5 Simple Adjustments That Bring In High-End Clients Consistently Don't settle for clients who pay late, ask for discounts and deals, waste your time and don't do the work.
By Kimanzi Constable Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When you start a business, the goal is to build consistent revenue. In the beginning, entrepreneurs tend not to be too choosy about who becomes a client. As your business grows, you learn an invaluable business lesson: not all clients are worth the revenue.
You eventually get that first client who makes you want to dropkick a punching bag. They are demanding, always looking for more than they paid for, always complaining. If you handed them a result on a silver platter they would still have an issue.
These experiences teach you the value of higher-end clients who buy your highest tier offerings. They do their homework, show up on time and tell others about your business. They become great testimonials because their results are a walking billboard for you.
You can attract high-end clients even when you're just beginning your entrepreneurial journey. There are five tweaks that are simple to implement but require your best effort to fully integrate. These strategies can take you from dealing with bottom feeders to dealing with the clients that make you excited for what entrepreneurship has to offer.
1. Have an established and polished foundation online and offline.
High-end clients won't do business with entrepreneurs who have a bootleg platform. A website that looks cobbled-together will repel these potential clients. If you don't have a real business structure, they will not feel comfortable spending higher amounts with you. Everything has to be legal and properly set up.
The good thing is we live in a time when it's not hard or expensive to be professional and look bigger than you are. You can create a clean website on Squarespace or Wordpress. You can hire a local attorney and accountant to get the proper business and legal structure in place. You can use Square, Stripe and Freshbooks to handle payments, invoicing and contracts.
The point being, it doesn't take much to create a professional and polished foundation and a business structure that attracts high-end clients consistently. Don't let your foundation turn away the kind of clients that scale your business quickly.
Released: The 10 Key Legal Documents for Your Business
2. Make your free content more valuable than others paid content.
The free articles, videos, podcasts, newsletters, free local meetups, and your events are what show potential clients that you're an expert. They help clients start the process of knowing, liking and trusting you. It adds value and creates a path to promote what you sell.
High-end clients will be attracted when you take the extra mile with your free content. Make it how-to more than inspirational. Give them content, strategies, and tactics that others would charge for.
If you have to hire freelancers to help you create that content, do what makes sense to produce the highest quality content you can put out. High-end clients will understand and absorb this content more than those looking for the get-rich-quick stuff.
Related: How Free Content Can Produce a Substantial Pay-Off
3. Price your products and services in the major leagues.
Pricing is an area that trips up many entrepreneurs. It ends up being more about a mindset than what someone would be willing to pay. If a high-end client comes to your platform and sees low prices, they're gone. They're going to think you don't value your products and services enough. They'll see the self-limiting beliefs shining through and it will repel them.
It doesn't matter what anyone charges. Base your prices on the value you will provide. If you feel like you're not there yet with your expertise, get more training and education on your topic. But, no matter what, charge more because you can get it.
Charging higher prices will weed out those who aren't ready for what you offer. It's good to have products and services at different price points, but make sure you have a "high-end" offering. That's what they'll look for when considering buying.
Related: 3 Lessons About Setting Your Price Learned From a Vegas Prostitute
4. Have video testimonials and references.
We all have been trained about the need for testimonials. We get them in written form and put them on our websites. While those can be effective, video testimonials are more powerful. High-end clients (and others) can see and hear from a real-life person versus a few words of text that could be perceived as made up.
We live in the digital age. Use video testimonials and have references high-end clients can follow up. They will and that's how you lock in five and six-figure deals. A text testimonial doesn't have the same effect.
Related: 4 Better Ways to Showcase Testimonials for Your Business
5. Hire salespeople to close deals.
One of the great things about the time we live in is that you can hire sales professionals on commission. A trained salesperson is skilled at the art of losing the deal. You can create a funnel within your business that takes clients to the point of getting on a phone conversation with your sales team. They close the deal. Having high-end clients on the hook and closing them are two different skillsets. If you aren't a gifted closer, hire someone who is on commission. It takes more effort to close a high-end client.
Don't settle for clients who pay late, ask for discounts and deals, waste your time and don't do the work. Worldwide, 3.5 billion people use the Internet every day. There is opportunity all around you to attract and onboard high-end clients who understand your value and help grow your business.
