Having successful clients is part of a marketing strategy. Being able to point to successful clients is a powerful tool. If you're talking about your successful clients, you need to be clear on what a successful client looks like. You need to be able to recognize, understand and fully articulate what client success looks like. You also need to be able to describe the successful client experience in your marketing materials. Let's look at what it means for your clients to succeed. Here are some criteria that identify a successful client.
1) They must accomplish their stated goals from working with you.
Be sure that you help new clients define their goals when they start working with you. Both of you need to have the sense that it is clear exactly what the client's objectives are. If that is not clarified, it's impossible to make sure that they get their goals. If the engagement is started with fuzzy client goals, you may end up helping the client get results that are not what they most desire. That will lead the client to feel your engagement was not a success-even when they get profound results. Be sure you understand exactly what the client wants and them help them get that.
2) They must believe that working with you helped them get those stated goals.
Sometimes a client gets their stated goals, but feels that they would have gotten them without you. In this case, they don't have the same feeling of success that gets them to promote your business. Even worse, they could feel that their money was wasted or misspent and feel resentment. These things could happen if the goals aren't well defined from the beginning.
Part of client success is to keep your clients appreciating how the working relationship caused their success. What's the point in getting great client success from your work, if the client doesn't see it that same way? Give them a "picture" of their progress by reminding them of where they were when you started and how far they have come since you've worked together. You want to consistently remind and renew the client's appreciation of the working relationship.
3) They must have the feeling that they have greatly benefitted from their investment in your services.
Your clients need to appreciate that it was the working relationship that helped them get their goals. They must "get" that they have received great benefits from investing in your services. Of course, this must arise from the client's natural feelings. The feeling isn't induced by you, except insofar as your delivering great results to the client. You want your clients to understand how the process of working together brought them to where they wanted to be. They must see how your skill and experience was key to their turning their situation around.
4) They must feel very satisfied with your work together.
If your clients are not ecstatically satisfied with the results they got from working with you, they are not going to be an ambassador for your business. You want to leave them fully satisfied and grateful for having the opportunity to work with you. For this to happen, they must have a very clear picture of the contrast between their circumstances at the beginning and at the end of their engagement with you.
It's up to you to draw this contrast with them as you work together and at the end of the engagement. Clients "forget" how bad things were when they started working with you. You need to help them remember and to "see" the changes.
5) They must be willing to recommend you to others who need your services.
In order for this "marketing strategy" to work, your clients must be enthusiastic enough about your services to speak positively about your business to other business owners they meet. This is going to happen naturally when your clients have gotten profound results-and their stated goals-from working with you.
You do have to help them along though with a gentle reminder that you would appreciate any referrals they might be inspired to send your way. Be sure this is done gently and without a heavy hand. Don't forget to ask for referrals from existing clients.
If you truly want to have the most profound marketing technique working for you, ensure that your clients are successful. In order to accomplish that, you must understand what client success looks like for your business. These are the basic guidelines though your business may have some other specific indicators of success.
Suzi Elton provides business writing that attracts targeted prospects to your service business and converts them into clients for you. She is a Robert Middleton Certified Action Plan Marketing Coach, as well as a professional writer. Her website offers a free series of 8 assessments you can use to analyze your own site.
