How to find new clients in a way that feels good

How do you reliably find new clients in a way that feels good?

If you’re a coach, facilitator or independent consultant, a question can come up around: how do I gain new clients? Where do I start? How do I work out who they are, find them, and engage them?

In this blog post, I'll show you how thinking like a designer can help you overcome three challenges that get in the way of engaging and enrolling great clients.

Here are three challenges I see coaches and independent consultants face.

1. They don't like sales

If you run your own business, chances are you don’t want to be a salesperson – you want to do great work? So how do you attract new clients?

Designers are skilled in selling without being pushy.

Many of the approaches designers use to enroll clients don't feel like sales at all. They don't involve pitching, and they create great relationships along the way – regardless of the final outcome.

One of the ways they do this is by shifting from seeing themselves as subject matter experts who have all the answers to facilitators who enable a process of discovery.

By helping facilitate your clients to create solutions together, you help ensure a great fit, that the client owns. That takes the pressure off, so you don't feel like you need to always have the answer, and increases the client's commitment to the proposed solution.

2. Limited time and resources

Much of the information about attracting new clients is based on approaches used by large businesses. Unlike large or established businesses, you might not have a lot of resources to engage in activities such as advertising, marketing, brand, sales and events.

Chances are, you may have left a big / established business to have more autonomy, freedom and choice. So how do you get the best of both worlds?

Some of the world's best designers start by being really honest about who they are, what they’re passionate about and what they can do really well. By doing the same, you can play to your strengths of being agile, committed and creative – all characteristics that clients value in a coach or consultant.

3. The process of gaining new clients can feel daunting, confusing and overwhelming

There's a saying that you can't have something good, cheap and fast – you can only pick two.

For many of us, we wish we could find great clients, quickly, who don't take so much time or energy to engage in our services. But the reality is often the opposite. Navigating along the way can be daunting, or perhaps we're great at getting to a certain point in the process only to find that clients go cold or don't commit.

One thing about designers that many people don't know is that they follow a process.

The process isn't rigid or fixed, but it helps bring structure to an otherwise unknown situation.

Without a process, creativity lacks purpose. And without a process, seeking to engage clients can create significant anxiety.

By thinking like a designer, you can learn to follow a simple process that helps you identify where your client is at, and know what to do next to support your client in a way that builds trust, wherever they are in the process.

IF YOU’D LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THINKING LIKE A DESIGNER, REGISTER HERE FOR THE FREE WEBINAR