12 Quick Fire Strategies to Get More Clients Now

Are you wasting time trying to get everything perfect before getting out there and meeting potential clients?

Following on from last week’s blog, What’s Best – Quick Sales or Slow Burn, I thought I’d share some ideas for if you need to earn money quickly.

Come up with a special offer / irresistible free gift / pilot / samples / prototype and promote this a few ways:

  • Top 250 List – write a list of everyone you know personally; let them know what you’re now doing and ask if they know anyone who could be interested in your offer (ideally by phone).
  • Give people (e.g. clients & contacts) an incentive or reward for referring people to you – and ask them you do this. If you’re going to market through partners or affiliates, spoon feed them graphics, wording and links they can simply copy and paste. Use technology that makes this easy and effective to do.
  • Learn how to use social media advertising effectively to promote your offer (once you’ve a sales funnel in place to follow up leads and convert into clients).
  • Email everyone you know and let them know about your special offer.
  • Do personal messages to all your social media connections to tell them about your offer.
  • Create a useful and highly attractive freebie that your ideal clients will want to sign up to. You don’t need to spend long on it (some of my freebies I created in 1-hour).
  • Public Speaking* – seek out groups of your ideal clients to speak to e.g. through Facebook groups, Meet Up groups, local community groups, networking groups – deliver a talk that invites the audience to sign up to your ‘offer’ or freebie in a heart-centered way at the end. This could also include Podcasts and Summits although the effectiveness of these depends on the specific Podcast and host.
  • Host taster events so people can meet you and sample your work or products (keep them short i.e. 1-2 hours). Remembering to capture contact details by offering your freebie/offer. These events could be free, charge a nominal fee or be for donations (for a cause close to your heart).
  • Ask if you can attend others’ events to show case your products/services – remembering to come up with an attractive offer for them so they will want to say ‘yes’ to you!
  • Run fundraising events targeted at your ideal clients (on-line or in person).
  • Connect with Joint Venture Partners (others who offer different services to the same audience – discuss how you could cross refer each other e.g. promoting, interviewing, guest blogging, sharing each other’s free resources, offering sales commission etc. This is one of my personal favourites for so many reasons!  Note, this is only a quick burner strategy if you have an irresistible product/service in place and already have good relationships with potential partners to approach – otherwise this is a slow burn strategy that can get quick results once you have relationships with JVPs who are a good ‘fit’.
  • Follow a plan – e.g. commit to reach out to 5 potential clients, business partners a day for a month or to run an advertising campaign for a certain period every month.

These are just some of many ideas, it would be great to hear your ideas and thoughts below.

Next week I’ll be sharing some long-term marketing strategies for building a joyful and sustainable business.

I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts – please do share your comments below.

Alisoun signature

Alisoun Mackenzie is The Compassionate Business Mentor, Author, and Speaker who inspires business owners and social entrepreneurs to turn their passions into profits and make a difference in the world. 

She is also the author of two Amazon Best Selling books Heartatude, The 9 Principles of Heart-Centered Success and Give to Profit: How to Grow Your Business by Supporting Charities Social Causes.

Alisoun is also the founder of The Heartabiz Hub a business network and training academy and has written the following free ebooks:

  • The 9 Secrets to Signing Up Clients Without Selling (click here)
  • 101 Ways To Attract Great Clients, With Heart, Integrity & Social Impact (click here)
  • 52 Ways to Raise Funds for Charities and Social Causes Through Your Business  (click here)

You can connect with Alisoun here:

  • Alisoun Mackenzie Facebook Fanpage (for tips on authentic living and business mastery) – click HERE
  • The Heartabiz Hub Facebook Fanpage (for details about our courses and events) – click HERE
  • Give To Profit Facebook Fanpage (tips on supporting charities and social causes) – click HERE

Compassionate Sales – An Oxymoron Or Perfect Marriage?

 

I wonder if like me you’ve ever struggled with the idea of selling?

