February 7, 2020

What to do when you’re not getting enough leads

Sent by Jonathan Stark on February 7th, 2020

Folks here on the list share all sorts of different business challenges with me. They generally break down into two categories, depending on how long the person has been in business.

For the more established business owners, it’s usually things like:

They have overcommitted themselves and are buried in client work
They are locked in a “race to zero” against inexperienced competitors who undercut them on price
They are struggling to break through an income ceiling that they’ve been trapped under for years

For the people who haven’t been in business as long, it’s usually more basic stuff like:

They aren’t getting enough (or any!) leads
They feel powerless in the sales process
They are being dominated by a whale client

I’ll spend the next few days working through these to give you a plan of attack if you’re facing any one of these challenges.

(BTW - If your top problem is something that I didn’t mention above, please hit reply and I’ll try to get to that as well!)

So where should we start? Well, today I got an email from a freshly minted freelancer who is broke, has no clients, and has no leads. So let’s start with that!

What to do when you’re not getting enough leads

Not getting enough leads is terrible for your business for many reasons. Here are three:

You get desperate for business, which can kill your confidence
You jump at any potential client that comes through the door, even when you know they’re going to be a nightmare
You conduct very few sales interviews, so you never get a chance to practice and improve your sales skills

When someone tells me that they want more clients, I always ask them the same initial question:

“Okay, well… what kind of clients do you want?”

Their answer to this is almost always something flippant or vague, like:

“Clients who value what I do!”
“People who can afford me!”
“Anybody with a pulse and a checkbook (and the pulse is optional!)”

Here’s the thing…

If you don’t know who you’re trying to attract, it’s no wonder you’re not attracting them.

It’s like asking “What bait should I be using?” without deciding what kind animal you are trying to catch. Spoiler alert! Mice and snakes and coyotes aren’t attracted to the same goodies.

So… a great first step when trying to attract more leads is to decide who you want to work with and proactively connect with them.

But how?

Here’s one way:

Make a list of 20 (or more!) clients who you think you would like to work with, and then find ways to start conversations with people who work at each. Here are several possible tactics:

Connect with them on social media
Ask your friends and family for email introductions
Socialize with them at in-person events
Slide handwritten letters under their front door
Cold calls, sky writing, smoke signals, I don’t care… do whatcha gotta do!

The bottom line is this…

If you’re not attracting enough leads, you probably haven’t decided who you are trying to attract. Once you do that, everything usually gets a lot easier.

Yours,

—J