Earlier today we were pleased to offer a webinar for our members from speaker and coach Patricia Conlin. The topic was Attraction Marketing: How to Get More Clients Without Endless Cold-Calling (disclosure: Tish is a former NPAworldwide member). Attraction marketing is a concept where you provide education and value as a client development strategy as opposed to hammering them with your sales pitch.
Client development techniques are changing rapidly as consumers continue to gain more power and leverage in the buying process. Here are some of the ideas that Tish presented to help you shift to an attraction marketing mindset:
- Identify your niche – it’s getting harder for recruiters to succeed with a “generalist” model. Clients and candidates alike are looking for specialist knowledge. Use your database to identify your primary niche and then work to build and promote that.
- Focus on real problems your client is facing – Clients are looking for answers to their problem. Your solution is only interesting if it solves a problem. Ask probing questions like what problems are you facing; how does that make you feel; what could you accomplish if that problem went away, etc.
- Give something away – this could be a free consultation, a white paper, survey or data trends, or a more generous refund/replacement promise for new business
- Build your marketing list – it is CRUCIAL to build your OWN opted-in marketing lists so that you can control your client development efforts. If you’re relying on LinkedIn or Facebook or another third-party platform to be your communication vehicle, you’re at risk of losing your audience if they change their rules.
- Stay in touch – it can take 8-10 touches before you begin to see results. Persistence pays!
- Work on your storytelling skills – emotions sell! Your value proposition must be about what you can do for your clients, and a strong emotional connection works best.
- Educate, don’t sell – Client development is no longer about a hard-core sales approach. Consumers of both products and services increasingly look for you to teach them something new or provide information they didn’t previously have.
- Ask for testimonials and reviews – add these to your website, and have a process to continually collect them. Social proof is a leading factor in a consumer’s decision-making process. Online searches for reviews continue to grow in number and importance.
Join Tish’s Thrive Hub group on LinkedIn if you’d like to learn more of these tips plus others on nutrition, performance, stress management and more.