Here is a great question that I was asked a little while back. "I am selling products to businesses and I am trying to get more clients. I sell consulting. Do you have any hints or suggestions?" I go into detail on my answer within this paragraph and I thought that it would be of great benefit to anyone who reads that is in a similar situation.

The first step to getting more business clients is to make a list of your existing business partners. You can ask your existing business partners to introduce you to companies and individuals they work with. In some cases existing vendors or customers of your partners could be interested in doing business with you, too.

I know one speaker that I worked with, who delivers presentations to not only companies but also associations. Associations are great by the way because they have got people from all kinds of different companies who are members of that particular association.

When he makes a presentation for the association, he uses some cute marketing tactics, such as a referral campaign and contests. If a person wants to take part in the contest, he or she has to write a testimonial and give his or her name and contact information and then a lottery is drawn. The winners receive gift certificates, which give them the right to hire him again, so he manages to get repetitive gigs.

I am not quite certain what his fees per presentation are but I think they are about $5,000. The gift certificates he gives are worth $500 and $250 and they must be redeemed within a specified period of time (three months, six months, or something like that). However, the main point is that the gift certificate makes people move and they take the action to hire him.

If the winner does not redeem the gift certificate, this is as if he or she had burned money. This moment is critical because this is the trigger for action - redeem or lose money. Everybody is happy with this arrangement because people enjoy his presentations and they get a gift certificate, which has a value and gives them one more excuse to hire him again.

You always want to give people a good reason to hire you again. I would look to challenge you to think of some creative ways to incorporate that into the way you sell. When people are there you want to capture that experience and then you want to remind them of that experience afterward and the benefits that they got from it and look to followup when they are excited about you and their experience.