There’s no doubt that the past two years have been challenging for businesses. Some have closed entirely, while others have seen their operations shrink considerably. Some firms have had to cancel contracts and retreat from clients because they simply cannot meet their obligations. If this all sounds familiar, then you might be one of the businesses that’s looking for new clients in 2022. This four-step guide will help you find them, ensuring that you’re partnering with valuable new clients in the coming year.
Build a Database
The impulse when you’re looking to access new clients is to do a huge and research-heavy sweep of potential clients, adding them to a database that you target with telesales and email marketing messages. This is a laudable impulse, as you’ll be better able to make a comprehensive effort to find new clients if you know hundreds of potential partners. Still databases can quickly become old, out of data, and clunky, which is why certain firms offer database cleaning services. This update can help you refocus on your sales and marketing efforts without emails bouncing back and phone calls terminating early.
Try Telesales
With your database built and updated, it’s time to methodically go through that database with telesales operatives. If you’ve performed this task before, you’ll know exactly how it works: you’ll make a call to an important individual in a company, attempting to generate a sales lead. The result of the call will be noted on the database for other operatives to take note of the next time they approach that individual. Successful calls will result in new contracts or demonstrations, while unsuccessful calls will at least be noted and reviewed from the database of potential clients that you’re keeping.
Attend Trade Shows
While these efforts are humming on in the background, give your most friendly and amiable sales staff an outing by booking your firm into a trade show or conference. These places are the perfect setting for your sales team to capture the imaginations of potential clients. Have them well-drilled and ready to push as hard as they can to make these events as profitable for your firm as possible. They don’t come around all the time, so you should certainly book into the events that are most relevant to your firm.
Increase Your Professional Contacts
It’s likely that your firm’s most senior staff have many hundreds of professional contacts between them, all of which may be potential clients in the future. While your phones are abuzz with telemarketing efforts, it might also be prudent to ask your senior staff to tap up their old colleagues or acquaintances to see if anyone might be interested in drawing up a contract with your firm. Clients can come from anywhere, but this particular treasure trove of contacts is one that you and your staff should be more than prepared to plunder from time to time.
Amassing clients is a top business priority in the wake of a pandemic that saw many business relationships terminated. Use the four steps outlined above to give yourself the best chance of generating more clients and contracts in 2022.
