17 Advanced Strategies to Attract More Clients.

Episode Transcription

Den Lennie (2s):
G’day guys! Den Lennie here, host of the How to Scale a Video Business podcast with this episode, number 172. 17 advanced strategies to attract more clients. You know, when people tell me the office, they want more clients. And in many cases that’s not actually what the business needs, but I thought that I’d do this date is actually give you 17 Strategies to win more business, attract more clients and leverage the assets that you already have in your business. Yes. And the hope that it will help you to, you know, Attract more of the right kind of business into your recce fear.

Den Lennie (46s):
So the main way that I’m going to help you to grow your business is to move you away from being a freelancer and to a business owner and his book, the E-Myth make Leigh Gerber talked about the difference from a technician and a business owner. The technician still does all the work in the business and never delegate or outsource is anything. So if he keeps all of the prophet, the trouble with that is we only have so many hours in the day. So if you’re in a job shooting editing, then it doesn’t leave any time from marketing or even a client follow-up. So now this is a reality that many have to work with myself, included that I’ve had to do this in the past, where, when you’re starting out, you’ve only been, you got yourself, but there was a way to break this habit.

Den Lennie (1m 33s):
When you reach a certain revenue level. You know, I have a full time virtual assistant who walks me full time. I’ve got outsourced accounts that work with me can have part-time, but remotely I’ve got, and people that help me with copywriting or be able to help me with the website, have a lot of outsourced support. And that’s a choice. I don’t want to have a big full time team, but I actually have a big team that I can draw upon there. Just not sitting at the same offices. I actually, you know, we speak to a lot of people in the VBA and some of them have full time team at some of them have as many contractors. Umm, you know, I’ve, I’ve walked with ads, experts and marketing experts.

Den Lennie (2m 13s):
And all of this does is it frees me up to focus on my strategic tasks and priorities. So will you be going to be careful of is you convince yourself that you can do everything yourself and in many cases that might be true technically, but it’s not necessarily giving you the best bang for buck. You know, if you’re still processing it on the receipts, it might only take 15 minutes. But if you had that at up each day over the week, that started to add up. So we should definitely be holding a bookkeeper. So what you just start thinking bigger about what tasks you could outsource and start writing down all the things do you do that don’t directly contribute to the client work and prophet and keep a list for 30 days and then review.

Den Lennie (2m 57s):
And you’ll be shocked how much admin and non revenue generating activities you’re actually doing. So there are, there are two types of ways to get business. Okay, there’s go and get clients and constantly be searching for new clients or to leverage your existing assets, contacts, and resources, and both aren’t equal at. And here’s why, you know, getting new clients and constantly looking for new business involves time, cost or effort and patients with no guarantees other than spending a lot of money to find your ideal clients. Whereas if you leverage your existing assets and networks, context, and resources, this is a much more effective Solution.

Den Lennie (3m 39s):
And it was based on maximizing what you already have. What do I mean by that? You already have what I’m talking about assets. Here’s some examples. You are an asset. When your walking as a freelance, you know what your a shooter or you are an editor, Oh, you’re a colorist. Or as a producer, a director or maybe have some equipment you may have made it suite. It would be you have a camera sheeting kit. If you have these F is a function of video production and each role has a lane attached cost to it in a budget. But all too often in that freelancer mind-set you end up doing it all under the one banner of a filmmaker. Now the difference between that and a production company is that you, your production company is a business’, which has a series of assets attached to it.

Den Lennie (4m 28s):
So when you’re looking to scale up, you really need to adopt this mindset as a production company, you are coordinating assets on behalf of the client. And so the keys to building a successful business is building and leveraging those assets. So how do you evaluate assets and opportunities? You know, as a freelancer, you’re pretty much going to say yes to everything, but in a business you’ve got to evaluate each opportunity differently. And in some cases, log on to say know, and this can obviously be really difficult at first, especially if the cashflow is tight. So what are you going to do is get really clear on your commercial value.

