Good Marketing, Good Business
Have you noticed so much business and marketing content out there is so abstract and airy fairy - what they’re saying sounds good, but what do you actually need to DO?
That’s where the Good Marketing, Good Business podcast comes in, this is where I share practical strategies to help you grow your service based business. Everything from exactly where to find more clients through to how to follow up properly without pestering.
Your host, Shannon Stone is an award-winning business and marketing consultant and for the last 10+ years she’s been diving in deep with small business owners, helping them to make more sales and get more done in less time.
The Good Marketing, Good Business podcast is here to make your life and business a whole lot easier as long as you’re ready to put in the work - if you’re a good-hearted business owner who wants to grow, this is the podcast you'll want to call home.
Good Marketing, Good Business
068: Why Established Businesses Find It Hard To Generate Clients
Established businesses can take a mental beating when clients aren’t coming to them in roves how they used to once upon a time.
You’re arguably the best at what you do, you’ve been doing it longer than most, these alone should speak for themselves.
So why is it that ultra-experienced and well-established businesses go through their phases of having fewer clients?
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
- What you can use to your advantage as an established business
- How business is still a fair playing field when it comes to client-generation
- Fitting in business development, lead generation and marketing amongst a fully operational business
Enjoy!
Masterclass on Wednesday September 11th at 1:30pm AEST:
→ Learn how established services continue to gain great clients and grow their business - Register here.
Resources:
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
H ey guys. Welcome to the podcast.
Shannon Stone:Today we are chatting about why established businesses find it hard to generate clients. So when we're talking about established businesses, we are not talking about the length of time someone's been in business although that is a really good indicator and we're also not talking about the size of the business. I've seen lots of great established businesses where it's just the business owner as a sole trader, or they might have a team member, or they might be using contractors or virtual assistants. So the structure of it, the length of time you've been in business they're not necessarily indicators into you being an established business. The way that I see an established business is one that is, you've gotten off the ground, you're completely operational, you've got clients, you're fulfilling on those clients. Things are happening, things are working in your business and when I say working, it doesn't mean things have to be perfect, but you've got, I would say, the end to end of things set up. So if a lead or an inquiry comes in, you know how to handle it. You know how to onboard a client, you know how to deliver on that service and, generally, you probably know how to offboard that client as well or what the next steps are. As much as we can constantly improve all of these things, you've got an established business if you've got a lot of those things in place. So, with all that being said and what is quite an indicator, if you've got all of that in place, I would imagine you're actually pretty good and let's emphasize it, pretty good, like amazing at what you do.
Shannon Stone:So why is it businesses like yours can find it hard to generate clients? I am going to break this down for us, because all of my clients are established businesses and there can be a lot of reasons why they can find it hard to generate clients. Sometimes the newer businesses are in that startup phase. They don't have to deal with all the things that you're dealing with putting out 10 fires a day, dealing with staff or team fulfilling on those client orders and all the things that come with that. Sometimes the cash flow ups and downs which is not always an indicator on things going terrible in your business just sometimes cash flow can be a roller coaster in itself. Established businesses will definitely be able to hear me on that. So our newer type of businesses often don't have to focus on any of that. They just have to focus on attracting a couple of clients, getting things going, getting off the ground.
Shannon Stone:So why I often find that established businesses find it harder to generate clients is because, as time goes on, as business builds and business goes on, you're dealing with more hats than you did in the early days, and often what comes last, as the last priority, is business development, lead generation, client retention or re-engaging clients the things that actually generate clients. And so what our established business friends can often forget is that you are actually a business just like everybody else. So even if someone down the street started five minutes ago, whereas you've been in business for 10, 15, 20 years, there's a fair playing field in a sense, as far as access to the same clients. So we can't forget that you are in and I don't see business as an equal playing field. In a way it is, but there's so many advantages that different people have or different businesses have, and that's one of the things I think established businesses can forget, and I think it's one of the things I love to work with them on as well it's to help them to see those advantages they have because they have been in business for such a long time. They do have a really good pool of clients.
