How do I land my first client?
I have the skills and expertise to assist many businesses. However, I've never been a part of a sales team before in my career. How do you land your first client, and keep the clients coming after that? Thanks for the advice.
Hello Paul, you need to continually attain brand presence in the sell-to markets and categories you wish to dominate in, and sell to. Realize low cost conversion to digital and online brand presence to internet search buyers who are and will be your largest customer audience segment. Engage the Global Coupon Digital Brand Marketing, Advertising, and Online Media platform for targeted and intelligent customer engagement to B2C & B2B web/tablet/mobile geo-located and targeted audiences for long term brand resonance, social media integration, display advertising to current and future sell-to markets, dominate categories by region etc. Support social impact, and if so inclined, become Individual and/or Business affiliate of the platform to create new revenue streams for yourself or your businesses, while engaging the platform for your products, services, and professional services.
In my experience it is a good idea to look close to home - who do you know already that you would like to work with? Who have you already worked with? Who knows e.g. supplies the people you would like to work with? Communicating confidence in yourself and the evidenced value you will bring helps too. It doesn't have to be a hard sell, it is still all about people and relationships. Push on open doors. What do you do that makes someone else's life/business easier?
And when you're doing something new, lower your expectations. Excellent service and word of mouth is still one of the strongest ways to land clients, and be proactive about them doing recommendations or sharing your details. Hope this helps.
The First is always the hardest and since your new at this be careful
try hard not to let people take advantage of your
1.navietiy
2. desperation or
3 enthusiasm
other wise show your pervious work and be consistent in networking, seminars'
workshops, ect
In my experience the most critical thing is to learn what your potential client's needs truly are before you pitch. No one wants to be sold anything, but they love to buy what they already want. Take the trouble to find out before you give your pitch. It's a great feeling for a client to know that his salesperson already knows what to provide when he gets that first call.
This is a mental block. Think about it! After a month from now, you will have landed more than just your 1st customer, so try to let the stress be, because the tingling you cannot get rid off, it is just telling you; you are doing important work.
Concentrate on why you want to make the first sale and then just use the tools you had. REMEMBER, you can actually tell the prospect that you are new at your job, will give you more time to impress the customer with the product. Best of luck!
Its very simple, select your target customers or Clients and pitch them your services with a right proposal to right person.
There are several methods through which you can contact your clients these are
Email marketing
online advertisement
Walk In to the client
Social media optimization
reference methods
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What are the skills and expertise that you have gained over the years and who do you feel are the recipients who can benefit from it.
So first articulate that; get testimonials from your colleagues/clients and updated you profile on linkedin, mosaic hub.
Now see how can you reach out to the target crowd. Use the power of network, groups in linkedin etc. Post regularly on relevant forums to start gaining mind share. It should talk about how their problem/challenge can be address with the possible solutions. This will help establish your credibility, so be careful not to be salesy.
Once you have your USP well articulated, start sending inmails to your target audience. Soon you will build a pipeline to go after.
All the best
Relationships, relationships, relationships. Networking, networking, networking. Did I repeat those enough? You MUST build relationships to land that first client. Join a local networking organization like BNI or similar 'business focused' groups - not social or charity organizations. Focus on building relationships with local professionals. DO NOT TRY TO SELL TO THEM. Teach them - teach them what you do, how you do it and how they might help and have them do the same for you. This will give you credibility with the local business community and help land a first "client" instead of a first "customer."
Paul,
I would really focus on providing the best service you could possibly provide and just let everyone you meet know that you provide that service. I wouldn't necessarily call that sales, more like networking, but it's quite effective. If you're truly focused on helping out your client in the best way possible, it'll show, people will talk about it, and clients will keep coming back to you time and time again.
Good luck! Hope this helps!
Our inherent behavior as human is to sell, we sell our charm to prospective partners, we sell our skills to prospective employers etc.. But does this mean you can be part of the sales team in a corporate world , not sure...You will find lot of listeners in the corporate world but very few buyers and hence as a Sales person the first thing you need to know is the Target segment .. And in your case , you need to first identify the Target segment who need your skills and expertise or lack your skill sets. Once you have done that , make a pitch either in a presentation format of a white paper as to why they should look at hiring you/ buy your product. To entice your first customer give them a 15 day trial to your services and check you out.. Once they formalize with you then you have a customer , work with this customer make him happy and get referrals from him and also a letter of appreciation and then broadcast it to get you visibility ( this is branding) and once you have enough viewership then you will have leads and then when you have leads you will have conversions .. Ain't it simple :-)
The number one way to land clients is by demonstrating your ability to actually help them. You can do this by creating high quality content, an info product, or a track record of personal success. The best route will probably be creating a blog or info product, and then registering members to an email list and free webinar which allows you to offer free training during the webinar and offer an upsell to personal assistance and consulting. You can then record your webinar to use as tool to land some speaking gigs which will help you attract more clients. Just don't try to sell anything at a speaking event without first discussing it with the event moderator.
Paul, first, find at least one individual who can really and truly benefit from what you have to offer. Then show that person you are a special, one-of-a-kind individual with unique and valuable skills. Be genuine, sincere and direct in showing specifically how your expertise can be applied to help the prospect. Cut out the BS and eliminate any and all fluffy generalizations. Differentiate yourself clearly and very specifically.
Remember, you don't have to be the stereotypical rah-rah, in-your-face salesman. Just be yourself and sell yourself.
Genuine people with genuine needs will respond to that if you have something of value to sell. If they don't, either they don't have a need, they're not ready, they're on a different wavelength or something else is wrong. Just move on to the next prospect/opportunity, and do your thing again.
Al Shultz alshultz.com/
Former employers, friends even family can be potential clients. Your mosaicHUB profile identifies skills, but how they were acquired is still a blank slate. Clients will want evidence. Also, if you have never sold before you need to hear that it isn't easy. You may want to partner with someone whose skills complement yours. Good luck. - The Pragmatic Web Designer
Get the first one, FIRST. Do good work. No, make that great work. Differentiate yourself.
Look at the Nine P's of Marketing. Become irreplaceable.
The 9P's will help you plan, promote, present, partner, with passion and much more. Go to http://nineps.com or http://www.londremarketing.com/documents/LondreMarketingConsulting-NinePs.pdf.
Here to help you land #1..
The question you pose is quite familiar to me at a personal level as well as through my clients and colleagues. Martha Lynn and Corey have given some great advice; essentially you have to do some deep thinking as well as some research. I'd like to add that whether or not sales is your forte (it is not mine) your ability to get clients is predicated upon your ability to 1) fulfill a need, 2) identify the folks who need what you have to offer and 3) send a clear message to those folks letting them know you are here for them.
It is important to understand the market for which you are selling. Once you understand the types of customers you want to reach, then you need to put into place a plan for reaching those customers. For example, if you are trying to marketing a text messaging service to businesses, then you have to know what costs are associated with text messaging, what types of fees and integrate that into the cost you offer to your client. Emailing people doesn't really work initially. You will need to go out and make calls or walk in doors and make relationships. People rarely do business with people they don't trust. Give them a reason to believe that you are honorable, trustworthy and that you can actually do the work you say you can do.
Well first of all what are these skills and expertise? Where do you think you fit in? What kind of sales are we talking about war industries do you want to be in? These are questions you need to answer before you can begin. Are you more online? Do you do marketing and if so, what do you think you can bring to the table of these companies? Are there companies you want to work for more than others? Think about a cohesive plan to go forward and organize yourself, then you can better focus your attentions and target the companies you want to pursue for business.