It seems that every accountant, lawyer or consultant I meet wants to win bigger clients but isn’t sure how to go about it. In this article, I explore why you are struggling to win bigger clients and how to make the changes you need to starting winning bigger and better clients.
Not having a niche
Having a niche really will help you to win bigger and better clients, because you will be much more focussed with your networking and marketing activities. When I ask advisors who want to win bigger clients who their ideal client is, they can’t always articulate it clearly. Instead, they use big catch-all words, e.g. SMEs, small businesses, large corporates, entrepreneurs. Is it any wonder that they struggle to win bigger clients? The more niched, and the stronger your brand within your niche is, the easier it is to win bigger and better clients. After all, the more niched you are the more effective your marketing. The more effective your marketing, the greater chance you will get the bigger and better clients.
You are not spending enough time consistently marketing
If you don’t spend any time marketing or only market when your workload is light is it any wonder that you are not getting the bigger and better clients? It takes time to develop a decent pipeline of business. If you don’t spend your time and spent it wisely on business development, is it any wonder that you only get left with the scraps?
We have a great course in our subscriber-only site Progress to Partner called How to Make the Time for Business Development. It takes about 2-hours to work through and create a daily business development habit that you can stick to.
You don’t know who your ideal client is
If you don’t know who your ideal client is, is it any wonder that you are struggling to win bigger and better clients? If you don’t have the clarity of who are your ideal clients your marketing will be ineffective. (Actually, as much use as a chocolate tea pot!) When I talk about the ideal client, I’m not talking about a client who values your advice, never quibbles with your bills, pays promptly and is a delight to work with. I’m talking about an ideal client persona that you can build a marketing plan around e.g. What size are they? What sector? What demographic? What stage in their business lifecycle? Where can they be found?
You are not selling them services they want to buy
If you look at any professional advisor’s website you will see most firms offer a similar set of services, normally written in the advisor’s language. After all, do clients really want ( as the lawyers see it) company commercial legal advice or M&A? Or do they want help to sell their business? Far too often I see firms claim they have a niche or a specialism but then offer the same-old-same-old services to their clients. The most effective way to win those bigger and better clients is to offer them the services they really want to buy.
Take a look at how a Progress to Partner subscription can help even the most reluctant networker to build a partner-sized client portfolio – Progress to Partner & Business Development
