Where is the best place to look for clients? Attracting customers via the Internet for the company. Which buyer is “the one”

Be brief. When you call, talk, or email a potential client, you should provide a summary of your services. Discuss details only when asked.

• When speaking with a potential client, over the phone or in person, try to introduce your business in 30 seconds or less. Try to boil down the essence of your business to one sentence, for example, “I help complete (such and such tasks, such and such a group of people), who in the meantime have the opportunity to complete (certain other tasks).”
• When contacting a potential client by e-mail, try to keep your message to about three short paragraphs. Mention your qualifications and clearly state what services you hope to provide. Make sure your message has a subject line that also reflects the content of the email.

The reason many small businesses fail is not due to a lack of capital or experience. And, of course, it’s not that there aren’t enough people working there. Most businesses fail because they don't have a systematic and reliable way to attract a steady stream of potential customers.

In order for startups and already existing enterprises grew, they need their potential clients. If you think that having a great product or service is enough to get new customers, then you are very mistaken.

There are many entrepreneurs who notice too late that some of their clients are no longer with them, in other words, they have left them. They then try to get it back by offering additional incentives. Sometimes this is possible, at the cost of additional resources and money. Why are you allowing this to happen? This is due to the fact that many entrepreneurs are unable to come up with a strategy to attract new customers and retain old ones. Let's look at some of these strategies.

Show attention to your existing clients.

One of the best practices for attracting new clients is to show attention to your existing clients. Because " word of mouth” or word of mouth advertising, is very powerful marketing tool. Never let your old customers leave you and then bring them back. Instead, give them the most best service. Send them messages about the launch of a new product or service. The client will be pleased if he knows that you took the time to think about it.

Many entrepreneurs believe that social platforms such as Facebook or Twitter are The best way stay in touch with friends and find out what different celebrities are doing currently. It's actually a good tool for building relationships with clients. Therefore, you need to use it to attract new customers and answer questions from existing ones. Be creative.

Need analysis

The client is the basis for the survival of any business. Therefore, you need to put yourself in the client’s shoes to find out what they need. That is, you must understand the purchasing habits of consumers. This will allow you to develop a good marketing plan, which will lead you to your target audience.

Feedback from clients

You need to find ways to get direct feedback from your customers. You can ask them to participate in surveys about your product or service, attend trade shows, and conduct seminars. You should also receive feedback from your old customers if you notice that they are no longer buying from you. This will allow you to understand where your marketing plan is not working.

Weekly offers and surprises

Give a little to get a lot. You should be willing to give free samples of your new products. There are supermarkets that have weekly offers to lure customers. Many stores give discounts when paying, bonus cards, Gift certificates, free gifts and so on. The holiday season is a time when you can attract new customers and retain old ones by giving them attractive gifts or services.

Providing quality and timely service to clients, both new and existing, will help you attract new clients. Customers decide whether to make or break your business.

Where to find clients

Finding customers is perhaps the most important part of any business, which, like the profit from sales received, can depend on competition and tends to go where they make their presence known loudest.

Advertising departments strive to attract as much attention as possible from potential customers to their products. Some companies even draw up a specialized contract for searching for clients, when, with the help of certain strategies, they not only search for new ones, but also weed out unnecessary clients who will not bring much benefit.

Client search services include three main stages, which will easily allow you to find new people for the maximum effective activities your business without much effort and excessive advertising costs:

First way: Use the well-known “cold calling” technique. This method will work great, especially when the client search manager carries out a special strategy that will allow you to conclude a basic contract without leaving the office walls.

Second way: Actively search for clients via the Internet. This method has long established itself as one of the most unobtrusive, and at the same time effective methods, allowing you to contact each potential client personally at the lowest possible cost.

Third way: Optimize your budget advertising company in such a way that the search for new clients is carried out very unobtrusively, but at the same time it is worthy special attention. A competent investment in constructive advertising will allow you to attract those professionals who are able to maintain the solidity of your company and will allow you to create a program for its development with a professional circle of people who will rapidly increase the reputation of your business among other competitors.

How can a sales manager look for new clients? This question often arises for both beginners and experienced managers exploring a new region or territory.