I used to be someone who avoided ‘sales’ at all cost and so I originally built up my business by working as a training consultant through organisations who ‘sold’ what I offered to their audience. It was great – all I needed to do was turn up and deliver. And once I’d worked with enough clients, I found my diary filled through referrals.

However when I chose to give up most of my training consultancy, it was like starting a new business – and my uneasiness around sales came up again. Only this time, having far more experience and knowledge about business, human psychology and how to overcome emotional and mindset blocks, it wasn’t long before I discovered how to love marketing and ‘sales.’

It was while writing the chapter on Compassion in my forthcoming book Heartatude – The 9 Principles Of Heart-Centered Success that I realised ‘selling’ is just another way to be compassionate:

  • You see being compassionate is about taking action to ease someone else’s suffering.
  • The purpose of marketing is to provide solutions to other people’s problems – and letting them know how you can help.
  • Sales is simply about helping others work out whether what you’ve got to offer is a good fit for them – and if so, to invite them to buy from you!

When you think about sales in this way, not letting people how you can help them seems selfish!

So while your intention may be to be kind or to make a difference to others, giving in to your ego and negative programming around sales could be having the opposite affect – at a cost to you and them.

Why lose out to love when you could be enjoying the perfect marriage?

Because as soon as you decide to embrace the possibility that ‘selling’ could be a way to help others, and that you can do this AUTHENTICALLY and in a way that FEELS GOOD, you will find it easier to sign up more clients – once of course you’ve mastered the skills to do this!

People have been asking me to share how to do this and so my latest training course – The Compassionate Sales Formula was born in 2014.

If you’d like to find out more, I invite you to sign up to my free report 25 Ways To Sign Up Clients Without ‘Selling’ – this is packed with tips on this topic. You can sign up HERE.

I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts – please do share your comments below.

Alisoun signature

Alisoun Mackenzie is The Compassionate Business Mentor, Author, and Speaker who inspires business owners and social entrepreneurs to turn their passions into profits and make a difference in the world. 

She is also the author of two Amazon Best Selling books Heartatude, The 9 Principles of Heart-Centered Success and Give to Profit: How to Grow Your Business by Supporting Charities Social Causes.

Alisoun is also the founder of The Heartabiz Hub a business network and training academy and has written the following free ebooks:

  • The 9 Secrets to Signing Up Clients Without Selling (click here)
  • 101 Ways To Attract Great Clients, With Heart, Integrity & Social Impact (click here)
  • 52 Ways to Raise Funds for Charities and Social Causes Through Your Business  (click here)

You can connect with Alisoun here:

  • Alisoun Mackenzie Facebook Fanpage (for tips on authentic living and business mastery) – click HERE
  • The Heartabiz Hub Facebook Fanpage (for details about our courses and events) – click HERE
  • Give To Profit Facebook Fanpage (tips on supporting charities and social causes) – click HERE

How To Set Compelling & Profitable Prices

A common challenge that lots of heart-centered business owners have is how to set their prices in a way that will both generate the income they’d love from their business whilst at the same time offer good value to their customers.

And so today I’m going to share a formula that I use when setting prices – one that helps guide me towards setting attractive prices because it considers pricing from number of important perspectives.

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Yippee! The Tide Is Changing Towards Compassionate Marketing

A huge thanks to those of you who kindly completed my recent post Give To Profit Summit survey – it’s wonderful to realise there is definitely a growing swell of interest in ethical and compassionate marketing. And so heart-warming too that 24% of respondents are already supporting charities through their business.

I thought I’d share ideas on how to overcome key challenges faced by respondents incase you relate to any of them too:

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How To Find Out What Your Ideal Clients Want (& Will Pay For)

During this month’s free monthly community call I shared ideas for ‘How To Find Out What Your Ideal Clients Want’ and because it was so popular, I thought I’d share some of these here too.

In one of my recent surveys 52% of participants stated that not generating enough income is one of their biggest challenges in business. And yet there is one thing you can do that will make this easier – that most people don’t and so are missing a really valuable trick!

