How to Get the Right Clients and Avoid the Wrong Ones

Written by Charlie Cook


If you are like most service professionals and small business owners one of your primary concerns is generating as many leads as possible. And that may be your biggest mistake, resulting in wasting time on unqualified prospects and working with too many clients you wish you didn't have to.

Bill is a financial advisor looking for clients. Working from his stack of leads he picks uprepparttar phone and starts making calls. The first person he gets onrepparttar 120276 phone has lots of questions and it turns out is just looking for free advice. After a half hour Bill finally gets him offrepparttar 120277 phone. Bill's next call finds a highly interested prospect. After forty-five minutes, he's ready to sign her up, when he discovers she only has a couple of hundred dollars to invest.

Atrepparttar 120278 end ofrepparttar 120279 day, Bill has spent eight hours onrepparttar 120280 phone and still hasn't signed up any new clients.

Do you ever spend time chasing leads that are just a waste of time?

Martha is a graphic designer who has plenty of clients but her profits have been shrinking instead of growing lately. One of her long-term clients calls her daily with a question or a complaint. Just when Martha thinks a project is done, this one client changes her mind and wants it redone. And whilerepparttar 120281 customer is always right, this customer's lack of respect and professionalism is starting to get under Martha's skin.

Have you ever had to deal with clients who waste your time or are unrealistic in their demands?

A common mistake is to try to appeal to everyone, withrepparttar 120282 result that you attract too many people who don't want to pay for your services and clients you'd rather not work with. A more profitable marketing strategy is to position yourself and your firm to attract just those clients that want to work with you and who you'd enjoy sharing your expertise.

Imagine that every lead you pursued turned into a client, one who you could be honest and direct with, a client who you looked forward to working with. You'd make more money and have more fun.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could pick and choose your clients?

While you can't completely control who contacts you, you can use your marketing to position yourself to attract promising prospects and people who would make good clients. Here's how.

Define Your Ideal Client If you want to attractrepparttar 120283 perfect client, you need to know who they are. Take out a piece of paper and write a couple of paragraphs describing their characteristics.

- What business is your ideal client in? - What is their role inrepparttar 120284 organization? - Where are they located? - What type of person are they? - What is their situation? - What arerepparttar 120285 problems they want solved? - What are other characteristics that are important to you?

After the Speech

Written by Stephen D. Boyd


Usuallyrepparttar emphasis on making an effective speech is what you do in preparation beforerepparttar 120275 presentation begins. But if you speak very much, what you do afterrepparttar 120276 speech can help you become a more effective speaker. As soon as possible afterrepparttar 120277 speech, write down impressions of how you feltrepparttar 120278 speech went. Answer at least two questions aboutrepparttar 120279 speech: What wasrepparttar 120280 best part ofrepparttar 120281 speech? What part ofrepparttar 120282 speech can be improvedrepparttar 120283 next time? Some of your best ideas will come to you as you are speaking. Write them down as soon asrepparttar 120284 speech is over so you can be prepared to use those lines or ideasrepparttar 120285 next time you speak. Think aboutrepparttar 120286 peaks and valleys inrepparttar 120287 speech. Consider whenrepparttar 120288 audience seemed to listen best and whenrepparttar 120289 audience seemed restless and disinterested. Write down your reactions while they are fresh on your mind. Talk to someone aboutrepparttar 120290 speech withinrepparttar 120291 first day after your presentation. You'll remember best what you talked about and you might discover a better way of telling a story or making a point as you summarize your speech to a friend or colleague. Keep track of stories you tell and case studies you include so you'll not repeat yourself if ou speak to that audience again. In addition, keep records of how long you spoke, what you wore, key people you met, and anything unusual aboutrepparttar 120292 speaking context. Occasionally look back over your records of individual speeches and look for trends in your speaking that you are unaware of. When you speak to this group again, this information will berepparttar 120293 basis for your audience analysis. This is especially important if you speak frequently within your company and your audience will be made up of listeners who have heard you before. You don't want to develop a reputation for tellingrepparttar 120294 same stories over and over.

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