In virtually every business, the first customer is the hardest to land. While the Starship Enterprise may go “where no one else has gone before,” customers follow where others lead.
If you’re a consultant, prospects want to know who your other clients have been. If you’re a dentist, you’re going to get most of your patients from previously satisfied patients. And no one wants to go to a completely empty restaurant.
Whether you’re serving consumers or other business, you’ve got to have a track record for prospective clients or customers to feel comfortable. What a dilemma: you have to have customers to get customers.
But how do you get the first customers?
1. Give your product or service away.
2. Offer deep discounts.
3. Ask your competitors for their excess work.
4. Ask your former employer if you can work for them.
5. Use community and social networking sites.
Photo by jan-willem.