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THE
PROBLEM:
Most consultants will tell you that their first
clients were people they had worked with in the past who already had confidence
in their skills and abilities. Many will also tell you that trying to sell to
people they didn't know was much more difficult.
The trick is to use the trust you have achieved with
your clients to help you quickly establish credibility with new clients.
Here are 7 techniques for leveraging the faith that
your clients have in you to land new business.
- GET INTRODUCTIONS AND REFERRALS
Here's an easy question.
Which do you think would be more effective -- making a cold call to a prospect,
or having a satisfied client recommend you? Of course, it's the latter.
Asking clients to introduce and refer you to new
prospects is not easy. But it is important to ASK. If they are truly satisfied
with the work you have performed for them, they will be happy to give you
introductions and referrals. Make sure they know what type of people and
organizations you want to do business with, and what types of problems you can
help clients solve.
There are four possible ways that they can refer
you:
- Cold -
They can just tell you
someone they think you should contact even though they don't know that
individual personally. This is a difficult lead to turn into business because
you can't use your client's name when you call.
- Warm -
Your client can suggest
someone for you to call and give you permission to use their name.
- Hot -
Your client can call ahead to
the prospect to tell them about you and say you will be calling them.
- Scalding -
Your client could offer
to go to lunch with you and the prospect to make a formal introduction.
Here's what I do.
I tell my clients that if
they are satisfied with my services, I would greatly appreciate referrals to
others who might be interested in conducting a similar project. I even
sometimes insert a few paragraphs about this in my proposals.
- DEVELOP A REFERENCE LIST
Ask your clients if they
would be agreeable to serve as a reference. Then, insert a list of these
clients and their contact information in your new business proposal. Also
include what type of work you performed for this client.
The more references you have the better. That way,
you can use the most appropriate client names for each proposal. For example,
if you are proposing to do some work for a hospital, providing references from
other hospitals is much more valuable than providing references from other
industry sectors.
Here's what I do.
At the end of each
project, I ask my clients if they would be willing to serve as a reference. I
then tell them that any time I you use their name, I will let them know. The
reason I say this is not to ask permission each time, but to give me a chance
to brief the client on the opportunity I am pursuing and who might call them.
This way they will know how to put me in the most favorable light. More
importantly, they will be much more likely to return the call of my prospect.
Also, if they are in the same industry sector, they may even know the
prospect.
If I land the business, I also make a point of
thanking the clients who provided the references.
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PAGE
- GATHER TESTIMONIALS
Testimonials are extremely
powerful. Here are a few from my Employee Opinion Survey clients:
"The Discovery Group
has conducted several employee surveys for our organization. They have been
very flexible and responsive to our needs. We were particularly pleased with
their creative solutions for communicating the results to employees, and the
quality of their suggestions for addressing the issues identified via the
survey."
Michael
N. Piergrossi
Vice President of Human Resources and Organizational
Development
W.R. Grace
"Although it is a
small firm, The Discovery group shows remarkable flexibility, innovation, care
for customers, and ability to meet tight deadlines. The consulting help in
communicating results to management and employees has been exceptional. I'll
continue to use the Discovery Group for any employee survey work - focus groups
to paper and pencil or Internet. "
Frances
Gallitano
Vice President of Human Resources
Delta Dental Plan of
Massachusetts
Here are two I recently received (after politely
asking for them) from consulting colleagues for whom I recently provided
mentoring services:
Bruce is a natural
marketer for professionals. When my consulting business was having the lull
most firms in our industry were experiencing last year, Bruce met with me for
an hour over lunch and helped me turn it all around. He asked me tough
questions, offered innovative strategies, and really helped me move
forward.
Lew
Stern, Ph.D.
Stern Consulting
Executive Coaching and organization
Development Consulting
Even with very little
prior knowledge of our industry, Bruce was able to suggest a breakthrough
pricing strategy and fresh marketing ideas for our business.
