Step 2: Identify Your Ideal Client And Your Ideal Evangelist
Written by Dave Lorenzo on December 10, 2015 / 60 Second Sale
This is step two in the free sales course. Identify your ideal client and ideal evangelist.
Welcome to Step 2 in the 60-Second Sales Process.
Now we’re focusing on identifying your ideal client. When you go out and you look for suspects, you’re going out to look for people who are just like your ideal client, you spend too much time focused on people who can never do business with you, or who will never do business with you. What you’re going to do is you’re going to profile your ideal client. You’re going to determine what makes him or her so special. Why they want to do business with you, and how you can find them. I’m going to give you the 15 questions you should ask as you’re profiling your ideal client. This will help you identify the audience of great suspects for you to target with your sales efforts.
Get inside their heads and their hearts.
- What do they fear the most?
- What are they angry about?
- What are their top daily frustrations?
- What do they secretly desire?
- Is there a bias to the way they make decisions?
- Do they have their own language?
- Who has tried to sell to them and failed?
- How can you help them?
- Who else is selling something (different than your product) to them?
- What do they read?
- What organizations do they belong to? Where do they gather?
- What lists might they be on?
- Who do they trust?
- Is there a person or group or media outlet they idolize?
- Is there seasonality to their decision process?
What do they fear the most?
Question number one is what do they fear the most? Think about your ideal client for a moment. What are they most concerned about? What’s keeping them up at night? You need to know the answer to this so that you can help take that pain away. You can help them relieve the fear that they’re feeling. As you look down your list of best possible clients, what do they fear the most?
What are they angry about?
Question number two. What are they angry about? What gets them all worked up? What gets them absolutely, positively, fired up to the point where they want to scream and yell? If it’s a group, or a block of people, or an idea, you need to know. You need to know it so that you can communicate with them in a way that will help you build rapport. Focusing on a common thread of anger will always be one of the fastest ways for you to bond with someone. You need to know what they’re angry at.
What are their top daily frustrations?
Question number three. What are their top daily frustrations? In some cases it may be industry rules, or it may be government regulation. Their top daily frustrations, again, are key elements for you to help bond with them and to help build rapport. You need to identify your best clients’ top daily frustration.
What do they secretly desire?
Question number four. What do they secretly desire? Is there some type of ambition that many of your top clients share? The example that I always give may be a clumsy one, but it’s one that really works, is every congressman wants to be a senator, and every senator wants to be President. Their desire is to further their political career. Well, in your case, think of your ideal clients and determine what their hidden desires are, what they secretly desire most. You can use this, again, to bond and to develop rapport.
Is there a bias to the way they make decisions?
Question number five. Is there a biased to the way they make decisions? Often times, clients who are in similar industry groups, or clients who have similar focus areas, will have a biased to the way they make decisions. For example, the accounting profession tends to breed clients who are very analytical and take a fat base approach to making decisions. You need to be able to identify that in your clients. You need to be able to use that in your marketing techniques and in your sales approach, again, so that you can hit home with a targeted message that makes the most sense to your client.
Do they have their own language?
Question number six. Do they have their own language? If you’ve ever been pulled over by a police officer, you’ll notice that police officers have their own language that they use. They will often, when talking to one another, say things that make no sense to people in the general public. Every industry has this, so when you’re looking at your clients and you’re segmenting your database, you need to be able to identify the type of language they use when they’re communicating with one another. You, to bond and build rapport with them, need to be able to use that same language, and use it effectively. I’m not talking about just spitting out jargon. I’m talking about really being able to understand what they’re saying when they’re communicating with you, and to be able to communicate with them in a way that resonates.
Who has tried to sell to them and failed?
Question number seven. Who’s tried to sell to them, and failed, and why? Many of your clients will be resistant to certain types of approaches. You need to interview your best clients, and understand who’s tried to sell to them, and who’s sales approach didn’t resonate, and the reason why it didn’t resonate. This is valuable, because when you approach similar clients who are like your best clients, you don’t want to make the mistakes that those people who failed made. It helps you understand what not do, and it helps you focus your approach.
How can you help them?
Question number eight. How can you help them? When you’re going through these questions with your clients, with your best clients, when you’re interviewing them, I simply want you to say, “If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?” This will help you to identify the things they want to change the most in their business. When you find an area of commonality among your clients, you know you’re on to something, and you know you have something you can use to approach new clients in order to get inside quickly.