When it comes to business growth we all want to make sure that we are maximising the revenue in our business. Well, here are the nine tips to do just that. One, create a client assessment chart. You can do this on a piece of paper or an Excel spreadsheet that will detail every single client you have. If you have less than a hundred clients you’ll want to do this for every single client that you have and you’ll want to write down their names in a list. Then beside that list you’ll want to write down how much revenue each client generates for you every single year. Have a number of columns that go across the page or the spreadsheet and grade each of those clients. Ask a few key questions to each.
So, across the top I want you to have the headings of client name, annual revenue. And then the next column I want you to have is the cringe factor. Grade every client. I want you to rate them on a basis of how much you love working with them or you don’t. Are they the type of person that when you see their name pop up on your phone or in your inbox you go, “Oh cool yeah, I want to interact with that person, I want to help them.” Or are they the kind of person that when you see their name come up on your phone or email you go, “Oh crap, there they are. I have to speak to them again.”
Which type of person are they? Put a one against the cringe factor for that individual if you love them, if they are awesome, and you love working with them, and then I want to scale that up to a five if you cannot stand working with them, you really hate them as a client in reality. And you put something in between if it’s an in between. But I want you to do that for every single client. Go down that list and write the cringe factor for that client. Do you love them? Do you hate them? Are they a one, two, three, four or five? Put that number against the client.
Then in the next column along I want you to head that up speed of payment. So are they somebody who pays by direct debit on time? Are they someone who the minute the invoice drops in their inbox they’re paying you straight away, they pay super, super fast? Or are they someone that you have to chase, and chase, and chase, they’re always in arrears, they are always behind? You have to threaten to stop service for them. You have to send them to debt collectors. That would be a five. The one who pays straight away that’s going to be a one.
The next column is four repeat revenue. Are they a repeat? Are they paying you month, on month, on month, year, on year, on year? Are they coming back regularly to buy from you or not? Are they just somebody who’s just a one off and then it feels like they just disappeared? So put a one for yes they are repeat client and two for no they are a one off.
Then the next column after that is referrals. Do they refer people to you? If the answer is yes they do refer people put a one and if the answer is no they don’t then put a two.
And the next column I want you to have is history. Are they an established client with you? Do they have an established history? Do you have a longterm relationship? If the answer to this is yes we put a one in the box and if the answer is no we put a two. At this point you now have a client assessment chart. Each client would basically have a score. Sort each client based on that score. So, add up the scores along the way and then have a look and see who’s got the lowest score and who has the highest score. The ones with the lowest score are the ones that are great clients for your business. They are the ones who pick quickly, who give you repeat revenue, they offer referral opportunities, you have a great history with them, you love working with them, those types of people.
Take a closer look at the set of people. Their score gives you really good insights into the types of services that you’re offering those clients and you can dig deep to find out what commonalities that type of client has and the types of services they’re buying from you to look into what you might want to be promoting more of in your business. Remember get really honest with yourself when you’re grading the clients and try not to let emotions get in the way.
Number two, clone your best clients. Based on the data from your assessment chart the clients that are scoring really well, that are not cringe-worthy, that are paying fast, that are repeat revenue clients, that are giving you referrals, and you have a great history with you want to work out how you can get more of those types of people. Work at how you can clone those best clients. Gather information about your prospects that can help you target more people like your great clients.
Speak to them and find out things like do they prefer to hang out on Facebook or LinkedIn? Do they read certain magazines? Do they watch certain TV programmes? Really get to know as much as you can about your great clients. Do they have kids? Don’t they have kids? Are they male or female? What are their beliefs and values? What industry events do they go to? What sector do they operate in? Are you finding that all your great clients are in a specific sector, or go to specific events, or like specific Facebook pages? Then you need to be involved in those things too if you want to get more of those amazing clients. Clone your best clients by finding out as much information about the people that are in that bracket right now so that it can help you find others just like them.
Number three, sack your worst clients. I know that you’ve spent time getting them on board and they’re paying you money. Well, they might be or they might be defaulting. We’ll know from the assessment chart whether they are or not. Sacking clients can be a really, really scary thing to do but we are looking here at your worst clients. Perhaps they’re ones that you hate or ones that never ever pay you on time and you’re always having to chase for money. They perhaps don’t offer you any repeat revenue very often, they don’t offer you referrals, you don’t maybe don’t even have an established history with them. It’s the ones that are scoring really high on the client assessment chart that you need to think about exiting. They’re going to be really near the bottom of that list. They are people who you do not enjoy working with.
And I know if you’re anything like me I really hate conflict. I avidly avoid it and I really, really hate it. So when it comes to sacking and exiting clients I really, really hate it because it feels like conflict to me and I sometimes particularly historically, less so nowadays, have put up with way worse behaviour from clients than I should. I know that I can sometimes let people off with a lot more things than I should do because of course it’s my business and I get to choose who I work with. You know there are people that you love working with and that light you up and it’s the same with me and you know that there are people who you cringe when you see their name. And if you want to preserve your energy and open up space for more awesome clients, then it really makes sense to get rid of those cringe-worthy ones.