Den Lennie (5m 8s):
You know, if you’re a professional video production company, you are able to turn a mundane objects in subjects and to a compelling videos that engaged in audience, communicate the message and inspire of who you are to take some kind of action. This is a really valuable service that many businesses we could use right now. And in fact, I guarantee that in every major city and town around the world, that our marketing teams sitting around a virtual table discussing how to create compelling video, to promote their product for service or communicate our message to the audience. So the next question is going to be well, how can we get to shoot this? So what do you want to do is you want to be leveraging what you already have now, Ben, Sam can mentor and friend of mine who has been on this podcast because these asset categories.

Den Lennie (5m 57s):
So here a list of 17 asset categories that you will almost certainly have access to, but may not have considered as a leverage point. And each of these can be used to get to know Clients. So one products to services, three peers, four colleagues, five friends and families, six active clients, seven inactive Clients, eight unconverted leads and inquiries, nine PR and media, 10 joint ventures, 11 knowledge 12. I will set that in skill set off staff, four 10 referral systems, 15 new markets, 16 new geographical markets, 17 guarantees.

Den Lennie (6m 39s):
So let me bus through these and give you an idea, right? Of which what each one is. I mean, we talk about products for a sec, talking about what can a new products could you introduce to your market? Perhaps it’s a simple one day, how to shoot your own video on a smartphone work shop. But you may think this will encourage Clients not to hire a professional, but I’ve actually found the opposite to be true. You teaching the basics and when they realized how hard it is, they call you to shoot a properly. It actually opens the door to a future opportunities. Plus has no real cost to you other than your time. So what products can you introduce or reintroduce to your already existing Clients? What opportunities for expansion can you identify and your business to services?

Den Lennie (7m 22s):
What new services could you offer your market? How about a subscription video production service. They set up for a six to 12 month retainer and you offer them a certain number of days filming a month and editing at their offices and this good work really well in the age of social media, in social needing a lot of content. So what services could you introduce or reintroduce to your existing clients that you are not yet providing already three peers, these yeah. Or people in your business or industry you don’t directly compete with you, but are on a similar level who can partner with our share resources? Could you share each other’s network or assets? For example, could you provide white label video services to cover a chutes in each other’s company?

Den Lennie (8m 5s):
Maybe you could sub how your edits, we are at other facilities, thinking about the relationships that you currently have with your peers. Are there any cross-promotion arrangements you can set up for colleagues? Do you have ex colleagues from another industry? He is still of a relationship with, would they be open to setting up a referral partnership? These make your colleague’s look good by helping our clients. They are saving their clients time for searching for high quality providers and the types of products and services if you sell. And it also helps you to build your client base quickly and easily. The, by walking in with someone who was known to be trustworthy, knowledgeable about your clients needs and referrals are all really valuable for everyone.

Den Lennie (8m 45s):
So thinking about the relationships that you currently have with colleagues in other industries, how can you set up a referral program? Five friends and family, friends, and family, or often the least reliable source of referrals or direct business support. But that’s not to say that there isn’t a relation or a close family friend who might be in a position to refer. You are recommend your services. Similarly, the might be able to offer a help financially our support you in some other way. So think about the relationships that you have with friends and family members. Does anyone come to mind who can help you with your business? Six active clients. These are people who are already doing business with you, who you already know, they already know like, and trust you enough to pay you money.

Den Lennie (9m 27s):
So why care, how you can get him to come back more often and invest in other services with you? It’s a bit of a no-brainer for them. Do the know all of the services you provide. When did you last connect with them outside of a job? So think about what ideas you can come up with to get your active clients and customers, to pay you more money for you to provide them more value seven inactive clients. This is a really important one. What about clients that you haven’t booked or used to do in over 12 months? Sometimes things change. People move on old relationships with PB suppliers change and some things we feel uncomfortable about reaching out two laps clients, especially if their relationship chip and the lesson pamphlet.

