Small Business Guide to Identify, Narrow, and ChooseYour Ideal Customer or Client
The strategic elements of marketing haven’t changed. Knowing your ideal client is still everything when it comes to marketing!
When I speak on having a strategy for your marketing to a group of CEOs and business owners I’ll often ask them to identify the characteristics of their ideal clients, and what I often hear is “people with money.”
But when I mention, paying invoices late, treating your staff poorly, “no call, no show” for meetings, taking shortcuts, very demanding, and always wanting the owner, many characteristics leap to mind.
Here’s the deal — knowing who makes an ideal client beyond money allows you to choose your clients and build your entire business, message, product, processes, hiring, billing, services, sales and support around attracting and serving this client group.
So let me ask you this — have you considered the impact or lack of impact of knowing your ideal client?
The Freedom To Stop Working With Clients You Hate
When you can narrowly define who and what makes an ideal client for your business it really is a game-changer.
Knowing who makes an ideal client allows you to choose your clients and stop working with those you hate.
You know the ones that don’t appreciate the value you bring to them, don’t pay on time, treat your staff poorly, views the relationship as a transaction instead of a partnership, always want you, and consistently blames your firm for any mishaps.
You can stop working with them but only if you know who your ideal client is.
Taking Hope Out Of The New Client Equation
See, the secret to getting new clients now is to take hope out of the equation to a large extent by understanding how to choose your customers.
One of the most important elements of getting new clients for a service business is understanding the makeup of existing clients that are ideal. When you come to understand who makes an ideal client it allows you to build your entire marketing, sales, and service efforts around attracting, choosing, and converting this target group.
Better Clients Want Better Things
One marketing consultant’s opinion — for me, I think most CEOs and business owners of small businesses are suited to serve a set ideal client or engagement from a broader target market.
So, the way you get and attract better (ideal) clients or engagements is by developing a problem-solving message and telling a true story that resonates with what better clients want to buy.
This will require that you build your entire business, invoicing, message, product, services, sales and support around attracting and serving this better client group.
For example, at Indispensable Marketing we discovered that our better clients wanted to buy more frequent updates, a process approach to marketing, a fixed monthly retainer, access to resources, a decrease to overhead, more visibility, and lead generation so we decided to change our business processes in order to tell this story and get and attract better clients.
The Strategy Comes Before The Tactics
You’ll get no argument out of me if you utter this statement: strategy before tactics.
But this recently became more clear while shifting some of our client’s marketing strategies from lead generation to the recruitment of people.
It was great to see “strategy before tactics” play out in the #hr function of our client’s business.
You see no amount of hiring ads, signs, posters or website pages (tactics) will work if your message is wrong and you don’t know what an ideal job candidate looks like.
The same is true for marketing.
You have to figure out first, who makes an ideal client and what makes you different before you ever go out there and start listing the things you’re going to do to create awareness and to convert those ideal clients that have a need into paying clients.
You Must Think About Being Important Not Just Big
Thinking about getting big is worthless if you’re not thinking about being important.
Important to a narrowly-defined ideal client, because that segment of your target market will demand you make, provide, sell, serve, and offer something different.
My post 👉 https://goo.gl/kNdPw7 nailed this by speaking to the reality of marketing.
Who are you important too?
You Get The Clients You Attract
This post is the result of conversations I’ve been having with CEOs and business owners who want ideal clients.
I want to remind all of you that when you better understand what makes an ideal client in the first place, you’re more equipped to attract and create them.
This means the net effect of all of your marketing (website, business cards, phone greeting, content, networking, appearance, etc.) is that you get the clients you create based on how and what you communicate verbally and visually before, during, and after the sale.
Understand this and you’ll see that you have complete control over the ideal clients you create and attract.
Attracting Ideal Clients vs. Hunting Ideal Clients
So much of building a brand and growing a business today is around attracting 🍯 ideal clients rather than hunting.
The secret to attracting is to understand what problems trigger someone to go looking for your service.
