Confident Cashflow

One way to boost cash flow is to make more sales.

But to make more sales we have to get our marketing right.

I’ve been working with Julia Blake from Blake Consultants Ltd on building my CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) and email marketing list and her passion and enthusiasm for the process is infectious!

Understanding your ideal client is essential to build a CRM that will effectively work for you. Never more so now when the world is changing so dramatically and we’re all having to work out different ways of doing things we took for granted before.

I will leave you in Julia’s capable hands as she takes us through why this is so important….

With the world still feeling a little like the set of a disaster movie, emotions are running high, trust is threatened and all we want is to know who we can rely on. If we, as business owners are experiencing this, we can be certain our clients are too. Small businesses are undoubtedly going to suffer, but the beauty of a small business is its agility to change course, change direction, and adapt.

Survive, revive and thrive

For a business to survive, revive and eventually thrive then you, the business owner, need to get totally to grips with your ideal client. You need to totally understand what their pain, or gain, is. And you need to be certain of the solution that you can offer to ease that pain, or gain, and help your client. 

Let’s face it, if you aren’t helping and supporting your clients right now, they are not going to be spending money with you.  If your pre-lockdown deliverable is no longer possible, you need to think creatively to find a different way to deliver or come up with a different deliverable entirely.

It sounds simple, I know it’s not.  However, if you don’t understand the new pain which your clients are now feeling, you will find it incredibly hard to find something that will help them.  You also need to ascertain whether they are experiencing a temporary or permanent pain so that you can adapt your business accordingly.

In this blog we explore why it is paramount that you know who your Ideal Client is.

The bottom line is that people really do buy from people, and people buy from people they trust.  So, when trust and reliability have been called into question simply by a crisis that is out of our control, how do you look after your existing clients and attract new clients as well?

The answer to that, is relatively simple, at least to start with. You, the business owner, need to really know and understand who your Ideal Client is.  By getting to know them, you will empathise with the problems they face and be able to offer them a solution that works.

How to attract more Ideal Clients to you:

Step 1 – Create an Ideal Client Persona or Avatar

By creating an avatar you will bring your ideal client to life and really understand the problems they face, the language they speak and where they hang out. Right now, that probably means which social media platform they are on. Click here to download my Step-by-Step Guide to Creating your Ideal Client Avatar.

Step 2 – Always have your Avatar in mind when you create content

Once you know and understand your Ideal Client and have an Avatar, you will be able to communicate with them in a much more efficient way.

You can explain how your product or service helps to overcome the issues and challenges they face. Once your marketing messages really begin to resonate with your Avatar, they are also more likely to convert into a client, or remain a client for longer, thereby increasing revenue.  Having an Avatar will help you generate interest and engagement in the following ways:

• Your messages will resonate with people who are currently unknown to you on social medial and they will be attracted to you to find out more about your business – entering into your sales funnel.
• You will increase the chance of potential clients/prospects already on your list (either opted in or legitimate interests) engaging with you and moving along your sales process – with the ultimate aim of them becoming a client – because they are more likely to receive and relate to your messaging.

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• You will increase the probability of existing clients moving along your product staircase because you will understand what they need at different stages and at different times.

Want to start building your own Avatar? Download my step-by-step guide to creating your own Avatar by clicking here.

Why having an Avatar increases your net profit

Creating an avatar really is all good news. We have already seen how really knowing and understanding your ideal client increases your revenue. But it also decreases your cost of sales, therefore giving you an overall increase in Net Profit.

How having an Avatar decreases your cost of sales

When you are growing your business, it’s crucial to keep the cost of sales as low as possible. You will want to ensure that you are doing everything you can to simplify your processes, speed up your sales cycles, and avoid wasting time chasing dead end opportunities. This really puts your Avatar efforts into context. The confidence of knowing your Ideal Client brings a powerful ripple effect through your business, decreasing the cost of sales in these three ways:

1. You will be writing and sending fewer marketing messages, as the ‘scatter-gun approach’ becomes replaced with a targeted marketing approach.
2. You will be able to guide clients efficiently along your product staircase, as your CRM system will be reflecting your Avatar in underpinning your business.
3. You will speed up the process of converting a prospect to a client, as you will be creating messages which they are more likely to notice and resonate with.

Learn to create the perfect Avatar

I have published an eBook, Understand the Importance of Knowing Your Ideal Client and Create Your Own Avatar, which outlines some of the key aspects of creating an Avatar to support your business.

This eBook will help you understand…

1. Why your business needs an Avatar
2. How Avatars can be used
3. How Avatars are created
4. How to build your own Avatar with a step-by-step guide

Download your copy of the eBook here:

Understand the Importance of Knowing Your Ideal Client and Create Your Own Avatar 

How I can support you

My goal is to help you, as a business owner, to survive, revive and thrive by getting the maximum value out of your three most valuable assets:

1. Your contacts/data
2. Your processes and systems
3. Yourself

When you make the most of your contacts/data you are in the best place possible to increase your revenue. When you have efficient, repeatable processes in your business, you reduce the cost of sales. Both these things give you, as the business owner, more head space to focus on growing your business.

The overall result is an increase in net profit.

How can you find out more?

I have created a Stronger Together community on LinkedIn for business owners who would like to collaborate, share ideas and help other like-minded business owners. Please join this powerful business ecosystem by clicking here.

I’m always happy to have a chat – you can contact me at julia.blake@blakeconsultants.co.uk and sign up to receive my Growth Hacks Bulletin too 🙂

I have been working with CapsuleCRM for over 9 years and helped many clients increase revenue, reduce costs, make the most of their contacts, manage their pipeline and deliver great customer service.

I do this by designing and installing Capsule to meet the client’s needs, offering a bespoke CRM to suit their business requirements. Capsule really is a great solution for coaches, consultants and business owners and when it is integrated with Mailchimp and Xero you have really solid foundations in place to grow your business.

To find out more or arrange a time to discuss how I can help you, please contact me.