Portrait of a potential client

Before you start looking for clients, you need to create a portrait of interesting business partners. Assess the most promising industries, identify market leaders by region and country, study the market situation, and identify weaknesses. This preparatory work helps answer the following questions:

• Who are the clients?
• Where can a sales manager look for clients geographically?
• What is the situation in the industry as a whole?
• What is the client interested in?
• How does he currently solve the problems whose solutions are supposed to be proposed?
• Which companies are your competing suppliers?

Having collected all the necessary information, you can create a portrait of a potential client who needs or may be interested in the product/service that the sales manager is presenting on the market.

Once the client profile has been determined, you can proceed directly to finding an answer to the question of how to look for clients for a sales manager.

The simplest method for understanding how to find potential clients for a sales manager is to review your existing client base, studying the history of interaction and successful sales, volumes and features of the offer. Based on this data, you can find companies similar in industry, volume and potential purchases, and contact them with an offer, based on the successful experience of completed projects. This makes it possible to conclude quick transactions and increase the client base.

The second successful and effective way to find new clients is to receive recommendations from existing clients with whom relationships have been established and communication has been built.

There are several ways to find clients for a sales manager using recommendations:

A personal meeting. You can ask for recommendations and contacts of possible clients who need or might benefit from the proposed solution at a personal meeting with regular customers. People love to give advice and help, feeling like experts. At the right approach this method can be very effective.

Phone call. By asking an existing client to make a preliminary call to a potential partner of interest, you can most likely count on a meeting and subsequent sale. A call from a recommender increases your credibility and becomes a good springboard for successful communication.

Visiting exhibitions and thematic events

An effective way to find clients is to attend industry exhibitions and thematic events. How to properly look for clients for a sales manager at exhibitions and public events? The goal may be to get to know the company, establish personal contact with employees of the organization of interest, or arrange a personal meeting. It is very important to analyze the information received and work out possible “warm” contacts as soon as possible, without delay. You should write a letter confirming your acquaintance. In the letter, it is worth recalling the place of communication, perhaps citing the words of the interlocutor, clarifying intentions to continue acquaintance and emphasizing the possibilities of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Attending themed events is a good opportunity for networking. Meeting the right people, building communication, exchanging opinions is the path to sales. The ability to make the right impression, be open to dialogue, and demonstrate an expert position in the topic that the sales manager represents will come in handy here. You should avoid front-line sales, intrusiveness, and displays of neediness. Self-esteem, coupled with communication skills and good product knowledge, is the key to successful commercial communication. It is important to be sincerely interested in the state of affairs of new acquaintances, to identify or formulate needs, and to ask the right questions.

Cold calls

A proven way to find new clients is to cold call companies of interest that fit the description of the client’s profile.

How can a sales manager find clients using cold calls? A cold calling algorithm might look like this:

• find the person making the decision on the desired issue;
• call;
• clarify information, ask questions, obtain necessary data;
• sell the opportunity and idea of ​​cooperation;
• arrange a meeting;
• prepare preliminary Commercial offer, based on data obtained during a telephone conversation.

Many companies have implemented consistent scripts telephone sales. If the company's rules allow, then it is necessary to give calls the right emotional connotation, disposing the interlocutors to communication and partnership.

When working on cold calls, such qualities as punctuality, the ability to hear the interlocutor, and ask questions are important. It is necessary to clearly understand the purpose of the call: acquaintance, appointment, sending preliminary information by fax or email.

Conversion of cold calls depends on the ability to overcome barriers, work with customer objections and speak the language of benefits. Competent speech, a pleasant voice, and a pace of communication that is convenient for the interlocutor will help build a dialogue and find a new client.

Searching for clients on the Internet

How can a sales manager look for clients on the Internet, how effective is it?

Searching for potential clients on the Internet can be done in several ways:

• Active participation in specialized forums with posting information about the product/service and demonstrating an expert position.
• Posting information about the company in in social networks.
• Using bulletin boards and thematic aggregators.

Social media

Using social networks to find clients is by far one of the most effective and reliable ways to find clients on the Internet. Depending on the specifics of the business and the target audience, a social network is selected. Let's look at the target audience using an example Facebook networks. The audience is young people (18-24) and the middle age group (24-45+), aimed at establishing business contacts and searching for information for self-development.

Here you can most often make acquaintances with new clients. An advanced search makes it possible to find people of interest. The fact that people indicate their place of work makes the task easier.

