Ideal Client

Last week I was at a ‘meet up’ of small business owners. It is a monthly get together to have a cup of coffee and a general discussion about business, and meet some new faces.

There was some discussion about selling and your ideal client. One comment was just make the sale, sell to everyone, any sale is a good sale, so long as you are making sales…

It raised a question for me; Who are our clients, and more importantly, who are our ideal clients?

Just getting clients for the sake of selling your products can and will damage your brand… especially if you are in a niche or specialised market. A client that is not a good fit for your business will be the one that cause 80% of your problems, wastes your time, complains that it is too expensive, and generally distracts you from doing what you should be doing which is marketing your business to your ideal target market.

Conversely, 20% of your clients generate 80% of your income. The idea is to get more of those types of clients. If you doubled the number of top 20% type clients then you would almost certainly double your profit.

One way may be to profile your top 20% of clients to give you a better picture of who they are. You may also want to ask them what they appreciate about your product / service and how you can improve your service. Then offer those specific innovations.

An even more effective strategy is to set up a referral system that rewards them for bringing more clients like them. The key point is to be really clear about the type of clients you are looking for.

Positioning your brand, creating the right perception in the market place effectively targeting your ideal clients is far more productive and beneficial in the long run.

“Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective

than interrupting strangers who don’t.” - Seth Godin

If you position your brand with the understanding that people don’t buy your product but what your product will do for them, you will be far more likely to attract your ideal client. Zig Ziegler once said; “people don’t buy drills they buy holes.”

Who are these people that actually want to hear from you? How can we find clients that love what we do? We love what we do because we are passionate about it… So it stands to reason that our ideal client will more than likely be a lot like us.

People buy form those they know, like and trust, like minded people. The aim is to appeal to and attract the people that believe what you believe.

If you communicate your passion, and why you do what you do, you will attract those like minded people who are your ideal clients.

Image: John Jaspers Target, 1974