How Do You Nudge Your Potential Clients to Action?

How do you nudge your clients in your direction?

Last week we talked about warming up your cold calls. This week, we share how you might nudge people to take the first steps into becoming your client.

For most of the services I sell my competition doesn’t offer similar services but I still have to get the potential client to start taking action. They need a nudge.  Many years ago I received training on this from Michael Boylan, who wrote The Power to Get In. Back when I received the training I thought it was an incredible way to influence clients to meet me. His books and CDs are available on Amazon and I can’t recommend them enough.

Today in a social media dominated sales cycle, it’s a way to get clients to take action after I meet them. I call it the nudge and once you get comfortable using it, it could change the way you work with clients forever.

I’ve found there are four ways to get clients to take action.  I start with a simple nudge but all of these ideas can help you become a powerful influencer on your client’s life and success. Warning: Don’t try these strategies if you don’t believe you have a breakthrough product or service. If you don’t believe it you shouldn’t be selling them to anyone.

The first nudge works on your client’s fear of loss. People do more to keep something than they do to get something new. If you show a potential client that they may loss something they work harder to get things done with you. Fear of loss can go from personal to professional.  To be effective you must understand the motivations in a way that others don’t. Taking time to understand what they want many times tells you what you might want to take away. I find this first nudge extremely powerful in dealing with people who are middle managers.

The second nudge is your client’s curious insecurities.  What do you know that they would like to know? This nudge works because people feel they are missing something and if they had it their life would change in an instant.  People want to be experts in what they do; they feel mastery is the difference between the good and the great.  So if you work to share secrets with others, they are more inclined to react positively when you are working with them. This nudge works well with business owners and entrepreneurs who want to uncover the secrets that make them a success in life.

The third nudge works well with the more competitive of your clients. This nudge focuses on getting people who are competitive and are looking for an advantage in their career or life.  If you offer a new product or service that is a going to make your clients more successful, consider employing the competitive nudge. You have to know more about how your client sees the competitive landscape but once you understand this you can get a client moving because they want to be the market leader.  When I sold new advance technologies I could use this nudge to get clients to become early adopters of the new technologies. You can see how powerful this nudge could be in helping you provide your clients to a competitive edge.

The fourth and final nudge can only be used if you’re dealing with an economic buyer or someone who wants to be. This nudge is based on the fact that bigger organizations are terrible at making people feel important in their current roles and responsibilities.  If you can find a way to show them how their purchase can make them more important in their organization, you are able to get them to assume more risk in dealing with you. The nudge is that you must focus on picking winning people and organizations when you’re doing your business development activities.  If you use this nudge with someone who is well connected, you must be sure to help them understand why this buying decision helps them become a leader both inside and outside the organization. These nudge works well when trying to get high growth businesses to take your call. They respond to you when you can show them your product or service makes them be more admired in their marketplace. I find this nudge works with well with leaders who also sell as part of their role. I’ve seen this work with many of my larger client CEOs.  They like to win and they love to be the center of new ideas. I call this nudge guilty by association but once you see it work, you wonder where it’s been your whole career.

I hope this helps you get started on getting your clients to take action more quickly with the nudge. We will be having additional discussions about how to get into your clients over the next several months because I’ve brought on an expert writer to help you become more effective at this part of your business.  I’ve asked Keith Luscher to begin sharing on regular basis what he’s doing to help his clients get in and how he’s nurturing his clients as he goes through the business development cycle with his clients. I’ll give you a clue, his use of content and client nurturing can help you grow your business, as well.

Looking for ideas on how to close more business in December you Might enjoy our recent blog at How to Have a Breakthrough Sales Month this December!

See you here next week.