Figure out who your current customers are. Dig through your files for commonalities. Is it location? Income level? Value of home? Is net worth the driver? Neighborhood? Business type?
Find out where they hang out. And hang out there, too. What restaurants do they eat at? What mailing lists are they on? What do they read - what newspapers or magazines? What do they watch on TV? What circle of friends do they go out with? What charities do they donate to? What gym do they work out at?
What do they own - do they all drive Chevys? Do they all own boats? Airplanes?
What exactly do most of your clients have in common? If you could clone a few clients, what are the common characteristics they would all have? Because that's exactly what I'd start looking for in new clients, in my own customer database. I'd section out people who have those same commonalities with your current clients.
Suppose you find out that every one of your clients reads the same three magazines. Those magazines are good places to take out an ad schedule.
If they all eat at the same restaurant, I'd start eating there too. That might be a good place to sponsor the coat-check room for a few nights. For a hundred bucks I'm sure most restaurant owners would be happy to put up a small sign noting tonight's coat check is FREE, courtesy of your firm. A small and tasteful sign does it. Or if you're in the city, sponsor parking.
1) You're searching in the wrong places. You're looking high and low, and these folks are left and right.
2) They don't know you. Although you've been in an office right down the block for years, ate lunch at the same restaurant, shopped at the same grocery store - they've never heard of you or your business.
3) They don't trust you. No one likes to do business with a stranger.
4) You made them the wrong offer. Sure you sent them a mailer about your products. Like offering candy to a police officer - they aren't buying products from strangers.
5) Remember how you got most of your customers? Before, you could offer a product that no one else had. If people wanted it, they called you. Those were the good old days, weren't they? Times change and it's not like that anymore; everyone sells everything. Banks sell financial services. Financial service people sell insurance. Even if your competitors don't have what your customers are looking for, they'll go out and get it for them.
6) Prospects don't know why they should do business with you. What makes you so great? No, I mean besides your great smile and good office location. What makes you so great in their eyes? Why should they leave the comfort and security of their current vendor, and move everything to you?
7) Clients jump ship every couple of years, and yours did, too.
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