needing sign off etc.

You probably won't make much money from this initial sale, but it's far easier to get more investment from someone that's already paid you something before.