Growth in small companies often occurs in fits and starts. Sometimes, companies don’t pursue growth because of concerns regarding capacity. However, when your firm decides to go in search of new business, it can be tough to identify your next big client. That being said, identifying a few candidates to be your next big client is not as difficult as it may seem. Read on to learn about a few key factors that make an individual or company a good candidate to be your next big client.
Past Relationship
A good amount of trust is integral to ensuring that your next big client relationship is one that is beneficial to both you and your client. Though trust can be fostered by strong client satisfaction guarantees, current customer testimonials, and good old-fashioned salesmanship, the best way to foster trust is to develop a relationship over time. Having a strong relationship with positive results in the past allows you to avoid having to undergo this procedure again. Perhaps the decision-maker at the potential client firm is someone who you’ve worked with at other companies. Or maybe she’s someone that you used to work for at a past company. Or she may even be someone that you worked a case with in business school. The nature and origin of the relationship is far less determinate than whether or not the potential client trusts you to do good work.
Industry Expertise
Potential clients love to see that you put out good work. They love even more to see that you know how tailor your services directly to their industry. Knowledge of how their own products and services works makes you look knowledgeable, and also will allow you to convince them that you know how to work with them to achieve their goals. Moreover, past experience in the specific industry means that you will have a proven track record of results. Proven results that showcase your expertise and individual knowledge is highly valuable to your clients when they are trying to make a decision. Additionally, pursuing companies that demand particular skills means that the pool of competition is smaller, and you are more likely to be allotted the time necessary to win over the next big client for your firm.
Note that having industry expertise can sometimes mean that you are servicing clients who may compete in one or more of their offerings. An easy way to avoid this is to identify firms that compete in different geographic areas. However, if you’re managing on a relatively limited scope, and your team decides to pursue a new client that competes in some way with a current client, it is a challenging predicament. Reassure both clients that you will protect their privileged information, and will work impartially to maximize the success of both firms.
Fans of Your Thought Leadership
Many leading firms leverage their presence online and through social media with blog content. This content is valuable for improving your website’s searchability and provide fodder for your social media updates. However, wise firms that are actively pursuing meaningful relationships with current and potential clients use their online content to offer added value with their services. Your next big client can benefit immensely from your thought leadership and the ideas that you put forth to help them achieve their goals. If that potential client is one that regularly reads your how-to guides, then you are far more likely to have a mutually prosperous relationship.
This factor highlights the importance of using robust web and social media analytics to understand who is reading your online content. Moreover, it can help you to develop a strategy that allows you to replicate past success in order to repeatedly identify and win the next big client for your firm.
Firms of Any Size
This may come as a surprise, owing to the fact that this article emphasizes the word “big”. However, winning a large company with vast resources does not actually mean that you win big business. Oftentimes, big firms will only grant limited business to their new partners, and many times they have no interest in growing the relationship beyond that relatively low level of involvement. On the other hand, medium-sized firms will often grant you more access to their key decision makers, and give you the chance to prove your expertise and the value of your offerings. Even a small firm may be preparing a major undertaking. For example, as an advertising firm, you may team up with a firm to map the launch of their new revolutionary product. As such, your next big client could be found in a small firm with big business.
A study prepared by Statistics Canada shows that profitability (Return on Assets) is highest among firms between 5 and 20 employees. With this obvious success, small firms should not be removed from your considerations. The best way to identify these smaller firms that bring big business is to keep your ear to the ground, and always remain open to pursuing clients whose needs match your offerings, regardless of their size.
We hope these tips have inspired you to look at prospecting in a whole new light. Have you experienced success in growing your client base? Share your most creative strategies in the comments section below!
