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Perficency on the top 10%

Your best existing clients are always the easiest places to find new growth, quality referrals and a blueprint for the right kinds of new prospects. At the most basic level, the blueprint for growth-related activities is two-fold.

Where is your growth coming from?

I had a client yesterday tell me they finally analyzed all their clients, 500 in all. They found that their top fifty clients (top 10%) do 87% of their total business. They also uncovered that this group has a higher average growth rate (18%) than any others. I had another client recently tell me after a meeting he had with one of his sales reps that they discovered his rep’s top two customers do 50% of his business and take up about 5% of his time.

1. Periodic Ideal Client reviews.

Developing a focused and thoughtful plan for top account reviews. If done effectively, you will uncover new opportunities and also get a chance to proactively address any problems that might be boiling beneath the surface. These give you a chance to deepen relationships, as well as ask for referrals when appropriate.

2. Focus prospecting on finding more Ideal Clients.

Spend some time better understanding what qualities make your Ideal Clients so "Ideal." It’s also important to understand from some of them why they bought from you in the first place, and why they keep doing business with you. Develop a profile of who these people are, why they buy from you, how they think, how they work with you and what they are open to that makes them so ideal.

Risk being bold and specific about this. It’s not that you won’t take on a project or a client that isn’t "perfect." I have found that it never hurts to be more specific and raise the bar around how you talk about what kinds of clients you’re looking for “more of” and who you find you best fit with.

Notice any resistance you, or your team has to being more specific, or to asking any of these questions – of yourselves or your clients. Notice any discomfort around talking more specifically with prospects about who you are ideally looking to do business with. There will be a voice in your head that won’t like this. It will tell you that if you’re too specific or bold, no one fit your profile. It will tell you that you’re being greedy or egotistical and you should just be happy to get any business that comes your way. That’s your scarcity voice. Notice it, and ignore it. It costs you a lot of money.

There are only so many hours in the day. Spend it better understanding your best clients, and more effectively engaging new clients that fit the same profile. This sounds so obvious and simple.

Why is it so hard?

Can you define your ideal client?

Thursday, May 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ideal Client

Posted by Michael Green at 2007-06-02 16:40

My ideal client is: - a midsize corporation with annual sales between $20-$200 million dollars - have between 5 to 30 offices - open to new ideas on how to structure a program that will help secure their corporate brand - experiencing concerns about brand compliance at their different locations - someone who understand the true value that a consistent corporate brand bring to their own sales process - someone who utilizes documents to express their value and worth to their clients and possibly even uses documents as their final product for their clients.