Every now and again, I come across the claim that it is really easy to fill your diary with sales calls with corporate clients if you are a mindset, leadership or wellness coach – all you have to do is post on LinkedIn.
It’s an enticing idea that all you have to do is create a great profile, post valuable information and bam, your ideal clients will be lining up around the block to work with you.
That would be a fantastic way of inbound marketing (aka, clients coming to you instead of you reaching out to them).
The thing is in reality, it doesn’t work terribly well – at least not if it’s your only strategy for getting clients.
This is particularly true if you are just starting out with corporate clients and if you are not already a very well-known expert in your field.
Why LinkedIn should not be your only answer
Before I share with you how you can create a strategy that does get you conversations with potential corporate clients, here are the 2 main reasons why simply relying on LinkedIn is not enough:
They come to LinkedIn to catch up on their network, maybe update their CV or share something about the organization they work for.
But they rarely say to themselves: “My team is so disengaged from their work/are stressed/unproductive – I’ll hop on LinkedIn to see if someone (who I don’t yet know) has some clever ideas”.
This is just not now how their minds work.
Instead, they will read articles in relevant magazines, maybe check out ideas on google and (definitely) go to their network for suggestions.
Now, don’t get me wrong: LinkedIn is a great tool for certain things:
And you should definitely use it for all of those purposes.
But relying on passively posting your value on LinkedIn as your main way to source clients to fill your diary with clients is not a robust strategy.
So what can you do instead to get clients to come to you?
Here are my favourite three strategies that I teach all my students in the Landing Corporate Client Academy:
Strategy 1- Attend in person events
What are industry interest events?
They are the kind of conferences, meetings, exhibitions or even seminars that your ideal clients would attend because it is useful for their job.
They always have some form of a networking element to them where you can chat with people and arrange a further meeting.
And because you are meeting your ideal prospects in an environment that is relevant to them, you automatically establish a small connection with them – a shared interest, learning about current trends or gaining new insights.
Of course, this means you have to have selected the niche that is best suited for your business AND that excites you (here is a post that shows you how to do that): http://impactfulnesslab.com/what-is-the-best-corporate-niche-to-choose
The beauty of this approach is that even if you don’t get to speak to someone directly at the event, you can still use the insights you gained to create a warm connection for your emails/other outreach attempts.
Let’s say, your ideal client was giving a talk at this event but you didn’t catch them afterwards – you can use the fact that you were there and what you took away from their talk as an introduction to our outreach email!
How do you find relevant events? Check out the conference centres near you, subscribe to industry-relevant publications and look at what events are happening in relevant industry institutes.
For example, as my clients tend to be in financial services and infrastructure construction organizations, I tend to look both at Accountancy and the Civil Engineering institutions near me.
This works for any industry and even for online events.
I know that a couple of hours of targeted google searching will easily fill your diary with potential events for the next 6 months!
Strategy 2 – Getting up on stage
Now that you have researched who holds what events, you can reach out to those same organizations and explore how you can present your topic (tailored to the specific industry) at an event.
Speaking from a stage is hugely powerful in establishing yourself as an expert and creating connections.
When I did in-person events before the pandemic, I would generally come away with over 15-25 highly targeted prospects as a minimum – and then convert them to clients over time.
The trick here is often to pick events that are not too large so that you can have that personal connection afterwards – these are also easier to get into at the start.
Don’t discount online events, either – these are not going away and organizers often are looking for someone who can add a different energy to their more traditional line-ups.
Strategy 3 – Write your way into getting clients
Corporate decision-makers do still frequently read trade press (often even in printed form) and publishing there can get you in front of many ideal clients.
Online publications in particular are constantly on the lookout for more content, so they might be an easier way in.
Of course, this is a long-term strategy, but aside from getting seen (and seen as an expert), it again allows you to use it as “street-cred” in your outreach efforts.
For example, a single article of mine in the Chartered Accountant magazine (an industry publication my ideal clients read) got me five inquiries, two of which turned into clients PLUS the opportunity to contact my network too.
I have to stress (and you will have noticed from the points above) that relying on these strategies alone to get clients is unlikely to fill your diary with sales calls in the short term.
The best way I know of to consistently land 5-figure contracts with corporate clients is to have one strategy for reaching out to prospects and one for getting them to contact you.
They both work simultaneously – I call that the Layer Strategy.
What I can offer you
In my 1:1 program, I help you design your own layered lead generation strategy that plays to your personal strengths that you can implement consistently and that actually cuts down on the time and energy you need to fill your diary with prospective client calls.
I also work with you on:
Following this program, you should be able to have 1-2 explorative conversations with ideal corporate prospects per week (if you reach out to sufficient numbers) and book 1-2 new corporate clients per month for your business for $5k-$15k contracts.
If you’re interested in the program, the next step is to DM me and we’ll have a chat in messenger to see if it’s a good match for your business.
