Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 3: Attracting Local Customers
• Method 2 of 3: Find customers online or in other regions
• Method 3 of 3: Attracting Individual Clients
• Tips
• Warnings

Let's face it - everyone is involved in sales. From a local nanny looking to fill her weekend schedule to a public accountant looking for additional work, everyone, even those in non-sales positions, in the current economy needs to be savvy enough in sales. Here are many tips and tricks for building clients and influencers in a wide variety of situations.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Attracting Local Customers

1. 1 Include your company in business directories. Contact your local Yellow Pages directory and create an entry for your business in the services you provide. Many different companies compile Yellow Pages business directories in the form of books or online, so be sure to find the ones that specialize in your area. Also, your city or town may have their own small business directories only for local organizations.
   • Join your local Chamber of Commerce or other regional business association. If you have the time, actively participate in the affairs of this organization; studies show that consumers value these companies more highly.
   • Before registering in directories, read the terms of their services. Some may require you to be of legal age or limit the types of services you can list.
2. 2 Be sure to include all relevant information in your ad. Regardless of which of the following methods you use, you must ensure that potential customers receive all the information they need to evaluate your organization and contact you.
   • Include the best fastest way to contact you, and preferably more than one. Include both your email address and mobile phone number, if you have one, and respond to messages immediately.
   • Along with your name and the name of your organization, add a short description of your services. Please provide examples of specific tasks for which you can be hired.
   • Consider including information about discounts for new customers, customers who recommend you to other people, or for those who use your services during a certain period of time. The multi-client discount will pay off by attracting long-term clients.
3. 3 Check local laws. The city government or local police must provide information on which marketing methods are not permitted. In many places it is not allowed to place brochures directly into letterboxes and you should check this before going door to door and affixing them to private property.
4. 4 Distribute brochures in suitable places. Come up with a simple, engaging brochure to advertise your business. Always include contact information and specific characteristics of the work that you can take on. Think about the best way to distribute them so you don't waste time and money by printing useless brochures. Follow the advice above, check local laws and think about where potential customers are most likely to see your brochure.
   • Cleaning companies or other companies with a wide client reach can successfully distribute your brochures to every home or organization in the vicinity. If campaigning without permission is illegal in your area, consider folding the booklets in half and mailing them without buying envelopes - but don't expect more than 5% of people to respond to this method.
   • In many localities, there are public notice boards for advertising. This is likely to be cost effective if your services are targeted at small groups of people, such as offering flute lessons.
   • Local companies often keep brochures to present to clients at social events. Politely ask them to take a stack of yours, rather than just toss them. Don't ask competing companies to promote your services.
5. 5 Advertise in local newspapers. Find out what newspapers are published in your area and advertise in the classifieds section. This can be a great way to tell everyone about yourself, and it doesn't cost much if the publication is really local. Try to stand out from similar organizations by offering a limited time discount or mentioning special services not provided by your competitors.
   • If there are several local publications, place advertisements for short periods of time in each of them. Ask new customers how they found out about you and continue to advertise in publications that yield good results.
6. 6 Make yourself business cards. Check out online tips for how to make business cards or find an online service to create one. Keep a stack of business cards in your wallet or protective case and give them out to friends, neighbors, and anyone you come across in public.
   • Use heavier paper for your business cards and cut them neatly with a paper cutter rather than scissors.
   • Include several ways to contact you, especially your phone number and email address, name and description of the type of service provided.
7. 7 Ask friends, family members, and former clients to tell everyone about you. Face-to-face communication is an excellent tool for disseminating information about local services. Ask your friends to share your contact information and business cards with anyone who might use your services. Consider offering a referral discount or even a one-time free service to any customer that will also convince someone else to take advantage of you.
   
