Imagine the possibilities
Imagine that one day you wake up and a miracle has happened. You check your voicemail and email, and to your astonishment find that there are dozens of clients that want to work with you in your business. Not just one, but one after another. With each message your heart is beating a little faster. The day progresses and you continue to receive call after call.
Clients want to work with you.
They call because they know you can help them. There’s no discussion of your service fees, no need to answer any objection, they just want to know when you can fit them in!
Now imagine that this is happening every single day that you’re in business. How exciting would that be? How do you think it would affect your business? Would it be easier to wake up and get to work each day? You bet it would!
Finding New Clients is Difficult
I know that finding clients to build your business can be a struggle. Usually, the difficulty lies in the fact that most of us don’t know how to interview, enroll and start a prospective client. Prior to that it may also be difficult to find people to talk to about our business.
I believe that if your business is not built on strong client relationships you will be on what I call the Client Acquisition Treadmill. You may spend the rest of your career chasing the next client and/or deal. Keep in mind that it takes five times the amount of time, money and energy to find and develop a new relationship then it does to maintain a relationship that we already have. This enormous amount of effort drains your drive and can stall your business. Now, you may be thinking that you already get a lot of repeat and referral business, but how much more could you have if you mastered the attraction process?
Stop chasing clients, instead start attracting them
Let me introduce you to the solution; a relationship-based database of selected supporters. I’m not talking about a list of names on a paper, but rather a system of actions that we intentionally engage in with people. Let’s begin the process of setting up your database with some business basics. Soon you will be able to sit down each year and predict how much income will come from people on the database and from those they refer to you! Unbelievable? Not really. However, you do have to put it together correctly and follow the system.
Now that you know about the value of this system let’s talk about the fundamental building blocks to starting your Relationship Database Marketing System.
Step 1: Building Your Raw Data Base
- Create a list of everyone you know. Imagine that every person you put on the list wants your services or products; leave no one off. The only criteria are that you like them and would be willing to work with them.
- People in the database don’t necessarily have to fall into your target group, since they may lead you to people who are.
- Put people you know of by face or where they work. Label them by how you remember them. For example, “The lady with the red hair at the bank”. These people will become raw material for later.
- Use the yellow pages as a memory jogger. Open it and ask yourself if you know anyone in that heading. For example, “Whom do I know that is an accountant?”
- Open up your day timer or the family calendar and mark what activities you are a member of. You will be able to add people from these activities to your database.
Step 2: Qualifying Your database
Practice your interviewing skills while qualifying your database.
- Your database is a gold mine! To mine it you will want to develop an interview script that will allow you to find out what present or future needs the prospective client may have for your service or product. During the process of talking to the members of your database you will qualify them for your preferred database of supporters and at the same time find clients with ease.
- Don’t forget to practice you script on a friend to see how it works and get yourself more comfortable speaking it aloud. This will make it easier when you start to use it.
Step 3: Maximize Your Opportunities
- make sure to have regular contact with your database via phone, email newsletter or even a video blog. Tailor how you keep in contact to the style most applicable to the people on your database list.
- Remember to add value to what you give them. Giving starts the receiving process and education helps them move forward with your business proposition when they have a need.
- You can build relationships over time that will increase the amount of referral business you receive. The stronger the relationship, the more referrals you can expect.
- Spin-off business is a sign of how well you are cross marketing and educating your client. Whether you are a business owner, sales professional, or business executive there are always opportunities to cross market your products, services or abilities
This Seems Too Easy!
In some ways, this simple marketing system may seem too easy to be powerful. Don’t let the simplicity of the information and the ease of implementation confuse you! This system has very productive and predictable results. You will find ‘now’ business in your database and even get a few referrals. Over time the number of referrals and output of your database will greatly increase.
The one thing to note is the time it takes to build strength in your business. Typically, and if you’re effectively using all the necessary steps mentioned here, you will see fantastic results from your database within just a few months of implementation. As it grows in power and predictability, your database will fuel your business to new heights that can and will make your dreams a reality.