How many times have you seen headlines for coaching programs, marketing programs, or online training programs promising you six figures in just six weeks or double your revenue in just six months? (I found one about building a six-figure business in 4 months while working full time!)
Have you been tempted to try one of these programs? Do you fall prey to this kind of verbiage easily or does it only happen when you just aren’t sure how to find more B2B clients?
There are so many gurus out there promising results that are just impossible to achieve. If you think it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. Investing in a coaching, training or marketing program might help you find more B2B clients, but not in six weeks, and maybe not even in six months.
So how DO you find more B2B clients when you’re not in the fantasy land of online coaching and marketing programs?
The best strategy to increase sales requires three things, regularly and consistently, to build a pipeline of business:
1. Referrals
Most businesses rely heavily on referrals. These are super valuable, but they’re not enough. Setting up a referral process (link to other blog post) is a great place to start. If you intend to only accept business via referrals, you’re still going to need to work regularly and consistently on generating those referrals.
2. Marketing
Your marketing activities need to be bringing you leads regularly and consistently too. These leads may not be ready to buy when they find you, but they’ve expressed interest in your offer and can become a viable part of your sales pipeline if nurtured appropriately.
3. Prospecting
This is the one that you have complete control over. And yes, to find more B2B clients you’ll need to reach out to entirely new prospects regularly and consistently as well. You don’t need to spend days making cold calls, but you do need to connect with a defined number of new prospects who meet your ideal client profile, you guessed it, regularly and consistently.
This is how pipelines are built. Over time.
Now let’s break down those seemingly magical promises . . .
Most B2B service providers have sales cycles that are six weeks or longer, usually because what they’re selling is a higher level investment and multiple decision makers are involved.
There’s really no way to hit six figures in six weeks unless you already have $300k or more in your pipeline. (30% is a good baseline conversion rate.) If you do, this offer isn’t even going to attract your attention!
This one IS possible for some businesses, but only if all of the following are in place:
More importantly, can you double your revenue in six months while also doubling your profit? If it costs you all your profit to double in six months, is it really worth it?
Don’t get sucked in by cleverly written headlines and seemingly outrageous promises. Understanding that clients don’t magically appear and working regularly and consistently to build a pipeline is how you find more B2B clients.
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