Finding Clients for Your Small Business - Preparing for the Economic Uptick

It seems to me that the economy is slowly making a comeback, and now would be a great time to ramp up your marketing, take advantage of the renewed spending environment, and move full-speed ahead on growing your business. But many of the small business owners I speak with are still having a hard time finding new clients.

For many entrepreneurs, it can be hard to increase marketing spending at the very beginning of an economic rebound. If your client load or your product sales have been slow over the past year, you may not have any extra money in your budget to devote to small business marketing activities. You will probably have to get creative about attracting your target market's attention.

While you're waiting for the economic recovery to hit full-bloom, there are a few steps you should be taking right now to ensure that you're ready for an influx of new clients down the road.

Dust Off Your Business and Marketing Plansr
Now would be a great time to pull out your business plan and marketing plan and review them from cover to cover. Most entrepreneurs I know will spend thousands of dollars having a marketing plan created, but then they'll never look at it again. Your marketing plan is a great way to keep you on track and help you grow your business, so dust it off and bring it up to date. Does your mission statement need to be updated? Does your vision statement still apply? Do your marketing tactics reflect the current business environment and new technology? If your marketing plan refers to a Watts line or Fax machine, it's probably time for an overhaul.

Take a Look at Your Marketing Collateralr
Your marketing materials don't have to be expensive to be top notch; they simply need to instill confidence in your prospects. It's often the little details that will inspire trust and confidence in your products or services. For instance, I recently reviewed the brochure of a professional service provider who asked me to make suggestions for improvement. He had attended over a dozen business fairs in the recent weeks, and although he had distributed over 1,537 brochures, he hadn't received one single inquiry from a prospective client.

The brochure was gorgeous. It obviously had been professionally designed, the colors really popped, and it was printed on very high quality heavy-weight glossy paper. But it didn't take me long to spot 3 grammatical errors and 6 spelling mistakes in the 4-page brochure.

His business had nothing to do with spelling, grammar, or writing in general, but the mistakes were enough to raise a red flag with his prospects. In fact, it was enough to raise 1,537 red flags.

Set aside an hour each week for a details review. Look at your brochures, your sell sheets, your website. Review your newsletter masthead and your email templates. Look at these things from the eye of your prospect. Better yet, find someone else to review them for you - someone who closely fits your target market profile and is willing to give you brutally honest feedback.

Scrutinize Your Websiter
It's a good idea to review your website in entirety, beyond the simple details and down to the nitty-gritty. Your website is the hub of your marketing activities, and it's often the first encounter a prospect has with your business. Now is the time to get it ready for the economic rebound that is sure to bring new prospects your way.

Thoroughly review your website copy. Are your headlines and bullet points and keywords still applicable? Has the language that your prospects use changed with the economy? Can you pinpoint anything that needs to be updated?

Are all of the email addresses listed on your site still operational? Do all of your menu items and links point to current pages? Check all of your feedback forms. Are they all working properly? Are your Thank You pages up to date? Your Thank You pages offer a great marketing opportunity that is often overlooked by many small business owners. Can you identify any other opportunities that you're not taking advantage of?

Review Your Phone Scripts
I believe every small business should have phone scripts, or outlines, for prospecting and sales conversations. Everyone who represents your company or organization should be providing basically the same information and following the same dialogue each and every time they speak to a prospect.

If a complete script seems too phony for you, at least have a complete outline of every single service you offer so you can easily rattle it off to a prospect at the drop of a hat. This is a great way to instill confidence in your prospects and present yourself as the expert.

Take a look at all of your scripts to make sure they are up to date. Are the prices they mention current? Do you have scripts for your latest service offerings? Are the scripts easy to find and follow whenever an unexpected phone call comes in?

Ensure that all of your phone scripts are up-to-date and ready to go, because when the economy picks up, your number of incoming phone calls is bound to pick up also.

Finding clients for your small business is definitely a full-time job. You can make that job a little easier by preparing ahead of time and being completely ready for the additional prospects who will soon be coming your way.