Number four, ask your clients, ask your clients and your prospects what they want from you, what they want to buy from you, and they will usually tell you. If you asked them what their biggest pain point is they might even tell you exactly what it is and you can provide options for them off the back of that. Your clients and prospects will tell you what appeals to them the best and what appeals to them the most. And if that’s within your zone of genius and aligns with the kind of thing that you can offer them then offer them that.
You can ask your clients, “What would work for you in terms of us working together?” Or your prospects. And people might just say to you, “I just want a day with you. I want in a room with one day where we can just hammer out things for my business.” And the response can be, “Okay, let’s do that.” Whether it’s a course, an opt in, a freebie, a webinar, a live stream, a paid programme, a one-to-one. Ask your clients, and customers, and your prospects what they want from you and you might just be amazed by the answers. It can shape what you deliver them because they’re asking for it. And if they’re asking for it then they may just be very willing to pay for it. So it makes that you could deliver it if it’s within your zone of genius.
Five, be consistent with your message to the market. There is nothing that confuses the marketplace more than being inconsistent with the message you deliver. The messages I deliver are around maximising revenue, profitability, taking more money home. They are my messages. And when people think of me what I’m hoping is that they think of those things. If I start chatting about lots of other different things then people will start getting confused and not understand what I stand for and what my message is. Do I help clients in other areas? Yes, I do. But I don’t broadcast massively about those things.
I have on occasion helped clients with marketing strategy if it comes up in calls but I don’t speak about that publicly very often. I speak about the things that I want to be known for and the things that I am great at, financial mastery, financial strategy, profitability, revenue. You should have something that you are leading with too so that people know what to expect from you on their newsfeed or in their inbox, the kind of thing that people are expecting from you. What do you want that to be? Remember confused people don’t buy so if you’re consistent with your messaging that you deliver then people can understand what you stand for and that is key to maximising your revenue.
Six, get your clients to pay upfront, no cash, no sale. Get your clients and customers to pay you up front for services you’re going to deliver perhaps even before you’ve fully built out that service. That is when the sale is made is when the cash changes hands not before. If the services are delivered and there is no money exchange that is not making a sale that is a freebie. Make sure that you are at the very least getting a deposit for upfront services that you’re going to deliver. There’s a greater tie in from your client and customer to work with you because the money has exchanged hands, there is more commitment. It’s a psychological thing and results are going to be greater and better. You don’t want to drain all your energy by doing the work first, invoicing your client, and then ending up having to chase them. Learn to maximise your revenue by charging upfront.
Seven, nurture relationships with existing clients. We often overlook the importance of nurturing relationships with people we already have as clients or contacts. We tend to get busy attracting new people to the door, growing the list, getting new audiences, growing out our business. Little do we contact existing contacts, clients, people on our list, people who follow us on social media and even precious clients. Why? Because these people already know about you and they can help bring in more revenue. There is a certain trust factor from people who already know you and the truth is it’s much more easier to get those people to spend money with you than it is to get a cold audience. There are so many ways you can reach out to your existing contacts.
We all know that emailing our list on a consistent basis is key but you’d be absolutely surprised by the number of high profile entrepreneur’s email list I am on who do not email me consistently. They only email when they’re trying to sell me something and that just turns everybody off and it makes your list almost useless if you are not nurturing them on a consistent basis. You also of course can make yourself visible on social media by posting updates and sharing content. Again, consistency is so important here. Again, I have seen seven and eight figure entrepreneurs not being consistent in this and therefore leaving massive amounts of money on the table.
Go the extra mile to deliver messages that speak directly to the people on your list directly to your followers. Can you do a webinar to give them more information? Can you do a challenge exclusive to your community? What ways can you nurture relationships with your existing audience? Remember it’s the easiest way to generate revenue from those people who already know about you.
Eight, get good at selling and be very comfortable with it. As a business owner you need to sell. I know that you don’t need me to remind you when you are listening to this podcast but that is fundamental because sales is the lifeblood of a business. Well actually, cash is the lifeblood of a business but of course that is in part linked to selling. Because if you don’t make a sale you don’t have a business you have a hobby. So get over any horrible feeling or limiting beliefs that you have which are linked to sales. Any beliefs that you have around what salespeople are because they are going to be hindering you from growing your business and you need to be thinking about how you can bring salespeople into your business and people in your business to support you in selling as well. Because too many business owners don’t focus on getting support on the sales aside of their business too.
Nine, do not give stuff away for free unless. See, you could offer free things, options or services in your business up to a point but you could only do that if it is part of an overall strategy. Free stuff needs to be thought through, planned out, and part of a strategy, a bigger strategy for you to attack clients to longer term services. So, sometimes you’ll see for example a free event which is part of a longer term strategy. At the event something is sold and therefore getting people into paid programmes. But you need to understand how the numbers are going to stack up when you do this.
Again, I have seen some big coaches really mess up on this front because they haven’t calculated the overall strategy because they don’t understand the data behind it. How many people do they need in a room for their free event, versus how many are going to buy from them, versus the price point, the lifetime value, all those numbers. If you don’t understand them clearly and they don’t stack up then you’re going to have a really big problem with using that strategy. So, making sure you understand all the data behind it before you give stuff away for free.
And that’s it. I whisked through nine tips for maximising the revenue in your business. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time let’s find the clarity in your numbers, increase your wealth, and get more money in your pockets.
