5 steps to winning new clients

Finding the right clients is just as important to your business’s success as establishing a good rapport with them. In our competitive day and age, one mistake can cost you everything! So how do we make sure that doesn’t happen? The answer lies in these 5 handy tips for finding high-quality prospects: 
1) Decide who you want as your clientMost people go to the market with clear intention of picking up business. As if it was just lying around for you to pick up. And sure enough after making a sufficient number of calls, this law will invariably begin working in your favor. Sooner or later you’ll have picked up some new clients! This is why most direct sales companies focus on how important it is that employees make “X” amount of phone calls each day; they know from experience that doing so will eventually yield results like these.
A much smarter way to go about approaching a potential client is by knowing who you want. Once you know what their needs are and how they can benefit from the product or service that your company offers, it makes for an extremely powerful pitch! You don’t have to be unsure of where you fit in anymore because now you’re telling them “This is how I’ll help make YOUR business even better.”
By changing your game, you’ll be more than prepared to close deals. Segmenting and understanding what each customer needs from a service or product will help make the strongest case for why they should choose you over their competitors!
2) Understand how to reach out to them effectivelyThe art of networking is a necessary skill that every business owner should master. Choosing the right medium to reach out in can be difficult, but it’s important for an agency to understand who they’re talking with and what their needs are before sending them cold email or LinkedIn messages.
LinkedIn is a great place to connect with your potential clients. Check out which groups they are on and join those groups, LinkedIn allows members in the group you want them in to send mails without paying any fees. Make use of it by sending an introductory mail about yourself that will show how you can be of help for him or her. If he/she lives outside Europe I would recommend being omnipresent through Xing too!
3) Sell the sizzle, not the steakWe’ve all seen this happen before, you find a potential client and send them an email detailing your company’s services. You know what they say about the one that got away? They’re gone for good! So don’t let it be true for YOUR business too because if we put together some recommendations on how to make sure your emails stand out from the rest of those ‘solicitation’ type requests- then there is no way anyone can miss yours in their inbox anymore!
When you’re going for business, it’s important to make an impression with your first contact. Try sending something interesting and informative- like a link of one of your articles or blog posts so that they can learn more about what makes you the best person for their job! Follow up by giving them some exciting work experience on why we are perfect for this opportunity; studies show people tend to remember things that help them increase knowledge rather than just wanting emails from prospective contacts.
Remember people like to do business with real people. You are the sizzle your client will buy into and your company is just a meaty ingredient in their recipe for success.
4) Invest time in making the right pitchSo you’ve finally made it to the big leagues and have that all important pitch presentation with your client. What are you going to do now? Do like most agencies go in with their canned company credentials? Chances are, that’s what everyone else does too. 
Make a difference – invest time understanding your client’s business, his industry/marketing niche, and tailor your pitch presentation so he can see how you can help him solve his problems on an individual level. Don’t just rely on textual communication; use visuals instead! It’s not just a presentation; it is the future of your company. So please, don’t read out loud to him because I am sure he will be more engaged if you let him ask questions and make observations on his own.
5) NegotiationsNegotiating is an art. Sometimes, you’re able to foresee the moment when a deal could break down and avoid it by using your intuition or just being lucky! But most of the time, negotiations are all about preparation: knowing how much pressure will be put on both sides, what arguments can work for each side- but also in understanding that they’ll have to try out different approaches until one sticks.
You’ve done your research and you know the industry inside out. Your prospective client knows this, too. He appreciates how hard it is to impress someone who lives and breathes the business like he does, so when you walk into that meeting room for a face-to-face chat there will be no surprises in store – just two old friends catching up on what they’ve been doing since last month’s coffee date!
Clients like to work with agencies who are good and so if you have been able to successfully demonstrate your superior skill sets, chances are bright that you would be able to negotiate a better deal by emphasizing the very aspects of your skill set that makes you a winner. Clients will go along with this line of thought safe in the knowledge they’ve managed get themselves on board an agency which is professional enough for them.
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