What do you do when you need to bring new business in the door? Do you get overwhelmed by a sense of inertia? Or do you psyche yourself out at the enormity of the task? While it’s true that you often have to exert considerable effort to get new clients, there is a way to make this big job a little easier.
Leverage.
Leverage is what allows you to pull a stubborn shrub out of your garden, or jack up the back of a car all by yourself. It’s the notion of using something to your advantage, to make hard work easier.
Along those lines, here are a few points of leverage you should consider if you need to get back on track and bring new business in the door:
1. Leverage by industry
Have you done work for several clients in a specific industry or market segment? Other companies in that industry might be impressed by the work you’ve done. Identify a list of companies and start there.
2. Leverage by project type
Maybe you’ve done a lot of work writing press releases? Or helping a company develop their visual brand identity. Why not make this the focus of your outreach to potential new prospects.
3. Leverage by client characteristics
What are some common characteristics among your past and current clients? Are there lots of small businesses? Lots of professional service providers? Lots of international distributors? How can you articulate a story that highlights your repeat experience in a way that would resonate with a similar type of client?
4. Leverage by who-you-know
Do your clients or colleagues have lots of connections? Have you ever asked them to refer new business your way? Why not make a list of the types of companies (or specific names of companies) that you’d like to approach for business, and ask people in your network if they know people in these companies. A warm introduction might be right under your nose.
If you’re at a loss as to where to look for new business, start looking at your own business and try to find points of leverage to make a seemingly daunting task easier.
And if you’ve had success with this, how did you do it? Did you use a point of leverage from the list above? Or did you find leverage in some other unique and creative way?
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Pete Savage is co-author of The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and An Enviable Lifestyle. Now available at bookstores everywhere.
Image courtesy Martin Whitmore on Flickr
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post Pete.
Here’s another… Leverage by Resources.
Perhaps you have access to resources, contacts, or other items that can help provide value to a potential client’s business.
If you become a valuable resource to a business community (especially a targeted business community in a particular niche)…you become the “go to person” and referrals will eventually roll in like wildfire.
I will be reviewing The Wealthy Freelancer shortly (read: within the next week or so), I’m just finishing reading it. Solid book Steve, Ed, and Pete.
Joseph – thanks for “Resources,” that’s a good one! And I’m glad you’re enjoying the book, thanks for saying so.
Thanks, Pete.
Another good one is to leverage into the for-profit worlds any work you’ve done for non-profits. It’s common when doing volunteer work to do things way outside any job description. I wrote an entire web site for a non-profit (archaeology team) and ended up as the sites producer as well. I hired the designers and worked with them for ten months to finish the site. I have that in my portfolio.
Brian, great example. That’s the cool thing about leverage… there are no hard and fast rules about where you’ll find something useful to leverage. What and how you leverage is limited only by your own imagination! Back to the stubborn-shrub-in-the-ground analogy… faced with the task of ripping out that sturdy root structure, but knowing that reefing on it with your bare hands would only result in a sore back, one might wander into the garage and look around for something that might give you some leverage. Once you’re in the garage, you see lots of thinks that could work: a hockey stick, a snow shovel, (can you tell I’m Canadian?), a wooden plank, even a crowbar. Any of these things would offer you some leverage. So looking at your business for points of leverage is like being in the garage, looking around. Look long enough and you’re bound to find a few things that will work. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.