Having a fully booked calendar with clients or a product that is flying off the shelves is every businesswomen’s dream right?
I remember when I started my first business and I was terrified I wouldn’t have any clients….I knew I gave a great…no… an AMAZING experience for my clients but I was fearful of the flow of clients drying out…..what would happen if I had a clear diary?????
I never run out of clients….my diary was always full.
Interestingly, the times that life got in the way with some personal challenges were the times that the Universe seemed to slow down the uptake on my services or clients arrived wanting to book in a few months’ time, rather than now…it always delivered to me what I needed at the time.
I believe good client uptake is down to three simple things:
Exceptional Service
The service I offered them was really AMAZING. So good that they left my studio literally on the phone to their friends telling them what a wonderful, insightful and energising day they had. My business was 88% referrals – how do I know this? Because I tracked it because it was important to me.
For you this maybe the way you package your products so beautifully that it is a delight to open them as a client (not a piece of bubble wrap in sight!) or it could be the fact that when a client arrives you have their favourite products waiting for them to try on etc. You know your clients and you know what they desire, and you monitor it.
Be clear on what your exceptional service means for your brand and ensure that you regularly check in to see if this is still exceptional or if the benchmark has moved.
Knowledge and Skill
I upskilled at every opportunity, and I choose to grow constantly so that I could embed that knowledge into the events and services I offered my clients. I was ahead of the game in terms of knowing what my clients would love, need and benefit from. I also made sure that I kept it fresh for my clients. That way they always felt they too could learn and therefore buy my services.
Selling
I sold my services to my clients!! Basics I know but I knew that my clients would benefit from what I had to offer…they needed those services, and it was my duty to share this information with them. If clients value, you and your expertise they will want to be sold to because they know you can help them.
I got over my own ‘fears’ and I reframed my thoughts about upselling.
I also made sure that I never prejudged whether someone would buy my services. Everyone needed them so why would someone not buy and how do I know if he or she could afford, want or value my offerings? It was my duty to share it and leave it open to them to buy it.
So I closed the sale….I made it easy for people to buy.
How did I do this? By having practical things in place to ensure that the client could buy easily at the close of a talk I did or by ensuring that they knew I offered a service they needed or would want in the future and then making it sound so attractive (because it was) that they had to buy it now.
SUMMARY
None of these on their own would improve your client pipeline because without the knowledge that you deliver a great service or product that is worth the money, that you have the expert skills that they trust or that you can solve their problem there is no sale, not matter how hard you try to sell it.