   
   • When starting your own business, consider sending out the handout by email to everyone on your contact list who live in your area and are friends with you. Include a brief description of your services and consider offering a discount to your personal contacts when they first use your services.
   • Ask former or current clients who have rated your work for permission to link to them. You can insert a complimentary note from them in your next ad, especially if they or their business is well known in your area.
8. 8 Consider your professional appearance. Try to meet the client's expectations. If you walk into clients' homes for the purpose of providing lessons or technical support, you must appear neatly dressed and in charge. On the other hand, if you provide garden maintenance or other manual labor, potential clients may wonder why you have your nails painted and a suit.
9. 9 Impress your customers. You will be more likely to be recommended to others and you will gain more loyal customers if you maintain a professional, positive attitude. Treat every customer with respect.Don't interrupt your work to chat with a friend. Come on time or a few minutes early and let us know in advance if you are late. Try, to the best of your ability, to complete each job in the best possible way.
10. 10 Consider insuring, licensing, and liabilities for your business. These are three different methods of protecting your client in the event of contingencies or fraud. If people know you have invested in one of these safeguards, they will feel more comfortable using your services. Here's a description of each of these processes and tips on when to use each of them:
    • Insurance for companies, in return for regular payments, will cover the costs of health injuries and other unexpected costs as determined by the terms of your contract. Consider getting one if you and your employees are at risk of injury at the client's home, as otherwise the homeowner's client's insurance will be billed for medical expenses - which the client won't like very much.
    • Licenses are only required for certain activities as specified in your local, state or national legislation. If you are unsure if your business requires licensing, contact your city government for advice.
    • Sign a promissory note if your company has many clients or employees. This gives the government control over a certain amount of funds that is used to pay claims against your company in the event of damage to the client's property or other incidents. By posting your promissory note number, you will enable your potential clients to view the history of claims against your company.

Method 2 of 3: Find customers online or in other regions

1. 1 Make your services as specific as possible. You cannot intelligently promote every person in need of website development, preparation of tax documents, depending on what services you plan to provide. What you can do is find out what specific benefits you provide best and think about who might be interested in them. If you avoid generalized language and describe yourself as a specialist instead, you can focus your marketing efforts where they will be most successful.
   • If your customers are individuals, search blog databases or generally popular blogs on the Internet related to your company's services, products, or mission statement. They will tell you what your customers are interested in and what specific problems they have that you could suggest they fix.
   • If your customers are organizations, use advanced database search settings such as CrunchBase to narrow your customer base by location, type, and more. As you have narrowed the list down to a few dozen or a few hundred, you can turn to them with suggestions tailored to their needs.
2. 2 Create a marketing plan. Before starting an advertising campaign or launching a social media promotion, you have to sit down and do the hard work of planning your marketing campaign. Think about how much money you are willing to spend on marketing, then research how you can spend it for maximum impact.
   • For more tips, see our articles on online marketing strategies.
   • The easiest way to assess whether a marketing plan is a good idea is to ask experts for their opinion. Do not seek advice from your direct competitors, but send a request to the people running companies that provide services to the same group of people.If you are a wedding photographer, please share your ideas with a florist; if you are a consultant in a narrow field, talk to other consultants who provide other services to the same companies.
3. 3 Consider your social media presence. Once you've determined that online marketing is a good idea, decide whether to use social media, a corporate website, or both. Every social media account, blog, or company news feed should be regularly updated with promotions or company news, although you should avoid subscribers sending out daily advertisements in bulk.
4. 4 Create content for your personal or corporate website. As long as it is functional and doesn’t look entirely amateurish, even a primitive website is useful for showcasing your previous experience and making you easily accessible to potential customers. Also, if you have the resources, create free articles or videos that provide useful information that people can read and share with others. This can be a great way to get the word out about yourself and your services by doing what you and your employees do best, rather than relying on complicated and unpredictable contagious marketing or paying for ad campaigns.
   • Use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to increase the popularity of your website.
   • Put yourself or an employee in charge of regularly updating your online presence in accordance with the goals and budget of your marketing plan. You may need to set aside additional time and money to create free content that will attract potential customers.
5. 5 Advertise on paid ad platforms or reach out directly to website owners. If you pay to place ads on third-party sites, make sure you select the sites that your potential customers visit in large numbers. Also, reach out to relevant blog owners, online forum communities, and other people targeting potential customers for your services. They may be willing to direct people to your content or promotions.
   • Ask clients how they found out about you or ask them to fill out surveys if you have a large number of clients. Stop advertising where it turns out not worth spending.
6. 6 Take part in conferences where your clients participate. If you are a consultant or other service provider specializing in a specific area, attend regional and national conferences related to your clients' work. Along with being knowledgeable in the industry, you will also be able to meet many potential new customers that you would not normally meet.
   • Contact the conference organizer well in advance and ask if you could give a speech or presentation, or sit with a group of professionals related to your work. This will increase your popularity in the future.

