Here are three ideas you can implement within the next week.
Invite your three best clients for lunch (or coffee) to “pick brain” (and share ideas)
This can be highly informal. You can learn about their interests, trends, anything you can do to improve your service and which associations/groups they value the most. Also, you can find out what media they follow — all vital to thinking about your forward marketing strategies. If they are truly enthusiastic (as they may well be),consider asking for their co-operation in a testimonial — even better a testimonial video. As a bonus you may pick up some extra work right away.
If possible, join at least one of “their” associations (which you would enjoy as well)
If your clients are business people, they probably belong to one or more specialized trade groups. See if the group has an associate member category for suppliers/supporters. Then join, perhaps with an introduction from your client If you are in the consumer space, if they belong to community, fraternal, sports or other associations and your interests match, join as well. (For business associations worth joining, the dues may be significant but not much more than a small advertisement.) Note that, unlike the first idea, you should not expect any immediate results here. You may have a three-year pay-in period before you receive pay-back. But for the big jobs and for longer range marketing you won’t find much better value for money.
Think the client experience and improve it (every day)
Try this test. Think about your business from your client’s perspective and for a week, think of one thing you can do to make the experience a little more pleasant and a little less irritating — then either implement or plan to implement these ideas in an orderly manner. Ideally, create a “wow” great experience; but at least avoid the dreaded problems of unreturned phone calls (or email messages) or messy job sites.
(Bonus fourth idea)
Have fun. Do what you love doing and either dump or delegate the stuff you don’t (and ideally delegate to individuals who love what they do, as well.)
Life is much better if you work because you enjoy your work not because you “have to make some money”. If you can’t get 100 per cent perfection here — I realize that you can’t always say “take this job and shove it” — do your best to create at least 20 per cent fun-time every day. You can do that.
Great advice… I love the idea of taking the top clients out and help them shape where you head.
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