Building a client base. Selling. Finding people to work with. Negotiating terms. This is NOT what most business owners/freelancers/self-employed folk dream about doing when they start out. In fact, it’s the bit that really puts people off.
I’m a bit of an oddball when it comes to this. I spent fifteen years in sales, marketing and business development roles before running a business and then becoming a consultant. I’m odd because I actually quite like it! I have spent a lot of time studying the psychology of sales, I train teams in sales skills, and I like discussing processes with people in my 1:2:1 business coaching service.
What I don’t like, however, is sleazy sales tactics, pushy people or “pitch slapping” on social channels. I don’t think it works very well, I don’t train people to do this and I would never encourage a client to behave in this way.
But if you’re building a client base, you do need to sell! You need to sell your services, your way of working, and your prices.
Here’s a few things to think about:
1. It requires work
If you think posting a few times on Instagram or pushing out content on LinkedIn will give you a full client base, you’re probably going to be disappointed. I say probably, because if you have a large network and avid followers then maybe it will work out; but the vast majority of us do need to work at building a client base.
This might take the form of networking, emailing, speaking, podcasting, content creation, email marketing, or so, so many other methods. But it does require work.
2. You’ll need a bucket of resilience
No one likes being ghosted. We never want to hear “that’s not for me”. We hate the thought of rejection. We’re people! We’re social animals and it can make us feel like a failure when these things happen. But it does and will happen to you.
My years of experience have somewhat hardened me to this (but to be honest, I still feel it at times).
Please, take it from me – it’s not just you. And you’ll need to build resilience. Lots of it.
3. Think like an investor
I know. Why would you want to spend money on a project when you’re not sure of the outcome? Or why would you want to spend time (which also has a value) on something that may or may not work? But budget is a need. It could be anything from a few quid on a networking event, through to thousands for a website. The important thing is to have a budget and figure out which purchases will help you the most.
4. Practice makes perfect
I can tell you for certain that no one doing a sales pitch the first time is any good. Sales is a professional skill and an art that needs to be perfected.
If you hate talking about money, practice it. If you can’t talk about your services without stuttering and losing your train of thought, then practice. If you’re not sure what a sales funnel is, then find out more. The more you learn and practice, the easier sales will become.
5. Know your audience
This is a huge topic that would require a huge essay on! But knowing your audience is fundamental to building a client base. If you know exactly who you can help and exactly what their needs are, then building a client base will start to feel much, much easier.
In fact many clients I work with often have this as the number one reason why they are struggling to build a client base.
But a clear target audience in mind, coupled with the right communication and the right service offering will make your client base much easier to build.
My final thought on building a client base is not to worry too much when you fail at something, or when something doesn’t work as you’d hoped it would. Mistakes are part of the process, and the more you get out there and speak, listen, engage and pitch, the more clients you will get.
I specialise in sales coaching for small business owners and teams. I also do a lot of team sales training. If you’re looking at some support and direction why not book in a quick call with me.
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