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Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Allan Colman, Business Strategy, Client Retention, Entrepreneurial Startups.

CAN YOU IMPRESS YOUR CLIENT IN 5 MINUTES??

“Fortune favors the bold” – Virgil

The closer you get to the “Closing Zone”, the tougher the competition gets. That’s why you must be bold – don’t be afraid to go for it ! Here are 5 tested tactics to break the sales presentation mold and taking a more strategic approach.

1. Dump the resume;
2. Give something away:
3. Be a formidable competitor;
4. Ask for the business;
5. Maximize Rejection!

We are talking about taking a calculated risk. Perfecting and diversifying your sales techniques are the primary interchanges we have with clients. Our aim is to attract a wider variety of prospects and open more doors.

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Build a Business Relationship With Your Customers or Clients

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Allan Colman, Business Development, Business Strategy, Client Retention, New Business Development, Strategic Planning.

Build a Business Relationship With Your Customers or Clients

Allan Colman

Allan Colman

Revenue Accelerator Expert 🚀 | Speaker 🎤 | Professor of Marketing 👨‍🏫 | Author of The Revenue Accelerator 📘
297 articles

  A joint venture usually includes an agreement on how much each invests and what the overall marketing and sales strategy will be. Profit distribution, specific responsibilities, metrics for analyzing progress and growth, and a clarifying legal agreement are musts.

·       Contracting for managing the product or service is another option. Having another organization manufacture and distribute for you can help you remain focused on refreshing and updating your product and working on new versions. Again, legal agreements should always be utilized.

·       Licensing is often used as a way to enter a specific market. It is designed to assign another company to use your trademark, logo, or collateral materials and to actually manufacture and sell your product or service.

·       Financial investment is often the difference between a start-up’s success or failure. Do not become so focused on building your product or service that you ignore thinking ahead and looking at all the tools you will need to access and obtain funding.

·       Become a business partner with your customers or clients. Where you have similar goals, this type of partnership can offer a variety of benefits over many years. Demonstrate to them how you keep costs and fees palatable. Show you are amenable to new ideas and new ways of doing business that help both companies.

Who Will Replace Your Clients?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Client Retention, Strategic Planning.

Who will replace your clients if they retire or leave their companies, agencies, commissions, etc.?  Good leaders have the responsibility to ensure that all of their client-contact team members build relationships with their peers at clients and in professional organizations.

A critical component of this tactic is to ensure team members identify who would replace clients if they left their positions or if the company was acquired.  Invite them to be on a conference panel with you, ask about co-authoring an article which would appear in their industry journal.

  • Is your firm holding senior management accountable for client succession planning?
  • Does your firm’s professional development program include “on-going” business development training?

Read OWN THE ZONE for proven tactics to enhance client relationships at www.closersgroup.com;

DO YOU PUT GROWTH BEFORE VALUE?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Business Strategy, Client Retention, Firm Leadership, Leadership, Strategic Planning.

Creating value and communicating it to clients and prospects is essential to jumpstarting your revenue. These form the next three of 12 essential practices to accelerate new revenue.

VALUE: Are you building value in your customers’ eyes?
COMMUNICATION: Have you built a customer satisfaction ladder?
TEAM: Have you created a commitment-based culture?

Notice how client-oriented these three essential revenue-accelerator practices are. Let us work with you to make them work for you.

Prevent Laterals – A Major 2018 Business Goal

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Business Strategy, Client Retention, Leadership.

Preventing laterals should be a major business goal for all law firms in 2018.  The survey we conducted did not receive enough responses to be publishable.  BUT, other than retaining clients and new client acquisition – duh!-, preventing laterals needs to be emphasized.

In today’s highly competitive market for gaining new business with in-house counsel, your attorneys with a significant book of business are prime targets.  Talk with them, make sure they are getting all of the support they say they need,   Understand they are indeed receiving calls from recruiters and many are already holding exploratory meetings.

Where firms make retaining laterals their number 1 business goal for 2018, retaining clients and new client acquisition will be following.

Turn Clients Into Advocates for Your Firm

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Client Retention, New Business Development.

Continue building relationships and turn your clients into advocates for your firm.  There are multiple tactics to use including:

  •  Find out by conducting regular client satisfaction visits or discussions to enhance client retention opportunities.
  • Focus on more than just what you are doing now.   Cross-selling other practice group services is a solid approach to marketing.
  • Keep adding benefits to your services.   While performing a service or conducting a client interview, keep notes on issues that you are spotting.  Give your clients something extra by arranging a lunch to go over these issues, without charging a fee, of course!
  •  Participate rather than just attend.  Selling success requires you and others to attend and actively participate rather than just buying tables at dinners or offering tickets to sporting events.

Add your own ideas to this list, but do/do them!