For most consultancy firms, client acquisition is not a systemtic process. Typically, we get clients through referrals and maybe networking, which ends up being a referral process too.
Unless we have our marketing systems perfectly dialled in, we cannot expect our client acquisition to be consistent or predictable. When this is the case, we have no confidence in being able to grow our business, and perhaps even no confidence about when and how our next client will turn up.
There are three steps to systematic client acquisition. The first and last of these are probably reasonably well understood, even if not well executed a lot of the time.
The first is what I call connection. We first have to make a connection with our likely prospects, whether that is through advertising or other organic methods. We have to get on their radar and we have to have some sort of interaction where we get their name and, or at least, their email address and any other information that helps us know who they are.
The third step is quite obvious. I call it conversion. That's when we convert the prospect into becoming a paying client.
Both these steps should be systemized.
The middle step however, is not well understood. However it is the critical step in the process that creates the bridge between connection and conversion. Even if you think you might know what this step is, it's my bet that you don't understand it in the way I explain it in this podcast episode. Most people get this step wrong, which makes it ineffective and leads to a lot of hard work with little to show for it.
Check out the podcast episode to find out what it is and how to get it right.
More information at https://businessflightpath.com