Generating New Clients – The Lifeblood of a Successful Venture

One of the biggest let downs any professional experiences, is seeing a prospective client walk away without agreeing to do business.  That’s assuming he kept the initial appointment in the first place.  You’ve committed your two most important assets (time and money) to generating new clients.  You’ve arranged your office and conference room for maximum impact.  You’ve orchestrated key facts to differentiate you and planned your discussion points.  But when the initial meeting concludes, your prospective client simply leaves.  If that’s happening more than you think it should, it’s time to focus on improving your new client-closing rate.

I’m a process and metrics guy.  I’ve worked with clients to help them focus on a few important steps, or missteps, to improve the overall performance of their businesses.  It’s a cliché but I’m going to say it anyway, for most businesses, new clients are the lifeblood of a successful venture.   When you stop to consider all of the effort that goes into securing those new business relationships, seeing them slip away is a painful reality.

I read an article in a 2013 edition of Trial magazine that stated, “the overall cost to acquire a lead is somewhere between $250-$300.  Unfortunately, the average law firm only successfully closes about 20% of those leads.”  Regardless of your type of business, similar metrics probably hold true.  Then factor in your staff’s time to field the call, time spent scheduling and preparing for the meeting, and the necessary work to follow up and eventually close the deal.  Generating a consistent flow of new client leads might be a significant waste of time and money if your ability to convert those leads is low.

Many professionals measure the number of leads generated.  That’s a good start.  But I recommend also monitoring the number of no-shows.  You’ve already spent time and money getting the appointment.  Converting that prospect into a client is now your primary goal.  Establish your benchmarks and then take steps to improve your conversion rate.

Here are 5 steps to implement to improve your new client-closing rate:

1. Make sure you secure an email address from your prospective client during the initial intake.  Your staff is used to getting contact numbers, but an email address opens up your ability to leverage a few more tools you can use to your advantage.
2. Once there’s an appointment on the calendar, immediately send an introductory email.  Think of it as an early thank you note.  This individual just agreed to give you one of his/her most important assets: time.  Remember, you don’t “deserve” this client, he/she doesn’t have an emotional commitment to you, and he/she hasn’t agreed to retain you, yet.
3. Consider including a brief video so you can deliver some basic information “in person.”  Maybe you’ve recently written a blog post or article relevant to your prospect’s situation.  You can use your video to encourage him to visit specific areas of your website/blog.  Remember to thank her for placing trust in you.  Your objective (at this point) is to help this individual become familiar with you and most importantly, to keep that initial appointment.
4. Have your staff send an appointment reminder 2 days before the scheduled meeting, and then either the evening before or morning of the actual appointment.  You might have your staff do this either via text message or an email.  In today’s environment, a text is an accepted way to communicate.  There are automated programs you can utilize to handle this task.
5. Make sure you have a plan for post-meeting follow-up.  Establish a firm understanding of your next steps.  Send a thank you message including a couple high-level points from your discussion.  It’s a great opportunity for another quick video.  Consider sending a summary email of the discussion.  Use this opportunity to remind your prospect of the comments they liked.  Above all, re-enforce the bond the two of you established.

I’ve often found that most of my clients are pretty good at getting the person to sign up, once they actually have a chance to speak face to face.  Many seasoned attorneys and other professionals have an effective “take down speech.”   If it’s a case they want, they know how to get it.  In that situation, the math is simple.  If you want to develop your business by generating new clients, focus on making sure your first-time appointments actually occur.  It may sound overly basic, but you’d be amazed at how important this step really is.  Improving your new client-closing rate all starts with getting them to actually show up.

Someone convinced you to launch a website and blog.  Everything’s up and running, so now what?  You may need content ideas.

Finding Content Ideas is Easier Than You Think

One of the best things you can do to make your site show up on Google and other search engines is to consistently add content.  Finding enough topics to write about is a challenge many professionals fear.  Unfortunately that usually leads to a lack of interest and eventually the whole idea may seem like a huge waste of time and money.  The solution may be much easier than you think.

I have 2 blogs, a couple of YouTube channels, draft articles for professional organizations and create content for a number of clients.  I’ll admit, sometimes you simply run out of things to say.  So yeah, I get it.  Here are 3 simple ways I’ve found to easily find content ideas:

1)  Listen to the questions asked by your new clients.  Generally speaking, you know a lot about your specific area of business, be that law, medicine, therapy, etc.  After all, you’re the Subject Matter Expert (the “Schmee”), right?  While you may know it, the person sitting across from you doesn’t.  When they ask even basic questions, remember many other people probably have the exact same questions.  Make a list of those questions and add to it whenever possible.  Use your blog and social media properties to provide answers.  Google views that as topically relevant content.  The more authoritative your site appears, the better it’ll perform for related searches.  Listen to your clients.  They’ll tell you exactly what write about today.

2)  Is there a story in the news involving your area of expertise?  Add to the conversation by blogging or making a quick video about it.  When topics are covered by the media, it always leads to people looking for additional information.  If you join the dialog, you can literally ride the wave that’s already been created.  Google wants to serve up information that’s related to a particular issue.  If you post about it on your blog, it’s quite possible your content can quickly gain visibility and actually be linked to by others.  Take a few minutes to look at the local and national media.  What’s currently trending?  If it’s a topic you know, jump in…the water’s fine.

3)  Most of us read “industry” publications.  You may read articles online, have a few print subscriptions, or subscribe to newsletters from trade organizations.  These are great sources of content ideas.  The important thing to do make a habit of scanning for articles you could comment about on your own blog.  By the way, here’s a ProTip:  Put it on your calendar.  If you don’t add these activities to your calendar, they probably won’t get done.

Content creation doesn’t have to be as difficult as it might seem.  By incorporating one or more of the above 3 content ideas, you’ll find more topics that you originally realized.  Remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  Add perceived value based on your personal experience and knowledge.  The key is to simply be consistent.  The results are going to surprise you.

If there’s one continued frustration most of us would like to avoid, it’s dealing with another Facebook change.  If you’ve committed time, money and effort into establishing your firm’s Facebook presence, you may be overly familiar with this issue.  Well, another layout change is being rolled out.  This change isn’t dramatic enough to require a complete overhaul of your page, but it might require some updates to your header artwork.  If your page was affected, it may look less professional than it originally did.

Here’s a quick image of my original header:

My original Facebook header

After the recent change, I noticed that the layout was a bit jumbled.  They added the name of my business and a description, in the lower left side.  This new copy obstructs some of the text in my header.  The lower right edge was also altered so that the arrow no longer lines up the way I’d originally planned.  Here’s how my header appeared after the change was implemented:

My Facebook header after the recent Facebook change

Now truth be told, I’m not a graphic designer.  I outsource that work to people who have the background and training to do it right.  The point of this post is to make you aware that yet another change is underway and you may need to check to see if your page requires a revision to the graphics.

It’ll be worth the effort to keep an eye out.  If the change hasn’t impacted you, it’s possible that Facebook hasn’t made it to your page, yet.  Hey while you’re there, if you haven’t already done so feel free Like my page so you’ll know when new tips, posts and videos are uploaded.  If this information is helpful, consider sharing it with your colleagues.  Thanks as always for taking a few minutes to visit.