Of course it is. After all…

1. Lots more clients means lots more income.
2. Lots more clients means you can pay your staff and suppliers.
3. Lots more clients means you can take on an extra pair of hands.
4. Lots more clients means you can pay yourself properly or take a dividend.
5. Lots more clients means you can grow.
6. Lots more clients means you can stop worrying.

Or does it?

Apart from the small matter that more clients makes for a larger company which is harder to manage, I’m going to explore the basic assumption that having lots more clients is what you should be aiming for, from a new business perspective.

In comparison, that is, to whether having just a few more of the right clients is a better goal.

Lots vs. the few

One obvious thought you may be having is that perhaps our goal should be LOTS more of the RIGHT new clients. OK. I get that. And if it was that easy to attract the right clients, then fine. But it’s not.

So – as an SME – start small.  Get the hang of attracting the right ones, and then scale that up.

Don’t go for volume first, with the hope of filtering out the wrong’uns later. That is much harder than you think. (You’ll see why at the end).

How do I know who the right, new clients are?

This is the fun stage.

Think back to your school days and Venn diagrams. (Anyone who hated maths, wiki reminder here.)

You are going to draw circles, loops, boxes – or whichever sort of shape your brain likes to work with – which will illustrate the different features of your right, new clients.

For this exercise, keep your bestest and favouritest clients ever in mind. Refer back to whatever it is about them that makes them so lovely. (If you don’t have any clients like this – or never have had any – then it may be time to shut up shop and go home.)

Draw a shape for each one of these sets:

• What type of work do those clients want from you?
• Which sector(s) are they in?
• What size or structure are they? How many employees – or what size turnover?
• Where are they based? (Remember, if you’re small, this can be a vital factor)
• What type of work is most profitable for you?
• How much could/did you charge? (Remember, best client and projects in mind).
• What type of work do you enjoy most – or… what makes you feel that you are plugging the biggest gap for your client?
• What type of work is on the up? (And conversely, what is rarely required any more…)

That’s a big old Venn diagram.

But it doesn’t have to be a fancy one.

Here’s a photo of mine. (Illustration was never my strong point – but I am quick). It hopefully shows you that you don’t need all the answers yet, but it’s still worth quickly jotting this stuff down to get things clearer in your own mind.

It’s not really what your Venn diagram looks like at the end that matters.

It’s the fact you’ve gone through the process of asking yourself these questions. You will be working out some important things.

1. How to do more of what you are brilliant at for those customers that really need it and value it
2. Where those customers might be – in terms of sector and location
3. What they might look like – in terms of size and structure
4. What they might feel like to work with

What do my right, new clients look like?

So, as an example – my own Venn diagram (see above) says that my ideal clients look a bit like this:

• B2B firms of 3-20 employees
• Based in Hampshire or Surrey – (Dorset, Sussex or Wiltshire fine, but slightly less ideal)
• Feel they need a part-time sales and marketing director – but wouldn’t be big enough yet to hire one
• Need clarity and direction on how to go about getting new clients
• SMEs that like face-to-face input – so facilitated workshops or meetings are likely to be a part of that process
• Firms that value strategy at or above £500/day
• Want – and are in a financial position to invest in – ongoing support for at least 6 months
• Have a culture of openness and learning, and are quick to place their trust in me
• Listen to what I tell them (and ideally action it!)

So you’ve defined those right, new clients. Now what?

I still haven’t tackled my original point. Why would just a few of the right clients be better than getting lots of general clients?

Hopefully, some of my questions above will have started this thought process.

If not, a word on general (or non-ideal, by which I mean not really right for you) clients. If any of the statements below strike a chord with you, then you’ll see what I mean very quickly.

How many of the clients below do you want?

Clients which:

• Don’t pay on time
• Result in unprofitable projects because they change the brief at the start three times; ask for more and more ‘tiny changes’ once you’ve begun; want everything ‘yesterday’; never answer the ‘phone when you need a quick decision; …
• Use you for your lowest-margin work and little else
• Never use you for the type of work you love and are actually best at
• Pay less than other clients because you got them on board through some early discounting and can’t move back up to your normal rates without losing them
• Quibble over every quote – including the £7.50 for a courier – even after four years of working together
• Go out to market for competitive quotes from suppliers they’ve never worked with in order to negotiate or get you to price-match. Nearly every time.
• Are miles and miles away from you, want face-to-face meetings regularly, but won’t pay for your travel time
• Ask you to do work which is well out of your comfort zone – but you don’t have a strong enough relationship to feel safe explaining why you’re not the best company to do it
• Change structure or staff so often that you are never quite sure which person is your buyer
• Are in a sector that you know so little about you feel as if you are having to ‘wing it’ in meetings

These are what I think of as general clients. There are plenty of them out there.

