So, you launched your business and for the first month or so you saw some serious traction. You were excited for how things were going for your business. Then all of sudden it became the sahara desert with your sales and overall growth. Sales dropped down or there was no longer a list of people wanting to work with you. Trust, this is very normal when it comes to a new business. The excitement wears off and people forget you exist. This is why you need to establish a constant funnel of paying customers.
Establish A Game Plan
When a client comes to me regarding growing their business there are a couple questions that I ask them regarding their visions, plans and goals for their business.
- What is your main goal for this year?
- What is your financial goal for this year?
- How do you track your goals and plans?
- Are you looking to grow your online presence or local presence?
These four questions are important in understanding where their mainframe is. If you truly do not have a yearly plan that is broken down into quarters or months you will become overwhelmed. Most people tell me they just want to make $50,000 in sales a year. Which is great but we need that broken down even further to get where want to go. If you’re a boutique owner what does that look like in a single order or a multiple purchase order. This is why every business needs tiered pricing model. If you’re a service business how many clients do you need to have a month? That all needs to be broken down.
Follow Up
Serious question that I want you to sit down and think about. How often do you follow up with those who have used your service or bought your products? To my surprise most small businesses do not follow up with their customer base. The art of the follow up is key to keeping customers in your sales funnel. Once they landed that sale they are good. Here is the problem if they are not coming back to support you or sharing your business something didn’t connect with them. This is one reason, I instruct all clients to create next purchase cards. This helps customers immediately think of their next order with you. You are able to track the purchase from your follow up.
Another great idea to implement on the first of the month is to send emails out to everyone who has shopped with them the previous month. After that follow up every six months and then one year from then. Yes, that might seem like a lot of work but my thing there is a million other businesses to support, customer service keeps people coming back.
Limit Work List (service based business)
If you’re a service business, I truly understand the mindset of being a freelancer and how important it is to always have clients in the funnel. This year, I decided to only live off of my consulting income verse using consulting + digital sales. Too many times we take on too many clients in one month causing a burn out or even worse causing us to lose money from mistakes. Losing clients to mistakes is what I see more of actually. If your goal is to make $50,000 in revenue from your business you are going to want to add passive income to your line up to help ease the pressure of signing on clients. Also, one thing I did with a website designer client was we add up a subscription service of tech support for $99 a month that clients can opt in. So, long after their website is built he is making a stream of income from that project.
Network + Connect
How many people have you taken out for coffee or lunch in the last month? Making coffee connections with other business owners is essential in growing your business and keeping a funnel of clients coming in. Recently, I told a client to invite everyone she met at a conference out to coffee. This kept her booked for two months of connecting with people. She formed a community around her by connecting locally with others. Then on top of that it helped her grow the sales for her t-shirt line. She wore her shirts to every meeting and the lady she was connecting would want to purchase a shirt.
You can not be passive about establishing a funnel of paying clients if you want to win. You have to constant innovate and stay focused.
Images by Style Me Pretty
