There are good problems and bad problems, Too many customers that you’re struggling to serve is a good problem. Poor quality delivery is a bad problem.
I got a client last week!!!
I was hoping to spend another few weeks getting my company registered, sorting out a bank account, doing social media, writing some processes, while calling a few contacts to see if they wanted to become one of my first ‘trial’ customers.
I’d already had a couple of chats with a company that we used to work with, but they’re going through a transition and so aren’t in the mindset to engage with new marketing ventures.
I emailed the second company on my “to-contact” list, the people who used to help my last company with our HR. I got a return email immediately saying that they’d heard what I was doing and had been meaning to get in touch, and when could I meet.
I happened to be (genuinely, not the old sales ruse!) over in Portsmouth the following day and so I arranged to drop in.
The story from them was that they’d been paying an web/SEO company a monthly retainer, they liked their website but hadn’t seen any reports. I asked how many leads they were getting from the site: 1 per quarter. That’s 4 a year. 4 a year!!!
I’d checked out their website before I met with them (obviously!) Their SEO is pretty good, with high local rankings on Google, a decent number of blogs, and good social media posting.
Something obviously isn’t working, though.
I’m going to talk on my next blog about how I believe you make a website generate leads.
Great to be back
There are a few things I really enjoyed about this meeting:
- I got to go to an office:) I’ve been home working for 3 years – it was SO nice to get out and about again!
- I could totally empathise with the MD. I’ve run a small business for 15 years and I know the pain, the difficulty in finding time to do the marketing stuff.
- I wore jeans! I’m no longer an IT consultant who has to dress all professional…
My whole career has been trying to help other businesses do what they do better. Previously it was through the use of IT and business applications. Now it’s marketing. It feels great to be doing what I love again!
Anyway, I told them the deal I was proposing, the MD wrote it down and said “Yep, that sounds great. When can we start?”
Massive gulp.
Looks like I need to pull my finger out😎