From experience, I can tell you that most CEOs and business owners don’t do enough work on understanding timing triggers or buying triggers.
One quick tip is to go look at your contact form submissions or interview your clients to figure out what triggered them to look for and buy your services.
Having the Budget and Need For What You Sell is Only Part of the Equation
When you’ve been in business for a handful of years or more (battle-tested), here’s my best advice:
Stop chasing and attempting to attract anyone that might need what you offer. Having the budget and need is only part of the equation when it comes to ideal clients. (see here: https://bit.ly/2uyyItP)
What if these same people beat your staff up, pay late, want deep discounts and are always looking for one more thing free.
These clients would keep you from charging what you’re worth and in my opinion be considered not a good fit.
One of the most essential elements for a 5–10 yr old business is the clear understanding of a narrowly defined ideal client — lacking this you will always struggle to grow and compete on price.
Read more: https://lnkd.in/ebxFRF7
Market to the Ideal Customer Not Target Market
As a business owner or CEO, you will want to get as specific as possible with what makes an ideal customer.
For example, if you identified your target market as small businesses it would be ok. However, if you identify within that target market your ideal customer as a small business that serves local clients, is between 5 and 10 years old, generates over $500,000 in revenue, primarily attends industry events and has an interest in superior customer service you will have much more success.
Even the best business owner, CEOs, and marketers will fail if they are marketing to the wrong customer.
Determine Clients Who Value Your Approach
Chances are that today, you’re committing this strategy mistake of trying to be “all things to all people”.
For example: If you’re a small business accounting firm, your ideal client is not just anyone who owns a small business.
Sure, some of them are, but what makes a client ideal for your specific accounting approach?
This mindset applies to any business not just accounting.
The Get More Clients Question You Need To Be Asking
Every business is looking to grow in some way. Usually, that comes down to one simple goal: get more clients.
But more clients isn’t always the answer. I actually think that you should stop asking yourself, “How do I get more clients?” and instead ask yourself, “How do I get ideal clients? https://bit.ly/3commpu
Putting Strategy Before Tactics Into Practice
Please understand what I am saying here and how much truth is behind this approach.
For any business owner and CEO of a small business trying to wrap your head around marketing, this is for you.
Developing a strategy before you choose how you reach ideal clients is well-worn business advice.
Every #marketingconsultant and #businessconsultant worth listening has mentioned this to you at some point.
The thing is, while many preach it, few actually do it.
3 questions that will help you do it:
- How do ideal clients make buying decisions? Committee, bid, RFP, referral, search engine, etc.
- How can you reach ideal clients? Associations, publications, mailing lists, networking, etc.
- What problem/frustration in your industry do clients deal with, that you can fix?
Build Your Small Business Around Ideal Customers
Understanding your ideal customer can help you build all aspects of your marketing, sales, and service. But how do you define your ideal client?
Read on to answer these customer profile questions, and see your business grow!
https://bit.ly/36yJ63r
Think Targeted
A lot of people are throwing out pivoting advice for small business owners to move their business online, or consider new markets.
I think this is great advice but the thinking might not apply to your business. That’s been the case for one of our professional service clients heavily impacted by the COVID-19.
For them and their business, it’s been more effective to THINK targeted. Here’s what I mean overall:
- determining what ideal (their best) engagements look like and going to work on building relationships for those opportunities
- figuring out ways to serve this group now or near term
- discovering why ideal clients do business with them and focusing on how to do it better
- determining how serving in new ways would attract more engagements and clients
- creating processes that make service-delivery better, faster, and cheaper
Chasing The Wrong Prospects Is The Problem Of All Things
During a recent strategy consulting engagement the conversation with the CEO of a 7yr old training institute quickly focused on “who are our ideal clients?”
As this discussion continued it become very clear to this CEO that defining “who their ideal client is” wasn’t just an effective move for their marketing but also for their hiring, billing, training outcomes, service delivery, and sales.
Essentially what was discovered during our time together was chasing the wrong prospects had become the basis of all marketing, servicing, and sales problems.
