Lara Schmoisman  0:05

This is coffee number five.

I’m your host Lara Schmoisman. Let’s spice things up today. And let’s get a double shot of caffeine. It’s all about you, and I want you to succeed. Download today, my exclusive Insider’s Guide to generating business relationships that last and turns into sales, we’re gonna be talking about client attraction. I started, as I told this many, many times, I started this by this agency without expecting to have an agency, I was working as a freelance doing little jobs here, and they are and then grow into an agency, which it was great. But then I realized that at some point, as I say, grow i i had to scale and scaling is, it’s a process. And it took restructuring from my company from my team, but also, it took restructuring in my mind, and how I was setting up my clients for success. And I was setting myself so to success too, because I want the client to be happy with me and get referrals from them, I want them to be happy with our work. But also, I learned that many times I was giving my work for free, which that’s a no no to go. And also other times iI learned as I was going how I had to restructure my company to work and to be profitable. So I should learn about pitching clients. And I learned that there are three things that are super important. And I have notes. 

The first one is authority. I found out that either you’re pitching someone because you’ve got that meeting, because you approach a person or the company by cold calling or eye contact or whatever it is it is. But you got to that meeting or someone came to you anyway, in that meeting, the first thing you need to do is to establish authority, I was told many times that first you need to hear the client and for me is it worked the opposite for me it work that the first thing you need to do is to establish an authority that it will give you will, I want to make them feel comfortable that they’re working with someone that they know what they’re doing. The it took me a while to realize that most of the people who were coming to me, Satan agency, they were coming in somehow damage or burned. Because they’ve been working with people that they weren’t as professionals or they were working with things that without having strong. The basics done, or they didn’t have the strong fundamentals than in the reason as I’m talking about digital marketing. In this case, they didn’t have the foundation ready to scale up or to do other things. Like for example, it’s great to put ads, it’s a wonderful tool to do paid media. But if you don’t have a website set up right to read and to and to get analytics that what what are you doing, and if it works or not. It’s a problem. It’s really problem. And so you need to start from the basics, you need to make sure that your foundations are ready, and then you can go from it. So the first thing I learned is that I go with the client and first I introduce myself, I tell my background, my nominations, my items, my awards, whatever I had.

 And then also I established why I’m good for them. And am I a good fit for their niche. I’m a fit for every niche. No, absolutely not I have experienced in every niche. No, absolutely not. But there are a lot of parallels in many niches and even explain that why. I always, always always prepare for meetings. I never go to a pitch without being prepared and doing a little listening or analytics of where they’re standing. I’m prepared. I know what they do. So then when I’m listening, I can assess the right questions is important that when you’re approaching a client, they are prospective client they and they feel very clear that you understand them and they understand their business. So do your research. Never be unprepared for a meeting. Now who are their competitors who Who are the leaders in that space, and how they can be different. Something also that I learned is don’t rush on giving ideas. In a meeting, it’s great to demonstrate that authority. 

That’s what you do it at the beginning. But don’t give them all ideas. Because, first of all, I don’t feel comfortable giving ideas. Because I didn’t do a deep research, I don’t have the analytics, I don’t have the information, completely information to make an educated decision, what’s the best strategy, but also, what I learned is that many times, if you give all these ideas, maybe they are not the right ideas for them, they can be great, but it cannot be right for them. Or maybe keep those ideas in mind, make yourself notes. And then you can give those ideas once they are your clients. Because it’s like an EK situation that they give all the ideas and then you see them doing those ideas by someone else. And it happened, it happened way too many times to me. And that’s not cool. Anyway. So listening, listen to their problems, their concerns. And then after you listen, then you can tell them again, I normally go back to basics, and I go, this is the fundamentals, this is what we need to fix. And then from going they are

Listen, listen to their concerns, because if their concerns are at, they’re putting a lot of money and they are not working well, of course, you’re going to have to fix fundamentals. And in my car case, fixing fundamentals means a lot of work. But also means that I need to be thinking these are their worries, so they need to be addressed. So you need to make sure that in the proposal or when you’re talking to them, you’ll give them a way that you can do it all. And the third point is to be honest. And it’s something that I always try to finish every meeting in high note but also to set expectations, right? Like I do marketing. So and I work with companies that they don’t have incredible budgets. So I’m honest, I say this is what I can promise you. And this is what I cannot promise you, I in the long run, the goal is to get this and this absolutely. But also set up expectations, right and make sure that they understand those expectations. Because lack of community communication, if you start that way, it’s not gonna go well. And also what is really important is that you hit it with that the other person if you don’t feel like it’s the right fit, it’s not even worth it. Or if you don’t feel like you can help and you’re just trying to get the business as to where the business to me is not worth it. I been to meetings and I told them listen, I think you’re great. I think what you’re doing is great, but I don’t think we are the right fit for you. Either because I don’t feel like personality wise we’re gonna work out or because I feel like I don’t think that your expectations aren’t right or that you’re gonna have respect. We have our logistics as an agency and I know what expectations I can set and write and I when I see someone who wants to have unrealistic deadlines, it’s not something that is manageable or is going to have better results. And I’m never going to promise that. Okay, so I’ll give you my three tips today. The first one is to establish authority. The second one is to listen. And the third one is to be honest. Find everything you need at large mossman.com Or in the Episode Notes right below. Don’t forget to subscribe. I was so good to have you here today. See you next time. Catch you on the flip side. Chau chau.