Finding Your Blue Chip Clients: How to Proactively Sell Your Business

So you know your service is good and you know you have something to offer the market. You’ve done the research and found that you can, in fact, contribute to the Singapore’s business market. But you don’t know how to get continuous and loyal customers. What now?

Perhaps you are getting customers and enticing clients the wrong way? What your company needs is a determined method to get a loyal and local clientele that depend on you for service and that you can count on to keep knocking at your door.

In setting up a business in Singapore as with anywhere else, it’s important for to have a focused goal and a fixed purpose. Your enterprise’s goal and purpose should work towards filling a need within your sphere of operation.

That being said, thinking of what you and your business can offer to the Singapore market will help you in getting those long-term clients for your startup business. It’s a proactive way of selling your product or service. Instead of having a reactive method of selling, get your business to be proactive and even predictive of its market’s needs.

Apart from studying your market, any good entrepreneur will find ways to make their startup invaluable. That is true anywhere of course, but in applying it to Singapore you must know how to tap into the rich and diverse audience that is available to you and your startup there.

Here are five useful steps you can take to proactively sell your business without sounding like an incessant salesman or over-marketing your brand. These steps will help your business become an invaluable resource to the Singapore market.

1. Define your target market and audience

Apart from the key demographics like age, class, gender, place of residence etc., personify your audience to create a detailed profile of your market. Ask yourself what your target clients go through and do in a day.

In doing so, you will be able to see things from their perspective and possibly see gaps in their routine or business that may need to be filled. When you identify the needs of your customers you can then pinpoint how you can be of service to them.

2. Develop a clear and customised offer to target clients

To identify how you can be of proper, useful service to your market, you must not only see the needs that must be filled but also balance it out with how or if you can fulfill these needs. What is your startup all about and can it really cater to your target audience?

Once you’ve narrowed down which segments of your target audience you can actually be of service to, come up with a plan. Think of how you will pitch your service to them, not by making your service sound like something they want. But by making them realize that your service or product is something they need.

Working within the local sphere of Singapore, it might be tricky to find something Singaporeans may need that isn’t already readily available to them. But going back to defining your target market can be of great help in giving your startup that niche even within the Singapore business sphere.

3. Identify similar local businesses that cater to your market

This involves a method called “host-beneficiary” relationships. Even a small startup can partner with the big brands or established names and businesses that are already there. In profiling your audience you will begin to see a pattern of the companies that they patronize and are loyal to. You can use this to your advantage in your startup.

A common example of this is a women’s boutique that marketed to BMW owners. The boutique partnered with the local BMW dealership and arranged to give a free silk kimono to every customer that brought a letter given by that dealership as a gift for their loyal patronage.

Singapore has many established companies you may be able to partner with. However, it is also good to remember that big names may not always be the answer. There may be smaller businesses in Singapore that do have an established list of clientele that you can still partner with and mutually benefit from.

The Singapore government offers several programmes that encourage partnership with other businesses. In fact, aggregating with similar businesses is part of some of the schemes set up by the Singapore government to help startups. (See article entitled Government Incentives in Singapore That Will Help You Choose Your Next Business Venture)

4. Communicate

Forbes Magazine suggests there is no such thing as over communicating. Whether it be with your customers or your host-beneficiaries it is good to keep your partners and customers well-informed. In turn, you may get information from them that might help you in your business.

Clients especially count on you to keep them in the loop. But this should also be true for your business partners. Keep them updated on your projects even letting them know about any road blocks you may encounter on your projects with them. You should also strive to get quality client feedback to not only develop your product but also to demonstrate your dedication to excellent client service.

Also, become an invaluable resource to your customers by openly sharing information they may find useful whether this affects your current projects with them or not. Refrain from overwhelming however with gossip or irrelevant news just for the sake of communicating. The goal is to give them the value that will make them come to depend on you.

5. Build the Relationship

Upon finding your blue-chip clients, whether on your own or through your partners and showing your value to them, you must keep the relationship. Come up with a strategy that will turn your one time redeemers into repeat customers.

In setting up your business in Singapore, this is most likely already your long term goal. But it bears repeating and it should be taken into consideration with thoughtful planning. Make steps and have a plan on how to keep your clients coming back for more. Keep looking out and anticipating their needs so that they keep looking out for your next service, project or product to serve them.