But these are the dangerous ones.

Not through any fault of their own – but they are dangerous because they are the ones you will get more of most easily. Unless, that is, you focus on attracting the right ones.

And – here’s the crunch.

Because of all the features of those general clients (the low-margin, poor paying, long distance, price sensitive etc.), you can get more and more and MORE and EVEN MORE of these clients, and never actually improve your business, or earn any more.

Oh, your turnover may increase.

In fact, it almost certainly will.

But what about your profit? Your sanity? Your love of what you do? Your ability to recruit, or give your team a bonus?

Arghjghjg ! Fat chance of any of that. You’ll be far too busy servicing all those exhausting clients just to keep yourself standing still and out of the VAT man’s little black book.

So – the moral of this story is simple. Go and get yourself some lovely new clients – just a few of them. Leave all the rest for someone else.

(A quick pointer here to a post on something I’m passionate about which can help get you started on the next stage, and that’s about giving things away for free to attract more of the right, new clients.)

Could you please do something for me?

I write posts like these so that people don’t make the same mistakes that I made earlier in my career when I was responsible for bringing in the new business in a marketing agency.

I also write them so that people can see (or rather hear) the way that I think, and the way that I work. If they like the sound of that, they can hire me.

So if you’ve found this article useful in some way – please share it with others. I recommend using the LinkedIn button at the side.

Muchas graçias. (No, I can’t speak Spanish, but I often wished I could).

The post Do you need lots of new clients – or just a few of the RIGHT, NEW clients? appeared first on Evolve Lite (Beam).

I mean, my thinking is that a shop really ought to look, feel and work pretty differently depending on whether you’re selling fish or shoes. For example. Or, legal highs or accountancy services…

Shouldn’t it?

Deciding whether to build a new website

It can often start a bit like this.

SCENE: Management team meeting, agenda a bit vague. Cross/bored manager begins familiar rant.

“Our website’s crap. We write a random blog every month about our company barbecue or our latest work experience placement, but we don’t even explain what we do. At least, not in a way that our customers can understand. The home page is way too busy, you can’t find anything. And Bob’s picture is STILL up on our team page, and he left in 2012 after stealing the company car.”

Other folk start to chip in.

“Yeah. It is SO out of date. We haven’t changed the pictures for over a year, we don’t even have an office in London any more, and the telephone number is still in the old format. (Winchester 236, may we be of assistance?).”

Then there’s around 10 minutes of a general free-for-all insulting everything about the website. Including the fact that productization was spelt with a z. And isn’t a word at all, according to Lizzie in accounts.

And then….

Hopefully, someone starts talking about what can actually be DONE about it. The end result is that a poor, unsuspecting (and often quite junior) ‘volunteer’ is pointed at and asked to take the project on.

Three things to do before you commission a new website

The first – and most important – thing to do about it is to consider your website in the context of your whole business, and not as a stand-alone tool.

There are very few businesses nowadays for whom a brochure-style website is a valuable outcome.

By brochure-style, I mean a website that purely explains to your audiences what you do, where you do it and how to contact you.

But this is what you might end up with, if you don’t think about three vital things before you start.

First – get your positioning sorted

You can find a lot more in-depth stuff on positioning – and how to get it sorted – over here.

You know your positioning is on the right track when everyone in your company can agree and articulate these five things.

1. Who your ideal customers and prospects are
2. How those prospects are grouped
3. What value you can bring to each of those groups
4. How and why you are (truly) different from your competitors
5. Why you don’t offer certain services – or sell certain products – that your competitors do…

The fifth point is really all about finding your niche.

Without a niche, you can’t really have a true positioning – because this article is for SMEs, and if you’re small, you can’t do everything for everyone. (Or at least, you can’t do it well. On top of that, people won’t believe you.)

Next, dust off your marketing or new business strategy

If you haven’t got one of these at all – this post may be a handy starting point.

If you have a marketing strategy, but haven’t seen it for months (years?), then get it out and give it a thorough going over. Make it fit for purpose, then think very carefully about the role your website can and should be playing in that bigger picture.

Plan your website alongside your strategy

Here are some useful questions to get you started:

1. What is the main purpose of your website?

   It it providing information and advice, offering useful tools and resources, or enabling transactions?

