Getting to Know You - Make it Easy for Prospects to Become Clients

By Nina Price, LAc

You have a very clear picture of who your ideal clients are, including how and why you want to help them. The more you know about where your ideal prospects search for information about your services and how they like to receive this information, the easier it will be for you to get to know them.

For example, if your ideal prospects research everything using online search engines and prefer to read written information, help the search engines find the written information they seek. Your website and its keywords are crucial on this account. This is known as "search engine optimization." What information do your prospects want? What questions do they need answered to become paying customers? These are the keys to how you present yourself and your services on your website.

Keep track of the standard questions that your clients ask when researching your services: Do you accept insurance? Do you offer evening or weekend appointments? How much do you charge per appointment? What have your results been when treating a specific kind of problem? These questions and their answers could become a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page on your website. Another page on your site should include a biography.

You may want to link your blog to your website or offer free written pieces that help your prospects get to know you, such as back issues of your newsletter, articles you have written, e-books you have authored, or other pieces. Take note of any other information that your clients request, then provide it on your website.

Your website is an indirect way of meeting people. Its mission is to provide information, answers to prospects' questions and, most importantly, to build your client list. A website without an opt-in box is not worth what you paid for it! Be sure to offer a "pink spoon" (like the Baskin Robbins ice cream free tastes), also known as an "irresistible free taste" (IFT)—something you know your ideal prospects will want to read or listen to in exchange for giving you their names and email addresses. Once you have this information you can establish a dialogue with them, and hopefully they will become paying clients.

A more direct way of meeting people is to give free talks on topics of interest to your ideal prospects or to join organizations and meet people who can get to know you as a potential practitioner they might use.

At first you may want to experiment with different direct and indirect ways of meeting your ideal prospects. Once you find a way that works consistently and allows you to meet the right kind of clients, stick with it. Nothing succeeds like success.

The better your prospects get to know you, like you, and trust you, the more likely they are to become paying clients. Be sure that you can provide services, packages, and even products that they may be interested in purchasing. Set your prices with a range of price points to allow them to dip their toe in the water (inexpensive) to a full fledged, multi-faceted solution to their problem (more expensive).

Getting to know you should be as easy as possible for your prospects; this means that your marketing tactics should match the way they prefer to get information. It also means sticking with these tactics to be successful in converting your ideal prospects into paying clients.

Nina Price, LAc is a business and wellness coach who advises clients on health, career, and lifestyle matters. A former Silicon Valley marketing executive, Price also teaches and coaches service professionals on marketing. Further information may be found at: http://www.revupyourrevenue.com/register.html
http://www.ninaprice.com