My Secret to getting new clients!

Rus Sells

12 years ago

No, your aren't being harsh you are making a VALID point.

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Jason Kanigan

12 years ago

Yes, if you can make mobile or desktop sites, and do SEO, why not use that to bring you leads?

That's one way, of course, and there are many.

What I believe not using your own expertise demonstrates is:

-lack of belief in one's product or service

and

-perhaps their method doesn't work.

Now maybe that's harsh. But if you won't use your own methods, and expect others to pay you for implementing them, what the heck is going on??

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SirThomas

12 years ago

It really depends on what you're selling and whether your potential customers know HOW to find you.

For example:

You offer reputation management services. How would performing reputation management on your own business/site help you to get customers?

First of all, your potential customers would have to even know what to look for or how it's actually called - reputation management...

If you want to offer video creation service, you'd have to hope that potential customer searches for "video creation service"... or you could call 100's of businesses that actively sell online and don't have a "great converting" video on their site.

All I'm trying to say is that not all services offered by you could be effectively used as means to get new clients.

Thomas

PS. In other words, one guy provides a great reputation management services, but his customers getting skills are lousy. The other guy has top positions in Google, but his reputation services suck, which one would you choose?

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richrowley

12 years ago

Originally Posted by SirThomas

It really depends on what you're selling and whether your potential customers know HOW to find you.

For example:

You offer reputation management services. How would performing reputation management on your own business/site help you to get customers?

First of all, your potential customers would have to even know what to look for or how it's actually called - reputation management...

If you want to offer video creation service, you'd have to hope that potential customer searches for "video creation service"... or you could call 100's of businesses that actively sell online and don't have a "great converting" video on their site.

All I'm trying to say is that not all services offered by you could be effectively used as means to get new clients.

Thomas

PS. In other words, one guy provides a great reputation management services, but his customers getting skills are lousy. The other guy has top positions in Google, but his reputation services suck, which one would you choose?

Really good example given above. There are many potential customers out there that dont even know our type of business and services exist.

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SirThomas

12 years ago

Originally Posted by richrowley

Really good example given above. There are many potential customers out there that dont even know our type of business and services exist.

Exactly! Several years ago, people had no idea what SEO was, how could they find it? How about google+ or fanpages?

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richrowley

12 years ago

Originally Posted by SirThomas

Exactly! Several years ago, people had no idea what SEO was, how could they find it? How about google+ or fanpages?

YUP - one of my best clients didnt know they could even move the position of their site until I first did it for them as a free trial!

How would they have ever know to search for an SEO business? Yet several thousands later they're still a customer. If I had relied on them finding my site through my own SEO skills I'd be several thousand pounds lighter right now!

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512 Designs

12 years ago

Originally Posted by richrowley

YUP - one of my best clients didnt know they could even move the position of their site until I first did it for them as a free trial!

How would they have ever know to search for an SEO business? Yet several thousands later they're still a customer. If I had relied on them finding my site through my own SEO skills I'd be several thousand pounds lighter right now!

This is the way I see it too. It's not like we're in an obvious business like a plumber or lawyer or dentist.

When I'm talking to potential customers, it can sometimes be difficult for me to get them to understand what SEO is, or what a mobile site is, or what any other kind of online marketing is, let alone their value.

I'll guarantee that very few offline businesses are searching Google for my services. I doubt they would even know what to search for. This is why I rely so much on networking groups and the Chamber of Commerce meetings. This allows me to explain what I do and why they should want me.

However, I can see the point of it being bad saying "I'll help you bring in leads", and then not know how to do it for yourself.

Mike

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SirThomas

12 years ago

Originally Posted by 512 Designs

I'll guarantee that very few offline businesses are searching Google for my services. I doubt they would even know what to search for. This is why I rely so much on networking groups and the Chamber of Commerce meetings.

Or like Quentin himself does, using joint ventures with printers to sell his mobile sites creation service

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ewenmack 12 years ago

Quentin,

Different business types have their target audience reading, watching and listening to different media.

An example here in Auckland...

A business coach, re-wrote his client's Yellow Pages ad
and brought in an extra $183,203 over the next year.

The coach doesn't advertise in the Yellow Pages for his services.

I'm sure the plumber doesn't care where he gets his clients from
or that his coach doesn't advertiser's in the Yellow Pages...

He just brings him customers and money.

Another case in point...

An upscale dress shop owner surveyed his customers what they read and clubs they belonged too.

Turned out many were members of bridge clubs.

So he put on a dress show especially for them with their members modelling them.

Another company he owned used a completely different method to reach his ideal customers.

It's your ideal client's who dictate what medium the message is delivered.

And here's another example...

An upscale backyard play house maker advertisers in magazines which are read by those that fly in private jets.

Best,
Ewen
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Magento developer 12 years ago

That's good example @sirthomos. Sure it depends on the what we are doing and where we are doing.
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racso316

12 years ago

Well said Quentin. That's what I wonder myself sometimes. People offer SEO, Facebook marketing and Google Places with the promise to the business owner that it will bring them lots of new leads and a ton of more business and profit... meanwhile here we see asking for lead generation techniques and how to get and covert clients. Definitely a disconnect there.

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Steve Holmes

12 years ago

Yeh, I have to agree with SirThomas here.

I think obtaining clients is best achieved by being proactive.

By standing still and waiting, I think too many unnecessary assumptions are made about potential clients. It's down to us to educate potential clients on what the internet can do for their business but at the same time, we can still manage ourselves well and look professional WHILST being proactive.

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SirThomas

12 years ago

Also, selling b2b is a little different than b2c (to consumer).

Example:

You know how to place ads on craiglist to sell laminate flooring to a bargain hunting consumer. You want to offer this service to a local flooring company.

That doesn't mean that Craigslist would be the best place to find a local flooring company to offer this service to...

If you know how to find potential customers for a local veterinarian using Facebook, that doesn't make Facebook the best place to find a veterinarian as a client for your lead generation service...

Thomas

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imageworx

12 years ago

EXACTLY... the potential clients I might offer solutions for B2C capture would be different than the marketing I will use to capture B2B...

Originally Posted by SirThomas

Also, selling b2b is a little different than b2c (to consumer).

Example:

You know how to place ads on craiglist to sell laminate flooring to a bargain hunting consumer. You want to offer this service to a local flooring company.

That doesn't mean that Craigslist would be the best place to find a local flooring company to offer this service to...

If you know how to find potential customers for a local veterinarian using Facebook, that doesn't make Facebook the best place to find a veterinarian as a client for your lead generation service...

Thomas

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bob ross

12 years ago

Great post and I've often wondered the same.

SirThomas, great response too.

I think a lot of the marketers don't have the money to implement any of it for themselves and probably don't believe in it enough to put the money into it. Sad to say but I think it's true.

When you actually have a system in place that works and generates clients (for you or for a client), it's incredibly easy to sell because you truly believe in it.

It's very, very hard to fake that kind of personal confidence in a marketing system, which is what a lot of these "marketers" are doing whether they realize it or not.

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Seantrepreneur

12 years ago

Awesome post! You're completely right.

The best feeling is when you have people contacting you through systems that you have set in place to get customers. It's important that you are doing what you are suggesting that your customers do. That's why I say there is ALWAYS something to do in your business. If you're not working on something for your client then start building yourself some back links or create a video you can optimize and put on youtube. There are plenty of things that you can do for yourself that don't cost a thing.

One day when I was bored I even created a quick website using blogger to out rank the Realtors in my town. I then put all my contact info and wrote a quick message about how if they found this website then I could do the same for them. It was simple and didn't take very long at all.

Don't forget to put work into your own business once and a while!

Sean

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Deidra Renee

12 years ago

I think when people ask these questions they really want to know the fastest way. If you're offering SEO of course you should be doing that for yourself, but I think the *waiting* part is the problem.

People want to be up and running as quickly as possible, but sometimes don't like the answers they get. For example..if you tell them to get on the phone and offer their services they don't want to hear/do that, so then you tell them to do SEO on their own website..they don't want to wait on the results.

Long story short: I think they're looking for the *send this email and make $600 in 24 hrs* type of responses. I could be wrong.

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Quentin

12 years ago

Thanks for all the great comments but here is the rub.

Do you want customers to come to you that are actually looking for your services or do you want to go out and try and convince people that you have the service they want.

We did 800 sites last year and nearly all of them came to us.

For example:

You offer reputation management services. How would performing reputation management on your own business/site help you to get customers?

Well if I was doing that I would make sure my business had a great reputation and have it all over the place showing that I can achieve reputation for my self and promoting it in my various links.

If you want to offer video creation service, you'd have to hope that potential customer searches for "video creation service"... or you could call 100's of businesses that actively sell online and don't have a "great converting" video on their site.

For this I would make sure my videos were on every video site possible promoting my service with a statement you found my video and I can do this for you.

Again I say do you want people to come to you or not.

There are literally thousands that are actively looking for your services.

So the choice is yours. Go hunting for customers or use your services to get them to come to you.

Quentin

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ewenmack

12 years ago

Quentin,

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a hotel room with about 1,000 other business owners,
there to listen to a speaker on how to build businesses.

You think we all suddenly woke up one morning and said we want to listen to a guy
on how to build a business on a Friday night?

We didn't go looking for him or the subject, the message found us.

He used lots of leverage to get us all into the room at once.

Would of been impossible by what you are advocating.

Best,
Ewen

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AndrewCavanagh 12 years ago

Interesting post Quentin.

I would say one of the most powerful things many people can do as a marketer working with businesses is take off their blinkers.

In other words stop thinking of yourself as an SEO expert or a web conversion expert and start focusing on using whatever methods work to help a business bring in more sales and profits.

With most brick and mortar businesses it's the combination of different strategies that helps to find prospects and convert them to paying customers and repeat customers and refer their friends to the business.

Many SEO experts here could tell you that there simply aren't that many people in their local area searching for people to help them with search engine optimization.

But there might be plenty searching for real estate.

The logical thing for an SEO business to do in that situation would be to directly contact a few real estate agents and offer their services.

That might take under an hour or a day to go from identifying a prospect to having a paying client.

Does that mean there is something wrong with the SEO services that their not using them in this circumstance.

Or does it mean they have enough common sense to understand that different marketing strategies are appropriate in different circumstances.

It should never be an either/or mindset anyway.

You do any marketing method that is profitable for you and you do more of those that work for you.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh
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Quentin

12 years ago

Originally Posted by ewenmack

Quentin,

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a hotel room with about 1,000 other business owners,
there to listen to a speaker on how to build businesses.

You think we all suddenly woke up one morning and said we want to listen to a guy
on how to build a business on a Friday night?

We didn't go looking for him or the subject, the message found us.

He used lots of leverage to get us all into the room at once.

Would of been impossible by what you are advocating.

Best,
Ewen

So can you share the process of how it found you.

Did he knock on your door, send you an email, call you direct, did you join a list at some time?

Quentin

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ewenmack

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Quentin

So can you share the process of how it found you.

Did he knock on your door, send you an email, call you direct, did you join a list at some time?

Quentin

Sorry I can't because the truth is that I got the invitation
while speaking to his associate on another matter.

In front of me I have the direct mail letter I got from Google
inviting me to try Adwords.

Since they are the biggest of internet companies that specialize in online advertising,
they are not settling for advertisers to find them online, they are hunting for them offline.

Depends on how hungry one is for business I guess.

Growth obsessed companies don't settle for people finding them,
they make sure people find out about them.

Best,
Ewen

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rambo9600

12 years ago

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SirThomas

12 years ago

Originally Posted by rambo9600

Funny thread.

Most IMers don't know jack about marketing, that's why they don't know how to acquire offline clients. I get most of my clients through direct mail. Sometimes a prospect will say "Direct Mail doesn't work." I reply, "you called me via my direct mail pc, didn't you?" :p

That's true. They might know how to perform some service, but don't know how to take it to the market. So, they come to this forum and look for ideas.

Some of those services are by default meant to acquire customers, but other not so much... That's why you should pick the most effective method for your market, as simple as that.

Direct mail rocks!

Thomas

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SirThomas

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Quentin

Thanks for all the great comments but here is the rub.

Do you want customers to come to you that are actually looking for your services or do you want to go out and try and convince people that you have the service they want.

We did 800 sites last year and nearly all of them came to us.

For example:

You offer reputation management services. How would performing reputation management on your own business/site help you to get customers?

Well if I was doing that I would make sure my business had a great reputation and have it all over the place showing that I can achieve reputation for my self and promoting it in my various links.

If you want to offer video creation service, you'd have to hope that potential customer searches for "video creation service"... or you could call 100's of businesses that actively sell online and don't have a "great converting" video on their site.

For this I would make sure my videos were on every video site possible promoting my service with a statement you found my video and I can do this for you.

Again I say do you want people to come to you or not.

There are literally thousands that are actively looking for your services.

