As captain of your own ship, you’ve got to find your own customers. You can’t expect them to just call you up out of the blue, excited, pre-sold and ready to hand over their cash to yours truly.

Just kidding - that’s exactly what you can expect them to do. Here’s why …

Your Clients Are Already On The Path To You

Whatever you do / sell / market, your clients don’t do their purchasing in a vacuum. They don’t say “Gee, I need product/service X for my business!” out of the clear blue sky. There’s a chain of events (vendors) that they have to go through ahead of time to prepare yourself for your product.

Think about these purchasing “chains” …

• Before Zahid needs to buy new tires, he’s got to buy a car and drive it for a few months (getting car washes, oil changes, and car accessories).
• Before Jonas needs a logo designed, he’s got to start his business, find an accountant, and get a website.
• Before Ana needs an new deck built, she’s got to buy a house, pick up a sweet grill and get plenty of lawn furniture.

No matter what puts money in your pocket, there is a chain of things your future clients are already thinking about buying before they get around to you. Why not make sure those steps lead them in your direction?

Setting Up Your Chains

Once you figure out what chains lead customers to you, it’s time to contact the people who sell those products/services and give them an incentive to refer customers to you. Since their customers are already in a hand-over-the-cash frame of mind buying from those vendors, they’ll be more receptive to be led to you via a referral.

Think about it:

• If Zahid gets car washes, oil changes, and car accessories, and consistently hears about MegaTireMart from each vendor, he’ll be much more likely to go there.
• If Jonas starts his company, finds an accountant, and gets a website, and keeps hearing good stuff about SuperMonkeyLogoShop, he’ll get a-walkin’ that way.
• If Ana buys a house, picks up a sweet grill and gets plenty of lawn furniture, and gets glowing reports about InstantDeckNinjas, you know who’s going to get her business.

Tell Us How You’re Gonna Work Your Chains

The choice is yours - spend 100% of your customer-rustlin’ time trying to get people who notice you or ride the referral wave to more customers. Since you didn’t get into your biz to work long hours, you know what you should do now.

Take a moment right now to get the ball rolling … use the comment form below to brainstorm the chains that lead people to you and see if anyone’s got any additional suggestions to help make it easier for money to find it’s way into your pocket.

Dave

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