In this blog, I’ll explore why the peaks and troughs of clients and income happen and what you need to do to get a more consistent flow of clients into your business so you can feel less stressed about cash flow.
A consistent flow of clients
I hear it a lot, actually from most of my new clients “I need more clients” or “I want x no. of clients per week/month”. Of course you do, clients are what brings you income!
A consistent flow of clients means a consistent flow of income. When the number of new clients coming on board is sporadic, you get peaks and troughs in your income. You have to pay your bills each month so you ideally you want a steady flow of cash/money coming in each month too.
These income troughs and uncertainty cause stress, anxiety, overwhelm, confusion, scattered action and sometimes total paralysis if you end up blocked by fear.
So, you want to iron out those peaks and troughs as much as possible, which are common in business, but not necessarily inevitable.
Why do the peaks and troughs happen?
Of course, there are the ‘seasonal’ variations, so things like your ‘clients are mothers who are all distracted with the kids during school holidays’ or you’re a running coach and find things are simply quieter in the winter – which can cause natural peaks and troughs in client numbers and income.
However, what often causes it, is that you work hard on marketing to get some clients whether that’s through networking, social media or email marketing. You get a peak.
Then you get busy with those clients; delivering results, having meetings or sessions and all the admin and customer service and support that comes with looking after your clients.
And you let the marketing slip.
Then those clients run out after a few weeks or months and you’re back to a money drought. You get a trough!
What do you do?
You fire up the ‘magical’ marketing machine again, but it’s cold and dry – like a car that’s been left un-driven for far too long. The battery’s gone flat and it won’t start. All those best practices you were doing that were working, have been forgotten, or you’ve managed to still do a few little things but not enough.
Like a car with a flat battery, it takes a while for the magical marketing machine to get going again.
You kick-start it, check the oil and add some fuel but can’t fully remember how you got it working really efficiently, what worked and what didn’t.
So you start chucking stuff out there again (ok now I’m talking about you marketing your business).
After a while, it starts bringing in new clients again, but boy that trough felt long and was really stressful.
You have the best intentions of doing more marketing, more consistently so as to prevent such a deep trough happening again, then you get busy….
Sound familiar?
We all want to reduce or prevent the peaks and troughs in income/sales and have more consistency but struggle to do so.
How to iron out the peaks and troughs
Like with the car analogy, to keep your car battery performing well, you should drive the car regularly.
Marketing is the same, it’s best done little and often (or a lot and often).
The key is often.
Regularly. Frequently. Consistently.
The important thing is to be doing marketing consistently.
Consistent marketing brings a consistent flow of clients. Peaks and troughs in marketing will bring peaks and troughs in new leads or clients.
Consistent marketing brings a consistent flow of #clients. Peaks and troughs in #marketing will bring peaks & troughs in new #leads or clients. Marketing is like a drip feed irrigation system.
Marketing is like a drip feed irrigation system. You need to water your plants every day so they’re never thirsty nor are they ever drowning.
Consistent marketing serves as a constant and gentle reminder to your audience of ideal clients of who you are, who you help and how you help them. You’re there doing your thing all of the time and when they are ready, when they want or need your services or they know someone else who does, you’re front of mind.
Or when you want to launch something, it’s not a shock. They are fully aware of you and your services and exactly what you can help with and should be warmed up and ready to buy from you when you launch.
Consistent marketing feeds new people into and through your sales funnel, aka customer journey. It takes them from being a stranger to a warm lead and converts them to a client.
Without consistent marketing, you are losing people from your funnel – like a hole in your ice cream cone, it’s disappointing and messy. OK, enough of the analogies!
So why is consistency something you and so many others struggle with?
Time. You get busy with the client work so you struggle to find the time for marketing
Clarity. You don’t know what marketing to do for the best, how and when, you also don’t really know what works
Planning. You don’t have your marketing planned out or you struggle to stick to your plan
How to get consistent with your marketing?
#1 Set Effective Goals
Get clear on what you’re trying to achieve not just for the whole year (which is actually far too long as a time period) but for the next 90 days, the next month and then each and every week (and day). Break those big goals down into smaller goals that will add up to you achieving the big goals. Make sure they’re achievable and specific and make sure they are goals and not tasks or activities.
#2 Decide on your strategy & main activities
Know what your main strategies or key focuses are for each time period, ie how you’re going to achieve your goals. Decide what marketing activities you’re going to do or focus on. You can’t do them all (if you’re trying to, this could be what’s causing you to get stuck and not be consistent). Pick 2 or 3 main strategies and do them really well.
#3 Make a plan
Plan it all out week by week, what blogs you’re going to write, what themes you’re going to talk about, what social media content you’ll create, while all the while knowing exactly what your goals are this week, month or quarter.
I understand that you may not be a natural planner. I’m a planner, #selfconfessed. I love planning. Mostly I love the results I get in my business from making a clear plan of action and implementing it. I didn’t used to do this very well. It’s a skill and some good habits I’ve learned and forced myself to stick to. The results keep me motivated!
It’s not rocket science.
Make an action plan that you think will achieve your goal.
Planning doesn’t mean you can’t act on your intuition, you totally can! When you get an amazing idea for a post, you can still post it! You may not even have that much detail planned out so planning is not restrictive at all.
If you knew the power of making a plan and sticking to it, you wouldn’t not do it!
#4 Take action and implement
A plan without action is worthless. Once you’ve made your success plan, make sure you stay focused on it and implement all the activities on that plan. Look at it every day and every week, make amendments as necessary, but as best you can try and stick to the plan over time.
#5 Prioritise
Make the actions on your plan (that you know will achieve your goals) the most important tasks (MITs) every day and every week.
They are more important than any other tasks that day or week. Make time for these activities you’ve decided on, schedule them into your calendar so you block time out.
Do them.
No excuses.
If you don’t do them, you probably won’t achieve your goals.
If you do them, if every week you focus and implement, you will a hundred times more likely achieve your goals.
Need help?
If you’re struggling with either making a plan, knowing what marketing strategy to use or what marketing activities to work on, then get in touch about working with me. I can help you figure all that out and more. Drop me a line to hils@hilscrisp.com.
Comment below
I hope that’s been useful. Please comment below and let me know what you struggle with the most in making and implementing a plan. Thank you.
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Many thanks!
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