Method 3 of 3: Attracting Individual Clients

1. 1 Research a potential customer before contacting them. Read the organization's mission statement and spend more time learning about it by examining their website. If the client is an individual, learn more about him from or from where you discovered that he could become a potential client.
2. 2 Start drafting a customized proposal. After you find out more about the prospect, you should come up with a plan to attract them to the company. List the problems you can solve and the services you can provide by specifically selecting topics that are most relevant to the client's work or are related to the problem.
   • If someone is hiring a freelancer, read the job description carefully.Customize your resume or wording to make it look exactly the way the client wants it. If they are looking for your specific skills, even if it seems insignificant or is included in other paragraphs of the resume, indicate that qualification.
3. 3 Start with an attraction that makes you stand out. Your potential client may receive similar inquiries on a regular basis, or they may have never considered hiring someone for this type of service. Here are some ideas for how to get someone's attention:
   • Describe a special skill rarely seen among your competitors. The client's attention can be captured by knowledge of a little-known programming language, art form or other narrow qualification related to your work, and even impress him, even if it turns out that he does not use this skill.
   • Mention your famous client or briefly describe one or two of your most impressive accomplishments.
   • If you can't compete with reputation or specialization, hook the customer with a cheap or free service on a temporary basis. This is a good strategy if you are just starting a business and need to build clients to recommend you.
4. 4 Edit your proposal until it is short and clear. Your business proposal or presentation should take only 2-3 minutes of reading or listening, no more. Reduce it to 30 seconds if possible. Additional information in the form of a resume or a sample of work can go in separate documents, which will be provided after the commercial offer ..
   • Focus on the specific skills you have and the specific suggestions you have for working with the company. Avoid vague and incoherent language.
5. 5 Once your proposal is ready, find out who you need to contact and how best to do it. If you are making an offer in response to an advertisement, you must follow the instructions on how to handle that are provided in the advertisement. If you are contacting an organization, ask the receptionist or primary telephone line operator who is most appropriate to contact about your proposal and what method of contact he or she prefers.
   • If you live nearby and are strong in face-to-face offers, try making an in-person appointment. If you can't, arrange to leave the offer in person and attach a short handwritten note to show your personal effort.
6. 6 Be professional. Simple details like being attentive, listening, speaking well and having a positive attitude can go a long way towards signing your next deal. Be well dressed and behave in your best possible way during every customer interaction. Unprofessional communication with a secretary or with an outsider in a company lobby threatens to ruin your chances just like in a manager's office.
7. 7 Provide information to the prospect as soon as you have made an offer. Make sure you include all contact information and any additional details the client might need to make a decision. Provide a business card and / or brochure if you met a prospect in person or mail the complete package to them.
   • By introducing yourself incorrectly, you can harm your company. You can call yourself the CEO or president of a company if you are in a room full of people of that rank. Otherwise, call yourself a spokesperson, manager (if you have subordinates), or a special position that describes the work you are doing.

Tips

• People value honesty, sincerity, and a true sense of self. Showy courage, empty compliments, and a fake smile are not the right tools to close more trades.
• Even if your company has a more laid-back culture, professionalism remains the key to effective sales. Try to meet the client's standards, not just your company's dress code and marketing guidelines.

Warnings

• Don't make promises that you can't keep. There is no better way to lose a customer or earn bad reviews than to not live up to their trust or get the job done.