SEVEN WAYS TO LAND NEW BUSINESS BY LEVERAGING YOUR CLIENT
RELATIONSHIPS
By Bruce L.
Katcher, Ph.D. President of Discovery Surveys, Inc.
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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- 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.
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