How to Get More Quality Leads – Play Favorites and Break the Rules

If you’ve been following along with the last few articles about the Pumpkin Plan strategy, you know that you need to take these steps to scale your business:

1. Scale down your client base. I know this sounds counterproductive but stick with me here.
2. Redirect customers who are not a fit.
3. Cut unnecessary expenses.

Now it’s time to focus your attention and energy on your core client group and serve them so well that they start to clone themselves!

1. Develop a “favorite client” policy. Mom may have said not to play favorites, but that rule doesn’t apply in this playground. Time to up your game with your stellar nurturing skills. Dazzle your best clients with innovation and superior service, defy their imagination, and offer solutions that answer their prayers. 
2. Underpromise and overdeliver. Practice giving a little extra. For instance, when it comes to timelines, add a buffer for your deliverable and then deliver early.  Consider including a little something extra to your service, too. For instance, we ordered a cake for someone and the bakery included a candle. Not just a tiny birthday candle either, but an organic aromatherapy beeswax candle. That kind of thought kept us ordering from that bakery again and again.
3. Don’t hide the secret sauce. Some companies think they need to hide trade secrets as if they were military intelligence, but now that information is at everyone’s fingertips, there are few secrets left. You’re no longer the keeper of your secret sauce. You’re the executor. As such you need to make it easy for your clients to see that you’re knowledgeable. So knowledgeable in fact that you are the absolute best solution for their problem. Your clients and prospects will find information on their own because it’s out there. If they get it from you, their trusted expert first, that’s a big advantage.)

Let’s talk some more about your favorite clients, and cloning them.

The problem with referrals is that they’re not enough. 

When growing mammoth pumpkins, you don’t throw your seeds over one hundred acres. You focus on a small area, plant a couple of seeds, and focus on tending to and strengthening that vine. Because you have limited resources you can’t be effective if you’re covering too much territory. When you focus on moving within one tight area, prospects and clients see you more frequently. Market in the locations where your key prospects are, show up at their industry events and take your position as the expert in your industry. 

Remember to apply the 80/20 Rule. Look at your short list of top clients and determine which few clients (20%) bring in the most revenue (80%). In other words, in which industry do most of your high-revenue clients operate? Think about what you could do to re-brand your business with that right focus. How can you better serve this niche industry? How many competitors would you have if you served this industry exclusively? With this tightened focus, how would you describe what you do? These are some imperative questions to answer to guide your company to healthy growth. 

Speaking of sharing secrets, I’ll share one of mine to get you scaling (ok it’s not that much of a secret since it starts on page 160 of The Pumpkin Plan, but here ya go):

1. Create a sequence that involves your target community every time you launch a new service.
   1. Predict – Ask your top clients about their interests and track them to see what will perform the best.
   2. Appreciate – The fact that people care enough to respond is big, so be sure to thank them and include a personalized touch when you do.
   3. Announce – If your feedback is positive and you’ve generated interest in your next offering, let your community know. They will feel that you’ve created something special for them.
   4. Engage – Keep your community interested by communicating with them, and periodically giving them updates, asking their opinions.
   5. Ask – If your prospects want in, they’ll want to save their spot. Offer an opportunity for them to save that spot by asking for a deposit of any size. Now they have skin in the game. 
   6. Limit – A sense of urgency is created when you say that something is available for a limited time. Let prospects and clients know the availability of your offering is over at a certain date, that there are only 100 spots available, etc.
   7. Overdeliver – Add a little bonus. It will grow your community.
   8. Track that data – What worked best? That’s what you build on.

1. Test the waters. Start with predictive questions in your community about what offering is most needed to solve your clients’ problems. This will help you gauge interest in your offering.
2. Your community? They are your collaborators. Determine how you will interact with them. Will you make a video, or send a blog? Both? Form a mini-mastermind that meets each week for a half hour to share ideas. Will you take to social media? Whatever you decide, when you engage, remember your “why”, and remember to make it personal and integral to that.

The outcome?

In a nutshell, following the system in The Pumpkin Plan will do one thing: Give you a broader funnel for quality leads, poised for growth. Amen!

I’m so excited to be on this entrepreneurial journey with you and to watch your company grow.

Wishing you massive success!

-Mike

PS. Grab your copy of The Pumpkin Plan here to take a deeper dive into scaling your business. And, if you’d like an expert to help when implementing, check out Pumpkin Plan Your Biz!

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