Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you didn't have

enough clients, where work had slowed down or even worse, try to pull together?

Maybe you felt scared to even check your bank balance knowing you hadn't

made enough money the past few months.

In this episode, we're talking about where to focus when you need more clients.

I'll share a personal story about my experiences of this.

You'll learn the biggest common mistakes, plus I'll share free practical

things you can do to get fast sales and stick around to the end where

I've hand picked some related podcast episodes for you to listen to next.

Welcome to Architecture Business Club, the show that helps you build

a better business in architecture so you can enjoy more freedom

of flexibility and fulfillment.

I'm your host, John Clayton, and if you're joining us for the first time, don't

forget to hit the follow or subscribe button so you never miss another episode.

Hey, thanks for joining me today.

We are going to talk about where to focus when you need more clients so that you

can be sure you are prioritizing the right activities to get new clients faster.

But why am I talking about this in this particular episode?

Because almost everybody in business goes through a season when, for a

variety of reasons, work may have slowed down or dried up altogether.

Right now, I'm actually experiencing this.

I don't have enough paid work.

There's a good reason.

That's because for the past few months, life has gotten in the

way of me working on my business.

A few months ago, my dad fell seriously ill.

He was hospitalized for six weeks with a mystery illness, and he's back home,

but he's still not fully recovered.

My niece lost her baby.

We lost Marley.

My father-in-law's retriever a, a smelly but much loved part of our family.

And then if things weren't bad enough, my father-in-law suddenly

fell ill, was hospitalized and 10 days later passed away.

Suffice to say, it's been difficult to concentrate on work the past few months.

I've neglected to do the sales and promotional tasks

that I knew I needed to do.

To be honest, it's a small miracle that this podcast is still going.

I guess that's a testament to, to how much I enjoy doing it and

how valuable I believe it is.

Now, I'm not asking for sympathy.

I'm just sharing my experiences as a real life example, that despite your best

intentions, life will sometimes get in the way and that may affect your cash flow.

And I thought an episode on this particular topic would be

really helpful for both of us.

So if you ever find yourself in a situation where you don't have enough

work, where should you focus your efforts?

I think a common mistake, which I'm.

I've been absolutely guilty of in the past is to focus too much of

your time and money on marketing activities best suited to cold leads.

So cold leads are the ones that need the most nurturing.

They're the least likely to buy anything from you, and they're gonna take the

longest time to convert into a customer.

So.

Marketing activities suited for cold leads might be things like posting to

social media, writing blogs, case studies, running paid ads, that sort of thing.

Now, I have definitely done this before.

I've made this mistake countless times, and usually it's because it feels like

I've accomplished something towards my goal of getting new clients, and I've

done it in a way that feels comfortable.

And not too scary to do.

It's not necessarily the most effective thing to be focusing on.

I think the second big mistake is panicking.

I mean, if cashflow is tight or you don't have enough projects in your

pipeline, it's easy to get stuck in a tailspin or a blind panic.

And believe me, I have felt this way numerous times and particularly recently.

When this happens, it's difficult to make rational decisions about your business.

There may be paid opportunities staring you in the face, literally right in

front of you that you just can't see.

There will be lots of positive steps you can take that are within

your control that will help you to start turning things around.

So if you need faster sales, instead focus on your hottest leads.

So a hot lead is typically a current or previous customer of yours who

already knows, likes, and trusts you.

If you need fast sales, these are the people that you

should focus your efforts on.

And for this, don't expect to get results from just posting a blog.

Or a random social media post on LinkedIn or Instagram, you are gonna need to

do some high touch proactive outreach.

So here's three practical things you can do.

The first is simply pick up the phone call past clients or people in your

existing network that may need extra help.

Might be a competitor that you're friends with past employer.

Check in, find out what they're working on, or if they need any support or

help with anything, offer to help.

Just let them know that you've got some spare capacity.

You're able to help them out.

They might be really busy and you might be the solution that they need.

Second thing is if you do have an email list, you've got contact

list of emails from, um, people you've worked with already or

you've got like, um, a newsletter, email list, that sort of thing.

Can send out a sales campaign over a series of a few days,

just make a really simple offer.

Doesn't need to be complicated.

It can just be, I can do this thing so that you get this result.

Here's maybe just give them, um, a quick outline of what's included.

You get this so that you can do that.

And.

Just put it out there.

Give it a try.

You've got absolutely nothing to lose.

And the third thing is if you are going to post on social

media, make it a sales post.

Tell everybody that you have a gap in your calendar to fill that.

You've got X number of hours or you've got X number of slots free.

Just share any natural urgency that already exists because your audience.

You.

They may be under the impression that you're fully booked, and if

that's not the case, let them know.

Another suggestion is just to ask for help.

Talk to somebody you trust who can listen to you, even if they don't have ideas or

solutions to the situation that you're in.

Just having a sounding board to talk aloud, vocalize your own

thoughts, get them out of your head, can be incredibly helpful.

And if you do need financial support for the situation you're in, talk to

your accountant, your bank manager, or a financial advisor and o often all of those

people will be able to at least give you a little bit of time or advice, you know,

without you having to pay money for it.

You know, they'll usually be able to offer you, um, a short free consultation

or you may be able to email them, uh, with some questions, some ideas.

Just reach out, give it a try.

You may be able to access a variety of funding options that you're not aware

of right now to assist with any cashflow squeeze that you might be experiencing

to get you through this period to help you get back on your feet again.

There's absolutely.

No shame in doing this.

In fact, it's much better to tackle it head on now than to ignore

it and to dig yourself a bigger hole that you need to get out of.

So to recap.

Life will almost always derail your business plans at some point.

This is just a matter of time.

It is going to happen to nearly everybody.

If your first reaction is to panic, it's okay.

That's totally normal.

Just be kind to yourself.

Take a little time to compose yourself.

Again, don't make any big decisions about your business

until the panic phase is passed.

And know that there will be steps that you can take to start to turn things around,

like focusing on your hottest leads, using high touch personal outreach, and remember

to ask for help if you need it, because help may be closer to hand than you think.

I hope you found this episode useful.

I've handpicked four more related episodes for you, so I suggest

going and checking out episode 25.

That was on, uh, lead generation, explained myths, mistakes and tactics.

So that's another solo episode with myself and also check out episode 50.

That one was with Martin Humpback on automating lead generation to put

lead generation on autopilot, and also I think episodes 54 and 55 with

Helen TBE will be very useful for you.

And that was on when sales slow down, what to do to get more sales.

Until next time, bye for now.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Architecture Business Club.

If you liked this episode, think other people might enjoy it or just want to

show your support for the show, then please leave a five star review or

rating wherever you listen to podcasts.

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And if you'd like to connect with me online, you can do that

on most social media platforms.

Just search for @mrjonclayton.

The best place to connect with me online is LinkedIn and you can find a

link to my profile in the show notes.

Remember running your architecture business doesn't have to be hard

and you don't need to do it alone.

This is Architecture Business Club.