A version of this blog appeared here on 6th June 2023.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make if you’re a business owner or entrepreneur and want to increase your turnover is to think that the only way is:

• to get new leads
• to convert those leads into prospects
• to convert those prospects into clients or customers.

If you’re thinking like that, you’re on the wrong track. 

There’s a much easier way that requires you to do only three things:

1. you resume (or sometimes resurrect) your lapsed contacts, clients or customers
2. you stay in touch (regularly) with the clients and customers you already deal with
3. you leverage things that are right in front of your nose

Lapsed contacts, clients or customers means people or organisations who you already know, but who haven’t engaged with you or your business for a while.  They may have been lost for a variety of reasons, but the main ones are:

• changes in their own circumstances
• competition from other businesses
• you not following-up or staying in touch

To generate business from lapsed contacts, clients or customers you can use a variety of strategies.  These can include such things as:

• targeted information-based emails or email campaigns
• personalised reaching out
• special offers or promotions 

By offering lapsed contacts, clients or customers a reason to re-engage with you and your business, you can generate new business opportunities because they already trust you.

The same approach applies to current clients or customers (who trust you even more) but sometimes need to “feel the love” on an ongoing basis to give you even more business.

Things that are right in front of your nose refer to the untapped opportunities that may exist within your existing business or resources.  These are often overlooked or undervalued, but with some creative thinking and strategic planning, you can capitalize on them to generate new business.

The first two parts of this three-part program identified 16 (out of 24) suggestions to increase your turnover by leveraging lapsed contacts, clients or customers and/or things that are staring you in the face.  Shown below are:

• those original 16 suggestions
• plus another 8 (17 to 24) more.

Here goes:

1. Answer your phone even if it’s a “No ID” number: lots of business is lost by not picking up promptly.  People have an increasingly short attention span.  If you can’t pick up, use voicemail or get a virtual PA or answering service (they pay for themselves very quickly).
2. Use your existing database: most of us have 100s (if not 1000s) of contacts in our database.  Of course there are GDPR factors to consider, but one of the easiest ways to generate new business from existing contacts is to invite them to reply to a GDPR audit and then resume contact – your database then become much more up to date, reliable and useful.
3. Call back quickly: research shows that if you call back an unanswered enquiry within 10 minutes, then your conversion rate will be much higher in terms of getting more traction and converting those calls to a business opportunity: business means having a conversation.
4. Use WhatsApp or SMS: have you noticed how people these days are more likely to communicate with you via WhatsApp or SMS than by an old-fashioned phone call?  Why not do the same yourself (WhatsApp for Business is cheap) and revive or maintain your contacts by dropping them a text message?  It’s still innovative and will make you memorable.
5. Don’t give up: too many people give up trying to get in touch after 2 or 3 attempts.  Research shows that if you persist up to 5 or 6 times then you’re more likely to get a reply or traction.
6. Have an out-of-hours service: many people who are looking for goods or services for themselves tend to do so outside their normal hours of work (when they’re doing their day job).  You only need to have a recorded message (but then remember suggestion no. 3 above).
7. Make sure your website works: check – again and again – and on an ongoing basis – that your web pages and the links to and within your web pages work.  Your website is your shop window and if it doesn’t work efficiently, people won’t trust you to do work for them.
8. Don’t ask for too much data up-front: too many enquiry pages ask for someone’s full name, address, email, reason for contact, referral and other details.  All you need is a first name and a phone number that you can use for a phone call or (see suggestion 4above) a text message.
9. Make sure your links work: as well as checking the links on your website – see item 7 above – you should also be creating a seamless connection between it and (i) your business-focused social media pages and (ii) your free Google Business Profile page – the optics work well.
10. Have a physical brochure or info-sheet: this doesn’t mean a .pdf document that people can download.  It means a physical thing that you pop in the post (everyone does that) that makes you show up like nobody else does.
11. Have a call recording system: other than if you’re a solopreneur (when you don’t need it) a call recording system (i) lets you know what’s really happening; (ii) means you don’t need to remember everything; and (iii) lets you identify training requirements.  All of these improve the client or customer experience and therefore makes things better for your business.
12. Have Facebook pixels and Google tags embedded in your website: every time someone visits your website they leave a trace and are cookied. If you’re not picking that up and they leave without taking things further, you’ve lost them forever and can’t chase or re-market.
13. Actually bother to re-market when you do have Facebook pixels and Google tags: there’s no point in having these free tools if you don’t use them (and even if website visitors don’t respond to your ongoing re-marketing for months).
14. Plan to use your leads: if you’ve gone to the trouble of getting leads, then don’t throw them away by not having a good follow-up process.
15. Have a thought-through (not a casual) plan to use your leads: having a process such as offering (i) a meeting or (ii) a brochure or (iii) a quotation but then always following up with a phone call or SMS to demonstrate you’re interested in the fact that your prospect is interested.
16. Send a 3-line email every 3 months: this is something for people who visited your website, but haven’t engaged further. It’s no more complicated than: “Hello NAME.  I’m wondering if you’re still interested in WHATEVER.  Could you let me know?”  It works wonders.
17. Send a helpful email every week: a key feature of increasing turnover is keeping in touch in a way that people think is helpful.  If you don’t have a presence, you don’t have a prospect that turns into a target that turns into a conversation that turns into a client or customer.  A helpful email doesn’t need to be War & Peace: it can be no more than a tip or shared experience, free.
18. Remember that People Buy People: the more you communicate by video (having a YouTube channel to store your videos is super-easy to organise) about yourself, the more people will resonate with, see and want you not someone else.  And don’t worry about your Oscar: your videos improve!
19. Use the Bomb Bomb or Loom apps: if you’ve not heard of these, get ready: they’re really easy way of sending very short quick videos that are embedded in (and are like) an email.  They’re cheap, effective, take less time than writing, checking and sending an email and notify you when read.
20. Don’t forget the importance of continuous trying to get clients and customers:  most people aren’t comfortable about being sales-y and, having done a bit of business development, forget that this has to be a constant and ongoing exercise that you can’t permit to drift.  You maintain this focus by always having a goal (financial and practical) you’re trying to reach.
21. Make sure you know how much it costs to advertise (i.e. to geta lead) that turns into a client or customer:  if you know this information you can make an objective decision about how much you’ll earn as a multiple of how much you spend.  This eliminates “spray and pray” marketing and makes your advertising spend much more forensic and predictable.
22. Raid the Graveyard: everyone has enquiries that went nowhere.  But most people aren’t prepared to buy now (they’re often still researching).  If you already know how to contact these people, then it costs nothing to get in touch (see suggestions 16 above for this).
23. Take Baby Steps: hardly anyone is ready to buy a thing or a service immediately.  But many more people are willing to talk about what they’re looking for.  If you focus on getting a conversation and only then weave into your conversation what you provide (whether that’s a thing or a service) you’re much more likely to convert to a sale.
24. Educate yourself: don’t think your business will thrive without following at least some (and ideally most) of these 24 easy tips.  It won’t.

Try putting these into practice – not only yourself, but also by encouraging your staff or team to do the same – and you might be pleasantly surprised how much more contact you get from people.