A248 - Finding Clients Lesson #4: The Sneak Peek

02/20/19 • 4 min

I'm continuing here today with the fourth lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series.

This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis.

Today's lesson will help you position yourself and share insight into what problems you are solving.

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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You are smart and I know that you are constantly learning and evolving your skills and business whether it's on a project you are working on, or in passing as you read articles online when sitting on the couch.

When you come across something new that you've learned, don't hold it back like it's the One Ring. Share that knowledge either in a tweet, Facebook share, or a blog post or video for YouTube even.

When you share your knowledge online, there will be someone who will search for it who doesn't know.

My friend Val Geisler shares teardowns of Saas business' onboarding emails on her blog.

She stated in her 2018 review "I honed my voice and writing skills and got to build a nice little portfolio of spec work while I worked on moving more firmly into this specialization." And she was able to break the 6-figure mark too.

I can also attribute a few clients to one specific article on my site where I break down a number of well-known brands and how they should improve their checkout process. But in there I share how it could be improved as well.

This gives potential clients a sneak peek into what you can do and how you do it.

But it also gives the web the ability to have a piece of content to serve questions like "how do I improve my checkout process?" or "how do I improve my email onboarding sequence?"

By sharing what you know instead of holding it back will position you and your expertise in the world.

Instead of spending a tremendous amount of time figuring out an algorithm on how you can get your profile to outrank other freelancers on a platform, spend that time pushing out a piece of content that gives a sneak peek into your brain.

I'm continuing here today with the fourth lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series.

This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis.

Today's lesson will help you position yourself and share insight into what problems you are solving.

-------------------
👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
-------------------

When you come across something new that you've learned, don't hold it back like it's the One Ring. Share that knowledge either in a tweet, Facebook share, or a blog post or video for YouTube even.

When you share your knowledge online, there will be someone who will search for it who doesn't know.

My friend Val Geisler shares teardowns of Saas business' onboarding emails on her blog.

This gives potential clients a sneak peek into what you can do and how you do it.

But it also gives the web the ability to have a piece of content to serve questions like "how do I improve my checkout process?" or "how do I improve my email onboarding sequence?"

By sharing what you know instead of holding it back will position you and your expertise in the world.

Previous Episode

A247 - Finding Clients Lesson #3: The Client Sandwich

I'm continuing here today with the third lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series.

This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis.

Today's lesson will help you build a pipeline of high quality leads into the business of people and businesses that you want to work with.

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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You know I'm not a fan of discounting your services. However, this is more like buying highly qualified leads.

I can't take credit for this lesson all on my own, and to be honest, I haven't yet implemented it (yet). So I'd like to thank Ryan Bowles who runs the Create or Die Tribe FB Group for this.

I think it's a smart way to leverage your services and the relationship that you have built up with the client. But also be able to have built in a testimonial and referral system in one.

I'm changing it slightly from Ryan's original.

When you onboard a client, maybe a touch after you've been working together for a little bit, ask them this.

"Would you like $X off on the final invoice, simply by referring 5 business colleagues or friends that would be a good fit, if I've done a great job?"

When they say yes, reply with "Awesome, we'll talk about it when we get there."

Then after you've gone ahead and done a great job, remind them about your offer.

Ask them to create a quick 30-second video about how it was working with you, or better yet, ask them to answer this on the video.

"What challenges did you have prior to us working together and how did I solve those challenges for you?"

Then have them send that video and the 5 referrals to you.

Send those folks the video testimonial and ask if you can help them in any way.

Not only do you have a great, relatable testimonial, but you'll also have a built-in system to continuously generate new, targeted leads based on clients that you want to be working with.

That's the important part of this lesson and where I modified this idea from Ryan slightly.

Ask them if they would like this offer after you have got to know them a little bit better. This will further your chances to get better leads that you actually want to work with.

You'll also be in a better position to make sure that the client is sending you leads that are legit as well.

Next Episode

A249 - Finding Clients Lesson #5: Buy a cup of coffee

I'm continuing here today with the fifth lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series.

This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis.

Today's lesson will help you stay front of mind 2 different ways.

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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We are all busy and there's only so much time in any given day.

Business though is all about the people. Whether you are a running a solo owned and operated business like myself or running an agency, you have to be out there not just seen to sell, but also to provide value.

If you are always out there every day pushing ads, pushing leads, asking 9 out of 10 times, then you'll be put on the top of the pile. Just like all that junk mail you get both in your inbox on your phone and the thing that's hanging off the front of your house.

What I want you to do in the next 24 hours is this. Goto Starbucks and send an e-gift card to all of your clients.

Just to say "Thank you!"

It's nothing overly difficult to do, right? The gesture goes a long way though.

Expect nothing from them either. What you are doing is creating a memorable moment in their minds.

Do this once or twice a year and switch up the gift. Since you did an e-giftcard this time, go ahead and send some customized gift next time.

The second way is to answer a question.

I've built half of my business in 6 months with this lesson alone.

The social web is full with questions, pick out a topic or problem that your clients have and then monitor the web for those types of questions and keywords. Then when one hits, jump into that thread and share a link, resource, or helpful answer.

I do this with my Drip and ConvertKit services. And early on in my business, I did this with WooCommerce as well.

It doesn't have to be a specific platform or tool either, although that makes it someone what easier.

Look at the questions your clients are asking you, and then pull out those keywords. "get more phone calls from my site", "install X", "what's the best way to Y", etc are all easy to jump into those conversations.

As you continue to do that, you'll be in a much better and more referable spot to get work.