Best Advice to Win New Clients

You want more clients. Right? Of course you do. That’s what 99% of small business owners say they are in need of: “New Clients!” 

So, how do you go about winning new clients? 

In my last article, we talked about how to generate qualified leads, which is one of the most important steps in getting business. Once you do, you certainly need to convert them into new clients. That’s what we’re discussing here:

I remember when I first graduated from college, I went to a job interview at the national headquarters of a big company, and I was interviewed for a sales position. I ended up choosing not to go in that direction, but during the interview, I met with the vice president of the company and didn’t waste the chance to ask him a very simple but very important question: “Of all the advice you’ve given people on how to be successful in terms of closing sales and winning new clients, what is the one suggestion you have for me?”. 

You may be blown away by his answer, as I was because it seems like the most basic thing you can ever hear. Yet, statistically speaking, very few small business owners or even trained salespeople do this one thing.

What he said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Take a person who puts together a mediocre presentation and suppose that he goes through it and doesn’t even do a great job of presenting his services or products. However, when he gets to the end, he directly asks for the business.”.

I mean, seriously! That’s it! 

I couldn’t believe how straightforward the advice this VP gave me was. My young 22-year-old, at the beginning of my career at the time, was a little skeptical. But I was willing to give it a shot, and guess what? It always works!!

That’s correct. All you have to do is just ask for the business. Sounds simple! It is simple. However, we are often too busy persuading the prospect to purchase our service or product to notice that we also need that prospect to become our new client. This is why we need to ask specifically for the business right after the presentation is finished.

Unfortunately, that is the number one thing people don’t do! 

Let’s say that a competitor creates a great, inspiring presentation with all the bells and whistles, but when they get to the end, there’s no follow-up to ask for the business. Well, the person with the mediocre presentation will get the business every time, simply because he asked for it.

So why do so many of us entrepreneurs get so tongue-tied during those crucial moments when we are trying to land big new clients?

The sad reality is that too many of us entrepreneurs and small business owners let our fear of rejection hold us back from ever asking for new business. Believe it or not, we don’t need to build a huge Rolodex of contacts before we can show up and ask for business! The truth is, if you don’t ask for business right away, you won’t win any new clients. 

How should you do that?

It doesn’t matter if it’s in front of a room full of people or one person in a Zoom call—no matter the size of the audience, make sure you ask and get them to say yes. The most effective way to do that is by asking questions like: “How did this information help you?” or “What are your thoughts on this?” This way, they will have to think about your solution and how to use it to solve their problems. This would prepare them to accept your offer, and converting them into new clients would seem natural.

I know you’re thinking, “Oh, my business is so much more complicated than that.” But, I’m going to challenge you to ask for business more often. Maybe not on the first sales presentation, sure, but if you ask every single qualified lead that you go after for the business, I guarantee it’s going to increase your sales.

Lastly but not least…

For those of you that are afraid to do this, again, I work with a lot of people on overcoming fear. I love working with business owners on sales, but we can’t get into that here. However, I’m telling you, when in doubt, ask for the business, and this is how you win new clients!

You may have a lot of questions on your mind right now. That is why I would appreciate it if you could share them with us. My EntreResults team is ready to assist you along the way on your entrepreneurial journey! 

Be sure to take action, and have a better than amazing day!