This is part of one of a three-part series by Travis Chaney on attracting clients.
In his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,” John C. Maxwell discusses the Law of the Inner Circle. Simply put, you become who you spend your time with. In business, the same rule applies when it comes to building a client base. As you think about your business, developing a clear picture of who you want to attract as clients is critical to success at any stage in business.
WOULD YOU RATHER ATTRACT AN ELEPHANT OR A MOUSE?
Positioning, marketing and sales is the lifeblood of any business. In the beginning phase of your start-up operation, you probably spent the majority of your time, energy and resources in the pursuit of clients. Knowing your potential clients’ spending habits, pains, needs, where
they live, socialize, work, exercise, shop, their age, gender, your desired profit margin, etc. is important in your efforts to attract the ideal clients for your company. Developing an ideal client profile for your products and services before you begin to market and sell increases your efficiencies while ensuring your focus targets the clients you most desire. All of your
positioning and marketing efforts should be directly connected to attracting your ideal client.
If you were to ask any business owner if they were to start their business all over again what they would do differently, most would answer they wouldn’t work with one certain type of client. In the initial phase of launching your business, it is natural to take any and all clients. It is very easy to get caught up in the emotional rush of going out on your own. The fear of the unknown will drive you to say “yes” to just about anybody who is interested in your products and services. Over time, successful mature companies learn the financial rewards of spending time with the clients who value their services most.
Who makes up that group of undesirable clients? Mice. If you are attracting mice in your business you haven’t done your homework on who is most suitable for your products and services. It doesn’t take much effort to attract mice – and once you acquire one, mice typically require more work for sales and service, value you and what you offer less, and bother you more. Mice carry a disease known as unproductivitis – a crippling disease that causes your business to lose valuable time, energy and money due to working with the wrong type of clients.
And the more mice you attract the more
Attract elephants they tend to multiply in numbers.