Shannon Stone:What has started to slip up is the, I guess, coming back to the foundations and also systemizing the things that do work, forgetting all those type of things, whereas often, as it happens, we're just doing the urgent things, the important and urgent things, but not the important and not urgent things, and in that category, it is often that business development, lead generation, marketing, all of that type of thing. So, to add to this conversation, I think it's really reminding people that we need to remember that you need to make time for maintaining and generating new clients and new business. Time's not just going to create itself. We have to be the ones to make the time. So, whatever that looks like for you especially, I think as businesses grow, you become more established, your responsibilities can grow as well, especially if you do have a team. So even more reason for you to make that time to generate those new clients, generate that new business. And sometimes it's really coming back to the things that you did in the early days, did in the beginning. What we just have differently at this stage Fast forwarding to where you're at now is, like I said, all those extra responsibilities, and this is where we have to automate, systemize, delegate we can't be the ones doing everything and I think some of that comes back to well, what type of business do you actually want versus the business that you actually have, and start to align that a little bit more.
Shannon Stone:The last thing that I will say on this is it's very rare that a business grows without being intentional about your growth. It's only the unicorns of the world who certain things happen and their business blows up in a really beautiful, positive way. But it's very rare that your typical service-based business, established business, even a startup. It's very rare that it will grow without you pouring that time and attention into it, and I think it is one of those things of hope for the best but plan for the worst. So let's hope that your business will grow without you being intentional. But actually we need to have that plan in place so we can be more in control of the success and the growth of our business. And if things start to speed up, if you start to attract clients at a rapid rate, that is a beautiful byproduct of it. But let's be intentional, let's have a plan about it. And these are the type of things that help businesses to generate clients, rather than just kind of letting it slip on by and then being very reactive to when they need to generate those clients.
Shannon Stone:So I guess, in wrapping up, why do businesses or established businesses find it hard to generate clients? In one fold, it is because they can slip up on the lead generation, marketing, business development side of things. But on the other fold, it is because you have all these other areas of your functioning operational business at play. So you might not have enough systems in place, you might be spending too much time in meetings, you might be over-servicing clients because you want to keep them happy, because you don't want them to leave. There can be an array of different. I wouldn't call them problems, but scenarios that start to happen for established businesses, that don't happen for those early bird businesses. So when I often mention you know it's not just new leads and new clients that help to grow a business, it's looking at the business really holistically and finding out well, what is actually going on here that is stopping this business from growing.
Shannon Stone:I did have a client, or one client scenario that comes to mind is a client who was established, been in business for I think 20 or 25 years and service-based, and she wanted to obviously take on more clients. And it was always a problem because it was literally like I think the analogy that comes to mind is pushing a rock up a hill. It was just not going to happen because that rock was her time and her time was so scarce, and so it was kind of like and another analogy what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do you make time first or do you generate the clients first? And for her and it can be very case by case in her business we had to make more of that time because, as she would take on more clients, she couldn't spread herself any more further than where she was currently at. So sometimes we have to look at how we're spending our time. Do we need to have systems in place? Can we streamline things? And that will create that time and space that we need to take on more clients. So I love to look at things more holistically and not just say it is only because you need more clients and that will solve all the problems.
Shannon Stone:So, wrapping this up for us and what I have for you, if you are listening to this podcast live, we do have a masterclass coming up on Wednesday, the 11th of September. The masterclass is, conveniently, to help established services gain great clients and grow their business. So I'll be taking you through how to leverage your established business to regenerate clients. I'll help you to develop a simple marketing plan so you do attract an ongoing stream of new clients as well, which is really important and finally, I'll help you to harness a business growth system that streamlines and strengthens your business for long-term growth. So that is more about that more holistic approach to your business, so not just the leads and the clients. So if you can make it to that masterclass it's Wednesday, the 11th of September, at 1 30 pm, brisbane time there will be a replay as well. So, if you can't make it, definitely do register the details, for it will be in the description of the podcast. Otherwise, come check me out on LinkedIn. You'll definitely find it, probably on the check me out on LinkedIn. You'll definitely find it, probably on the most recent post on LinkedIn, that is, if you're listening to this podcast before the 11th of September.
Shannon Stone:Now the action step from this episode aside from coming along to the masterclass, of course is to make business growth intentional again. So what I would suggest for you and your business and this goes for anyone and everyone, it doesn't matter whether you're established or startup is to even allocate one hour a week where you're going to focus on that intentional growth again and what that looks like for you. It could be lead generation, it could be sorting out your marketing, it could be contacting past clients, it could be re-engaging or retaining some of the clients that you do have and working out what are the next steps for those clients so they continue to work with you. So you'll work out what that actually looks like, but make your business growth intentional again. That is the action step for today, and definitely come along to the masterclass if you can make it. If you can't, there is definitely a replay, so do register. That is what I have for you today. I hope you have an amazing week. I might see you on Wednesday. If not, I will see you in the next episode.
Shannon Stone: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.
