Do you want to find clients without being invasive or “sales”?
I’m guessing you’ve tried a bunch of sales calls and also sent a lot of cold emails which probably didn’t turn out as you hoped.
These days, reaching out to businesses through “cold” methods or strategies can be difficult. Especially now that there are lots of fake gurus who are also doing the same reach outs that you do.
Probably send the same emails, say the same thing on calls, or even use the same script.
You see, we completely understand your pain points and exactly why you’re here.
We’ve faced the same (or rather, similar) challenges to what you’re currently facing right now.
Well, fortunately, we’re here to remove the pain that comes with cold calling or emailing businesses or potential clients hoping they sign a deal with you or your firm (or agency).
But before that, let’s quickly highlight why your cold reach outs do not work.
You see, over the past year, I’ve sent a lot of cold emails, most of which did not turn out well until we figured we needed a better strategy for reaching out.
And we’ll be revealing that to you right in this guide!
Why Your Cold Emails/Calls Do Not Work in 2020?
You see, when I started freelancing, I wanted to make as much money as I could.
I watched as YouTube experts killed cold calls and emails live.
Have you seen videos like that?
I jumped into cold calling & emailing and after about 3 years of struggle, hard work, fails & wins, do you want to know how many clients I got from all the cold emails and calls I’ve sent all my life?
Guessing 20?
10?
3?
5?
Well, that’s not correct! I ended up with 0 clients!!!
Can you imagine if that happened to you?
There were a lot of things I was doing wrong but we’re here to ensure that you do not make the same mistake PLUS we’ll share with you how to use other methods aside from reaching out to attract clients to your business.
This is more like getting businesses to find you rather than the other way round!
3 Neglected Reasons Your B2B Cold Reach Outs Do Not Get Replies or Convert!
1) Where do your leads come from?
One of the neglected reasons don’t get replied is simply the way you get your leads. Some of which are:
- Through search engines traffic
- Through social media
- Through manual searches
- On Freelance MarketPlaces (Fiverr, Upwork etc).
Just to be clear, you can get Freelancers to scrape out a long list of leads with contact information, links etc.
Here’s an example:
Think about it…
If you get leads from these Freelancers on Fiverr for example, don’t you think dozens of other businesses might be paying them for the same leads?
I mean, earlier in my digital marketing career, I used to get leads from these Freelancers and what I noticed is that they get a lot of reviews.
Which means a lot of businesses also hire them to scrape leads.
And as you can see, they scrape 100s or even 1000s of leads.
Don’t you think 100s of other agencies or marketers are doing that right now?
I mean, they have dozens of reviews right?
So most of the time, they send the same leads to every customer who buys from them. Thus would reduce your chances of converting clients because dozens of other marketers or agencies must have already sent better offers to these leads.
On the other hand, getting leads from effective content marketing could convert way more than this method.
This is also why having an effective strategic Facebook Ads plan is always great for targeting especially if you run an agency.
Research has also shown that SEO leads to a 14.6% close rate (which is eight times that of traditional marketing).
2) Do you build “enough” rapport before sending your pitch?
The second most ignored reason your reach outs do not convert is because we still follow the traditional (or old) method which obviously worked at some point.
Now here’s it:
Just finding random business emails and sending them pitches.
In fact, I get a lot of this in my email every single day. Get the same?
Maybe one of those Instagram agencies who just hit your contact button on your profile and pitch their services hoping you’d work with them.
No value.
No trust.
No relationship. Just emails or calls.
Remember, people buy from people they know! Not necessarily the features that you sell to them.
That’s why referrals are so powerful!
Yes, it’s more difficult and stressful to build rapport or relationships before reaching out to any business or lead (which is why most people run away from. But rather prefer to pitch the very first time), but do not just get people contact emails and pitch them from the start.
In fact, we noticed that most of our best clients are people we’ve had previous relationships of some sort. Either through giving value, build rapport or relationships.
So rather than just mass reach out 100s of businesses, why not narrow it down to 10 target businesses?
This way, you could have more time to really engage and build relationships with the people in these organizations. By doing these, you could get more conversions by just getting cold leads through Facebook which isn’t Free.
3) Your recipients are not even getting your emails at all.
The last yet simple reason that your cold emails don’t even get conversions, is simply because these businesses do not even get seen because they’re landing in the SPAM or Promotions Folder and you may not even realize.
So here’s the thing…
If you’re sending emails to 100 businesses but only 20 even open your emails, how well do you think you would convert?
Not so well right?
One simple strategy to increase your reach out conversion rates is to ensure that your emails land in their primary folder.
This is why we always advise you to find their primary email addresses (CEOs, COOs etc.), rather than company mails. This way, they’ll most likely see and open up your emails.
Your emails should be so genuine that they land in the Primary Folders each time.
Fortunately, we have a complete guide on how to ensure your emails avoid the SPAM and Promotions folder.
3 Effective Ways to Find Prospect Clients (B2B) Without Being Invasive (i.e. Cold Calling)?
Ready not to be intrusive while generating warm leads for your business?
Let’s begin:
1) “The LinkedIn Search Formula for Clients”
One of the best ways that we’ve found to be really effective (yet untapped) to find clients is through LinkedIn. Now not just creating random job alerts and sending the same boring resume and cover letters without even paying attention to the jobs descriptions.
In fact, we don’t advise you ever apply for jobs through LinkedIn jobs.
Now don’t get us wrong, LinkedIn jobs could be helpful but since there’s so many people, businesses, and agencies applying for the same jobs you are going for, it creates high competition.
Thus making it difficult to even get your resumes opened.
