How to get the right clients

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One of our primary concerns is generating as many leads as possible. And that may be our biggest mistake, resulting in wasting time on unqualified prospects and working with too many clients you wish you didn't have to.

Working from the stack of leads, we pick up the phone and start making calls. The first person we get on the phone has lots of questions and it turns out is just looking for free advice. After a half an hour we finally get him off the phone. Our next call finds a highly interested prospect. After forty-five minutes, we’re ready to sign her up, when we discover she only has a couple of hundred dollars to invest.

Use Questions to Qualify Prospects
You can't be everything to everybody and it's a waste of time to try. Create a short list of questions to qualify prospects. Use these questions when you call them on the phone and in the service inquiry forms you provide on your web site. If prospects don't meet your criteria, you can keep them on your mailing list, but avoid wasting your time by calling them.

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Clarify Expectations
It is tempting to want to sign up every prospect that wants to work with you. This is particularly true when you are just starting up your business or when business is slow. But before you close a deal or sign an agreement, make sure they clearly understand what you will do and when. You don't want them emailing you every five minutes or expecting you'll answer their phone calls at two in the morning or provide additional services for free.

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There are many ways to approach the Ideal Client/Customer Profile. You can sit down and imagine the best, most wonderful client you could have--whether that is an abstract entity, a celebrity (what writer wouldn't want Oprah as a customer, for example), or a specific demographic profile. If your customers are more likely to be companies, you could look at your current client list, and pick the company that gives you the most business, the most joy, the least heartburn.