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3 Ways To Build Relationships With Potential Clients

I wonder if you’ve ever felt awkward around sales. If yes, then you’re not alone! In a recent survey I did, 38% said they feel uncomfortable ‘selling’.

And it’s usually because while we know what we don’t like when it comes to sales (and don’t want to come across as a pushy or sleazy sales person ourselves), not many of us have the conscious awareness of what people say or do that leads us to say ‘yes’ and buy.

The good news is that  huge factors influencing whether someone buys from you is how much they ‘know’, ‘like’ and ‘trust’ you. And so if you’re in the business of helping others one of the most important factors as to whether you’ll convert leads into paying clients is your ability to grow good relationships. Particularly with those who may be interested in your services or those who could refer clients to you.

So today I thought I’d share 3 ways you can build relationships with potential clients:

  1. Set up an email list of potential clients and send subscribers regular emails – email marketing is one of the most effective ways to build relationships and showcase your expertise (as long as what you share is interesting and adds value to your audience). To get ideas on what to write about, write answers to the top 10 questions that people ask you to help them with – then write an email on each. Questions from leads and clients is what inspires me to write my emails/blog posts.
  2. Offer free monthly calls to those on your email list – these are a great way for you to connect an build stronger relationships with those who have expressed an interest in your work. During these content only calls (i.e. no selling) I share my latest ideas on a particular topic (often chosen by my followers) and invite those listening in to share their ideas and ask questions. Again if you’re on my email list and what to experience how to do this, simply listen in to one of my monthly calls that you’ll receive an email about.
  3. Set up & run your own Facebook Group – this is a great way for you to connect and get to know people who resonate with your message/work. Invite people who are your ideal clients to join, share resources and encourage participation. The beauty of this strategy is that for open groups, others will be able to find your group and ask to join if they like the look of what you’re doing. If you’re not already a member, you can check out my Facebook Group HERE.

Remember, these strategies for building relationships with potential clients are just one step in the ‘sales’ process. And making sure you have no holes in your sales process (including inviting people to buy from you) is still important.

That said, you are likely to find that by building credibility and relationships over time in the ways I’ve suggested, is likely to result in more people approaching you to sign up or refer business opportunities to you. Because most of us tend to prefer those who ‘help’ rather than those who ‘sell at’ us. 

If you’d like to find out more about how you can sign up more clients by ‘giving’ rather than ‘selling’, I’m running a Give To Sell Workshop on this topic in Edinburgh on 12th June – you can find out more HERE

I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts – please do share your comments below.

Alisoun signature

Alisoun Mackenzie is The Compassionate Business Mentor, Author, and Speaker who inspires business owners and social entrepreneurs to turn their passions into profits and make a difference in the world. 

She is also the author of two Amazon Best Selling books Heartatude, The 9 Principles of Heart-Centered Success and Give to Profit: How to Grow Your Business by Supporting Charities Social Causes.

Alisoun is also the founder of The Heartabiz Hub a business network and training academy and has written the following free ebooks:

  • The 9 Secrets to Signing Up Clients Without Selling (click here)
  • 101 Ways To Attract Great Clients, With Heart, Integrity & Social Impact (click here)
  • 52 Ways to Raise Funds for Charities and Social Causes Through Your Business  (click here)

You can connect with Alisoun here:

  • Alisoun Mackenzie Facebook Fanpage (for tips on authentic living and business mastery) – click HERE
  • The Heartabiz Hub Facebook Fanpage (for details about our courses and events) – click HERE
  • Give To Profit Facebook Fanpage (tips on supporting charities and social causes) – click HERE

How To Stop Great Clients Slipping Through Your Fingers

Recently I had a lovely evening meeting some new like-minded souls at a networking group I’d been keen to attend for a while. But I’d almost forgotten about the event until I received a reminder from Meetup.com.

Have you ever missed something you’d really wanted to attend or see but forgot about?

Yet do you ever feel reluctant about reminding people about your events or product offers?

I know I used to feel anxious about sending out reminders, as I didn’t want to bother or pester people. But now I realise that some people will be really pleased to receive them!

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