Good Marketing, Good Business

061: Proactively Going After The Clients You Want

July 21, 2024 • Shannon Stone • Episode 61

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Taking on whatever work comes your way is a highly reactive way of doing business. 

By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:

  • How you can take control and go after the clients and projects you really want
  • The three-step process for identifying, finding and reaching out to your ideal clients
  • The way in which your ideal clients will be WANTING to hear from you

This will help you get proactive about intentionally finding the clients and projects you really want.

Enjoy!

Resources:


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Shannon Stone:

H ey guys, welcome to the podcast. Super excited to share this episode with you today.

Shannon Stone:

Today, I'm going to be talking about where many businesses can go wrong with the type of clients they work with, both in type of quality of clients and also quantity the number of clients that you're working with. It's honestly such a small but mighty shift that I'm going to share with you today. That can really be the difference to helping you to grow your business in ways that you would probably much rather prefer Now, where I find many businesses. If you look at the type of clients that you work with, the type of projects that you take on, I always like to think okay, well, where did these people come from? And for most businesses, the clients and projects that they're working on are the clients and projects that have come to them, rather than so that's very inbound. It's whatever inquiries have come to them. It's whoever's kind of landed in your inbox, or, you know, you've happened to meet the right person at the right event and got talking, and so they want to use your services. It's kind of happened in some kind of ways, quite organically, quite naturally, even if you have all your marketing in place as well. So your marketing can still be working. You know, you can have your email newsletter, you can have your social media content, whatever online presence that you do have, but if you really look at, how are people coming to work with you, it's just almost like more on the client and lead side, where they're coming to you rather than you going out to them in a very outbound kind of style. So this is not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing for you to work with the clients that just come your way. Where it can go wrong, though, is if you're not working with the number of clients that you want to work with and the quality or the type of clients that you want to work with. If your business is where it is right now and you're not happy with it and you're wanting to work with different type of clients or bigger type of clients, or sell your services at higher prices or different type of projects, you literally have the power to do that, and that's what I want to share with you today some ways that you can actually get more proactive around, intentionally going after the clients you really want to work with.

Shannon Stone:

Now, one quote that I came across and I'm sure you've heard it before it's wake up with determination, go to bed with satisfaction, and I'm like such a and not everyone's like this, but if you're like this, we are like. So, two peas in a pod. But I'm definitely a doer, like an action taker. I love to. I don't like to sit around and just wait for whatever dream or goal I have to just magically happen, like I actually love to go after it. I love to see the progress, I love to see it come together. I really like to and maybe it's a control freak in me I really love to have control over the outcome by making sure that I put in the work. And so when I saw this quote years ago wake up with determination, go to bed with satisfaction I was like I really like that.

Shannon Stone:

And how I applied it even just with my clients, definitely, but also myself in my business is when it came to client acquisition, wanting to take on more clients it was like, okay, when I wake up I want to have a plan, or I want to make a plan that day for how I'm going to grow my business and I'm going to follow through on those actions to the point where when I hit the pillow that night, when I go to bed, I want to be entirely satisfied that I've done everything I could have done that day. Even if clients haven't landed by the end of that day, that's okay, as long as when my head hits the pillow, I know I've done as much good work as I can to really progress that forward and I know the results will come because of how I've spent that day. And so this is almost like the sentiment of, I think, being proactive, any kind of outbound marketing strategies. It's that you actually have to be determined, you have to follow through with the actions and you will know that those actions will turn into results real soon. So I want to share that with you kind of upfront before we get into the three areas that are really going to help you to take on clients and projects that you really want to work with, not just the ones that come your way and, like I said, there's nothing wrong with just working with whatever comes your way. That might be working for you or for this season that you're in, but if you really want to take things up a notch, like what I'm going to share is going to really turn the dial up so much more and really help you to grow your business. Okay.

Shannon Stone:

So number one is to know who your ideal client actually is and to make them extremely obvious. And this is so much more than just knowing who your ideal client is Like. It's so much more than saying I work with service-based businesses. You have to make it so incredibly obvious and I'm going to talk about this because when you make it so incredibly clear who they are, the rest of the heavy lifting like you've done so much heavy lifting and just identifying laser, targeting in on who it is that you really want to work with, who are those clients that if you could spot them in a crowd because you've identified them so well. So the example I have for us here is say, for example, you're a sales trainer, you're someone who helps to train businesses and teams with their sales. So maybe the problem you solve is helping businesses who struggle with sales. Now, this is like every single business, right, like every single business could definitely harness their sales skills. It is not enough to identify the type of people you want to work with. That way, you're not going to spot them in a crowd and it's not going to make step two and three easier for us. It's actually going to make it so much harder.

