Getting clients is such a crucial part of any business. I mean, how else can you make money if not through paying clients? That is why a lot of time must be spent determining your ideal clients, where to find them, and how to turn them into paying customers. This post is simply a manual on how I get web design and marketing clients in South Africa.
The first thing I had to do was determine my ideal clients. I had a hard time with this because I felt like niching down would be limiting. I just wanted to build websites and do marketing for anyone who needed it. I struggled a lot with getting clients in the early days and this was not entirely because I didn’t niche down; I think it was due to my naivety and not understanding how client accusation works.
After careful consideration and a lot of thinking, I decided to niche down to the construction industry. Niching down was the best decision for me. It’s helped me get a clearer picture of who my customer is and how to best serve them. This makes it easier to generate leads and create proposals, quotations, social media content, and cold-calling scripts.
I know how daunting the idea is; I was struggling with it just a few months ago but trust me, niching down will make your life so much easier.
The next step is generating leads. Everyone has their preferred method for generating leads. Some through social media, LinkedIn, cold-calling, or cold-emailing. But I choose good old Google Maps. The reason I use Google Maps is because I want my customers to be people I can meet face-to-face. I wanted to improve my communication skills. Also, I was told that proximity would be a big advantage since clients like to get to know the person they are working with personally.
My process is simple: I pick a suburb, go on Google Maps, and type in, for example, construction companies in Berea. Then I collect the cell phone numbers of all the companies that pop up. That’s my entire lead generation process, in a nutshell. Then I am off to make the cold calls. I know there are other faster, easier, and damn, there are even automated ways to get this done much quicker, but this works for me right now, so I’ll continue to use it.
Cold calling in South Africa is special because you need to be super careful with the tone you use with the person who answers your phone call. There are two reasons for this. One, if it’s a secretary or receptionist, then they can make your life miserable. Two, most of the cell phone numbers on websites and Google Maps belong to the owner of the company and you do not want to piss them off.
Now, the aim of cold-calling is to book a meeting with the person over the phone. You do not want to close a deal over the phone; that’s just not advisable. You want to set up a meeting with the client so that you get the opportunity to make an impression on them. Therefore, I always like to keep it short; I get to the point as quickly as possible. However, I am always hoping for the client to ask questions. It means they are interested, which is a good thing. You need to be confident, think on your feet, and answer all questions as eloquently as you can.
That’s my entire client acquisition process. But I need to add this: you need to get super skilled at solving problems. Clients pay money for their problems to be solved, not for fancy websites. Learn to ask questions that probe the client to reveal their problems. Learn to present your offers and services as a solution to their problems. Don’t spend time speaking about the awesome work you’ve done before and the skills you have. Rather, let them speak about their problems. Then explain to them how you’ve helped solve the same problems for others in the same industry.
You are not the star; the client is, and the enemy is their problem. You’re a guide, so play that role the best way that you can. Your job is to guide the client to the solution that will relieve them of all their problems and suffering. The better you are at doing this, the more you can charge. The strategies listed above seem to be simple but trust me, they provide amazing results and can be used for any service or even product. But you must be diligent, consistent, and disciplined to see the same results. Happy hunting, everybody.