Den Lennie (10m 13s):
I want to be here. They didn’t hire you, but people do forgive and forget. And unless the instant was catastrophic, its its definitely worth reconnecting. You can put our emotions and feelings to one side and reconnect them to help them understand how your businesses mature and evolve. Now, when you’re working on reactivating, all clients and customers are best served by keeping your feelings in check and approaching it in a more logical manner. Remember this more than one reason why they may have stopped working with you as a possible reasons, may it be, you know, they feel a bit neglected or are under appreciated. Maybe their situation changed. It will be. They moved away a new career opportunity or time and money constraints gotten to play. Perhaps the clients needs changed or perhaps they got a better deal for the last project elsewhere.

Den Lennie (10m 58s):
Maybe the client or customer passed away. I mean, these are all possibilities though. If you look at this list, logically you can see that all of the ones above, apart from someone passing away can be overcome with some effort on you apart. If a, if a client felt like there were a neglected, find a way to make it up to them or for them a free trial, a risk reversal, just see if they can have a coffee, assure them that you’ve, that you’ve. If you have led them down that you want to make up to them, or if a situation change, you might need to probe and see what that reason was. Maybe you can tell you a product and service to the end. You need the situation. And if they go to a better deal as to the customer where they are happy with the level of service provided at the lower price, sometimes they will say no and you can win them back on the times.

Den Lennie (11m 45s):
You might need to match or beat the deal or getting elsewhere. But if you approach this logically, you can at least try to bring them back in as clients its possible to add money. You wouldn’t have with, you know, reactivating old clients. So what are inactive clients are customers, should you contact or ask why they stopped frequenting your business and what you can do to bring them back eight unconverted leads and inquiries. This is a very powerful source of business. Now, depending on the size of your business, you may have a few dozen or you know, more than That.

Den Lennie (12m 24s):
Unconverted leads. These are the people who made inquiries. You perhaps you quartered in the job that for some reason it didn’t happen. If you call him up and say, Hey, we couldn’t have done this job for six months ago. Just wondering if you went ahead, are you still looking? There are going to likely answer with three things. One the way it was someone else. Thanks too. We delayed the project and are still deciding and three, we went with another supplier, but we, weren’t not happy with them to, if you get an answer for two and three, you can offer to meet them and discuss alternative options, including recording on the job. So when can you add to your schedule to contact unconverted leads? This is a really powerful method for re-engaging people in conversations, nine PR and media media exposure can be very powerful for positioning you and your business and even being featured in your local paper can elevate your business.

Den Lennie (13m 20s):
You know, I watched on TV newsrooms for over 10 years and I know firsthand that television and media are always hungry for stories. They need to feel pages and air time. So if a story is interesting and they can find a good angle than they will likely feature, you know, the key is you can’t advertise what you do. Rather you need to find an angle that is newsworthy and be of value, but just sometimes a new way of doing something can be enough. So, you know, how are you or your business, are your clients representative in the news or media? How can you leverage this for your benefit? 10 joint ventures or a joint ventures when two noncompeting companies cross-promote each other’s audience for mutual benefit.

Den Lennie (14m 5s):
For example, if you set up an agreement with a media agency, such that they would market, let’s see a video packages, they would offer the service to their clients on your behalf. You can then offer the media agency or a percentage of profits for doing so the same as the marketing spend. And you can pay that money as a field to the agency, making it a win-win for everyone involved. So who comes to mind that, you know, in trust that you could start a joint venture with what types of joint ventures come to mind that can benefit your business? 11, do you have a particular skill or knowledge? What is your expertise or what do you have an intimate knowledge of a sector, an industry or a specialism?

Den Lennie (14m 46s):
Could you leverage this in the form of coaching, training, mentoring or consulting experts? Often regard the knowledge is a common sense that many of others who are less experienced might regard that knowledge is valuable and we will be willing to pay for it. Could you create an eCourse to teach those less skills and how to emulate what you do in charge a fee for it? So think about what you are an expert at what specific knowledge would you want to know others to learn from you? What coaching or mentoring opportunities come to mind? 12 set. Do you have a unique skill set, perhaps you a talented motion graphics designer may be your color.

