Show notes
Time after time when I ask our clients about topics they want to know more about, the subject of attracting larger clients comes up. So, in this episode we'll tackle it head on and address the steps you can take now to attract the larger clients you want to have.
David: Hi and welcome to the podcast today co-host Chris Templeton and I will be talking about attracting bigger clients. Welcome Chris.
Chris: Hey David. Thanks for having me. Bigger clients, nearly everyone in business in sales just loves the sound of that. But sometimes our actions, David, they aren't geared towards getting those results, are they?
David: No, unfortunately they're not. And a lot of times when I've had these conversations with clients and they talk about the idea of getting bigger clients and then we talk about what they're actually doing, what we find is that they're not in front of people who ever have the capacity to be bigger clients and so it's very easy to pinpoint the problems just right from the get-go.
Chris: And that is kind of the function of starting in business and just taking anything that works. And then over time just not really doing the things that helped me to get there. But I also think that businesses in general have a hard time with this idea of, you know, how do I go to these people who have the bigger dollars, who are willing to buy from me? And how do I go through the process of positioning? It's a big question for people and I think it's not often well answered by business owners or salespeople, frankly.
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David: Yeah, there's certainly an element of fear in a lot of situations when it comes to approaching larger clients because we're afraid we're going to blow it. We're afraid we're going to say the wrong thing, and so in many cases we just don't even approach. It's like the Wayne Gretzky quote, I miss 100% of the shots I don't take. And so many people don't take those shots and as a result, they never get that business. So, I think a good step toward overcoming that fear is recognizing that buyers are human beings, no matter if they have the ability to buy a little or they have the ability to buy a lot. They're human beings and so if you approach them as human beings and you see if you can provide them with what it is they're looking for, then regardless of the size of the business, regardless of the size of their purchasing power, they're going to be happy to hear what you have to say. So, to overcome that is to identify, okay, who are some of these people? And maybe getting into conversations with a few of them, trying not to be intimidated, and some of them might be intimidating. Some of them might just be rude or obnoxious or any of the other disqualifiers that we talked about in a previous podcast. It doesn't mean that that's all of them. You can have a very poor-quality prospect who can be rude and obnoxious and can come across as if they have a huge budget when they actually have no money at all and they're about to go out of business. So, you run into a lot of the same potential issues, whether you're dealing with a high-quality client or a low-quality client.
Chris: I'd argue that in a lot of situations, those smaller clients, you're going to work a lot harder for a lot less versus larger clients where you're going to work well for an appropriate amount of income and enjoy the process more because you're dealing with somebody who's got good sales coming in, got a good income, and when you're dealing with these people, you want to think of it that way, that these are people that I can help and they can help me as a result.
David: Yeah, some small clients are great and some small clients are terrible. Same thing with large clients. So it's really very much the same thing because again, people are people. So when we look at it and we say, all right, do I want to bring some larger clients in? And if the answer's yes to that question, then obviously your actions are going to have to change to adapt to that.
Chris: Right. And yet at the same time, it's not becoming something that you don't want to be. And I think that that's part of this fear piece as well this, "Oh my gosh, am I worthy of this person and their business? Are they smarter than me?" Those kinds of things and the best way, like you said earlier, is to just go out and start to talk to some of these people. It doesn't have to be a sale right out the gate, does it?
David: No, it certainly doesn't. And those conversations are going to tell you a lot and the main thing they're going to tell you is that some of the people you talk to are going to be great. Some of them are going to be terrible and some that are going to be in between. Just like everybody else.
Chris: You mean just like life?
David: Yeah, exactly! It's just like life and the primary difference is that when you're interacting with people who have the ability to place the larger orders and to become really substantial clients of yours, you just leverage yourself enormously because you're having a conversation with somebody who it can take the same amount of time as someone that you'd have who doesn't have that level of buying power and it has the ability to create a lot more results for them and a lot better results for you.
Chris: So how do you suggest that listeners go about identifying the bigger clients in their markets?
David: Well, a lot of people already kind of know who the bigger clients in their markets are because they're big and they're out there and they're aware of them. I mean, sometimes it's a matter of just if you're operating in a local market, particularly if it's business to business, you know, who has the biggest ads in the newspaper, you know, who's advertising the most on radio or television or internet, who are you seeing online a lot because the bigger places are going to be more visible. But if you want to go beyond that, not just the biggest clients in the market, but the biggest clients that you really want to interact with… What's the type of business that you want to interact with? Or what's the type of client that you want to interact with? If you're operating in a B to C environment, if you're operating business to consumer, who are the types of clients you want to have? If you're selling real estate are you looking for somebody who wants to buy a row home, or are you looking for someone who wants to buy a mansion, right? There are differences and it's all going to depend on you. One of the things that I love about sales is that each of us gets to sort of play in the sandbox that we designed for ourselves. We can interact with the people that we want to interact with. In a B to B environment we can choose to interact with plumbers and electricians or lawyers and bankers or doctors and we get to pick; and same thing in B to C. we get to decide what types of markets we want to interact with and so use that power, use that decision making, ability to think in terms of the people, the prospects the clients that you actually want to have and then focus on initiating contact with them. It's about being proactive rather than just being reactive.
Chris: Boy, and that's what you are all about, isn't it David? I mean your topsecrets.com website, Total Market Domination course, it's all about getting those plans in place and doing things in a way that's intentional.
David: Right. And making it accessible to people. Because there are a lot of small business owners who feel like they can't do it, that they're overwhelmed or outgunned by everybody else. And the fact of the matter is that it is actually pretty simple for small and medium sized businesses to compete when they're taking the right actions.
Chris: Boy oh boy, it's so important to understand that you as a listener have the ability to go get these clients and it just is going to take a little bit of practice and intention, but you know, talk about the difficulty or ease of reaching these bigger clients.
David: Yeah, I think there's a perception among salespeople that it's a lot harder to get to the bigger customers and that can certainly be true in some cases and it's less true in other cases, just like you know, are they going to be nice or are they going to be mean? It's going to be a mix. Same thing. Some of them will be easier to reach, some of them will be harder to reach. Are you going to be able to pick up the phone and call Bill Gates and get through? Probably not, not even if you've got a really successful autoresponder campaign backing that up, it's probably not going to happen. But for most people, most businesses you should be able to reach, introduce yourself to and get a message in front of the people that you are interested in having as prospects and as clients.
Chris: And let's not forget for one second that now more than ever you have access to things like LinkedIn where you can see if you have common relationships, that sort of thing, and really have the ability to personalize a conversation much more quickly. “Oh, I see you know Bill Smith from so-and-so!” and to create that conversation much more easily because you can do a little bit of background research, eh?
David: Yes, and you can also get your conversation in front of them. If you see somebody that you're looking to impact and you see them online, let's say it's on LinkedIn and they posted something about something that they were doing in their business and you were simply to comment on that,