Shannon Stone:

So, instead of just saying you help businesses who struggle with sales, getting deeper could look like. Maybe they're traditional service-based businesses who currently get 20 inquiries at least at least 20 inquiries per month and their current sales process is just a presentation where you present your say like a real estate agency would be a great example here. Maybe they're getting 20 inquiries a month. Their sales process is to do a presentation, put together the data and all the bits and pieces that they do, present it to them and then they just keep moving on to the next inquiry. Not too much of a process beyond that. So this is actually much more laser targeted than just saying you help businesses who struggle with sales, because that really is everyone. But if you say no, as a sales trainer I help those who are currently getting at least 20 inquiries per month. Their current sales process is a one or two step process. They don't have any discovery process or follow up process or nurture process. They don't have any of that built yet. They are my ideal clients.

Shannon Stone:

Now you could you could kind of keep bullet pointing the details of who that ideal client is. But this is how particular and specific you want to make it in, like whether this is your ideal client or some other segment. You want to make it really clear and really obvious who they are. Because when it comes to any kind of marketing, you can talk about not just helping people who struggle with sales, but those who are flat out busy doing 20 plus inquiries per month, doing those presentations every single month, and they're not really going anywhere. You know it's definitely a different category of people. It's a subset, it's a segment within the big problem of everyone who struggles with sales.

Shannon Stone:

So step one is to know who your ideal client actually is, and super easy way to do this is to have a look at who your clients are right now, who are some of the best ones you love working with, and where were they at the start, when you started working with them. What were some of those details? If you were the sales trainer, how many inquiries were they getting at the moment? What does their sales process currently look like? What's their talk about all of it, and make it really clear. So that is number one. Number two is to know exactly where to find your said ideal clients. So you could easily say well, they're on LinkedIn or they're on this social media platform, or they're networking.

Shannon Stone:

Now, if you were our example, our sales trainer of the day, and you're helping businesses who struggle with sales, we've identified them to have at least 20 inquiries per month. Think about where are you more likely to find these businesses who are getting 20 plus inquiries per month? Where are they? Who could they actually be? What type of industries could they be in? These are the questions that you want to sit with and think about and answer, because they're probably some of the clients you've already started to attract.

Shannon Stone:

Now for our sales trainer example. If they're chasing 20 plus inquiries per month, they're probably not scrolling on social media. They're also probably not attending events as well networking events and all that type of thing. They're probably not head down on the tools in business, speaking to those 20 plus inquiries per month, probably focusing on trying to get even more inquiries because their conversion rates are so low. They just think maybe it's a numbers game. So maybe they're hitting the pavement trying to get more of those inquiries in or they're working with the marketing team trying to get more leads coming in.

Shannon Stone:

You want to dive into who they actually are, where they actually are, and catch them where they are not where you think they are. So yeah sure, you might find them on LinkedIn or you might find their website or whatever it might be, but when you identify who they are and kind of get into the details of it, then you start to see where you will actually find them. How are you going to catch their attention where they actually are? I think that's really really important. So number two is to know exactly where to find those clients. And last point there was to catch them where they are not where you think they are Really important.

Shannon Stone:

And this is some of that pre-work that a lot of people might take for granted. It's like oh, they're on social media, so I'll just start posting on social media and I'll be bound to find them. That way. It's like if it was that simple, everyone would be doing it and you probably wouldn't be listening to this episode or trying to find ways to generate more clients and grow your business. So take the time to think about where they actually are and the people who do this, like if you think of a business just the same as yours, if most of them, most of you and like I don't really talk about competitors, I don't really think of people in that kind of way but if there's an opposing business similar to yours, most people are not going to put in the work to think about the details that we're talking about here, as in who they are and where to specifically find them, catching them where they are, not where we think they might be, or where some people might say, well, they're just on socials or you just got to get them on your email list. Especially if you're in a lower volume category, like you don't need as many clients to reach your revenue goals, which is a lot of businesses, especially if you're selling high ticket services. I would encourage you more than anyone to put in this pre-work, to figure out the details and come up with the answers to these questions and be more strategic. Because when you're more strategic by answering these questions, it's going to get you so much further than putting together funnels and all sorts of crazy kind of complicated strategies. So that is number two. Know exactly where to find your said ideal clients. Okay, and then number three is to decide how you'll reach out to these ideal clients. So keeping up with the same scenario of the sales trainer Now we've kind of mentioned a post on social media is not going to be enough.

