When you start out in business it’s often all too easy to say yes to everyone and everything! Your enthusiasm to get started and show the world your skills, to build a client base and to develop your skills is understandable, but where do you draw the line – how can tell who your favourite clients will be?
Initial meetings can be more telling than you think
During our initial meetings we conduct a mini marketing audit. We look at areas that are strong for the company and working well, areas that need development and find out what the sore points are. We also discuss how the website functions and the use of social media, whether it’s in use and how, blogging and what other fresh content is being generated, and email campaigns.
By the time we have spent an hour or two with our client, other than relevant information to quote from, we can generally answer the three fundamental questions we ask to determine whether they will become a client or not, if they choose to engage us;
Do they have a budget?
Will they be as interested as we are?
Do we want to pick up the phone to them?
In fact, once the answer to question one is established, it is the other two that actually interest us most.
The budget side of things is important, not because we are money grabbers, but because the work we do can be time consuming. Our work has value, we have value, and those who appreciate our value will be happy to spend that budget. Those who don’t value the work we do will expect more for less and this leaves us feeling squeezed, stressed and like we aren’t doing a great job for our clients. So we don’t want to work for these types of clients. Let them go to somewhere more ‘wham-bam’ if that’s what they want.
Will they be as interested in their marketing as we are?
Quite often in this world, when we look for someone to do something for us it is for one of three reasons;
We don’t know how
We know how, but we just can’t find the time
We know we ought to, but we really don’t want to
Our favourite clients fall into categories one or two. Those that can’t and those that don’t have the time. These are the clients that understand the value of marketing and have an interest in what we do for them. These are the clients that we are happy to pick up the phone to and read an email from. They have their marketing heads on and send us information, images, emails and ideas. They give us feedback (good and bad) and read and respond to content in a timely fashion.
It's these clients that see a great return on their investments, because they give us the tools to work hard for them with, targeting, promoting and marketing. Those who don’t give us the raw materials are those who don’t see the results they’re expecting, because they think marketing is a magic wand, not the research, hard work and time it actually is.
We get a sense from these clients that we will not be working for them much longer. Communication slowly dries up, content and comment is not forthcoming, our main contact is deferred to a junior with no authority or knowledge and at this point we know we cannot continue working with them, they’ve completely lost interest, and in hind-sight, we could have predicted that from the outset.
One of our favourite clients
One of our favourite clients came to us initially to discuss social media. We went through our marketing audit, as is the norm, and ended up with a lot more than we expected. Not because we upsold, but because they understood the value of good marketing and were genuinely interested in how it would work for their business. Three months after starting a social media contract, we are now researching new website options, lead generation tools, video marketing, email campaign management and the creation of print marketing and posters in the form of infographics and inspirational company information for the staff. We’re even assisting them in the recruitment of their own marketing assistant…
They are nothing if not prolific in the generation of ideas and content, and we always pick up the phone to them!
How do you know you will work well with a new client? Do you have a system, or a series of questions to help? They don’t have to be ground breaking but once you’re confident enough to know the type of clients you work best for and the ones you need to say no to, I guarantee work becomes a much nicer place to be.