Look for new clients among your old clients

Hey everybody, Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute. This week I am coming to you from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The topic I want to cover in this week's video is BizDev, but maybe from a different perspective than you normally think about it. We know that 70% approximately of your net new revenue should come from existing clients which leaves 30% of your net new revenue coming from new clients. But I think there's a subcategory inside that new clients that we often don't think about as often as we should, and those are former clients. So these are people who used to find you valuable, they've already chosen you once, they gave you money, they were somebody that you sort of know their work style, and for some reason or another, the relationship dissolved. Now I will grant you, there are some people on that list you don't want back. They were unappreciative, they didn't pay their bill on time, whatever it may be. So we're going to put those off to the side. There are also some people on that list who don't want you back. The relationship soured for some reason, and you know who those folks are, so we don't want them on the list either. But everybody else, everyone who used to be a client that for some reason, maybe they had a downturn in their industry, maybe that client went away and took a new job and inherited an agency for a period of time, whatever it may be, those folks are ripe for harvesting again as a client. And the trick to that is ideally you've maintained a relationship with them, and if not you cannot pick up the phone and just say, "Hey, we're looking for some new clients." You need to rekindle that relationship. But the good news is it's already started. So what I'm gonna suggest you do is that you reach out to those folks on a regular basis, that you keep a list of maybe the top I'm going to say 10 to 12 former clients that you would like to have back on your roster again. And maybe once a quarter you ping them on LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever it is that you have a connection with them, pick up the phone, have lunch, whatever it may be. But those folks are further down the buying side than a brand new client. They already know you, they already you know your team, they already know what you're capable of doing and the quality of your work. And I'm guessing in many cases they were sad to part ways with you, so give them the opportunity to rekindle that relationship, to reconnect, and see what comes out of it. My bet is that if you were to rekindle a relationship with 10 former clients, my bet is within a year you would get at least a couple of those back on your client roster. And you know what? That's a pretty good win rate for just reaching out and having lunch with some folks or grabbing a drink or just staying in touch. Give that a try, make sure those folks are on your BizDev list, and let's see what happens. I'll talk to you next week