Now we all know that communicating with prospective clients isn't a cut and dried affair - everyone has their own style of communication, their own goals, questions, desires, and concerns...but being prepared with a good general overview of who your client is and how they think can help you turn that potential client into a contract.

Here's a bare-bones checklist to help you get in the right frame of mind about communicating with your potential clients, and ultimately win them over.

Researching the potential client's business, website, and industry *before* that first call or meeting can help you approach the situation and the conversation from an angle that will tip the scales in your favor in terms of landing the contract - the checklist points out how business owners (your potential client) tend to think, what they expect, and how to tailor your own communication style to better meet their initial questions and give them every reason to hire you rather than leave them with more questions or too many uncertainties or doubts.

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Tess,

Your comment about researching the potential is so very important. I learned that this the hard way, when I had a job interview and I didn't do any research on the company. Thank you for reinforcing a practice that I plan to do with my potential clients.

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Regeana Canada
Mrs. G's Office-To-Go

I couldn't agree more! Also, it shows that you have a sincere interest in the business and what they do. As you said, everyone has a different style and sometimes if you are able to conduct a little reserach beforehand, you may be able to have an insight on how they work.

Thank you for this, Tess!

Tess,
You are on point. Recently I had an epiphany. As you say, "Researching the potential client's business, website, and industry *before* that first call or meeting can help you approach the situation and the conversation from an angle that will tip the scales in your favor in terms of landing the contract - ..." - I was about to enter into a contract with a company that would have been a bad-debt customer. 30 minutes of research kept me from (potentially) hiring a $300 attorney. So to make a long story short, do the research and become one with the BBB too!

Glad to know this post has been useful - I'd be curious to know just how in-depth we do research potential and new clients before the first call or contract... where do you look and what do you look for?

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When I have a new potential client the first thing I do is visit any links they provided either in their email or in their signature. I'll even go so far as to visit the domain their email address is through, if it is different (obviously not gmail, etc. lol).

Next, I Google them and find everything I can about their business and them. I like to be prepared so if they mention, "Oh, I have this other site I may want you to work on." I've probably already found it and can give some ideas of how I can help.

Now that I have a team of VA's, the research phase is even more important. I look for ways the whole team can help so, when we have our first call/chat/email, I can provide a list of things we can take off their plate.
~C

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~Christina-Business Darlings-Magazine for Virtual Business Owners

Great information Tess! I too research like Christina to know everything I possibly can about the PC before talking to them. And if they are a referral, I try to get information form the client referring to see why they referred them.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

This was great information and very useful!

I always look on line first to see if I can find any feed back about the company, any ratings is always good to look at also, if you can see how they treat there customers this is very important if you are going to have any affiliation with a company!

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Shellea Montgomery

Doing research on the company first can give you a good heads up in regards to what services they may need from you.

Fantastic ideas! I am meeting with my first potential client and really needed this information.

Thank you for another good link Tess. Similar to prepping for a job interview, I would review the clients site to review the history of the company as well as products and services they are offering to their clients.

This will give me a better understanding of my clients needs and how I can better serve my client.

Thanks for the list Tess, I look forward to reading it and getting started with my own!!