FINDING NEW CLIENTS

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Finding or gaining a new client is always difficult but always exciting regardless of the business you are in. Whether you’re a SaaS company, an SME or Mid-Market player that will end up with you winning a 3-year subscription, a two-year project, an ongoing revenue stream or like me, an Executive Search Firm, working across the SaaS, SME &Mid-market arena, gaining a new client and helping them scale-up.

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Of course, we all do it for the money as that is what fuels the business, but we do it for the passion, the ability to help clients and make a real impact. Helping clients achieve something that will have a positive impact, this, is what really drives us, right?

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Referrals

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Recently, I gained a couple of clients from unusual sources, the first was a VC who was involved in a couple of startups. They took the time to understand our model and the benefits we provide to clients, one of the companies they were working with had a broken process and was struggling to find the right people. They introduced us to one of the businesses and we started an engagement which was very successful. This will hopefully lead to more business later this and next year.

The other was a chairman, who had worked for a previous client of ours a few years ago, he remembered the impact and the scaleup we had and were involved with and recommended us to the current company he was working for. Again, this is the start of a new relationship and a new client. Once we engage with a client, we tend to stay onboard for a 3–5-year period helping the company scaleup across multiple territories, building out the teams and maintaining the culture.

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We can often reach out to a lot of prospects and don’t get the engagement we are seeking, especially in tight markets that we all find ourselves in today.? So having others that will help open the door is a ‘God Send’. Collaboration and referrals are gratefully received.

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Working in any ‘Eco System’ like the SaaS market is always challenging, and no different from many others, its full of lots of recruiters and search firms attempting to help the clients and offering a full range of services. We all believe we are unique in the offerings we have, and probably are in our own way.? But having others who will promote you is a real blessing.? Strangely its an ‘Eco System’ that does not naturally promote or collaborate with others in or across the ‘Eco System’.

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Recommendations

Helping others that are doing a great job for you or for others that you know is something none of us do enough of or naturally. We all need to get better at this. Helping good companies to succeed helps keep them in place for you as well as others and success breeds success, with a little help from your friends, right?

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Why don’t you recommend someone, a company, or a service to others in your network this week.

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What goes around comes around.

It’s strange how, what we do tends to come around.? Do a favour for someone and someone else and it may end up that someone else does you a favour in turn.

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Having an Advocate.

This can come in many forms. Normally its from someone that you know, someone that has experienced your product or service.

The trend in 2023 and 2024 will be to collaborate, finding people or companies that compliment you and working together for a common goal and share clients. Its not about who gets the bigger slice of pie but about both gaining a new client.?

As we all move forward into 2024, we will start to see more collaboration and working with advocates I believe. You need a strategy and be willing to work at it, to make it successful for both parties. You won’t always win everything, some you will lose, others you will both win and sometimes you will both lose. But having someone else in your corner, supporting your efforts, with you saying how good they are and they in turn advocating your, work, product or service just makes life easier and ideally more successful.

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???????????????? About the Author

Howard Longstaff has over 20 years of experience delivering people within the talent acquisition arena. Having worked extensively across the UK, Europe, USA, and Canada.

Over the years he has specialised in two fundamental areas, the first area he has a real passion for is ‘building Sales Teams’.? The second area he loves getting involved in, is the leadership team, the C-Suite, helping to get the balance right, covering the gaps in knowledge, and back filling these roles as companies grow.

‘Getting it right first time’ is never easy, Howard is one of the few, executive search consultants who is willing to guarantee the work he does, offering a 12 months free replacement.

‘No one is perfect, but a team can be’, working with SaaS startups, SEM’s and Mid-Market clients who are scaling up. In most cases we work in either an exclusive or retained basis and are typically engaged for a 3–5-year period, sometimes much longer.

Howard is someone that uses technology to enhance the hiring process, to save time, money and effort. Taking the pain out of the process, we operate a ‘Private Client Video Portal’ keeping everything together & secure, candidate videos, as well as the psychometric behavioural assessments on each candidate and executive profiles. He has repeatedly built teams across three continents, has a good breadth of knowledge across the talent acquisition arena.

[email protected]? +44 (0) 7710 907 988