So the choice is yours. Go hunting for customers or use your services to get them to come to you.

Quentin

Quentin,

I agree with what you posted as a "social proof" of what you offer to your clients, but not as means to get clients. In some industries, it might work better than in others, but I'd always choose the best, most comfortable or the most efficient way to contact prospects, regardless of services I currently offer.

If you contact prospects by telemarketing methods, it doesn't mean you have to offer telemarketing services to them...

Also, if I telemarket my reputation services to attorneys, I won't be waiting for them to come up with an idea to search for my type of service. I will be pro-active and let them know what I do, and how it may help them to convert more clients.

Of course, I'd always create a sample attorney site that ranks very well to prove my abilities. But I wouldn't hope that site by itself will "pull" clients to me... Even ranking my own site for "attorney marketing" wouldn't be my main objective.

Once again, your own system to get clients (b2b) might not be the best way for your clients to get their own customers. It hardly ever is...

Perhaps, I just misunderstood your original post...?

"It is sort of strange that they do not use their own systems to get their own clients."

Thomas

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RobbieT

12 years ago

For what it's worth, why not have an each way bet.

Do what Quentin says and make sure that your own business site is as good as it can be for any service that you sell and then use whatever other method you are comfortable with to drive leads.

If you are good in one particular field and know of another good honest operator in a different field why not approach them and look to cross market ... you to his clients and he to yours ??

Take good care of those that you love.

Robbie T

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ryanmckinney

12 years ago

Great post.

I am creating my own system right now, just started putting it into motion (thought of the method late last week), going to test, tweak, rinse and repeat.

It is liberating to figure this stuff out on your "own".

Ryan

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RentItNow

12 years ago

One thing I run into is customer's expectations. In other words, my systems work OVER TIME and with diligence where they may be expecting an instant easy-button solution. In other words, when we sign up and I tell them it could take time but once it does work and you put in your dollars into the interest bearing account, it begins to pay off...but they often hear "You are going to make me a site for $500 that makes me millions over night." I can get past that misunderstanding with a good client tho.

I think you have to consider each party's state of mind in all situations. I can't save a client's business overnight from going under with a $200 ad, but I can help them to get more customers over time for the business using proven methods.

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MaxwellB

12 years ago

I'd hate to assume people don't believe enough in their own abilities and services but with SEO doesn't it take time? Sometimes a very long time with competitive industries?

I think most people are simply impatient like the rest of us and want a quicker want to get new clients and grow jump start their business/offering.

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stephenkidd

12 years ago

Exactly Quentin, i think same some times. people may have no faith on their systems or they have no patience to implement their systems and to watch results.

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tdpubs

12 years ago

I've been selling promotional services to local clients for 20 years in various capacities and I've found that the best way to reach them is still with a postcard, letter, phone call combination. These local businesses do not look for marketing solutions to their problems because most of the time they are in denial that there is a problem.

Many Internet marketers are using passive search techniques to show their customers how to get people to find them on the Internet. That means that prospects are actually looking for solutions. Many of my clients over the years would never seek out the kind of help that I provide because they would not even begin to figure out where to look. That is one reason why I smile at those who think that they can draw a lot of businesses to them with online promotions. Why not get out there and meet a few people instead? Joining a local Chamber of Commerce is the fastest way to get local business clients in my humble opinion.

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YasirYar

12 years ago

The biggest calamity of internet marketing are the self proclaimed marketing gurus and experts who keep showing photoshopped images of large checks paid out to them for their products which they barely know anything about. They get special reports written by out sourcing and have no idea whats written in them. I am sound a bit harsh but these are the facts which need to be addressed.

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purdue512

12 years ago

Right. And there's a place for idea generation and gathering... But one of the best things every said to me in TWF was back in 2007, and it was something along the lines of: HEY DUDE - YOU'VE BEEN IN HERE 24x7 FOR 6 MONTHS NOW, NOW GO DO SOMETHING!!!

What I didn't know is that I knew all I needed to know. :-)

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bsummers

12 years ago

Really had fun reading all the posts here. Very interesting. Businesses are completely different from each other thought there are some similarities, not all lead generation models and strategies may be applicable to other businesses. It might be a client of yours is interested about your lead generation service and the model that you use, but sometimes there are lead generation strategies that won't work with the target market of your clients. and I believe both @SirThomas and @ewenmack has great points here.

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