So, how do you identify a dream client that is not your ideal client?
I believe in goals, targets, and lists. They simplify things and make it easy to see where you are going and where you want to be.
I also believe it’s possible to obtain almost any customer if you have enough time and don’t care about profit.
I’ll explain. I have always believed the quickest way to success is to define success. For me, successful copier sales mean first identifying every ideal customer in my territory and working through them.
I would get to know the decision-makers, the current status of equipment, etc. My list of ideal customers would include all those that I felt matched up well to those that either I had worked with successfully or the type of account one of my colleagues had worked with successfully.
The list also includes some dream accounts—the type of accounts that were the same but bigger scale.
This approach is very successful. The larger accounts take time. It takes time to get to know the account. You need to understand what is important to them what works best for them. Their workflow is important.
Having them on your list is essential because it will take time. But, you may also need to remove some of these accounts.
Sometimes a dream client is a nightmare dressed like a dream.
Here are something’s that can happen if your focus is on the dream rather than what’s ideal.
You can focus too much on dream clients. Often, they are not so much ideal as they are high profile.
When you approach business as a, who’s who instead of who is right, you can miss some important steps.
You can overlook some clear signs you are not a good match. You can jump too quick to say yes to every demand and lose some important elements.
We can compare our business and clients to someone else’s and feel less than. We can want so badly to have the A list we forget how they earn top spots as ideal clients.
Ideal clients should be those we can successfully wow. This means we offer products and services that solve their problems and give them solutions.
Ideal clients should get a fair deal from us, and we should be at least a little profitable from day one. It is not a good deal for your customer if you can’t continue to give them great products and services after the sale. You need to be profitable to continue to support them.
Communication between you and them should be easy and a two-way street. If there’s an issue, you need to resolve it quickly. This is done with good communication.
Many times in approaching high-profile clients, you will see a red flag that one of these three things is not present.
For example, you finally get a response. You get a much-anticipated email from someone on your dream list. The response is only one-sided, asking you to provide a price. You try to ask about wants and needs to check your fit. They give you little in response. They just need a price.
This, to me, is a clear sign an imposter has made it to my list of dream clients. It’s more than the price. Everything is about something beyond price.
In the above example, I can’t identify how to wow them. I can not predict a fair deal or profitability until I get some detail. Communication is not two-way and does not come easy.
This example shows the tell-tale signs of a dream client that is not an ideal client. You will have more time to serve your ideal client when you realize who you can serve best.
This often means evaluating potential clients by something other than revenue potential because ideal clients bring in profitable revenue, not always high revenue.
I believe you will find it as I have easier to serve many ideal clients versus a less than ideal dream client.
In fact, with time, your ideal clients will likely grow. You will grow with them, and your ideal clients will far surpass what you might have once dreamed of building.
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