How Will Your Next Client Find You? Raising the Barr Weekly Memo: Issue 722

Waiting for excellent work to speak for itself leaves an important part of business development to chance. Your next ideal client needs a way to discover that work, recognize its relevance, and take the next step toward you. How deliberately are you helping that happen?

I have heard a familiar story often enough that it has stayed with me. A client describes how one of their clients was raving about their results. I ask, “Did you use the opportunity to ask for a referral?” In these conversations, the answer keeps coming back: no.

I then ask them to honestly grade their referral solicitation efforts on a scale of one to ten. “I would probably give myself a failing grade,” is the response I hear. My next question is, “What can you do to significantly increase the effectiveness of your referrals? What’s missing?”

Their answers reveal what’s missing: the awareness to recognize an opportunity, a consistent system for requesting referrals, and the courage to ask when a client’s praise creates the perfect opening. Their work had already earned praise. What was missing was a deliberate next step. 

Look beyond the most obvious source

I see similar gaps in published content and LinkedIn strategies. Does your activity give the right people a compelling way to discover and engage with your expertise?

Clients have come to me because someone referred them to my newsletter or because they heard me speak at an event. Some contacted me immediately afterward. Others reached out a month later. The moment they contacted me was not necessarily the moment they first discovered me.

Ask new prospects what they explored before reaching out. Keep a simple record of how each prospect first heard about you and what prompted them to contact you. Someone may discover you through a referral, then read your articles or visit your website before deciding to reach out. Knowing both helps you understand what attracts prospects and what gives them confidence to take the next step.

In Unlocking the Pillars of Creative Online Marketing, I discussed connecting audience understanding, content, discoverability, and AI. The next step is to examine how well those connections work in your own business.

Use AI to identify what needs strengthening

AI can help you examine how you attract prospects and decide what to improve. First, tell it whom you want to reach, what you help them accomplish, and how recent prospects found you. Then share examples of your current efforts, such as website text, articles, LinkedIn posts, or how you ask for referrals, after removing confidential client details. Ask AI to look for weaknesses in those examples and suggest improvements that support your business goals.

Use these prompts to examine the sources most relevant to your business:

• Google and other search engines. Ask AI to compare prospects’ questions with your website’s answers and identify unclear descriptions or missing information. Have your web team verify technical SEO concerns. Example prompt: “Review this service page against these questions from prospects. What should I clarify or add to answer them better?”
• AI discovery. Identify questions your ideal client might ask an AI search tool and test them. Inspect the cited sources and any description of your expertise. One answer is a snapshot, not a reliable ranking. Google’s guidance for AI search emphasizes useful original content and accessible, indexable pages, without guaranteeing inclusion. Example prompt: “Suggest three questions my ideal client might ask an AI search tool when looking for help with the problems I solve.”
• Published expertise. Use AI to review examples from your articles, newsletters, videos, podcasts, and books. Ask how clearly they demonstrate your expertise and answer the questions your ideal clients care about. Identify what to update, which ideas to adapt into other formats, and how to make your strongest material easier for prospects to discover. Example prompt: “Review these content samples for my ideal client. What important question am I not answering, and which existing piece could I improve or adapt to address it?”
• LinkedIn and other social platforms. Ask AI whether your profile and posts explain whom you help, offer useful insights into their problems, and give interested readers a clear next step. Example prompt: “Review my profile and these three posts. What should I change so my ideal client understands how I can help and how to contact me?”
• Referrals and existing relationships. Use AI to define the introductions you want, practice asking comfortably, and plan appropriate follow-up. Bring a real situation; you still need to recognize the opportunity and have the conversation. Example prompt: “A client just praised our results. Help me practice a natural way to ask for an introduction to someone facing a similar challenge.”
• Speaking and shared audiences. Review opportunities through events, professional associations, interviews, partnerships, and guest contributions. Ask AI how to connect your topic to a useful resource and a way to stay in touch. Example prompt: “Here is my presentation topic and audience. Suggest one useful resource I could offer and a simple invitation for interested attendees to stay in touch.”

These sources often work together. Use AI to examine how one leads to another and where a prospect might need clearer information before contacting you.

Choose an improvement you can test

Ask AI to interview you, one question at a time, about where prospects come from, what you have neglected, and what you have already tried. Require it to distinguish evidence from assumptions and identify what it cannot determine.

Then ask it to recommend three priorities based on your goals, available time, and evidence. For each, request a specific action, why it deserves attention, and how you could recognize progress. Challenge its reasoning before choosing where to begin.

Few inquiries from a source do not tell you whether it is unsuitable or your approach needs work. Investigate before investing more effort or abandoning it.

Choose one improvement to carry out and review: a stronger service page, a series of articles answering neglected buyer questions, a clearer LinkedIn profile, or a referral conversation you have postponed. Assess what happens and use what you learn to decide your next move.

If your next ideal client needed your expertise today, how would they find you, and what will you change to make that more likely?

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