2. How many audience groups – with different needs – are there?

   Perhaps you have a service or products that cater to beginners, intermediates and experts. Each group will have separate wants and needs.

3. What do we want these people to do once they reach our website?

   Do you want them to download your e-book, sign-up to your promotions and newsletters, or buy products? Different audiences may have very different pathways around your site.

4. How will we be helping our audiences?

   Actually the most important, this one. Should have put it at the beginning.

   Think carefully about what value your website will bring to your customers. Not just what you want them to do, but what they would appreciate from you. If in doubt, ask your customers.

   If you’re not sure where to start with customer research, you might find this useful.

Then: choose a web designer/developer carefully

This actually the hardest bit. Because there are millions out there. In fact, the number of web designers may now have surpassed the gazillions mark.

And despite all my advice to them (would you believe it), very few of them are well positioned or have a clear niche – so you (the buyer) cannot tell the difference between them.

A few pointers for this:

• Don’t just rely on referrals, but get one or two from a friend with high business standards
• Look carefully at what they’ve done most of – and think how that truly fits with you
• If you find one who has a niche positioning in your sector/size/industry, include them in your shortlist.
•  They will almost all say ‘yes, we can do that‘ to absolutely anything you ask. It is quite possible they have never done that thing before. But they are sure they can. (While it is nice that they’re so confident, is is not always very reassuring.) So, if you find one that says no to something or is completely open about not having done something before, dig deeper. Their honesty may be just what you need.
• There are people whose sole job it is to help set you up with – and then manage – the right web designer/agency for you. A senior digital project manager friend of mine, Tom Hadley, is offering just such a service.

So, that’s three things to get sorted before you start building a website.

Once you’ve decided to start, please take the responsibility away from that poor, unsuspecting junior marketing co-ordinator.

Give them the project co-ordination, that’s fine, but take away the responsibility. You need a senior manager or board member to make the real decisions, otherwise each stage of the project will sit for ages in the ‘It’s gone to the management team, but they can’t agree’ category…

Either that, or use someone like my mate Tom. If you’re team is busy with their day jobs, then he becomes your web project manager and agency liaison. He’s on your side. (In the interests of impartiality, other project manager folk are available.)

If you’re a larger SME and have never commissioned a website before – and your website is an important part of your marketing strategy – then investing in a (high quality, experienced) project manager is very likely to pay for itself.

It would mean that:

• You have confidence in the quality and clarity of your brief to the agency
• You are confident that the scope won’t creep (90% of web projects suffer from this)
• You will stick to your budget and are confident it won’t run away with you – ditto 90%
• Your project will go live when it’s planned to – ditto 90%
• You maintain a good relationship with your designer
• You get what you wanted – because of all the above

Or alternatively…

Forget all that.

Just get a web designer in and build it.

This is the other approach.

It can feel really quick, agile, like you’re getting stuff done. And it can’t be that hard, can it? Surely you don’t need that much planning just to get a website built?

After all, pretty much every business in the world has a website of some sort, doesn’t it…?

You can give this a go. But any web designer/developer worth their salt will start asking questions. They have to. In order to get the answers from you that will create their brief.

NOTE: If your web agency doesn’t ask any of these questions, do NOT use them. They’ll just be building the website they think you should have, and not the one you need.

Charge straight in with building a website, and you can get one quickly.

But you’ll get one where you can’t work out how to best structure your information. What do your different customers want from your website? How will you separate the different audiences?

You’ll get one, but you won’t know what to say on it, ‘cos you aren’t clear on exactly who you are talking to. What tone of voice will you use? What language and keywords do your different customers relate to? What specific terms do they use when searching for products and services like yours?

You’ll get one, but you won’t know what images to use on it. What pictures will fit and appeal to your market. What look and feel reflects your values, or those of your ideal customers? What sectors are you focused on?

Who the hell is this website for?

Why are you building it anyway?

I hate to end a post on that doomy gloomy sort of note. But I’m going to anyway.

I think I’ve said enough.

The post 3 absolute must-dos before you commission a website appeared first on Evolve Lite (Beam).

Others are confident they’ve defined a clear mission with heaps of personality. But still feel that they haven’t quite got there with their positioning.

And the danger is, if you’re not clear on both, your prospects won’t be confident that you’re the right fit for them. So they won’t buy from you.

Here’s a bit more on why that is, and what to do about it.

Misuse of language warning

I have to admit to being lazy here.