Many large companies create official pages where you can get acquainted with the specifics of the company's work, employees, problems and news. Social networks are a source of information for analysis and search the right people and establishing communications for further sales in a segment of interest to the business.

Forums and message boards

Studying and Active participation in specialized Internet forums. As a rule, on such resources, clients and suppliers share industry news, opinions about products and services, and discuss pressing issues. In addition to new acquaintances and necessary contacts, here you can actively promote your company, taking into account reviews of other suppliers, emphasizing the profitability of your offer and product/service.

There are paid and free bulletin boards on the Internet. They differ in territorial coverage and sectoral focus. By creating a small sales proposal with contact information, you can ensure passive lead generation without attracting additional funds. The sales manager can indicate his contact phone number and receive applications directly, ensuring that the plan is met.

Finding new clients can not only be challenging, but also frustrating. Any startup owner knows what it's like to waste time and effort trying to find clients. Every success is preceded by a series of possible failures.

But it is not necessary that it always be like this. We want to offer you several ways to find and interact with potential clients that you will find not only effective, but also easy to use. Promoting products and services is the most important part of business and should be done regularly, however, you should enjoy it. Remember that if you yourself enjoy promoting your business, it will be easier for you to create a positive impression of yourself and your company when communicating with clients.

1. Teach them something new

You have several options depending on your capabilities: the best option will join forces with other professionals in your field and conduct various courses and trainings - there is nothing more effective than direct communication with potential clients. But you can also do a lot online: share useful knowledge on LinkedIn, post presentations on SlideShare, or write a blog, offering readers useful tips and lessons.

One of the many Wix workshops in New York

2. Donate your products at events

If you are promoting a specific product and want to attract an audience, the most effective way is to give out free samples and gifts during a major promotion.

Find an organization or event managers who would be interested in hosting a similar event or lecture. This will help them entertain the public, who will be only too happy to receive your products for free, and will provide you with communication with target audience in an informal setting where people won't feel pressured into buying and will be happy to try something new.

You can also provide your product at a significant discount for mass events conducted by large companies. The immediate profit will be significantly less, but your logo and product will be seen by hundreds (if not thousands) of new potential customers.

3. Write a letter you want to read

If the letter does not contain useful or entertaining information, it will most likely be sent to spam. But if you can write something interesting or funny, it can serve as an impetus for making a purchase in your store or further disseminating the information you sent.

Take for example Wine Mine, a wine store in Oakland, California. This company created its website using a website builder. Their weekly newsletter contains a lot of interesting information about new wines on sale, funny descriptions of upcoming tastings, as well as jokes and anecdotes on the topic. This type of email is exactly what users want to find in their inbox: short, informative, and most importantly, valuable content.

You can take advantage of these great ones that will help you create the most personalized letter possible.

Don't forget to add a subscription form to your Wix site

4. Be kind

According to research, every second big company in Russia has its own charitable budget and spends from 11 to 17% on charity net profit. This doesn't mean that charity reserved exclusively for major players. Don't think that you need some crazy cash. You can be sure that any, even symbolic amount, multiplied by the number of new clients attracted by your social activities, will benefit any charitable organization.

Moreover, charitable activities will help your business build positive image and strengthen customer trust. People highly value acts of kindness, so doing charity work will certainly endear you to potential clients. Not to mention the self-satisfaction and real pleasure that comes from doing a good deed.

Why are there jobs for beginners when there are professionals?

— Beginning specialists charge less than professionals.
- Customers with small projects and small budgets often turn to newcomers. They pay little, but they are also willing to take risks.
- Newcomers are more open and ready to learn, they have more enthusiasm, and they approach their work more responsibly.
- Often, novice specialists can do the work more professionally, since everything changes very quickly on the Internet, and they have the most current knowledge.

First customer: how to find a customer, even if you are still a beginner?

2. Acquaintances and friends. As it turned out, one of the most effective ways. Think carefully about all your friends - most likely, among them there are business owners who may need your services.

3. Employers and partners from previous work. When a person leaves his job, he often stops communicating with former employers, but in vain - among them may be your potential customers.

4. Forums for entrepreneurs. Search for any entrepreneur forums (business forums, startup forums, forums for restaurant owners/builders, forums in your city, etc.). Register, find topics in your area of ​​expertise and answer questions there. T How will you secure your status as an expert?, And customers will begin to turn to you for services.

