Local Consulting 101 - Becoming a Client-Closing Machine
Hey there!
We promised to give you more tips on how to get more local clients that you can sell all kinds of online services.
First of all, you need to know some simple facts.
What do all great businesses have in common? They know how to sell.
It’s no longer enough to bring a great product or service to the market.
If you want your business to grow organically, you need one essential item in your bag of tricks - knowing how to convince local clients that they need what you’re selling.
Big companies like Amazon, Ebay, Walmart, and others have hundreds of marketing persons promoting their products everywhere while using almost any field of marketing: local marketing, video marketing, SEO, social media marketing and many others.
The fact of the matter is, every business niche is competitive nowadays. Becauseofthis,youwillneedtob ecomeversedinclosingasmany clients as possible if you want to get ahead of the local competition.
But never forget that there is competition there is also a lot of money involved.
Localbusinessesdon’thaveHUGEmarketingbudget,b uttheywillgladly take your offer if you know how to position yourself.
True story - How To Get As Many Clients As Possible When You Don’t Expect That
Take me for example. Just last week I needed to take my girlfriend’s car to a local garage for a tire change. While I was waiting for the car, I got to talking with the owner of the repair shop.
I simply asked him to fix something on their website, because that phone number listed there was no longer working and the mobile version of the website was not displaying correctly.
At that point, he started to explain that the website was created 5 years ago and he doesn’t know how to change anything.
That is when I started to explain to him what I do and how I can help him take his website to the next level. I also started to explain how important it is to have a mobile-optimized website because a large portion of the people search for services on their mobile phone.
After around 20 minutes of friendly conversation, I had convinced him that his business needs a new website and an aggressive social media campaign. Three days later, the guy called me and he already searched the internet for various templates for his new website redesign.
Don’t go thinking that I specifically choose that garage to acquire new clients for my business. I simply went there because it was the closest to my home. See, I have been doing this for such a long time that my mind is already wired to steer every conversation towards a closing moment. Without pushing and without being pathetic. Just be honest to the business owner.
Start training your mind
Picking up this essential skill will ultimately lead to your business dominating the local landscape. Of course, this is no easy skill to master as one bad choice of words can be the difference between a closed client and an obvious sales pitch that failed miserably. But once you get the hang of it, you will become so adept in the art of convincing local clients that you’ll end up getting conversions without even realizing!
How to convince local customers
In order to be successful in steering local clients towards your business, you need to be aware of a series of techniques that are regularly used to influence consumer behaviour. Below you have what we believe to be the best set of advice that we can possibly give to small business owners looking to close more deals with local clients.
1. Don’tsayanythingthatwillhelpyoustraightforward
There are few things that prospecting customers hate more than an obvious sales technique. Consumer trust is one of the most important aspects of the sales cycle. Nobody will be inclined to buy from you if you sound like you are following a sales script.
You need to be natural.
Whenever you start off a conversation with a potential customer, you should stay away from saying things that will put your business in a good light. During the initial interaction, focus on building trust with the potential client.
They already know that your end goal is to convince them to buy your product or service. Since they know you are not impartial, boasting about the quality of your services or products will not get you conversions.
2. Focus on understanding the problem
Never make the mistake of showcasing the solution without understanding the customer problem. Instead of going straight for the close, start asking innocent questions that will convince the client that you’re genuinely interested in their problem.
Ask about what needs to be improved and what other solution have they tried until now. Don’t force anything into the conversation. Only provide the client with r elevant information that is required to make an informed decision.
3. Don’t lie
Brutal honesty is often the needed trigger to make a prospecting customer forget that your end goal is to actually sell them something.
Sometimes in order to prove to the client that you’re actually more interested in solving their problems, you will need to mention stuff that doesn't help you or even does your business disservice.
For example, rather than avoiding to talk about your competition, you might want encourage the prospecting customer to check out the competition first before making the final decision.
This might seem counterproductive, but once you show them that you mean more than to put dollars in your pocket the deal is as good as closed.
4. Be friendly (but not too friendly)
Local clients want to do business with people that they trust. Don’t make it seem like you know the answer to everything and listen to every argument without making rude interruptions.
If you think it’s appropriate, you can even offer to take the conversation to a lunch of dinner if you think it’s appropriate (and cost-effective).
But don’t overdo it, as excessive friendliness can be a huge deal breaker if the interaction seems forced. Instead, pick your spots carefully and always leave an avenue opened for future meetings.
5. Let them WANT your services
Even if you previously showed them honestly and established trust, don’t always spoil the magic with a plain invitation to do business. By allowing a small business owner to take the initiative, y ou will be a lot more likely to get the a closed deal.
Try to explain how you can make his online presence way better, but without actually asking if they want your services. Just tell stories that happened to you in the past with different online projects you had.
Make sure that the potential client knows what you have to offer, but don’t ask them outright to get your services. Most of the time, casually mentioning that your business is there to help with the problem is enough...
Conclusion
We really hope that this guide helped you to understand that g etting clients is not that difficult and that it can be an easy task, if you know what you have to do.
Don’t forget that local marketing is one of the best things you can do because you can sell any services to them after you close a deal.
Also, outsourcing is always possible! Don’t panic if a potential client asks you for something that you don’t know to do. If you use Fiverr or Upwork you can do whatever you need to.