Finding more top clients for your business is one of the biggest challenges facing companies today. Even if you have a full base of clients you really need to look to the future and set your goals accordingly. In a perfect world you will have more top clients knocking on your door in a steady stream as you work with your current client base and increase customer relations and your revenues. Common experience is that you may have a few top clients but you are spending more and more time with all the other clients and not allowing yourself the opportunity to attract new clients. Here are some simple approaches you can utilize today that can help you to identify and get more top clients in your business.
One way to identify top clients is to make a list of all of your current customers and break the list down to three columns. In the first column you simply place your best customers. The customers you love to talk with, love to work with, and who obviously reward you by repeat orders, are obviously your top clients. They spend the most money with you because they appreciate the hard work you do. You enjoy these companies and the work seems effortless when dealing with them. The middle column would be the average spenders and the last column is the low volume customers. The low volume column will consist of clients you dread working with because the job never goes smoothly, you spend too much time redoing the work, and are barely rewarded with orders. You spend all your time trying to please the clients in this column.
When you focus all of your attention on the customers that spend the least money and seem to have the most problems, you get more of those types of clients. You spend enormous amounts of time going over and over projects, trying to please these customers so some day they can turn into your best clients. If you take a closer look at this column, you will see those clients in the third column usually stay in the third column, or barely more to the middle column. It takes an extreme amount of effort and focus to get them to spend more money. In contrast, the clients in the first column spend the most money, reward you with repeat orders frequently and usually spend the least amount of time with you holding hands. They value your work, and expect you will provide them with the service they are paying for. These are the clients you should be focusing on, not the low paying customers.
When you identify your top clients, you should begin to try to understand what attracted them to you and why they continue to use your service. Take the time and sit down with your best customers and ask them a few questions during your next call. These clients already love working with you, and giving them extra attention can never hurt your relationship. Instead of spending hours trying to help the low paying clients spend more, spend that time with the best customers and ask them what is it exactly that your business does that keeps them coming back. Ask them what they dislike about the particular industry, and really listen. You can gain valuable insight and use that to improve your business so you can attract more of the bigger clients. See what other vendors they like working with, and then model those other vendor’s actions. Try these simple steps and you will be attracting more top clients in no time.
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