3 Things Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners Must Do To Keep Their Client Pipeline Full

If you’ve ever inappropriately shifted your focus in the business building process, you’ve been there.  Struggling to attract new clients, build your business and market the solutions you offer.  If you’ve had a period when you were wondering WHERE your next client was and WHEN they were going to arrive, I’m sure you want to avoid this feeling come hell or high water.

I’m talking about the “feast or famine” syndrome in business.

Truthfully you experience this when you don’t have business building systems (also known as marketing systems) in place that are running 24/7 in your business.

Yes. 24/7.

And honestly, I wasn’t surprised to get Adreana’s question because this happens to more business owners than it doesn’t:

“Hi Darnyelle.  I am a little anxious.  I have about 5 clients who are coming to the end of their engagement with me and I am unsure if they will continue to work with me for a new engagement and I am panicking.  I’ll admit; I haven’t been marketing consistently because I had clients and now if they don’t renew, I’m doomed.  What can I do moving forward to ensure that don’t fall into this situation again?”

See my response to Adreana’s question in this week’s episode of Incredible Factor TV:

As I shared in the episode, there is an old adage that says, “it’s cheaper to keep her” and when you focus on building clients for life, it makes it easier.  In my opinion, the goal of EVERY service based entrepreneur/small business owner is to create an environment to position your products, services and offerings to serve a client over an extended period of time, right?

Right.

Here are my three tips for helping you end the “feast or famine” syndrome and build clients for life:

  1. Don’t try to be and “end all, be all” solution. I think it’s better to be a one-course meal than a buffet, so to speak. When you are trying to solve everything that ails them, you dilute your presence in their life/business/career/relationship/health.  Instead compartmentalize each problem by looking at solving one problem at a time.  Now, you can absolutely keep doing what you’ve done and of course that means you’ll continue to create a bunch of inherently valuable products that don’t create an environment for you to serve your clients for life.
  2. Seed that they will need more help.  The other great thing about focusing on one problem and solution at a time is that you can seed that they will need more help from you.  If your solution crosses several things, they don’t get a complete robust solution in any ONE thing, which means you are just prolonging their suffering.  By solving one problem at a time, you’ll allow them to emerge whole and ready to conquer the next challenge they will be facing since they now have a solution to their current problem.  Seeding is the process of letting them know that there are more solutions coming their way if they stick with you.
  3. Always be marketing and spending time in business development mode. No matter how many clients you have, my recommendation is that you spend a MINIMUM of 12 hours each week in your business on business development related activities.  This includes traditional client attraction where you pull clients forward with your marketing messages and business development where you seek out opportunities to help those who will benefit from your expertise.  This is what I call a dual approach to sales and marketing.  Client attraction is easier because the prospect self-selects, but business development is often more lucrative as you become familiar with how to prospect, target and create a sense of urgency to land a meeting to discuss how you can help the client, organization or corporation.

BONUS: Keep a running “Low Hanging Fruit” list of ANYONE who has expressed an interest in working with you.   This way,  while you’re serving your clients you can have people “waiting in the wings” to work with you.

Now I want to hear from you, what’s your two cents?:   
What are you doing to build clients for life? How do you manage the business building process?  What do you do when you have clients to keep new inquires coming you’re your business? How can you help Adreana and others like her develop an approach to ensuring they keep a pipeline full of hot prospects?

©2014 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, MBA, The Incredible Factor Speaker, Business Coach and Marketing Mentor, is the founder of Incredible One Enterprises.com, Incredible Factor University® and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System®, a proven step-by-step program for more clients, more income and more leverage in your business. For more information and a FREE audio CD “7 Critical Mistakes Entrepreneurs Must Avoid When Unleashing Your Incredible Factor So You Attract More Clients, Make More Money and Gain More Leverage” just fill out the form below. just fill out the form below.

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