Right from the start

Attract more clients, make more money & have fun while doing it!

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Leni Chauvin, The Client Attraction Coach, ™ helps small business owners, entrepreneurs and solo professionals build thriving businesses by showing them how to attract more clients and customers than they ever thought possible. Her proven strategies have resulted in millions of dollars worth of business for her clients. To learn more and to get lots of free client attraction resources, visit www.AttractClientsGalore.com
Congratulations! You’ve decided to start a business or take an existing one to the next level. You’re working hard learning the ins and outs of setting up and running a smooth operation. You’ve got the right background for the enterprise you envision and you’re prepared to dig in, roll up your sleeves, and make your dreams come true.
Now, for the moment of truth: No matter how great you may be at what you do, or how much research and preparation you may have done, if you want to start a business, grow a business, or even stay in business, you’ve got to have paying customers or clients and, sadly, that’s where most small business owners and entrepreneurs fall short. But what if getting and retaining clients didn’t have to be so hard? What if it didn’t have to take so much time?
What if it didn’t have to be so expensive either? The truth is it doesn’t have to be any of those things. It just comes down to one simple change in mindset: Stop chasing after customers and clients and start “attracting” them! Stop “pushing” yourself and your business on prospects, and start “pulling” them to you as metal is pulled to a magnet.


Four Cornerstones of Success
To get your client attraction efforts underway, you will need a strong foundation consisting of four cornerstones.

CORNERSTONE A: A Clearly Defined Niche
Your niche is your target market, the people you serve. Instead of trying to capture everybody’s business, think smaller if you want to grow bigger. Get as specific as possible when selecting a niche. Instead of concentrating on dentists as your target market, for example, you might want to consider female orthodontists because the narrower your focus, the greater your chances of building a solid reputation within that community.

The best niches are those that have been overlooked by others in your industry. They need to be large enough to be profitable for you and small enough for you to make your mark. Ideally you should feel some affinity with the people of this group and be excited about the prospect of helping them solve their problems.
Once you have selected a niche, you are ready to look at:

CORNERSTONE B: A Profile of Your Ideal Client
You can easily figure out who your ideal client is by creating an Ideal Client Profile in which you ask yourself questions about who is the best candidate to purchase your product or to engage your professional services.
Look at things like gender, age, occupation, level of education, income, marital status, geographic location, hobbies, children, and community involvement.

Think about what they spend money on and what other services they use. What speakers or classes appeal to them? What do they read? What clubs or associations do they belong to? Where are they spending their spare time?
Your niche and your ideal client are the “who” of your client attraction efforts. Let’s look now at the “what” as in “what is so special about you?”

CORNERSTONE C: A Carefully Chosen Area of Specialization
I firmly believe that in order to up the chance of your business becoming a success, you need to have both a niche and an area of specialization.

Specializing helps you distinguish yourself from others in the same business. It reduces confusion in the minds of the consumer who thinks everyone in your field does the same thing and it helps the consumer find the right solution provider for their particular needs. This instills confidence in them that they are dealing with someone who understands their unique problems and can provide the right solutions quickly and easily.

Specializing also allows you to charge more money because you have unique talents and skills that others in your field don’t have.

CORNERSTONE D: A Magnetic USP
A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is what sets you or your company apart from all others in the same field. It is something that you do that is perceived by the consumer as being different or better than anything your competitors can do.

Here are two examples of USPs that I’m sure you’re familiar with:
Federal Express: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
M&Ms: “The milk chocolate melts in your mouth and not in your hands.”
Remember, I said your USP needs to be perceived as being unique. There are other courier services that have overnight delivery and other chocolate candies that come in a hard confectionary shell casing. Yet, because these companies made the claim first and often, they have created top-of-mind awareness and that is what client attraction marketing is all about.

To discover your USP, get really clear on what your business does for people. I don’t mean that you supply them with widgets, but rather, what are their hot buttons? What is their pain? What solutions do you offer that will make things easier for them?

Stand in the shoes of your customer and ask what the biggest benefits of them dealing with you are. Once you’ve discovered what is so unique and special about your business, let people know. Put it on your letterhead, your business card, your Web page, everywhere your company name appears.

Client Magnet Efforts
Once your foundation is in place, it’s time to kick your client magnet efforts into high gear. Since high visibility and referrals go hand in hand, it is your job to make sure your name is at the forefront of people’s thinking by creating a powerful visibility campaign for yourself before your industry, before your network, before your target market, and before those who have access to your target market.

Your visibility campaign must be positive in nature and add value to the lives of others. Repetition is key, and your purpose is not to push yourself, your products, or your services on others, but to get into a relationship with people and allow them to get a sense of how you can solve their problems.

Here are some ways you might consider to help you create front of mind awareness:
Volunteer for a committee or an association that attracts members of your niche market and knock people’s socks off with your contributions. Don’t take the attitude that “I’m only a volunteer.” Instead, embrace your volunteerism as an opportunity to showcase your talents. Do an outstanding job as a volunteer and people will assume the work you do professionally will be equally first-class.

Monitor and become involved in your profession’s e-mail discussion groups. Creating high visibility within your industry can open doors you never imagined existed. Consider, too, that your colleagues with an established clientele change careers, retire, and move on. They would certainly be a valuable source of referrals.

Become equally involved in the discussion lists that attract members of your target market. Help others freely and often, never promoting your services. Let your signature file at the bottom of your e-mail attract people to you.
Create a free e-mail newsletter for your target market that showcases your expertise but that is all about them. Send it out at least once a month. Twice a month would be better. Whatever frequency you choose, however, remember that consistency is key.

Take the articles you have written for your newsletter and distribute them to article banks on the Web where people who are looking for articles to post on their sites or to use in their newsletters will pick them up and use them.
Be sure to include a little (six lines maximum) blurb about you and your business at the end of your article directing people to your Website if you have one. Just type “article banks” into your favorite search engine. Attend networking functions regularly where members of your target market are likely to congregate. Do not use the events as a forum to promote your business. Instead use it as the start of relationships that will eventually lead to business.

Speak before groups that attract your target market. Talk about issues that hit their hot buttons. Subtly showcase your talents and position yourself as the solution they have been waiting for. If the thought of speaking scares the daylights out of you, join a Toast******* group where you will be able to hone your speaking skills in an incredibly supportive environment.



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