5. Internet exchanges: fl.ru, freelance.ru, work at home (community on Facebook), Startup Woman, mama lancer (LJ). The method is not very working. There are a lot of freeloaders on freelance exchanges who want, like, 1000 subscribers for 500 rubles. or website for 1000 rubles. good money You can’t raise money on the freelance exchange. I myself started with freelance exchanges, and if you are completely new and without a portfolio, then you need to write 50 letters a day to get an order.

6. Write on your pages on social networks that you are looking for a customer. Among your friends and subscribers, there may well be those who need a specialist for the project. And it will be even better if you design your profile on social networks in a representative manner. And you will begin publish your cases and achievements. This will help a lot, If set up promotional posts for your case. For example, you promoted a beauty salon and drive traffic to all beauty salon owners.

7. Organizations/companies whose services you use. These could be online stores where you buy goods, or the authors of newsletters that you subscribe to, or the presenters of trainings that you took.

9. Companies that send you invitations to groups. But it must be taken into account that they are probably have a small budget times use free way promotion. It is better to choose companies that are already investing in advertising. But, nevertheless, the method works, especially for beginners.

10. Companies that host contextual advertising. Enter a topic that interests you in the search and write to those companies that appeared in the advertising block. This method is one of the most popular from contextual advertising specialists.

11. Targeting (and retargeting) on ​​VKontakte, Facebook or Odnoklassniki. The same - enter the topic you would like to work with, write to the owner of the business or company.

12. Companies that advertise on Avito. In the advertisements you can see that the advertisement is given by a company or store, and not an individual. Tested Avito, did not work out. Clients do not understand the adequate price of the proposed project.

13. Inactive groups or groups with a small number of publications. In the VKontakte search, enter a topic that interests you, look for inactive groups and write to their owners, offer your services.

14. Business groups in social networks are groups on the topic of business, the participants of which are business owners or those who are planning to become one.

15. Instagram - hashtags. Write in the search something in the style of #furniturenovosibirsk, #beauty salonirkutsk. There will be many accounts of companies and stores that You can write. Besides, You can offer your services to people who promote themselves through Instagram- photographers, stylists, etc.

Advice: sign your photo with the hashtag #city (#Moscow, #Khabarovsk, etc.). They will start knocking on your door companies and stores from your city.

16. DoubleGIS (2GIS) is an electronic catalog of organizations combined with a city map. Not good effective method. On April 6, I opened an individual entrepreneur, registered there, within 2 months not a single proposal.

17. I tried it recently new way. I joined a group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/364545523718021/ There are a lot of entrepreneurs in it and they are looking for contractors. If you look at the posts, then you can find clients there.

Https://www.facebook.com/groups/targetads/ I recently joined here, left my resume, one the client wrote, I wrote to another directly, started working with them.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tendering/ there are good vacancies here.

19. Write your case studies on projects and publish them in large SMM publics. You will be noticed immediately clients will contact you.

20. Expert commentary in major marketing communities.

Advice: Don’t try all the ways to find customers at once. Choose 1-2 methods, but use them to the fullest. More likely, more ways and won't be needed.

How to make the customer choose you?

How much to ask?

Even if you are a beginner, don't take the job for free. Appreciate your work - and your customers will appreciate you. It's better to ask for a little than nothing at all. Raising the price tag from 0 to 5000 is harder than, for example, from 2000 to 5000.

And you shouldn’t negotiate terms when the customer pays you advertising budget, and you work for him for this free or for a percentage of sales. Nothing good will come of this.

How and to whom do customers refer other customers?

- Customers prefer to recommend those specialists, which are not only perform their work efficiently, but also love their clients, they love what they do, and are ready to hurt themselves so that the client feels good.
- Customers recommend specialists who know their topic “excellently” and can on it advise. If you have a favorite topic (for example, yoga) and have already worked with it, share the results and useful features with other entrepreneurs and from the same sphere. Them Your experience may be very useful, they will turn to you for cooperation, and will recommend to colleagues from related fields, which can also apply your advice (for example, fitness, legal centers).
- Make a portfolio with screenshots of projects and a graph showing the growth dynamics of group members, as well as describing the results in numbers. This way, customers will see that You are a serious specialist and are ready to be responsible for the results of their work. Collect certificates and video reviews from clients. Certificates with seals give a lot of confidence.