Business Tips Blog
Enjoy Evan’s easy-to-use advice for your business.
7 Keys to a Website that Attracts Clients
[margin20] These days, customers inevitably visit your website before deciding whether to buy from you. So how do you optimize your site to attract clients? The good news is you don’t need a lot of bells & whistles, you don’t need beautiful graphic design (although it’s helpful), and you don’t need to do a huge overhaul of your site! The tips I’m offering here will dramatically boost the effectiveness of your site, and they are easy to implement. Everything here is about updating the copy and tabs; no site redesign required. I’m focusing today on a typical service business; there will be some variation depending on your industry. [margin30] [div style=”float:left;margin-right:20px”] 1 [/div] [div style=”overflow:hidden”] Clear Goal for the Website What is the #1 purpose that your website is optimized for? You need to have a clear answer to this question before you can update the site. For most professional …
Why Your Latest Service Idea Isn’t Selling
I recently worked with a consulting firm that wanted to reach new types of clients. They built some new service packages to target these clients, but clients weren’t biting.
Three Top Strategies for Growth in 2016
This is the time of year when we all step back, see how the year went for our business, and then wonder how to improve things in the coming year. My clients often ask me: “Where should I focus my energy? How do I plan for successful growth?”
3 Keys to Sell a Big or Complex Project
An IT company I work with was struggling to close clients for its network overhaul service. Prospective clients kept disappearing–sometimes they’d explicitly balk at the price tag, other times they’d just stop responding to calls and emails. It was especially frustrating because they could tell that many of these prospects desperately needed the kind of help they were offering. I’ve found that many businesses struggle to sell their big or complex services. As a result, too many of their clients are smaller, less interesting, less profitable projects. So today I want to share three tools I’ve found very helpful for landing more of the bigger, more exciting, more profitable projects you’re looking for. [margin30] [div style=”float:left;margin-right:20px”] 1 [/div] [div style=”overflow:hidden”] Help the Client Visualize the Project from their Perspective When my IT client and I dug into their failed sales, we found that the lost clients didn’t understand what the …
Dealing with Cheap Alternatives to Hiring You
I recently advised a lawyer who was exasperated from a conversation with a potential client. “This guy kept comparing us to Legal Zoom!” he told me. “How can he compare the customized service of our highly-skilled legal team to a one-size-fits-all template downloaded from a website?” I’ve found that professionals in many industries face similar conversations with prospective clients. I work with a branding agency whose prospects sometimes say, “I can go to Craigslist and hire someone to do my logo for $100!” Fitness trainers have prospects who compare them to workout DVDs. Architects have prospects who balk at their fees, saying the contractor can do drawings “for free.” What cheap (or free!) alternatives do you face in your business? Today I will show you how to handle these prospects, how to win over as many as possible, and when to just walk away. To know how to handle these …