If you’re in a client slump, have no fear. Instead of panicking, put your thinking cap on. There are ways to increase your client load to boost your income. In this post, we run through a few ways to beef up your workload so you can earn more money:
Start With Your Current Email List
Referrals are the absolute best way to take on more client work. Referrals come from other business friends or people in your network. Let them know that you’re looking to take on more clients. Perhaps your friend’s clients are looking for people like you or they know of other people who are looking to hire.
My best paying clients have come from referrals and my network. It’s so important that you grow your business network. I can’t stress this enough. Talk to people, join Facebook groups, go to conferences, and make connections. It’s easier to get clients from referrals because you already come with social proof.
Cold pitching is a numbers game. You need to put many cold pitches out there before maybe a small percentage get a response. Referrals are golden because there’s a higher chance of closing a deal when a personal connection is made and someone is vouching for you.
Upsell to the Current Folks
Do you have additional services that you can offer your clients? Pitch to them service add ons to increase your workload. Hop on a call to find out what they need and provide a solution for their problems.
Reach Out to the Old Folks
Ideally, you’re on good terms with all of your past clients. Reach out to see if they need any additional help. If they don’t need help, they may know of other people who do. Be sure to reach out to prospects who you had to turn down as well. Maybe they reached out to you when you already had a pretty tight workload. Follow up to let them know that you’re now available.
Apply for Job Listings
This tip may or may not apply to you depending on what field you’re in. However, if you’re a writer, web designer, or designer, you may be able to find clients on job boards. Job boards can be hit or miss. Several years ago when I started working as a professional writer, job board opportunities were pretty abysmal. These jobs hardly paid anything.
Now, I see more and more decent jobs popping up on job boards like Indeed.com. If you’re in a pinch, head over to job boards and forums within your industry to see if a prospect has posted a listing. Usually, tons of people apply for job board listings, so you need to apply within a day of the listing being posted to attract attention.
Final Word
Client slumps can be scary. Slumps usually happen when you stop marketing your business. Continued marketing will help you avoid business slumps because you’ll have a steady flow of prospects. Keep up with your inbound marketing efforts, cold pitch, and always be on the lookout for new (and better) clients even when your client list is full.
