When times of uncertainty hit, whether that is a global pandemic, a recession, or even something personally challenging, such as mass layoffs, bankruptcy, or death, should we reach out? What is the right action to take? 

Most people will try to pull back and avoid any uncomfortable conversation, saying that "now is not the right time". But if not now, when?

Avoiding clients does not make them feel taken care of and comforted. Instead, it leaves the client feeling alone and abandoned. Premium service providers don't want their clients to feel ignored. We want them to feel cared for. Reaching out should be treated with tenderness and care. However, you're still allowed to be creative.

Here are a variety of different ways you can reach out to clients to let them know you care and to build your sales funnel:

 

Show them how to use their old tools

Have your clients been working with you for a while? Did they miss some of the updates and upgrades you made over the last year (or more)? Now's a great time to reach out. Let them know other ways clients are using your services in unique ways. Spark a new conversation. Also, feel free to filter your CRM by product line and start reaching out to clients who aren't using your entire suite of services. Today's a great day to show them how much more efficient they could be.

Personalized Training Sessions

You may have done a great job promoting updates with mass webinars, but that information can easily get lost (or worse, they had it playing as background noise and didn't capture all the information). Reach out to your high-potential clients and offer them personalized training sessions. Create more intimate conversations, answer their questions, and drop a few seeds on why it may be beneficial to increase their service offering

What are the requests your client may make?

Be proactive in how you can help your current client. What might be the services or additional value you can provide them? Extra cleaning or service? Outside business hour servicing? Flexible payment structures? If you're going to offer a better service to be specific in how you want to help your client. It's not enough to say "I'm here to help" but rather how you will help me specifically and make that your offer. You want the client to simply say "yes" and not have to think about how you will help.

Connect Clients & Industries

Be the central hub for many different clients and industries. People will know you by how you connect others, which will ultimately have them talking about you and your services. If you serve multiple clients across various geographies, this can be a great time for your clients to share ideas and collaborate. Everyone's business becomes better when people work together.

Partnerships & Panels

Find businesses that target similar audiences and create either partnership or look at hosting events where they are brought in as part of a thought-leadership panel. Your clients will love hearing about topics they are also interested in, and the best part? The panelists may bring in their own clients, allowing you to leverage an entire community to help you build your business.

Find out why your clients bought from you and love you

This is also called "the voice of the customer". This can be done either as a formal afternoon, where you bring in multiple great clients who all give you feedback, or informally as a phone call interview. This gives your clients an opportunity to give you feedback. What do they love about you? What was that "deciding moment" where they decided you were going to be their service provider? Are you still providing them that exceptional level of service and are there ways you can continue to help? This is your opportunity to double down and create even more impact for future clients.

Promote and celebrate prospects and clients

People love being surprised by a social media shoutout that shares what great work they are doing for their clients or the community. This can be a planned and strategized post, or this could be a complete surprise. Imagine being recognized for your great work by someone who you aren't doing business with. Doesn't that feel great? The nice thing is then you can call that prospect or client and thank them over the phone and see how you can create even more collaborations. Authenticity will always be a great selling tool. 

Interview clients and create case studies

If the business is coming down to a crawl, now is a great time to create the content that will help you grow more customers. Interview your best clients for case studies. Interview the clients who you would love to have as your best clients. Once you've been gracious enough to record their story people will be more willing to take the time to listen to yours. Another great opportunity to share more of what you have to offer as a company.

Strategic Planning Sessions

Take the pressure off the "immediate" sale and work with the client to focus on where they want to be in the next 6 months to 2 years. This becomes a completely open conversation that takes you away from the vendor and rather a facilitator to goal setting. Once the two years (or whatever future time frame) has been established, work backward with the client to plan the steps that need to happen in the next 6 months, 90 days, and ultimately 30 days to make those goals a reality. Usually, the magic of sales will allow an immediate, or near immediate sale to happen. You're not only creating new sales opportunities for now but setting up your pipeline for success over the next 6 months.

Plan with your clients what the future looks like for their clients

One of the best ways a premium service-provider helps their clients is through third-box thinking. This is where the vendor stands in the shoes of the client and asks themselves, if I was my client, how could I help their clients? This type of thinking is even more critical during times of downturn. Help your client connect deeper with their clients by being the outsider looking in. Spend some time thinking about this on your own. Bring in your own ideas. It will be hugely valuable to the relationship.

How will you help me make more money?

There may be some companies that are looking to reduce their costs, but far more of them, especially the ones that are most likely to survive will be looking for ways to invest to make more money. How does your solution help clients to thrive? When do you ask a client for a meeting to help show them how to make more money, how many of them are going to turn it down? Don't use this as a "bait and switch" opportunity. You need to be clear and specific in how that is going to happen. But if you can bridge that gap, that's where the magic will happen. If you're needing more help on this, our graduates with KO Sales U spend their classrooms answering this question for their clients.

Create New Solutions and Bundles

Many clients want something unique to get them through this time. You may not have an "off-the-shelf" solution. Instead of saying no, why not use this time to create something specific to what your client needs. This will involve asking a lot of questions and digging into ways your client will work with you, but it will also be some of the most rewarding solutions you can create. Think outside the box on this one. It may include training their team, inviting them to speak at events, hosting them, and one of your events, bringing them new client opportunities. The sky's the limit!

Be willing to service the forgotten companies

This isn't just a hard time for you, it's also a hard time for your competitors. This is usually when they are doing anything to keep their most valuable clients, and forgetting about the others. You don't have to win big accounts to win big. Lots of the smaller players will be enough to make a huge impact. The smaller accounts have usually been underserved for years. Now is your time to show them what it's like to work with a company that truly cares about them. This is your low hanging fruit, and a chance to create valuable relationships with the ones who have been forgotten.

Go in for the fast transaction

You don't need to create something incredible when what you have is already working. If you can show a client how your solution is going to create efficiencies in their business - faster cash flow, reduced spending, increased sales - then focus on this. Don't make a sale harder than it has to be. If you've been working with a prospect and they haven't taken action yet, there is no better time to make them move. After all, what are they waiting for? If not now, when?

A booked meeting is always better than no meeting

Always remember your focus: Get the meeting. A booked meeting, even if weeks or more than a month out, is better than no meeting. If the client is struggling to get through their month or their new reality, don't feel this needs to be a rushed process. When things settle into a new normal, that will be the perfect time to meet. We want our clients to be focused on our solutions not just meeting us for the meeting's sake.

International speaker and The Leading Sales Coach, Kim Orlesky, is changing the conversation around sales all over North America. Listed as LinkedIn’s top sales influencers, Kim is continuously named as one of the top sales leaders to follow. She’s Startup Canada's Woman Entrepreneur and Success Magazine’s most inspirational blogger. She speaks internationally, including at North America’s largest entrepreneurial event, Inbound 2017 & 2018, alongside Michelle Obama, Brené Brown, and Deepak Chopra. In 2014 Kim courageously quit her life to backpack solo around the world. When she returned she turned her passion for sales into one of Canada's fastest growing entrepreneurial sales schools. Her third book Sell More. Faster. is available now.

Learn more about Kim at https://www.kimorlesky.com/