Fifi
Ball and Sally Brickell
Squared Away
Professional Organizing
Here's what I do.
I gather testimonials
after every completed project and speech. I have put together several one-page
listings of these testimonials -- one for my employee survey work, one for my
customer satisfaction survey work, one for my consulting mentoring work, and
another for my speaking services. I insert these in my proposals and on my web
site.
- CONDUCT JOINT ACTIVITIES
Recall that the goal is to transfer the
credibility of your clients and their trust in you to your prospects. Another
way to do this is to write professional papers jointly with your client or
deliver a speech with your client. In this way, the credibility of your
client's organization is transferred to you.
Here's what I did.
I conducted an employee
opinion survey for an HMO. I then ran across a call for speech proposals from
the national professional associations for HMOs. I contacted my client and
asked her if she would be interested in jointly presenting a case study of the
project and how it was helpful to her organization. She agreed. The program
committee of the association loved the idea. We both got a free trip to Orlando
and I was able to leave a favorable impression with many prospects. A win-win
for all involved.
- NAME DROP
I know that name dropping
has a negative connotation, but done properly it can really help your business.
Use your clients' names on your web site, in your proposals, in your
advertising, and in your speeches. Without permission, of course, it would be
unethical to talk about exactly what you did for these clients and what results
you achieved. But, I believe that their names and their positive impression are
fair game.
Here's what I do.
When I speak at
professional meetings, I write the introduction and bring it to the event. This
introduction includes some of my larger clients like Alcoa, Johnson &
Johnson, Revlon, Timberland, and W.R. Grace. Sounds impressive, doesn't it?
Just dropping their names gives me instant credibility. You can do this
too.
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- DEVELOP A "KEEP-IN-TOUCH"
SYSTEM
If clients are going to
keep on introducing, recommending and referring you to prospects, you've got to
stay in their minds even well after you have completed your work with them. You
don't want them to forget about you.
You can remain visible to them in a number of
ways. Send them articles, call them periodically, attend the same professional
meetings they attend, tell them when you are going to be speaking, and send
them holiday cards.
You might also want to consider creating a
spreadsheet with client names as rows, and months as columns. In each cell
enter how you touched the client (i.e. meeting, email, letter, or phone call).
This can help you make sure that you are regularly keeping in touch with your
past clients.
Here's what I do.
One of my major methods of
marketing is using ezines. I publish "Improving the Workplace" monthly and I
publish this ezine every other month. Why? To keep in the minds of my network
(i.e. clients, prospects, friends, relatives, and colleagues). Only good things
can happen when people remember you.
- CONDUCT AN ENDORSEMENT
CAMPAIGN
This is a very powerful
direct mail technique for transferring the credibility of your clients and
their respect for you to prospects. Here are the basics. Write a promotional
letter touting the value you brought to one of your clients. Then have that
client sign the letter and send it to your prospects on their letterhead. Last,
follow-up with a letter or telephone call.
An excellent tape is
available on this approach from my colleague Bob Martel. Email him at
bobmartel@jmbmarketing.com.
IN
CONCLUSION:
Your best chance of landing
new business is when one of your clients greases the skids for you. You need
them to transfer their credibility and their respect for you to others. This,
however, is not something you can leave to chance. You need to proactively keep
in the minds of your clients and ask for introductions, referrals, references,
testimonials and endorsements.
Was
this issue valuable to you?
If so, purchase my archive of past
issues (See details below, or contact me about my mentoring services.) Also,
please FORWARD THIS TO A FELLOW CONSULTANT OR ASPIRING CONSULTANT who may wish
to subscribe.
(I am very much
interested in your views on this topic. How do you transfer the credibility and
trust of your clients to your prospects? Any good war stories you would like to
share? Please reply with your comments and suggestions to
Bruce@DiscoverySurveys.com.)
Send me your comments and suggestions and I will print some of them in the next
issue. (Note: I am happy to keep your name and organization anonymous if you
prefer.) |