So the simple, yet effective way that we use to get clients is the easy hack we call “The LinkedIn Search Formula for Clients”.
It’s really powerful and you can literally begin applying it right away.
But here’s the thing about this very strategy…
It’s so popular yet neglected by most businesses especially in 2020. That’s probably because a lot of experts say it’s no longer effective and as a result, people just end up not applying it into their overall business strategy.
Now it applies to freelancers, coaches, consultants and even agencies.
How?
Firstly, you want to have an ideal (I mean really ideal) client profile if you want this very strategy or approach to work.
You should create a perfect client profile for that dream client your business or brand wants.
The next thing you want to do is log into your LinkedIn profile and search terms related to your ideal client.
For example when I was starting out, I simply targeted content marketing agencies in the UK. Thus I searched things like:
- Owner content marketing agency
- Digital marketing agencies in London
- Content marketing company
Here’s an example:
Get the idea?
The next thing we do is to filter the search result (as much as possible) to suit our ideal client.
For example, you could filter your search results by Connections…
Location (SUPER Important!), by industries and even by Profile Language:
How amazing is that!?
Next we click on each person that owns a content marketing agency, and then rather than following or directly connecting with the founder, we follow the company’s LinkedIn page and then we go follow and engage with some of the employees.
[Side Note: Ensure that it’s a company that matches your clientele before you move on]
Now get the thing…
We don’t just follow them but also comment on at least 2 of their posts (probably in different days).
When we ensure at least 3-5 of the company’s employees are familiar with us, we then connect with the founder and send a private message.
This way, your leads are even 10X more likely to convert.
2) “Content is King Strategy”
The second most powerful ways we’ve found to get really hot leads are by creating your own content. Rather than just having a “beautiful” website where you just display past clients are boring testimonials about your services.
And not just any kind or content, one that answers all of your ideal Client’s day to day questions, problems and “work headaches”.
I mean, creating the exact content that answers your clients deepest questions. And how do we do that?
By finding real questions they’re searching on YouTube, Google, Yahoo etc. and giving them complete guides, videos and a lot more content that answers every bit of it.
I bet if you’ve searched on Google about service business owners who’ve made a ton of business from the content they put out and that’s absolutely possible!
Most times, service providers tend to get the high share of traffic thus more people on their websites and more leads pouring in.
Agree with me?
In fact, research shows that search traffic from Google converts about 8 times more than that from traditional marketing.
In fact, Benji from Growandconvert are great examples of great content marketing that exploded their businesses growth. They were able to create targeted content that focused solely on their ideal client and were able to grow to tens of thousands of monthly traffic and a 4-figure service based content marketing agency.
If you can create exceptional content that targets your ideal client and solves their problems, you naturally become an expert and get all the huge deals.
Effective content whether on Instagram, blog, YouTube, or Twitter can be the pillar to your service-based business is so powerful because you’d be creating solutions to the exact people you want to work with (the the right promotion).
We love this very strategy because you’d get total control of the whole process. And most importantly, get to charge what you want rather than the client dictating what he can pay.
Unlike strategies like cold reach outs, you or your business won’t come off as “begging for employment”.
In 2020, content and proper marketing is still very much effective in not just generating leads but converting high-value clients that are hungry to work with you.
You can kickstart your business’ content by coming up with a clear and effective content marketing plan. Then try, test and optimize to get the best conversion rate possible.
3) Effective Timing & Communication
The very third strategy might not be so popular because it’s something we’ve experienced all this while working with our past clients.
I’m sure you agree or at least have heard that referrals are the best ways to get high paying clients on the internet.
Now, let’s reveal the best way to get referrals…
It’s not by sending random emails and asking your clients to send you business if they like you. This isn’t as effective as it used to be.
It’s by delivering.
Not just by delivering the perfect job but by delivering on time.
Timing is a crucial part of business and as they say “time is money”.
So the secret here is to ensure two things are in place…
Effective Timing & Communication
What I mean here is the faster you deliver to your clients AND the better you communicate with them is what will get your referrals so easily.
Your business could provide the best services but if there’s no frequent communication and great timing, you might lose a lot of money from referral clients.
And from our experience clients who come through referrals are always high paying clients. Why?
Simply because someone they trust, has referred them to you.
One reason referrals are the best ways to get clients is because you don’t pay a dime!
So I’d deliver your works on time and communicate with your current clients, then you’d get more referrals.
Now here’s an additional strategy…
Partnering with other agencies or service businesses that provide services related to yours.
And here’s the thing…
Asking for referrals at the right time is also crucial. As a business, you need to ask referrals at the wrong time.
For example, most businesses ask for referrals after doing the work. But come to think of it?
What if they don’t really like the work?
Or it’s not up to what you promised?
A great strategy is to ask when they’re most excited. For instance, after doing 30% of your work.
At this point, the deal is still early and you client is most likely still excited about the results you promised to achieve.
And finally, one additional strategy is to make it really easy to say NO to your referral requests! Always let the choice be theirs and shouldn’t seem pushy else you’ll get a NO. Let them know it’s COMPLETELY OKAY even if they don’t do it.
What’s our final advice?
Attracting clients without being pushy, intrusive or salesy actually depends on the type & size of the business that you run.
You must understand your drive, business, goal, clients and their deep challenges. You basically need to have a detailed client persona for your business and go for it.
There’s no “one platform fits all” in generating leads or in marketing. You must try and test the major platforms to find which gets you the most clients and that’s the most cost-effective.
For some, Facebook Ads don’t work for their type of business. In fact, my friend Ben, has tried and spent a fortune on Facebook Ads but killed it through effective content marketing.
Keep trying until you figure it out!