I am lumping together mission, vision and values on the one side (the HR folk are going to hate me for this, especially my mate Sally B…). And bundling up niche, focus and positioning on the other.

Naughty perhaps, but useful to get my point across. Apologies to all marketing purists.

So that’s two sides to consider. Get them both right, and good stuff happens. Here’s why.

Your prospects need to understand you to buy you

I believe that for your customers and clients to consider you as their next supplier, they need to understand you – and understand what you’re best at. That’s your positioning. 

But to actually choose you (and sign that lovely contract), then need to connect with you – and connect with what you care about. That’s your mission.

When you get the two sides working together – Mission + Positioning – your clients get the full story, and you get the right client

Get your mission and positioning sorted

I’ve written a fair bit on positioning, so won’t repeat it here. If you’re new to it then get to grips with the basics in this post before carrying on.

So, on to your mission. Your why.

The difference between mission and positioning

I’m going to use myself as an example.

My positioning is that I am a new business consultant. I work with small B2B firms to help them acquire more of the right new clients. I work with firms in Hampshire and bordering counties.

So far so good.

My mission is that I’m here to help people – that were in the position that I was in 11 and 3/4 years ago – to get more of the right new clients.

The position I was in (11 and 3/4 years ago) was of having responsibility for new business, but not knowing where to start with actually getting a regular stream of real, suitable new clients in through the door.

And that was despite already having a solid background in (and I thought, a reasonable grasp of) marketing. Worrying, eh?

So, I carry out my mission to help these people by writing articles and giving workshops that freely share the knowledge and experience I’ve acquired. I try and give them those ‘Aah!’ moments, when things click and you feel that bit more empowered with the knowledge or tools to get your job done.

I do it because I remember how useful this type of bite-sized information could have been to me, in my situation. I can empathise, understand and help people to get better at it.

I then do paid consultancy work and training in order to earn the living that supports me to keep on helping those people. Importantly – if I didn’t need to work financially, I would still want to be doing what I do.

My values and beliefs support my mission.

Knowing my values and beliefs means that I can look for more of those clients that fit with them, and so fit with me.

The better the fit, the stronger and more valuable the relationship – from both sides.

Here are my values.

1. My new business philosophy is one of helping, not selling.
2. I believe that if you offer support and give value to others, good things will happen in business (as well as in life). So I work with firms that are interested in, open to, or feel comfortable with this approach.
3. I believe that not all clients are the right clients, so you should only aim to work with the ones that are. Then you can pass on the ones that don’t fit to other people whom you know could help them better than you can. Then everyone’s happy.
4. I like to help firms that are determined to improve, keen to learn, have an open mind, and are already prepared to put in the time and effort to make the changes needed.

You know something?

It’s taken me over a year to be able to write that down as clearly as that (hope it was clear to you). I certainly didn’t have a mission when I began.

Which leads me nicely on to my next point.

When to start with your mission

Some people say you have to get your mission sorted, right from the start. I don’t – and didn’t.

I believe that for most businesses, trying to articulate a mission is a really difficult task and can leave them struggling in vain to move forward rather than getting on with what they do best – looking after their customers.

Some companies are born of a vision, or a mission – so it’s easier for them to pin it down, because that is how they got into business in the first place.

For B2C, think Lush Handmade Cosmetics or The Body Shop (way back when). Think Innocent Smoothies.

For B2B, I think of Win Without Pitching. The founder Blair Enns, trained me back in 2004, so I am a little biased. He started with a mission over 15 years ago to help creative agencies (branding, graphic design, comms & marketing etc.) win their work without having to pitch – because he believes pitching is a fundamentally unsound way for a creative business to secure a new client. (So do I, for that matter).

Another more local and smaller-scale favourite of mine is Ann Stebbing. She photographs dogs and their people, because she loves dogs and cameras. Perfect – positioning and mission in one. (Oh, and if you’ve got a dog and want it truthfully and beautifully photographed, don’t go anywhere else. I think her work is superb.)

How to create your mission

Most businesses do not have a mission from the start.

Or even if they did, it’s maybe not one that still fits with who they are now – 42 years after their mum, dad or Uncle Harold started the firm in 1984.

And therein lies the challenge. Because it is quite possible that you do what you do for a whole bunch of reasons that are unrelated to the missiony thing. Maybe:

• You fell into it after school / college / University and never left
• It’s what you know and you’ve always done it
• It just pays the bills
• You don’t know what else you would do
• Uncle Harold would be really cross (or even worse, disappointed) if you left the family business

I can’t solve your mission for you – at least not in a short(ish) article like this. (Although you could always hire me to help.)

