Client Acquisition Tip – Take The LEAD & Get More Clients

Business Building TipsClient AcquisitionClient Retention Tips
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Despite the ongoing disruption to many of our businesses and lives, we are convinced that things will improve, and we will return to a more normal state of affairs. Why do we believe this? Because it’s what we do – what human beings do. Always have and always will. With that in mind, we’d like to offer a client acquisition tip that will almost certainly help you grow your interior design and/or luxury furnishings business.

  • Now, since acronyms are all the rage these days, we’ve developed a li'l sumpin’, sumpin’ we call the LEAD approach to client acquisition:

  • Listen – to your target audience and they will tell you how to convert them.

  • Educate – your audience on solutions to their pain points.

  • Adapt – to the needs of a broad client base.

  • Develop – services or products that meet specific needs.

These steps will become the foundation for a fully integrated, well-conceived approach to generating leads that will address the needs of your target audience. This will enable you to communicate with them as individuals, not as a vague, superficial, poorly defined collection of personality types.

4 Tips for Improved Client Acquisition

Let’s dive a little deeper into the practical steps of the LEAD approach; steps you can take to effectively generate leads for your business in virtually any business environment:

  • Listening includes increasing communication – in both directions. As we’ve mentioned before, prior and existing clients may be your greatest asset. Since they already know and trust you, they are an invaluable source of information about the value of the things you do – as well as a resource for referrals. Engaging with them will enable you to speak to them about alternative offers, explore new value-added services, and make yourself invaluable to them and prospective clients.

  • Education and learning are equally valuable – to your audience and you. Learning about the challenges your clients are facing will create opportunities for you to offer increased, targeted support. The current situation could create life-altering changes that will need both short- and long-term solutions. Regularly scheduled meet-ups with clients, prospects and team members should become the norm.

  • Adapting to the needs of a broad client base now includes adjusting to new challenges. This is where you will begin to employ some outside-the-box thinking since new challenges are going to need new solutions. You may need to get some online training yourself, as a means to offer more services and greater value. You may want to offer special deals, temporary rate reductions, and freebies to generate interest. You may even want to reexamine your values in an effort to discover what really matters – to you and your clients – in these challenging times.

  • Developing new products and services will be critical to your success. This will likely include broadening your own skill set, as well as finding new ways to present them. This is especially true for service providers, like interior designers for example. You may need to expand your services menu to use your entire skillset, as you figure out new and inventive ways to offer value to your clients.

Many design clients struggle to articulate their vision for a particular space, which is where you come in. Find creative ways to offer them the greatest value by presenting practical, real-world solutions to their pain points. Assure them that you’ve spent years building relationships with dependable contractors and furnishing suppliers that enable you to deliver as expected in a timely, cost-effective manner.

Even if staying in touch with clients and team members regularly involves nothing but sharing stories and commiserating, staying engaged has value. Being visible will keep you front-of-mind with your audience as the economy and markets return to normal. Showing you care will build trust and loyalty, which will allow you to retain and acquire clients more smoothly.

And yes, we believe that optimism is key because we know that life and business WILL return to normal and, when it does, you want to be ready.

Are you looking for more client acquisition tips or other marketing ideas and support? Ted remains available for business consulting to the trade. Simply… Get in touch with TD Fall today.