Regardless of your stage of development in building your business – newbie/start up, advancing entrepreneur or small business owner – you likely understand that clients make your business.
And if you’re struggling to welcome your next client, you’ve likely heard the old adage, “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket,” yet as an entrepreneur who is struggling to grow your business, this is likely what you’ve done. When you put all of your eggs in one [client] basket, you set yourself up for disappointment because if something happens to the [client] basket, it’s likely that your eggs will crack.
EEK!!
In fact, I modeled the exact issue of not having enough diversity a few years ago in this episode of Incredible Factor TV:
In my opinion, after having worked with thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners, you don’t want to serve only one type of client. In my opinion, you should serve lots of types of clients who all have one SPICE Problem™. When you serve a range of clients that all have the same problem, your marketing won’t need customization and you’ll reach many more people with each marketing message.
In all honesty, this is the first key to client diversification. Choose a SPICE problem and then identify all of the types of clients who have that problem. You might work with entrepreneurs, small business owners and corporations.
In case you haven’t heard of a SPICE Problem, let me define it for you:
- Specific and Substantive – the problem you solve is very precise and goes beneath the surface of the issue that may be creating the problem in the first place.
- Persistent and Pervasive – the problem you solve is likened to a rash for your ideal clients – it won’t go away. It lingers and lingers.
- Immediate and Insurmountable – the problem you solve is such a big deal, it needed to be solved yesterday.
- Clear and Conscious – the problem you solve is one that your ideal client is clear and conscious that they have.
- Expensive and Expansive – the problem that you solve is costing them money and time and it keeps getting bigger.
By focusing on a SPICE problem with your marketing, each of your ideal clients will take heed to your messaging and find you for help.
When you can only count on one population to pay you, you run the risk of not getting paid when they can’t pay. Let’s face it; stuff happens and if they (your client) have to choose between paying you and keeping their lights on, well, you know the answer to that one. By having entrepreneurs, executives, corporations, government agencies, colleges and universities as clients, we can always count on income coming in. And that is why leveraging the following five keys is so important.
1. Solve a SPICE Problem. See explanation above.
2. Make sure you have multiple products and services based on the needs of your clients. Just because they all have the same core problem doesn’t mean that they all plan to solve it the same way. You want to have multiple options to work with you so that you can allow people the opportunity to choose what works best for them.
3. Ensure that your diversification strategy includes multiple ways to diversify your clients: racially, size, location and industry. Diversification is a vast topic. You should have all of your bases covered. Make sure that anyone who’d want to do business with you could because they see an example of them in your social proof.
4. Get out of your comfort zone and attend events/network in different places than your norm. If you only network with entrepreneurs, you’ll only meet entrepreneurs. If you want to start working with corporations or governmental agencies, start attending events where organization representatives will be present. Don’t be afraid to get on a plane to meet your next client by getting out of your backyard.
5. Before you get started, set your strategy. Your strategy will need to clearly answer the what, why, who and how questions. Here are some good questions to help you get started:
a. What is the problem that you solve?
b. Who do you currently solve this problem for? List your current client types.
c. Brainstorm who else could be helped by your solution. Another way to ask this: what other types of clients could you help with your current catalog of products and services? How would you help them?
d. What ancillary services or product lines could you easily create in order to allow your company to serve more types of clients?
e. Why is your service the answer to their core problems?
As an example, my company offers many different modes of delivery for the problems we solve. By offering coaching, consulting and training & development, we can serve many types of industries and types of clients including entrepreneurs, colleges and universities, corporations and governmental agencies, etc. We have tons of clients to choose from when we are creating marketing campaigns.
Building your business should be GRACE-Full and I’d love to show you how to Grow Your Business with GRACE. Join me at the LAST EVER Unleash Your Incredible Factor Live this May so that my team and I can help you create this and other key business building plans GRACE-Fully. Learn more at www.UnleashYourIncredibleFactor.com
©2016 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, MBA, The Incredible Factor Business Optimization Coach and Mentor, is the founder of Incredible One Enterprises®, Incredible Factor University® and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System®, a proven step-by-step program so you experience financial and spiritual abundance in your life because of your business. For more information and a FREE audio CD “7 Critical Mistakes Even Smart Entrepreneurs Must Avoid for Clients, Connection and Cash Flow!” just fill out the form below.
