What’s the heart that is beating to maintain business growth? What is essential at the core of your business expansion?

The answer is clients. If you haven’t figured this one out by yourself, it’s time to give up your career as an entrepreneur and consider a non-client facing job. But if you have congratulations. Now is the one million dollar question, namely, how do you manage to get a new deal with a new client? Client acquisition, especially in the B2B sector, can be extremely challenging. Indeed, there’s a little more to do than creating a handy click-to-buy app. In a B2B environment, client deals still run in a traditional face-to-face approach.

Are you ready to seduce your clients?

Do your research

So how do make sure that you can appeal to the right prospects? Ultimately; there is no way around it. You need to define your target audience, from which industry sector they’re more likely to be to basics demographics. The better you understand you market, the easier you’ll find to create tailored and relevant messages. Admittedly, while you can’t cold call every individual in your target audience, you can identify the companies that are the most likely to need your services/products. As a general rule of the thumb, if you want to get to know them, it’s easier to use either a common contact or to offer a free trial that is ideally timed with their agenda.

Find a hook they can’t resist

The free trial is by far the best hook you can offer to new clients. It doesn’t matter what people say, ultimately if something is free and of potential interest to their business, they’re likely to want to benefit from the offer. So what can you offer that is relevant to the current market? Let’s say GDPR is a priority today. For marketing service providers, you can suggest a free audit on GDPR regulations, for instance. If you’re an IT provider, you can target GDPR with a data removal offer. Insurance brokers can discuss GDPR protection, and so on!

Plan an introduction meeting

Once you’ve hooked your client, make sure to plan a meeting they won’t forget. You can even use a contract catering company for the occasion so that you can put your potential client at ease with a delicious buffet. Additionally, you need to make sure the meeting room is fully prepared to all IT requirements. There’s nothing worse than making your prospect wait because you can’t figure out how to project your presentation.

Book the best conference room

Last but not least: You need to deliver

Finally, you’ve convinced your leads, and they’ve signed with you. Bear in mind that if you’re not able to deliver, your client will probably look elsewhere for a provider – without mentioning the negative reputation you might receive in the process. So make sure that everything is ready, whether it’s a matter of warehouse management for good, or electronic process to keep track of your progress. A disappointed client is not the kind of publicity you want.

Client acquisition is the business equivalent to the ancient art of seduction. You need to know your target, gain their trust, cajole them into buying your services, and finally give them the satisfaction they need.