Discovering What & Who Your Ideal Client/Customer Is

I am a huge fan of Eric Albertson, the advice in his newsletters are spot on and his professionalism is beyond measure. With that I am posting his most recent newsletter verbatim, and check out the info at the end for his workshop it is worth looking into (No affiliate programs here just admiration)! This pretty much covers the steps, there  is a depth of strategy that is behind this and could be applied a bit more, but this sums it up nicely.

Success Tips Newsletter - In this issue: Case study: question from a reader

by Eric Albertson www.SucceedingInBusiness.com   

The question:

I'd like to talk with you this week about the profile of my ideal client. Until I took your Marketing Fast Track class, I would have said, everybody with more than 5 staff can use our services, therefore everyone is a target, right?

My guess is: "Wrong." 

I would like to clear this up and set up my elevator speech as clearly as possible.  I am the guy who sets all the appointments for my firm; everyone is counting on me for sales appointments.

I know that I need to narrow my target market and tighten up my message but I am not clear on the best way to do this. Today I rely heavily on cold calling, seminars and networking to create leads. It is lots of work for relatively few leads and fewer sales.

The website we have is a shambles, it creates no leads. We do quite well out of referrals but considering we have a 500+ client base I am sure we could do a bit better.

What steps do I need to take to quickly get into action and get better results?

Eric's Response

First, I would figure out some basic characteristics of who has purchased from your firm in the past (industry, turnover a.k.a. annual revenue, what they bought, how long they have been a customer, etc) and chart that out.

Consider the fictional example:

• 80 percent of our buyers come from four types of      businesses:
       1. Import/export firms
       2.  Freight forwarders
       3.  Drayage operations
       4.  Port storage operators
• They average 200 employees per firm
• They are usually 20+ years old
• They have at least $10 million in annual revenues
• They are all on the East Coast
• They are all growing slower than the rest of their      industry

Describe your top three ideal clients, according to what the customer data suggests:

Example

East Coast import-export firms, averaging at least $10 million per year in revenue, who are struggling to grow as fast as the rest of their industry.

Next, build a list of everyone who looks like your ideal clients. The library is a great place to start. Get as many on the list as you can.

Next, I would take a quick inventory of the testimonials and stories you have from your ideal clients. If you don't have two to five testimonials and two or more stories for each ideal client, get more as soon as possible.

Inventory the top three problems your company addressed for each ideal customer and the top three aspirations or goals each had.

Now list the outcomes each ideal customer sought when engaging your firm, and the results they got. (They did keep buying didn't they?) For example:

· Wanted to grow faster than our industry

· Reduce our turnover

· Increase our net margin

· And so on.

Next, build an inventory of 15 - 25 benefits you offer each member of your ideal customer set.

Now create two to five statements that make the case for why your firm is able to address these needs and aspirations. These can be very simple, such as:

"We have been delivering great results to global importers for more than 20 years." Follow this with a quote.

Now make a brief statement that describes the process you follow to deliver the results.

Finally, jot down two or three next steps you want the client to take (e.g., read this, call me, set an appointment, etc).

Your elevator speech or audio logo will consist of the following:

"We help ____________________________(ideal customer targets #1), who are struggling with _____________________________(ideal customer targets #1 typical problem).

When they say, "Tell me more," you've reached first base.

Now you simply repeat the audio logo again and say, "We helped them get ______________________________ (ideal customer target #1 desired outcome)".

Perhaps a brief story will help.

Some of the benefits customers report getting are: _______________________________________________

People come to us because: ______________________________________ (List your points of credibility.)

May I suggest _________________________________________ (call to action appropriate to your base location on Marketing Ball).

The process above will give you a great start for your elevator speech and audio logo. And it will be your foundation for a web site that converts.

Next, we want to put a lead source on all 500 of your clients, so we have a clear idea of which marketing efforts have been working in the past. That way we can be careful to not stop doing the things that have worked.

After that, we take all the businesses in your funnel and put them in one of the following buckets:

· Strangers

· Affiliation

· Attention (a.k.a. "Tell me more.")

· Familiarity

· Information

· Experience

This is not the whole fix, but it's a powerful start to getting out of the business of cold-calling, and working too hard for too little.

If going into depth with something like this is of interest to you and would help you get more business, you can register for the Marketing Fast Track class starting TOMORROW, July 10^th at 12 noon, Pacific Daylight Time. Each session is recorded so that, if you have to miss a session for vacation or an impromptu golf date, you can still get the value and stay on track.

I have only two spots still open, so register fast if you think this will help you get out of the cold-calling business. Our next class won't start until September or October. Register NOW !