Let’s face it – everyone is in sales. From the neighborhood babysitter who wants to pack her weekend sitting schedule to the public accountant looking for more work, even non-sales positions require plenty of sales savvy in this economy. Here are many tips and instructions for winning clients and influencing prospects in a variety of situations.
Get listed in business directories.
Find your local Yellow Pages and create an entry for your business under the service you provide. Many different companies create Yellow Pages business directories in the paper or online, so be sure to find ones specific to your region. Your local city or community may also have a smaller business directory just for local businesses.
Remember to include all relevant facts in your advertisements.
No matter which of the below methods you’ll be using, you should make sure your potential clients have all the information they need to evaluate your business and contact you.
Include the best and fastest method of contacting you, or preferably more than one. Include both email and cell phone number if you have them and respond to messages quickly on both.
Besides your name or the name of your business, include a brief description of your service. Provide examples of specific tasks you could be hired for.
Know your local laws.
The city government or local police station should be able to tell you which marketing methods are not allowed. In many places, you are not allowed to put flyers directly in mailboxes, and you should check before going door-to-door or attaching them to private property.
Make your service as specific as possible.
You can’t reasonably advertise to every person who needs a website designed, taxes filed, or whichever service you plan to provide. What you can do is figure out what specific benefits you’re best at providing, and consider who specifically would be interested in them. If you stay away from generic statements and describe yourself as a specialist instead, you can focus your marketing efforts where they will be most successful.
Create a marketing plan.
Before you start advertising or launch a social media promotion, you should sit down and do the hard work of planning your marketing campaign. Consider how much money you are willing to spend on marketing, then research how you can spend it for maximum effect.
Create content for a personal or company website.
As long as it is functional and not too amateur in appearance, even a bare bones website is useful for showcasing your previous work and making yourself easily available to potential clients. In addition, if you have the resources, create free articles or videos that provide useful information that people will read and share. This can be a great way to spread word about your services by doing what you or your employees do best, rather than relying on difficult and unpredictable viral marketing or paying for advertisements.
Research the potential client before you contact them.
Read the organization’s mission statement and spend some time learning about them through their website. If the client is an individual, learn more about them from whomever or wherever you discovered they might be a potential client.
Begin to write a statement customized to the client’s needs. Once you know more about the potential client, you should come up with a plan for attracting their business. Mention problems you can fix or services you provide, specifically choosing subjects that are most relevant to the client’s work or problem.
