One of the tips that I give in my article 6 Tips to get the most out of the remainder of 2020, and this is an important point that I make: create strong client NETWORKS.

BUT what often happens is that we get focused on one or a handful of clients that we are currently working with, and neglect to keep our eyes on filling the pipeline with an expanded network of potential clients.

As a result, we neglect expanding our network so that when situations arise where we complete work with a client and it’s not renewed for whatever reason (hopefully because we’ve been so effective that we coach ourselves out of a job), we have a number of trees that we can shake.

We also fall into the trap of networking primarily with our colleagues. It simply freaks me out…coaches hanging out with coaches.

It’s easy, right? Like coffee dates, lunches, mini-workshops etc, but they don’t achieve much in terms of bringing in business, do they?

They’re not going to become clients or a primary source of clients, are they?

For goodness sake, create strong networks with your existing clients. Use them strategically to expand your business into their suppliers’ or customers’ businesses. Use your networks, don’t just pride yourself on creating strong client networks. If you don’t use them, it’s like having a great car that you don’t drive.

Is it also possible that you started the year taking for granted that your reputation and the work that you had done would speak for itself. You may have been relying on word of mouth referrals from previous work to constitute an effective marketing strategy? How is that working out for your at the moment?

We know that people do business with people that they know, like and trust. But that only goes so far…

Is it possible that you might not have been doing everything that you needed to do to kind of rise above the clutter in our very crowded markets? Did you continue to differentiate yourself quite clearly from what other people are doing out there? Have you made it easy for a potential client to relate to you and say “that is the person who’s talking my kind of language, and that is the person that I really want to work with”?.

If you’d like to watch the full video that I did on the topic, you can find it here: