How to Identify Your Ideal Client

In a previous post I talked about the need to identify your ideal client when you start to target market. Generally speaking, most people can see that makes sense. If you’re going to target a specific segment of the market, you need to know who you are appealing to. However, while a general concept might be easy to understand, the actual specifics may be more difficult.

In a survey on What’s Working in Lead Generation, Wellesley Hills Group and RainToday.com found that the more you know about your target market the better you are at lead generation efforts. Those companies that identified the most specific information about their target market were the most successful in lead generation.

So what sort of information do you want to use to identify your target market? Begin your ideal client profile by answering the following questions:
• Who currently buys our products or services?
• What are the titles of the buyers?
• Who is the economic decision maker?
• Who influences the buying decisions?
• What are the pressures and challenges facing our target market?
• What are the upper and lower revenue levels of the companies that buy from us?
• Is employee workforce size a factor in buying our products or services?
• Is geography a factor in buying our products or services?
• Are there any commonalities in industry in our current clients?
• How many companies fit into our current target market?

Once you begin to answer these questions, you have your ideal client profile. For example, my ideal client profile is C-level officers of technology and software companies that have between 5 and 100 million in revenues. I use performance partnering for high level officers to achieve exponential growth in their organization through a systems approach to lead generation, traffic conversion, and market leadership. Based on my ideal client profile, I know exactly who I’m looking for and who falls outside my target market.

A written ideal client profile is essential to your marketing group and sales force. For your marketing team, it provides an outline of who you are marketing to. For your sales team, it helps provide focus on who to call to achieve the best results.