Client perfection – Who is your perfect client?

Many business owners and professional services firms spend vast amounts of time on marketing. Although they may be succeeding in attracting interest, are they all attracting the type of clients that they want?

If you are gaining exposure and attracting interest, but only from those clients you DON’T want, maybe it’s time to step back and think about what’s going wrong.

When we first meet with a prospective client and ask the question “who is your ideal client?”, we’re surprised to hear “everyone’ as the answer, or even “:anyone who pays their bills”. While we all definitely want a client that pays their bills, “everyone” is not the answer.

How do we know that? Just ask others in your team to talk about their least favourite client. What are their characteristics? Do they waste time, ask too many questions, always expect something for nothing, provide information at the last minute and expect immediate delivery? Does this describe the type of client you want more of? Even if they do pay your bills!

You can certainly attest to the fact that there are people and businesses you don’t want to have as your clients.

What is a perfect client?

It’s only natural for every partner in the firm to have a preference for their “perfect client”. It’s those clients you actually enjoy having as your clients. They are the ones with whom you have developed a close relationship. These are also the people whose business you admire and appreciate. Even the very industry they are in is something that attracts you. They are not only profitable for your firm, but they are also exciting.

All of that might sound like a pipe dream, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s something you must orient your firm towards in your marketing efforts, or you risk having a scattergun approach to marketing that rarely yields intended results.

If you do target your perfect clients, your marketing efforts will yield the type of results you could hope to have. If you identify your perfect client, you can tailor your marketing efforts towards them, and you’ll have a lot more success in attracting new clients. Your marketing will be engaging to them, and a more significant percentage of them will end up reaching out to you.

The results will essentially be fewer resources spent, and more clients gained, most of whom will be the ones you want to have.

How do you identify your perfect client?

We can’t give you a specific answer to how you can identify your perfect client because each firm has its own ideal clients.

For you, it might be clients who are not like the ones your competitors have, or it could be precisely the type they have. This definition might also change as time passes, and your firm grows and evolves.

To identify your perfect client, it’s always best to start with your existing client base. However, you need to genuinely know the clients you have. You can’t merely look at their names and their business. It would help if you knew their industry well, their plans, their problems, and much more. That’s also one of the three main rules you need to live by if you want to grow professionally.

Take an in-depth look at all of your clients and categorise them according to:

By doing that you’ll get much closer to your unique definition of who your perfect client is. We at the Thought Leadership Initiative can also assist you in this search. Feel free to contact us, and we can discuss how you can find your perfect client. Additionally, keep following our blog as there’s much more we’ll have to say on this subject.

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