Here's how to increase your client base...

[rebeccakepple]

The error most businesses make is to try something once and if it doesn’t work, give up. You need to carry on and give your marketing a chance to work. If you are someone who does a promotion, and then gives up because it didn’t bring you new clients, then you are going 90% of the way, but stopping just short of success.

Most marketing gurus agree it takes between 5 and 7 contacts with a client for them to want to buy. Some say more than this but for most people it’s around the 5-7 contacts before they are ready to buy.

What I mean by ‘contacts’ is simply how many times you or your business have had contact with that prospective client.


It’s all about Jane


Lets go through 2 scenarios.

Scenario One

• So let’s say you send out some flyers around your local area and someone called ‘Jane’ who has never met you before receives one. This is your first contact with Jane.
• Now let’s say your flyer advertises the fact you do a form of healing massage and Jane is quite interested in this. So Jane calls you. That’s contact number two.
• When Jane calls, she asks you a bit about your treatments and asks what the price is. You give her all the information and have a lovely chat but Jane doesn’t book in. She says she just wanted to check prices and she’ll probably call back when she has her diary in front of her.
• But Jane doesn’t call back and you never hear from her again.

Sounding familiar? This is the most common scenario and it happens every day to hundreds of businesses in this industry. Lets look at Scenario Two…

Scenario Two

• You send out your flyers around your local area and Jane gets one. This is your first contact with Jane.
• Jane is quite interested in your massage treatments that the flyer advertises. So Jane calls you. That’s contact number two.
• When Jane calls, she asks you a bit about your treatments and asks what the price is. You give her all the information and have a lovely chat but Jane doesn’t book in. She says she just wanted to check prices and she’ll probably call back when she has her diary in front of her.
• You now say ‘Of course, I completely understand. I do specials every now and again, if you like I can send you out some info next time we have one. What’s the best email address for you?’.
• Jane thinks ‘great, a special! Ok’ and gives you her email address.
• Now Jane didn’t book in during the phone call because she’s really quite stressed at work. And even though she knows that a massage will help her, she just can’t take the time out right now. She now gets off the phone with you, goes back to work and forgets all about it.
• About a week later, Jane gets the first of your weekly email newsletters, which contain a free top tip for how to reduce stress and also an offer to book now. She thinks ‘oh, yes that’s good advice! I must book in soon too’ and then promptly goes back to work and forgets all about it. This is contact number three.
• The following week Jane gets your next weekly e-newsletter with another top tip and thinks to herself ‘wow, these guys really know what they are doing. I really must book in’. And then her boss walks in and she has to get back to work. This is contact number four.
• …. And so on…. After several emails Jane picks up the phone and books her first appointment.
• At her appointment, Jane thanks you for the great advice in your email and you have a good chat about how she can reduce her stress levels through massage.
• Because Jane now trusts you and your advice, she decides to book in again and when she gets back to the office she tells everyone all about you. In fact, Jane books in once a week, every week for a year and raves about you to anyone who can listen. You get at least 5 new clients through her and they all book weekly as well.

Now in Scenario One you gave up after she didn’t book on that initial phone enquiry. But actually she was really interested; she was just too stressed at work to book right now. She had every intention of booking in the future, but other things got in the way.

But in Scenario Two, you didn’t assume that she wasn’t interested. You took her details, added her to your database and kept the contact going. And as a reward, eventually she turned into one of your best and most valuable clients.

NEVER EVER assume someone isn’t interested just because they don’t buy the first time you speak to them.

You don’t know what is going on in their lives. You don’t know if they are someone who takes a while to make decisions. You don’t know if they genuinely are busy right now.

If you take their contact details and keep in regular contact with them, many of them can and will turn into great clients.

In fact, the vast majority of people don’t like making on-the-spot decisions. So once they’ve chatted with you, they will want to go away and think about it. If you don’t create a system to convert these ‘thinkers’ into clients, you are loosing out on 90% of your possible clients.

Set up a regular contact system with both your clients and potential clients. Then give them time to respond.

If you don’t have a database, then you need to start creating one right now.


Creating your database

So how do you create a database that creates new clients for you regularly and continually?

Well, the golden, golden, golden rule for converting a potential client into a paying client and then getting that new client to come back is to COLLECT THEIR DETAILS.

You’ll probably already have people calling you up who are interested in coming to see you. It might be from your yellow pages advert. It might be from flyers, or a local newspaper advert, or just word of mouth, or your signage.

We’ll talk shortly about how to get more of those leads but your immediate job is to get the contact details of every single new person that calls or pops into your business. I’ll explain a lot more in my Masterclass Course what you are going to do with those contact details, how you get them to come in and turn into regular clients but for the moment, just collect their details. I can’t say it enough, over and over and over – collect their details!

When someone calls for an appointment or enquiry, ask them if they’ve been here before. It’s easy. If they say no, ask for their details. Yes you want their name; yes you want their phone number. Ideally you want their postal address but the thing that is the equivalent of pure gold to you is their email address.