But I can get you started.

Nine questions to get you thinking about your mission

1. If you had a very famous client, what would you want them to say (unprompted) about your company on national television?
2. Which clients have you had the best ever relationship with, and why?
3. Where and how have you made the most difference to a client, supplier or business contact?
4. What makes you really excited and talkative when you are working or talking about work? (Could just be me that gets like that).
5. When do you forget that you are working (but you still are) and get completely into a state of flow?
6. Which part of your work, or your firm’s work, would you do 100% of the time, if you could? Why is that?
7. Why aren’t you working for your closest competitor instead of running your own business or bringing in clients for your current firm?
8. If you had all the money you needed, what work would you do to keep your brain engaged?
9. Why aren’t you doing a different job?

If these questions aren’t helping, then another great starting point is to think about mission from the perspective of starting with your why. Why do you do what you do? Why are you in business?

Well-known TED contributor Simon Sinek can get you started far better than I can on this topic. His TED talk is brilliant and will help you with finding your why.

Mission – or career change?

If none of these questions were any help, and Simon’s TED talk left you cold, it’s worth considering that you could be in the wrong line of work and your own mission is perhaps to be found elsewhere.

So, to stick with my values of trying to be helpful, here’s a link to a lovely career coach that I know (Felicity Dwyer at Heart of Work), based in Hampshire. She’s particularly interested in people considering career changes around those middle of life years. (Remember those?).

The post Why your mission, vision and values count for so much in sales appeared first on Evolve Lite (Beam).

And if you do charge less to bring that prospect in, it can set a very difficult tone for your ongoing relationship – where you feel you aren’t being fairly paid for the work you’re doing. Because you’re not.

And, of course, the impact of your new pricing goes straight onto the bottom line. (Or rather, comes off it.)

But what can you do about it?

How NOT to reduce prices – but still win new work

In my opinion, and particularly relevant for any type of B2B consultancy or professional service provider – whether it be technical, creative, specialist or project management related – there is one most effective and achievable approach.

The better your positioning, the fewer alternatives your client will perceive they have and the more robust your pricing can be.

Let’s unpick that statement and look at why it could be true.

Step into your prospect’s mind

Imagine for a moment a lovely prospect with a need for an outsourced, experienced management consultant (or… structural engineer/digital strategist/surveyor/market researcher).

Lots of those about, so this prospect (let’s call her Claire) can take her pick – and she can stay in control of the buying cycle, and therefore, in control of the price. Claire’s first impression is.. Yay, plenty of choice, this should be fine.

Prospects will search online simply to compare other suppliers to a recommendation

But when it comes down to actually selecting a supplier, Claire wants to get it right. First, she gets a recommendation. Tick.

Then Claire does a spot of Google homework and finds only two firms (from the 25 that first rocked up using an organic Google search) that have what she thinks of as decent experience in her sector.

Which she happens to think is quite important. They’d understand the industry, the inevitable jargon, the competition and any rules and regs that are going to impact on her project. Without spending lots of time and money (hers) getting to grips with it.

Sector experience counts for more than you think

Of these three firms:

• One of them is a well-known, global operation with a head office in New York and 130 offices around the world.
• One appears to be UK based, about 14 people strong, based in Hampshire.
• The third one’s in London, with what looks like about 220 people.

All have professional, easy-to-navigate websites with clear copywriting and suitable client portfolios. No-one to rule out for just looking crap, muddled or digitally clueless then!

Your website can’t make you the sale, but it can lose you the sale

Now, our Claire has never been one for the global providers. Too expensive, hierarchical and you always get shunted on to dealing with the juniors.

So she digs a bit deeper into the two smaller, UK ones.

Draw parallels to your ideal prospects in your case studies

Looking at their online portfolios and case studies she finds that one of these firms has done a couple of fairly similar projects for her direct competitors.

Hmmm…. interesting. Worth getting them in for a bit of intel, if nothing else. Be keen to hear how they tackled stuff, or what they learnt that’s relevant to me.

So she sets up calls with both of the UK firms she found on Google. (The supplier that a colleague recommended will get shortlisted regardless).

What a prospect thinks when shortlisting suppliers

1. One is quick to reply on email, quick to set up the call, bang on time and has three senior and relevant people on the call, including two directors. This makes Claire feel important.
2. The other is pretty good on all counts and has one director, one senior bod and one junior on the call. This is fine.

