22 Actionable Ways To Build A List Of Potential Customers

The best advisors and their team members agree that finding time to prospect and get names of potential clients is one of their biggest challenges. Those who are successful have developed their process to maximize their resources and ensure they are given as many assets as possible.

Here are some points and goals you should keep in mind when designing your prospecting and referral strategies:

• Aim to always have as many prospect names as possible in the bank.
• Remember, recommendations are an inexpensive source of leads.
• This is an opportunity to find other good customers through your good customers (because birds of a feather flock together!).
• Develop a customer development process that saves you time.
• When a customer connects you with a potential customer, it shows their trust in you and helps strengthen your bond.

2 Main Steps To Follow

1. PROSPECT

Ask yourself the following questions when designing your prospecting plan:

• What is your monthly goal and what activities are needed to reach it?
• How many new clients can you take care of?
• What will be your sources for finding potential clients?
• How many hours per week will be devoted to prospecting?
• What prospecting methods to use?
• Who will communicate with prospects?
• Who will attend meetings with prospects?
• If a prospect gets to the point where they could become a customer, what process will take place?

When it becomes clear that a prospect will not become a customer, what will happen?

Establish a monitoring system

2. OBTAIN NAMES OF POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

• List potential sources of referrals (usual centers of influence, unusual centers of influence, bank contacts, high-value clients, contacts in your community, etc.).
• Design a plan for getting referrals that includes your goals, how and when to request them, and the follow-up process.
• Make this plan according to the approach you are comfortable with (direct/indirect approach).
• Determine how you will serve the customers who have been referred to you and how you will thank the people who referred them.

• Write down the names of the people you will meet each week, check them off as the meetings take place, and circle the contact method.
• Record your notes.

Now they will be sub-divided into 20 action points. 

20 Actionable Ways To Build A List Of Potential Clients.

The dream of every leader is to have customers who, miraculously, come to them only upon hearing the name of the company or product. But the reality is that the competition is fierce, that customers are often loyal to certain brands and don’t necessarily like change or taking risks. Finding new clients is not an easy task. You will find 20 tips to attract them.

a. Define your target

This is the seller’s BAba. No need to go out and win new customers if you don’t know who you are looking for… Draw a robot portrait of the typical customer who is likely to buy your product or service. Then detail his desires, his expectations, his habits, and the places where he will find information on the products

Make yourself known to your target

Once your target is defined, try to reach it by communicating about the company and its offer. Advertising insert in the press, distribution of flyers, sending of e-mailings…

It’s up to you to define the ideal means of communication to reach your target audience.

b. Expand your network

Are you looking for new clients? Now might be the time to step out of your lair as a business owner and meet new people who could introduce you to future clients. Where to go contact fishing? In business clubs, at local events, or related to your sector of activity …

c. Leverage your networks

You have scrupulously followed the previous advice, well done! But all the work remains to be done! Because it is not enough to give his business card to win a new customer.

So be proactive, quickly get back in touch and offer your services or contacts: the best recipe for collecting help from your network.

d. Communicate on social media

Everyone says it, today brands must be present on social networks. Certainly, but you still have to know how to use them well! Create a Facebook page yes, but if you animate it regularly with information that may interest customers for example.

Encourage happy customers to testify

Because they are your best ambassadors. These customers will be able to launch a glowing word of mouth about your product which will spread quickly and reach potential customers already acquired thanks to this recommendation from a third party they trust. What could be better?

e. Position yourself as an expert

What will convince customers to come to you? To know that you are the best. And how do you get this idea across to them? By placing yourself as an expert in the field, by writing a specialized book, by posting advice-oriented articles on social networks, or by intervening in the famous “expert forums” of magazines. A small dose of extra work for maximum effect.

f. Build an effective website

Today most consumers start by browsing the Internet before deciding on their purchases. So focus your efforts on making an effective website. It must be clear, precise, and well organized. Also, pay attention to style: an “old-fashioned” site will not boost the buying impulse!

g. Diversify your offer

If your product or service does not attract enough customers, one solution is to offer another. A simple idea, even simplistic, but which can have its effect! Analyze the trend in your market and think carefully about what your target expects.

All you have to do is ride the wave of success.

h. Improve your commercial approach

In the current confinement and which continues, rarely, a customer by the mere fact of the existence of your website is ready to sign a contract without having been able to exchange with the salesperson. So you need to improve your sales! Coaching, training, or assiduous reading of specialized books … all means are good to become a better salesperson.

i. No longer be afraid of telephone prospecting

Do you dream at night that a psychopathic phone is sequestering you in your office? No doubt, you are the victim of an acute form of prospecting-phobia! So relax and put things into perspective: even the best salespeople are regularly hung up on! You can also consider training in this area to gain self-confidence and improve your efficiency.

j. Explore the multiple promotion techniques

Don’t say that you have never been convinced by the marketing techniques put in place by manufacturers to make you buy their products? The famous “2 for the price of 1”: a magic trick? No, just a perfect understanding of the mechanics of the impulse to buy… which you can take back to yourself by remixing it a bit.

k. Conclude partnerships

Because at 2 we are stronger than alone. By partnering with a company that offers a complimentary offer to yours, you offer yourself greater visibility and expand your network.

l. Improve your offer based on feedback from your customers

They may not have a marketing degree in their pocket, but they are the ones who will give you the best advice on how to optimize your offer.

m. Renovate your image

A customer asks you if it was your grandpa who designed your logo? Maybe it’s time to refresh your image by giving it a facelift! And because going through the facelift box doesn’t just work for women, your brand will also experience renewed success!

n. Improve your SEO

Because few people will have the reflex to call the plumber whose site is referenced on page 12 of the results in Google… So invest and offer yourself the advice of referencing specialists: guaranteed effects on annual turnover!

o. Learn how to optimize your client meetings

Unless you have mastered the art of hypnosis, which could make it much easier for you to convince the client in front of you, you will need to learn how to effectively conclude your business meetings even if they take place in videoconferences.

A subtle art whose secrets you will be able to unravel by consulting the books of experts who have proven themselves but also by observing the various podcasts of the companies which present their products.

p. Observe your market and get inspired by good ideas from competitors

Remember: how did you manage to get good grades when you were in first grade? You stood next to the first in the class to copy! Today it is no longer a question of copying but of studying the positioning of your competitors to detect their good ideas, those which attract all your potential customers.

q. Find new distribution networks

Take yourself for The Experts and go hunting for clues that will allow you to define the places that your potential customers frequent. Once these places have been defined, dig your mind: there must be a way to make it a point of sale for your offer …

r. Show your imagination

Any ideas that will allow you to heal your image and get closer to your target are good to take. Organization of practical workshops staggered marketing operations…

Brainstorm with your employees and let all the proposals come, even the most improbable.

With these 22 tips, you should get a sizable list of prospects knocking down your door begging to be sold.

If you have any concerns on how to go about it.

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