I repeat: One of the most important components of any business or marketing strategy is a clear understanding of a narrowly defined ideal client.
It could be THE missing piece of your business!
Now the holy grail of this is to understand WHY a segment of people are ideal > https://lnkd.in/eXq8ixe
Diagnosis Before Prescription Is How You Do Effective Marketing
If you Google “marketing strategy” you’ll be welcomed by any number of articles that reveal a list of marketing tactics — websites, content, promotions, social media, etc.
But that’s not how I see effective marketing developed and installed in the real world of a small business. Diagnosis (strategy) before prescription (tactics) is how you do effective marketing.
Meaning 9/10 times you will be narrowing who you’ve been trying to market/sell to. Many small businesses try to be all things, so they compete with all things.
For example: If you’re a small business consulting firm, your ideal client is not just anyone who owns a small business. Sure, some of them are, but what makes a client ideal for your specific consulting approach?
This also is the main reason why so many businesses can’t differentiate because “they’re all things to all people.”
“Ideal Clients” Over “Target Markets”
The most dangerous part of marketing for any business owner or entrepreneur is trying to be everything to everybody.
Truth is no one company can effectively service everybody.
While having a target market is good, it still doesn’t allow you to build a business that narrowly serves your best clients.
An ideal client is a very specific segment of your target market. Understanding who makes an ideal client allows you to build your entire business, message, product, services, sales, and support around attracting and serving this specific segment.
Join me in spreading the word to focus on “ideal clients” over “target markets”!
The Marketing Strategy Mistake Most Commit
Chances are that today, you’re committing this strategy mistake of trying to be “all things to all people”. For example: If you’re a small business marketing firm, your ideal client is not just anyone who owns a small business.
Sure, some of them are, but what makes a client ideal for your specific marketing approach?
If you offer marketing services as an on-going package that’s a lot different than the digital agency, who promotes and sells only websites or advertising, then the small business owners who would want to go with this one and done option are not your ideal client.
Defining Your Ideal Client By Budget Is a Mistake
During nearly every marketing seminar I have with business owners I talk about how it’s essential to define your ideal client.
I want to stress that word ideal for a second because many people fall under what I think is this idea that anyone that has the budget for what they sell is an ideal client.
And, that’s the #1 marketing mistake you’re making today: defining your ideal client only by their budget.
You must consider other characteristics because even with budget what if they treat your staff bad, don’t pay on time, are always 45 minutes late to meetings, want to engage you and ignore your staff, as you can see just having the budget doesn’t make them a great fit for your business.
Identifying Core Behavior Patterns
Recently while consulting with a business owner in the professional service space, we got around to talking about zeroing in on their target client.
It was a great reminder that the #1 thing that CEOs and business owners are getting wrong when target marketing is not identifying core behavior patterns.
From experience, there are not only demographics, (like the type of business) but there’s always behavior patterns that all of your best clients share.
For example, a consulting business may know that their ideal customer is not just a small business owner, but is also someone who participates in an industry association, joins committees, cares about their employees, brings their numbers to meetings or serves on the board of their chamber of commerce.
When you understand the behaviors that are most often exhibited by your clients, you can begin to identify your most promising places to advertise, what events you’re going to participate in, what trade shows you’re going to go to, and really focus on attracting more of that ideal client.
Who Needs, Wants and Values Your Services?
Over the years I’ve been out in the local area talking, presenting and meeting with small business owners on “how do you identify your ideal clients?”
It seems like a simple topic and question — who needs, wants and values your services? How hard could it be to think about? Yet, in my conversations, most small business owners underestimate the time and effort it takes to identify their ideal client, and as a result they:
-sell to anyone and everyone
-simply guess at how to generate leads
-sponsor the wrong events
-compete on price instead of value
-attract the wrong types of clients
-advertise in the wrong places
-waste-time customizing every single proposal
-have no idea what to write about
-create and publish non-interesting material, blogs and newsletters
-optimize their website for the wrong keywords
-communicate irrelevant problems in sales conversations
-restrict the potential of their business
