FINDING YOUR TARGET CLIENTS

Posted on April 22, 2023 by Kevin Pendergrass, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

We live in a day and age where most of us are fortunate to have an overflow of tools and information at our disposal to help us when it comes to figuring out who our target client is. Whether it is website data, ad words, LinkedIn, Facebook or any other marketing asset in your artillery, it would appear that finding your target client (or having your target client find you) is no problem. However, a fundamental problem occurs often because we put the “cart before the horse.” Instead of establishing who our target client is, we begin to target everyone hoping anyone will become our clients.

Who is your target client? Do you know? The typical answer, especially in sales, is usually, “anyone who will buy from me.” If this is your mindset, then understand that you have yet to figure out who your target client actually is. While you may have a plethora of marketing tools, if you don’t know who you’re aiming for, then you are probably wasting both time and money. I have outlined below 3 different questions to ask yourself that will help you determine who your ideal client is.

1. HOW MANY CLIENTS DO YOU WANT? This question is going to be subjective depending upon your industry, your responsibilities, your wants and desires. Some professionals may only need 50 clients while others may need 50 new clients a day. You may be in a profession where clients will only use your services once while others may be in a profession where their clients will re-order every month. The point is this: Figure out where you want to be and then figure out how many clients it will take to get there.

2. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU WANT EACH CLIENT TO BE WORTH? This question plays off the first question. How many clients you want will depend upon how much each client will be worth. When I first started out as a business owner, I made the rookie mistake. I went after everyone and anyone who had a pulse. I soon realized that not every client is “worth” the same. I’m not talking about their human worth, but their account worth. Do they spend $1,000 a year? $10,000 a year? $100,000 a year?

Let’s say your personal goal is to do $1 million in sales this year. Why would anyone want to have 100 customers that spend $10,000 a year when they could have 10 customers that spend $100,000 a year? Granted, it isn’t realistic to believe that everyone is going to be a “top tier” customer, but you will only convert the prospects you target. My parents used to tell me that you only marry who you date. Seems simple enough, right? Therefore, if you are only targeting small accounts, you will only end up with small accounts. While this point seems to be an assumed point, it is one of the main points missed in business.

3. ARE YOU GETTING THE NAMES OF YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS? In our company, we target at least 25 new prospects per month. I have had some prospects ask me how I know their name and how I knew how to get in touch with them. While there are many programs out there that allow you to purchase leads or generate leads through software, not all companies can benefit from those. We happen to be one of those companies. Unlike consumers looking to buy a house or insurance, buyers of promotional products don’t advertise that they are “looking to buy promotional products;” they just buy them when they are ready. So, how do I get the names of my prospects? I’ll tell you.

I am about to let you in on a huge “secret” of mine. I have been doing this for years and it works every single time. It costs me nothing and I use no programs. Here it is: I pick up the phone, call the company/organization and ask them for the name of the person who handles the purchasing of promotional products. OK, so maybe it isn’t a huge secret, but it works! When I get the name, then I can target them using our gift campaigns. This certainly takes some leg work (or should I say “phone work”) on my part, but it is well worth the time. Putting the time in to do the research can be tedious at times, but it pays off in the end. You are probably not in the promotional products industry, but this free method of gathering information about your target clientele can certainly work for you too!

So, who is your ideal client? Figure out how many clients you want (and can handle), figure out how much you want each client to be worth and then find out the specific names/contacts of prospects so you aren’t wasting time selling to someone who doesn’t need your product. It is easier than you think if you take the time to do it.