Five Simple Steps to Get Better Clients

Clients that are more satisfied will result in better business. How do you attract and find better clients?

There are distinct advantages to working with clients who are more reliable. In times of economic uncertainty, think prompt payment and better cash flow.

Bad clients are a common problem for many business owners. These clients are those you must chase after payment. This can be difficult even when times are good.

Bad clients can be difficult to work alongside, often asking for changes and expecting you go the extra mile, even if you don’t get paid.

Early in my writing career, I was assigned to a difficult client. They were always on deadline and getting paid was difficult. I wrote for them anyway because I believed things would improve.

When things didn’t change, surprise, surprise!, I got fed up. I sent them an email politely stating that I wouldn’t write to them until all outstanding payments had been made. I waited over a month to get my money. Needless to mention, I stopped writing for this client.

Instead, I am now focusing on finding better clients. Those who pay me well, on time, provide me with a steady stream of work, make me feel good, and allow me to learn and improve my skills.

Working with these clients will ensure that you do not experience cash flow problems due to late payments. This allows you to cover your daily expenses without worrying about where the money will come from. You’ll feel less stressed and anxious because you don’t have to worry about money.

How do you attract and find these clients? Let’s take a look.

Step 1: Define your ideal client

You can use one client you have that you think is better than the rest to help you find other clients like them.

You need to know why they are a great client. Are they easy to work with? Do they pay on time? Maybe they offer referrals and a steady stream of work that you like doing.

It is equally important to enjoy what you do as it is to get paid. Understanding this will help identify the kind of clients you would like. If you find small-scale retail and craftpeople rewarding, then you will prefer to work with them than large retailers.

Don’t panic if you don’t have any clients to use as a model. You can still identify your ideal client by looking at the things you dislike about your clients. If you have a client that you must convince about the value and price of your services, then your ideal client is the opposite.

Your ideal client will help you establish criteria to evaluate all your future clients. It is essential to assess potential clients using these criteria. Freelancers often get so excited to land work that they overlook red flags during the onboarding process.

Potential clients may be slandering small businesses in the past, making contradictory claims or lying about their work.

For example, I recall agreeing to a rate with one client and making a 50% deposit. The client stated that they could not pay a deposit as they had a small finance department. They preferred to make one-off payments and couldn’t afford to change their story. What did you do? I ran as fast and hard as I could.

You need to know what your client needs and what their problems are. This will allow you to identify their needs and help you create a unique value proposition. (We will discuss value propositions at Step 5.

Step 2: Find out where your clients hang out

These questions will help you determine where they hang out.

• Which websites are they most likely to visit?
• What social media platforms are they using?
• Are they members of any Facebook groups?
• Which offline events are they attending?

You can survey customers as a small business owner or manager using SurveyMonkey, Google Forms. Knowing where your customers hang out will help you attract, connect and sell to them.

Step 3: Connect with better clients

Once you have a good idea of where your ideal clients are located, it is time to establish relationships with them. These are the three best ways to do this.

• Consider writing informative and educational content for the websites they visit.
• Be sure to be active on all social media platforms they use. If clients are more active on Twitter than you, then be more active there. Clients who are more active on LinkedIn should be more active on LinkedIn.
• You can connect with them and share relevant content. LinkedIn allows you to publish posts and show your expertise.

LinkedIn has had a great impact on my writing business. To find similar companies, I used an existing company to serve as a template. To find similar companies, I used LinkedIn’s search engine. I entered the name of the company in the search bar and then used the “People also viewed” section at the bottom right.

To see who worked for these companies, I clicked on them. I was looking for content directors and content managers so I searched those employees and sent a request to connect.

After they accepted my connection request, I began to like their content and started interacting with them. I have reached out to many prospects and one prospect has contacted me recently.

Another way to connect with clients is through Facebook groups. Ramit Sethi, an entrepreneur and writer at GrowthLab, shares her experience with Facebook groups. She was able to earn $1.1million in just eleven months by using Facebook groups. She spent her time exactly where her prospects were spending it. She provided valuable content and answered potential clients’ questions.

Step 4: Finish your pitch

It’s one thing to find potential clients and connect with them. Selling your services to potential clients is another. Your pitch should be clear, targeted and tailored to the right person.

If you are a writer, you can create a customized pitch for each client. Mention their name and reference a recent article they have published. Spend time researching the company and their content to personalize your emails. You will get better results if you use “Hi” or “Hello” instead of just “Hi”.

Although these tasks can take more time than others, you will be able to stand out among the rest by following these simple guidelines. You’ll also increase your chances to land the clients you want.

For help in perfecting your pitch, see Observer’s post: 5 steps to convert a cold email that converts clients.

Step 5: Attract better clients by offering unique value

Your value proposition should communicate your unique advantages. You will attract customers that are interested in your unique value proposition and you will be able to filter out the ones you don’t. This is why it’s important to spend time developing your value proposition and include it on key pages of your website, such as your home page and your services page.

Value propositions that are effective convey a clear message, highlight your unique value and target a particular customer segment. They also promise certain benefits. Many value propositions include testimonials for proof of concept. These value propositions often include a headline, subheading, bullet points and images.

Let’s take an example:

FreshBooks is an accounting software that small businesses can use. It was created to simplify accounting for small business owners and allow them to run their businesses.