Step by Step Guide to Get Your First 100 Clients Here are 5 steps to make sure you get to that milestone of 100 clients very fast.
By Swati Sinha •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Client loyalty is the key a solid business foundation. It is very important to get those first 100 clients, so much so that it is more of a challenge. Success of newly incepted product or service depends on speedy addition of clients and also gaining their long term association with the item on sale.
Startups even with a wonderful idea, product or service face real challenge in finding those clients, onboarding them and retaining them in the long run. A closer look at the ecosystem clarifies on those crucial strategies to reach and retain our first batch of 100 clients.
My business may not be too old but it has enabled me to think from a client's perspective. I would be making profit, only when the end users of my services are benefited. Here are 5 such steps to make sure you get to that milestone of 100 clients very fast.
Make a list
Keeping a list of prospective clients is very important. They may be the top players in the market but it should not make you uncomfortable approaching them. You should always reach for the stars and wade our way towards the best. But this doesn't mean you go in without preparation - you should get into the minutest detail that can add value to the client. Once you are in, next step should be to find the key stakeholders and decision makers. List them down, you have almost done half of the work already.
Reach out personally
Social networking sites have made reaching out to our prospective clients very easy . We have our list ready and now our next step would be to send personalized mails to them one by one . We should write small , crisp mails which should be enough to start the conversation.
That first mail could be reference of any common acquaintance , or some news about the person addressed. It should be anything but not a sales pitch. We should wait for some decent time gap before we follow up with them or send a gentle reminder about our presence.
Sales pitch should be initiated only when we get a go ahead signal from the prospective side. We should always do enough research about what our client needs before we try to sell them our product or services. These personalized conversations are the key factors in initial take off.
Referrals
Our best marketers are our existing clients and they act as catalyst in getting many more business. We should always keep them updated about our skills and latest upgradation. We can also share some good incentive to keep them activated. Nothing can replace word of mouth and positive feedback from our existing clients. These reviews are something which add to our credibility and inturn affects our business positively.
Content Marketing
Consumers have slowly become immune to advertisements or banners on television or magazine. All these are replaced by creating and curating valuable content for the audience, which can change or enhance consumer behaviour.
Basically it is important to reach out to customers, with something that adds value, without direct approach to sell anything.
Customer Thank You Card
Last week I ordered meal for my whole team using a food application, really liked the services and gave them a positive review in the app store. After 2 or 3 days I got a personalized " Thank you" card. This was a small gesture but made me feel a privileged customer. Expressing gratitude and thanking customers is a very essential ritual for retaining them. Such stuff spreads by word of mouth and brings many more customers for your business.
