This week marks the start of the last quarter of the year for most businesses. There are holidays, parties, vacations and lots of fun to be had between now and 2016 but don’t think that letting off the gas now and coasting is going to get set you up to grow and compete next year.
This is the perfect time to ramp up and build your pipeline of future customers. You can be end the year, leaner, meaner and greener . . . especially if your competition is easing up to hang around the turkey, cranberry relish and egg nog.
Kick it into a higher gear with these 3 Ways to Find New Customers:
Look Deeper in to Existing Customers – There is always more you can do than just “service” your account or provide products and services. Think about all the people that may access, use, or be affected by what you do/provide. Nothing happens in a vacuum, including business. Make sure you’re NOT “single threaded” with your customers with just one buyer, one point of contact.
Deepen your Relationships with your customers so you know the true impact of your product/solutions. Ask to be introduced across departments and up and down the user chain. The possibilities of creating additional relationships here are tremendous – additional users, up selling or add on products, gain advocates and influencers and insights as to your product performance, which heads off being unseated from potential competitors.
Ask for Referrals both within your existing customers’ organizations but also ask clients with whom you have strong relationships with – those that you’ve truly helped further their organizational goals. Make it as easy as possible for those advocates to refer you. Create a process: Know who you’re specifically looking to help, what information do you want from your customers {name, email, introduction, meeting . . .} and if they aren’t able to make referrals, would they be willing to review or give you a testimonial or LinkedIn endorsement.
Go Where Customers Seek Answers – While you’re asking your existing customers for referrals or references, ask them where they seek information. And then go there. Be there. Show up and engage there.
LinkedIn & Social Media – Check out who your customer is connected to in their social networks. Ask those clients for introductions to those that they know. Search within your client companies and also search similar job titles for potential connections. What is your client posting or commenting on? Can you add value to those conversations? Can you engage other conversation participants and then connect? Guess what, you’ve now warmed up a lead that you can begin building a relationship with based on value and insights.
Groups/ Forums/Chats – both on LinkedIn, twitter, Facebook and/or independent industry forums are excellent ways to get to contribute and gain valuable insights in to your clients industry and what they’re facing. Use these opportunities to support your customers by listening and understanding their problems. If you can interact and engage with members, take conversations off line by introducing yourself and connecting on LinkedIn. Once again, you have a warmer lead that gives you a jump start of credibility. You can find information about what or who is influencing your customers and how they are forming their decision making criteria. Forums and industry sites are also excellent ways to find upcoming in person opportunities, such as conferences or meet ups. Volunteering, hosting or sponsoring your client base gives you a front row seat to access and relationship building.
Create Micro Campaigns – or what we like to call, “Lather, Rinse, and Repeat”. Take your expertise and focus on a specific niche of your audience. The deeper you segment your audiences, the higher you convert. Your expertise in the solutions you’ve crafted give you unique insights into your customers. Choose one specific customer niche and create an in depth profile of their problems, the circumstances and conditions in which they operate. If you solve that problem for one customer, go find 5, 10 or 50 just like them. Diving deep in to an industry, a market niche and the specific problems they face helps demonstrate just how valuable you can be to a client. Empathizing with the owners of the problems and bringing solutions to them that they understand relate to and are aligned with their goals and current situation helps you efficiently earn more customers.
Pick one of these smart ways to earn new customers without the Hit and Miss of cold calling or cold prospecting. Schedule time to create your plan and you can pick up steam in this last quarter of the year. Don’t worry; you’ll still have time for turkey and tinsel. You can enjoy a full belly AND a full pipeline.
Until next time, keep kickin’ butt!
-sks