Shannon Stone:

They're too busy. They're attending probably back-to-back inquiries, doing their presentations with their 20 plus inquiries or leads per month. So are these ideal clients of yours likely to see your social media content? Probably not. Are they likely to attend a webinar that you're running? Probably not, because they're so busy. So when you laser in on who you're targeting specifically and where you're likely to find them, creating a method for reaching out to them starts to fall into place. So we know webinars are probably not going to work because they're so busy. Social media they're too busy as well.

Shannon Stone:

So what if you did say, for example, like a well-crafted letter, something a little bit old school, and you sent it to them personally. That is probably going to make more of a difference than trying to get people to your difference, than trying to get people to your webinar, trying to get people to see your social media content. When you're laser sharp with who you're targeting and where to find them, what you say to them, people will listen much more attentively. When you've identified them so much better and you're finding a method that reaches out to them and cuts through the noise so much better, they're much more attuned to wanting to listen. Because it's like you really are talking directly to them, because you've identified them on a much more detailed level. They actually want to hear from you and they want to know how you can actually help them.

Shannon Stone:

So this might be a 10, 15, 30 minute exercise that you do in total. That can really like pay dividends for you in your business and honestly, like with chat, gpt, with a little bit of AI or just a little bit of thinking through this of like okay, who do we want to really target? Where can we actually find these people? That is not in the norms and what would be a great way to reach out to these people so they want to hear from us and they want to hear about how we can help them with the problem they're experiencing. You're probably going to find that people loving hearing from you. You're not going to have to send. It's probably honestly. It's probably like the quickest and best way to grow your business if you think of it this way.

Shannon Stone:

So, coming back to what we spoke about in the beginning, this is about being much more proactive. This is about going after what you want. It's about and it might be for a certain subset of people who are, you know, those who love the hustle. They love to get out there, they love to kind of see that progress. You maybe resonate with that quote at the start of I wake up with determination and go to bed with satisfaction.

Shannon Stone:

If you are of that mind, you're probably going to love this strategy and set yourself a target each week or each month. It's like, once you work this out, it's like I'm going to send 20 letters per month, every single month. Or I'm going to like whatever strategy or how you end up reaching out to them, whatever that looks like set a target each week or each month and do that consistently, like don't stop. People will often stop their marketing when they get busy, and then they'll be busy and then clients will eventually wrap up and then they're quiet again. Then they have to start marketing again. It's a cycle for sure. So I encourage you to definitely take this strategy that I've literally just mapped out there for you later on the table, and that would, honestly, it does grow many, many businesses. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. That's what I'll leave you with today.

Shannon Stone:

If I leave you with an action step, it will be to do step one, two and three, but I know that is a whole lot of work which, if you want the results, you definitely take the time. Let's make this the action step. Put into your calendar 30 minutes to take action on these three things that we spoke about. So spend 10 minutes on who is your ideal client, 10 minutes on finding out exactly where they are and 10 minutes on deciding how you'll reach out to these clients. 30 minutes I'm sure you've got that time to work on your business to do that. And if you want to be like a real action taker, add another 30 minutes to that to figure out if you are writing a letter or you've got some other kind of you know strategy that you think is a bit more suitable to your business. Spend 30 minutes putting that together, writing that letter. However it is that you're going to reach out to them phone calls, finding their website, sending some emails, whatever it might be but write the template of whatever it could be and then you can just start to get to work every single month. You've got your target and you'll be, yeah, 20 letters per month, whatever it might be. So that is what I have for you today.

Shannon Stone:

I hope you found this strategy episode really, really useful and, if you have any questions at all, definitely reach out. I hope you have an amazing week and we'll talk soon. Hey, thanks for listening. If you found this episode useful, I'd love for you to send it to a friend. The best podcasts I have found have all been recommended to me. If you can spread the word by sharing this episode, I can spend more time helping you by creating episodes just like this one. Send it, text it, tell somebody about it. Whatever you need to do, the more you spread the word, the more I can focus on creating needle moving episodes to help you and your friends.

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