Its really easy in business to lose sight of this important principle. We can fall into the trap of the “fog test” i.e. if the person has the potential to fog a mirror, then they should be a customer.
Of course not all of our existing clients or customers are ideal, and I am not suggesting that we should decline business from those that aren’t. When we are thinking about our marketing and promotional efforts, we should concentrate those efforts on attracting “ideal” customers as much as is possible,
All business people that I have met have a particular type of customer who they enjoy working with or doing business with. This is where the fun is. It is also likely that this is the part of our business where we have particular expertise, so why not concentrate on that?
Very often, businesses are too general in their identification of their target market. To be truly successful we need to get quite specific as to who it is we would like to work with, and then set about attracting those customers or clients. In my case for example it is no good just looking for “rich people with lots of money to invest”. A much more useful definition of an ideal client or customer could be something like….
“My ideal client is a business owner who is time poor and has complex financial issues which they need help with. They are probably between 30 and 55 years of age and have been in business for a while. Like most business people they have enough on their plate running their business and can find themselves neglecting their personal finances as a consequence. They may have the expertise necessary to look after their affairs themselves, but for any number of reasons find themselves unable to get around to it, and look to someone else to make sure they are OK and have everything covered.”
So be specific about who your ideal customers are, and you will be much more likely to attract them. You will know where to look and your existing satisfied customers will know who to refer to you.
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