Den Lennie (15m 26s):
Grading skills are unique. Perhaps you are an expert on the Sani Fs five, or maybe you, there are skills that you have that might be someone might pay. We one-to-one consulting time for our, perhaps our client are up here. We’d like you to great, something special or thinking about all of the skills you have and what specialist skills do you have. How could you sell ’em to other people are trained all the people in them, or if you’ve got a team number 13, the skill set of your staff, this was a big untapped opportunity from many business owners. You have a team or your team may have unique skills that can promote. You can promote to clients and staff are in an asset and your business that you are investing in.

Den Lennie (16m 7s):
So you should leverage them as part of your business asset register, compare attention to your team and looking at for any unique skills they have that your client base can take advantage of. So thinking about the staff you have, do you have in demand skills, you can uncover reveal and turn it into a high yield asset. Are there any staffers who will be better sitting in a different role and your business? Think about that 14 referral systems and ferals is one of the most reliable source of new business because someone they trust has already endorsed you. If you don’t have any referral systems, you should start actively cultivating and implementing. Some are the key here it is. Systems often have ferals come in and nobody follows them up.

Den Lennie (16m 49s):
It’s critical that these leads are given priority attention. Automating the process can really help and sometimes known as affiliate marketing times. You can set up chords. For example, when selling digital products, an NPR commission, when a sales is made to the referring partner, but in filmmaking terms, as you give them to have an agreed fee, you’d pay someone for quality for the federal. So have a think about what referral systems you can actually create and rollout number 15, new markets that are, are countless markets out there waiting for the video services. If you are in a niche or in there. Yeah, I’ve already, you know, it could, could you expand it into a sec, a similar niche or in a different industry on expand sideways?

Den Lennie (17m 34s):
Can you take what we do for your current Nish and replicate it in another niche or without having to reinvent you’re process or approach to have a think about what market you can generate income by moving into, should you go niche or go broad or change it up? Number 16, there’s a simple new geographical markets. Could you begin marketing to a client base outside of your current geographical location? Just take everything that you are currently doing and do it somewhere else. And in 17 guarantees and I C very, very few companies doing this. If you are a confident and your service delivery and why not guarantee your work, perhaps you can offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee or that your offer unlimited range of change.

Den Lennie (18m 17s):
And if the client’s not a a hundred percent satisfied Now, naturally you’d have to be some conditions on these, you know, so that everyone has been us a consolidated feedback and a time frame to do with them. But you should be doing that anyway. So you’re not actually offering anything here that you don’t do already. You’re just simply articulating it differently. So how do we think about creating a list of five different guarantee offers you can integrate into your business and test. So, you know, all of the suggestions are, are going to help you win more business, but you know, changing habits and belief systems is hard and it’s uncomfortable. And it’s something that our subconscious fights ferociously to avoid. You know, Robin Sharma sums up beautifully.

Den Lennie (18m 58s):
He says, change is hard at the beginning, changes messy in the middle, but change is beautiful at the end. And you know, learning to adapt to change is really critical in terms of you’re not moving on in your, in your business and you have to be willing to do things that are uncomfortable and, and change takes time. OK. So why not take these 17 strategies and implement them into your business and try even at a handful of them. Now, if you do all 17, you can not fail, but if you tried just half a dozen, imagine what might happen, who are you find that useful guys talk to you soon.

Den Lennie (19m 44s):
You’ve been listening to the how to scale a video business podcast with me, your host, Den Lennie, if you are a video business owner and hit a ceiling we’ve benefit from mentorship to support and coaching and checkout how you can work with me over at denlennie.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the shore over on iTunes. We’d really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review and don’t forget to share if you feel you’ve gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers, you know, and please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and ingroups that you might be at. So thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.