James Barclay on Attracting Clients – Time To Get Great At Business Development

Mo asks James Barclay: When did you realize that business development was great?

• James' first job out of college was as a conference organizer and that’s where he learned the power of selling ideas.
• Selling conferences in the 1990s changed once the internet became more established and James began using websites to promote them, but they discovered that brochure websites weren’t very effective which led to creating content based websites instead.
• The skills that James and his business partners developed in creating those businesses were a natural fit for content online, but he realized that taking the expertise in his head and sharing it online was actually really difficult. That’s where the idea for Passle came from.
• Showcasing your expertise online as an expert is crucial, especially when people are still not visiting businesses physically as much.
• Do something rather than nothing, and realize that you won’t be great at it straight away.
• Run an audit of LinkedIn to see who you are connected to. Compare that list to a list of the people that give you money for what you do, and if you’re not connected with the people who give you money correct that.
• Write short, client focused and timely content at least once a month.
• Your content should be easy to consume and don’t outsource it. Someone shouldn’t be pretending to be you online.
• Taking content that is already published is a great place to start. Just add your own perspective or commentary to something that already exists.
• Picture one of your top ten to twenty clients and write something that you know will resonate with them then publish that on a public space like LinkedIn or your blog. Ask them directly what they would be interested in, and then write content around those answers.
• At the very least share your company’s content and provide some commentary on it. You need to be digitally active. People won’t be thinking of you if you’re not present in the public square that is social media.
• Write for one person instead of writing for everyone. Think of the people that pay you money for your expertise and then write content with one of those people in mind. They are the most likely to share your content and refer you to other people when they find it useful. That’s how you give your raving fans ammunition.

Mentioned in this Episode:

GrowBIGPlaybook.com

linkedin.com/in/jamesbarclay1

james@passle.net

passle.net