A good friend told me long time ago:  “If you want to get married, you have to put yourself in situations to meet more men”. Not very romantic, but she was right.

Similarly, when you want to get more paying clients, you have to put yourself in situations to meet more clients.

Then, to get to a point where you can finally “marry a client” 🙂 or rather get them to work with you, often require a dating period as well. For some this period might be relatively short, and for others it might take years.

So, here are 6 universal steps to go from complete stranger to ‘tying the knot” with a client.

Step 1: Be Self-Confident.

When you believe in in yourself and are confident about what you offer, it makes a huge difference in how others perceive you as well. Your level of self-confidence can show in many ways:  your behavior, your body language, how you speak, what you say, etc. So, think about it: When you look in the mirror, who do you see? Someone who is confident that she will be able to rock her clients’ world and help them solve their problems; therefor eager to go out, walk the extra mile to meet more clients? Or someone who is uncertain about her abilities and services; therefor rather stay in her comfort zone, fearing failure, avoid taking risks and wait for clients to come to her?

Step 2: Know what you want

I remember when I was still in high school, I had this picture of my perfect husband in my mind. He must be tall, dark and handsome, in a professional career, have a great personality and a smile that makes my knees go all watery. Well, I think I pretty much got what I wanted – my husband has all those qualities and many more! But just like dreaming about your perfect husband, you need to know what you are looking for in your ideal clients as well. Who are they? Where do they spend their time? What do they want? How can you help them? If you know who they are and where to look for them, it will make it easier to put yourself in situations and places where you can meet more of those clients.

Step 3. Break the ice

To get a client’s attention, you have to break the ice, right? Making that very first connection can be a make or break situation, and this is where the art of conversation (your marketing message) becomes so important. It doesn’t really help to try and pick them up with a sleazy pick-up line, but when you are genuinely interested in the person you are talking to, the other party can feel your sincerity and will be more interested in spending time with you. It’s like creating that first spark of client chemistry. One thing that really works well, is asking questions and then listening to what they say, because asking questions give you something to talk about, make the other person feel special because you are interested in them AND give you the opportunity to find out more about your prospects and what they really want. This helps you to also fine-tune your written marketing pieces so it talks more about the client and shows them the value you can provide to them.

Step 4. Invite them to spend more time with you

It really doesn’t help if you make that initial connection, and then not ask them to spend more time with you. This is the only way you will get to know each other better to see if you are a perfect fit. So ask your prospects out on another “date”. This is like giving them a “Call to Action”! Ask them to call you to continue the conversation (or even better, ask for their contact details and call them!). Ask them to sign up for your freebie and newsletter. Ask them to click on a link on our website.   Just ask them to do what you want them to do. You’ll be surprised how many of them will do exactly what you ask and are happy to spend more time getting to know you.

Step 5. Make them feel special

Just like a guy makes you feel special when buying you flowers or taking you on a romantic picnic, or only dancing with you at a party, you can make your clients feel special as well. This doesn’t have to be something super big. It can be something small to show them that you care. Something as simple as staying in touch and regularly sending them a valuable piece of information they can use, or informing them of things that can help them, will make them feel special because they know you are thinking about them.

Step 6. Tie the knot – Sign the Contract

Okay, so over time you’ve spend time together and you both feel that you are a great fit – so now it is time to take this relationship to a new level, right. But what often happens is that you never pop the question and don’t ask your prospect to work with you… and they feel it is not their place to do the asking. So the two of you just carry on with having a great dating relationship that is not moving into “tying the knot”. Well, if you want someone to work with you, you have to ask them to do so. Luckily at this stage you have a whole history of dating and getting to know each other that asking the BIG question can be the most natural thing in the world to do and most of the time the answer will be a resounding “YES”.

So, in conclusion: Getting clients is like “dating”. It is not a one-stand stand, but has the intention of forming longer lasting, trusting relationships with your prospects; building on that initial “client chemistry” and setting the stage for tying the knot in the end.

PS: I’ve written a previous article about “How to create more client chemistry”. You can read more about it here.

To Your Success

PS: Tell us in the comments below what else we can do to “date” a client. (you know what I mean) 🙂

 
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