Elizabeth Dyrsmid
If you are just starting out in business, figuring out how to get more clients and service them properly might seem very overwhelming. We have a strategy that can help you get to a scalable level of clients for your business while dodging some of the potholes that are typically part of this journey.
This strategy is built around the premise of getting an experimental client. When you focus on getting one big customer and building your entire business around meeting the needs of this customer your foundation is built on being helpful and relevant. That is what Chris Heiler from LandscapeLeadership.com did when he started his agency. They focus exclusively on servicing landscaping businesses and they started by focusing on only one. You can listen to a very insightful interview our founder did with him here.
In this article, we are going to explore the advantages of following this experimental strategy and the implications it has for your start-up.
Getting More Clients By First Focusing On One
That is how it started. I picked up one client. He was actually a member of my membership site. He agreed to be the guinea pig. So we started to work with them. We probably worked with them for a year and a half before we tried to pick up any other clients. Before we really launched a full-service agency. That is how we got into it. – Chris Heiler
When you are in an experimental relationship with a client there will be room to succeed because there will be room for making mistakes. It takes a lot of pressure off you because you and the client know that it is an experiment. If it fails, no hard feelings.
What are the other benefits of an experimental client relationship?
1) Boosts Your Confidence
After you have served one client successfully for a year and a half like Chris, you will be confident that you can help others in that same industry. You know the challenges, opportunities, strengths, and weaknesses of the niche as good as anyone so you are ready for niche domination.
2) Easier To Setup In The Future
After doing the experiment, you will have the systems in place to do this for more clients. For example, if you are a marketing consultant, you will already have tried and tested methods for social media, web design, search engine optimization and any additional services you are offering. The path is already laid out.
All you have to do in the future is replicate it intelligently. No need to go and learn about a completely new industry and how their business functions that is so often a very large part of the work when getting new clients. All you need to focus on now is getting more clients.
3) Healthy Growth
Some start-ups get killed by growing too fast. They are good at marketing and selling their services but no good at customer fulfilment, satisfaction or retention. This can kill a business because pretty soon you will have a bad reputation if you can’t deliver what you promised. The constant loss and dissatisfaction of customers is not a fun thing to deal with. This has caused start-up entrepreneurs to throw in the towel or make foolish mistakes.
By getting one client and focusing on serving them perfectly you are growing into them. You are growing at a healthy and relaxed pace and learning as you grow.
4) You Are Starting Out More Authentic
Starting out with one customer that you build your agency around is an authentic way to approach digital marketing. Consider this versus pretending to be the absolute best at online marketing even though you are an absolute newbie. That has falseness to it that prospects in your marketing cycle will pick up on. But if you start out with one new customer and both of you actually see it as a type of mutually beneficial experiment, that is something most people will feel comfortable with.
Trent’s first podcast was called Online Income Lab. He didn’t pretend to know everything about digital marketing but was willing to learn and experiment while sharing the results with his audience and customers. Labelling the relationship as an experiment makes it more appealing because it is authentic.
5) Customers Will Pay You More
After the experimental phase is over you are a specialist in that niche or industry. That is a unique selling proposition that separates you from other digital agencies that offer general services to any client they can find. Customers in your industry will be willing to pay a premium for that.
Conclusion
Getting paid better in the long run with lower stress levels, and truly being able to help another business is a great win-win way to start your journey in the digital marketing world. If you would like to find out more about how to get clients and how to service them we have a whole range of free resources. If you found this post helpful please do us a favour and spread the word with a tweet.
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