Emails don’t cost you anything to send. If they give you their email address, they are clearly giving you permission to email them. You’re not going to email them all the time because you don’t want to annoy them but because they have clearly expressed an interest in your business, you WILL follow up with them in an attempt to convert them, not just to a client but to a regular client.

Once you’ve got their details add them to your database.

Now if you don’t have a database yet, create one.

Your database doesn’t need to be complicated. You just need your client’s first names and email address on a spreadsheet.

If you have a computer system that you can just pull this all off, great. If not, no worries.

Open Microsoft Excel or whatever spreadsheet program you have on your computer and create a new document. Type ‘First name’ in column one and ‘Email Address’ in column two.

Then underneath just start listing all your clients’ names and email addresses. That’s it.

You can create a lovely complicated spreadsheet with all their addresses and phone numbers if you want but the most effective and cost efficient way of marketing nowadays is via email. It’s free and it can take you literally only a split second to send an email to all of your clients and prospective clients.

When you create your database, start with putting in all your existing client’s details. Then add all your prospective clients (people who have enquired but have not actually booked an appointment or bought anything yet). Then after that, add all your friends and family!

Your friends and family are your biggest fans. They will forward your emails on to all their friends and before you know it, you’ll have lots more new clients you didn’t know about.

 

[Urban Geek]

Thanks for your advice. Very helpful and encouraging x

 

[pippadoodle]

this information is very inspiring, especially at this time of year. Many thanks, I will use that approach.

 

[*Garfield*]

Brilliant advice, very helpful thanks:hug:

 

[~Emmsybabes~]

ooooooo,
thankyou very much for taking the time to do this for us,

This makes sooo much sense to me,
I have lots of interest in my work, But hardly any bookings, and yep,..
I take it personally

Now I will think sensibly and work on using this method, It makes perfect sense !!!

xxx:hug:

 

[MrsR]

Great advice thanks x

 

[Jen Smith]

Some very sound advice there, very inspiring and thought provoking.

Thank you.:hug:

 

[KellyT]

Excellent advice. Off now to do a database! Cheers for the help!

 

[Brandywine]

Super information.

 

[littlekate]

Great information. I will defo be collecting details now!!! I have always wondered how to get those clients that call but are just asking for information and prices to book in! Thank you x

 

[Bagpuss]

fab advise xx

 

[Mrs Geek]

This is wonderful and will be incredibly helpful to people on here - thank you! :hug:

 

[cups1974]

it like you are reading my mind May i print this and show it to my partner? This is what i am going up against as we speak. I have to explain Why i keep doing specials and that personal contact is key. thank you you explained it in a way i could never. But really can i use your words?

 

[chantell simone]

Brilliant advice

Thank you very much

 

[Exquisite Touch]

I like the way you think darling
fantastic advice :hug:

 

[rebeccakepple]

it like you are reading my mind May i print this and show it to my partner? This is what i am going up against as we speak. I have to explain Why i keep doing specials and that personal contact is key. thank you you explained it in a way i could never. But really can i use your words?

Of course! Please do I'm glad you found the article helpful.

As a little side note... Are you doing discounts in your specials? I ask because one of the things I'm firmly against is discounting. Everyone has their own view on it but I've always found that added value offers like a gift with purchase or a free mini treatment that you try to upsell to a full price one are the best ways to attract new clients. And the only discounts I've ever found that work are the massive ones... like 50-75% off.

The big big discounts get the client (or potential client's attention) however usually only the big retail stores can afford to do these. They are called 'loss leaders' because the store knows that if they lose money on that particular item, it will attract people into the store who will then buy lots more things and overall they will make a profit. Or alternatively they know they will make such a huge profit on their new range that they are prepared to lose money on the old range simply to clear the shelf space for the new stuff. They are great theories but seeming as most nail & beauty businesses don't make in the £1m plus per year category, doing 50-75% off doesn't really work.

I've found the smaller discounts like 10-20% only really get client's attention if they were interested in buying/booking in anyway. Which means I can probably convert them into being a client another way and not lose that 10-20% profit Like offering a free mini treatment and then upselling them to a longer one when they call in so (a) it gets more people excited about booking in that hadn't thought about it before and (b) I then get an hour to chat to them and convert them to a regular full-paying client.

Just a thought... might be helpful in thinking up promotions. If you want some more ideas, the article is an excerpt from a longer one I wrote that's on my site. Can't paste the whole thing here because it's way too long (41 pages!).

Thank you all for your lovely comments! I'm so pleased you've enjoyed reading it. Will try to post more over the coming weeks :hug:

 

[sj1973]

Great advice given......thanks so much xx

 

[angel fingers]

good article, it makes it seem a little easier than i would expect it to be to get a system up and running.

 

[sue-ellen]

can't wait to try it out will keep u posted on how it works :biggrin:

 

[hippy-chick]

I had a business link advisor come to see me last week, and she said practically the same thing. I'm now collating clients email addresses for next newsletter.