The ‘phone call continues:

1. One tells her all about their offer, lists their services, runs through an impressive client list of well-known brands and mentions all the different sectors they have worked in. They expand on all the other services they can offer (the word turnkey got used a lot) without seeming to notice that Claire doesn’t need – or have any remote interest – in these.
2. The other asks Claire awful lot of questions about the wider context. What type of project does she have, what are the timescales, what are her biggest concerns, how does she like to work, what learnings has she or her firm made in similar projects and what do they look for in a supplier. Claire can feel them listening to her and attempting to understand her position.

Asking prospects’ about themselves, and what problems they need help with, is always a better starting place that telling them about your firm and what you do.

Claire talks a little more about her specific project and need. So what I’m actually looking for is help with…

1. One firm asks even more specific questions and begins to challenge – gently but definitely – some of her assumptions or thoughts on approach, causing her to stop and think.
   • Initial options for project structure are shared and the pros and cons discussed. She can hear them jotting down key points that are made.
   • Claire feels almost as though the project has begun and she’s at the first scoping/briefing meeting.
   • She’s stretched her own thinking, learnt stuff and is enjoying the pace.
2. The other firm does some listening and explains in more detail about the big-name clients for whom they’ve done similar projects.
   • They breakdown the process they would use to approach her project and explain how it works in more detail. They use the words we and us a lot.
   • They give her some familiar industry names to contact directly for references. Claire is pleased, and makes a note to call them asap.

Challenging a prospect’s viewpoint – nicely and professionally – can demonstrate deep experience and insight. Which (if you provide professional services) is probably part of what they are hiring you for.

As they wrap up the call, Claire asks about pricing:

1. One firm asks Claire to send a full and detailed brief through in order for them to be able to give her a full and detailed quote.
   • They explain they will send through their rate card with the quote.
   • Claire asks if they have any rough idea of the costs meanwhile as she’s putting the business case forward later today to the board.
   • They explain they wouldn’t want to give her an inaccurate estimate, so promise to get a detailed breakdown of costs to her within 24 hours of receiving her brief.
   • Claire feels disheartened by the amount of work she’d have to do to get a decent brief done when she’s not really sure they’ve pinned down the approach internally yet.
2. The other firm gets out some paper (it’s a Skype call…) and sketches out the likely project stages, with ballpark ranges next to them.
   • Fair enough, these are fairly wide ranges, but Claire finds herself trying the costs on for size and feeling confident that her scope and budget fit within those ranges. 
   • Claire feels they must have done this sort of work a lot to have the confidence to list ballparks, and feels reassured by that. It’s also helpful for her early stage business planning.
   • They give approximate total costs for similar projects with clients in her sector, tackling specifically her problems – but without naming names of course.
   • This firm explains to Claire the main factors that effect costs from their perspective within each stage. This is really useful and gives her a good idea of what to consider when writing the brief.

Giving a prospect even a basic insight into how a project is costed (even if you aren’t confident enough to give ballparks) will help them understand you – and their own project brief – better.

Getting the inside track to win new business

Hopefully this mythical ‘phone call between Claire and her prospective suppliers will have demonstrated two things.

1. Smaller firms succeed at new business when they are tightly positioned and target customers who are the right fit for what they do. Prospects can clearly see when a supplier has real and solid experience in what they need doing, for firms which are like theirs. Find out how well positioned you are by answering these 12 questions.
2. Any firm can improve their chances of winning new business by actively listening to the prospect from the very start. Be client curious. By asking careful questions, by adding value and providing useful insight or information that the client appreciates, they can soon gain an inside track on the supplier selection process. This will give them an advantage.

When a niche positioning and an active listening approach come together, you can price robustly, because you will be the supplier of choice.

And if you have a good reputation too…

Throw in a decent thought-leadership marketing strategy – so the client has heard you speak at a conference, read your articles and e-book or attended your workshops – and suddenly you’re the supplier they want to do business with.

And the one they will be prepared to pay more for. No more reducing prices. Bingo!

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, or have gleaned anything useful from it, I ask just one favour. Please share it with those of your contacts that you think might also appreciate it – using the social sharing buttons at the side of the page. Thank you.

Or, if you’re stuck on where to start with positioning yourself to keep your own pricing as robust as possible, give me a call on 07827 297569. Nothing to lose – and an awful lot to gain.

The post Reducing prices to increase sales? Try this instead. appeared first on Evolve Lite (Beam).