Over 3 weeks I’m sharing a really powerful, but in essence quite a simple 3 step strategy that I used very successfully to attract new clients and expand business from existing clients. 

If you’ve missed the last 2 posts view the Intro and Step 1 here.

Now, in the words of Mick Jagger my favourite Rockstar EVER
Let’s Work 

STEP 1 – Building the right client list (Last week)

STEP 2 – Today

 

Uncovering Your Clients Pain Points

Be Interested to be Interesting.

DO NOT guess your clients’ pain points!

The magic of this process is that your clients see that you are genuinely interested in their success. You may have some ideas/conversation starters but DO NOT assume you know what their key problems are.

This is what MOST people creating content do and you are not MOST people – you are a Recruitment Entrepreneur Rockstar; remember that! 

So this is how you do it…

Ready

…You ask them.

      BOOM!

And, it really is that simple.

 

Action 1

Phone Calls

Phoning as many of your contacts as you can is the best way to uncover what is valuable to your clients and potential clients. We found our clients loved these calls and were motivated to contribute because they had something to gain.  A real credibility booster!

How do I do the call?

If you get blocked by reception

“I am currently creating the agenda for a series of exclusive industry forums for senior executives in the <Insert Niche> and this is an opportunity for Elizabeth to be included and add to the ideas of her peers.”

If you go through to voicemail

Don’t leave detailed voice messages for people who don’t know you.

Say this, for a much higher call-back rate.

Hi, Please call [INSERT YOUR FIRST NAME ONLY] on <YOUR NUMBER>.

Client Call Template (Tweak to suit)

“Hi Elizabeth, how are you? I’m calling today, without my recruitment hat on to ask for your suggestions on an exclusive industry series/initiative we are creating to help senior execs in <Insert Niche> address  current industry challenges.”

At this point, you may need to lead them a little by suggesting a few topics that you believe may be of interest.

For example, “In your sector, some of the challenges I hear senior execs are facing are…. Combating increasing international competition, / Recent changes in law affecting construction, / The impact of Amazon to high street retail / etc.”

Once you engage them, they will quickly highlight topics for you.

Also, ask them whose opinion they value in the industry and who they would like to hear speak/give advice on a particular topic.

Once you speak to about 10 people you will start to see themes emerge.

**A Golden opportunity. Let them know you will personally call them/invite them to <Insert Event> when the information is ready.

 

Action 2

Email your database

We emailed our entire database and not only did we receive great ideas for topics, we got job orders, active candidates, and several placements as a result.

This only works if you have an engaged database – if not you will likely receive only a few replies.

If you haven’t emailed your entire database before – this is how.

Use a 3rd party email provider such as Mailchimp or Active Campaign

Why use a 3rd party email provider?

• You will get statistics such as open rates
• You will get a list of email bounces that you can go and clean up later
• It will be far easier than via your CRM or sending one at a time!

*Word of warning here – email is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing kit.  However, if you haven’t been emailing your list regularly, please don’t email a large list without first cleaning it and secondly send your email to smaller and steadily growing groups or you will find most of it going to spam or not being delivered at all.

Let’s assume all is good with your list….

The trick is to keep the message short and interesting to your reader.

Sample email 
—————
Hi Test

We’re creating a complementary information series to help senior industry executives address key market challenges.

We are committed to ensuring that the content is 100% on point for you and would love to hear your input on the following:

1) Key industry topics of interest.

(Side note: You may wish to add a couple of examples to lead them in the right direction)

2) Industry thought leaders you would like to hear speak.

Thank you for your participation and once we have our topics finalised I will be sure to let you know.

Kind regards etc
—————

 

Action 3

Social Media 

Post your call for interest across your social media channels. Even if you don’t receive much response, people will see it and it’s great for your brand. 

And that my friend, is it! 

This is a really simple process, but I promise you very few people are doing it. They are busy creating seminars and content that they THINK will interest their audience and missing the opportunity to connect with their clients before anything is created.

Your clients on the other hand now feel invested to see what you create. Please don’t be worried about the “how-to” with the content.  As you will see next week, you can start as basic as you like.

Just making these initial calls to enough potential clients will bring business before we even get to the content piece.

Once you uncover these topics, you have a lot to talk about with your market. On our first run at this, we ended up with about 50 topics. We chose a few key topics and ran an event with speakers that delivered almost more business than we could handle, and the rest became blogs, videos, and various posts that we knew struck a chord with our clients.

 Our team loved this, and in fact, we even had new consultants join us because of our refreshing approach to business development. 

If you are feeling unsure about this process in any way, you may like to wait until we tackle the 3rd Step next week 

“Helping your clients solve their pain”

…where you will see everything come together.

 

All the best,

Belinda Kerr

PS Enjoy Mick,  …have to love him! I thought The Stones were immortal until we sadly lost Charlie Watts recently.