I believe the concept of an “ideal client” is seriously flawed. I know I just uttered marketing heresy–so feel free to burn me at the stake–but I know it’s true.
The idea behind the concept is sound. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, an “ideal client” profile focuses marketing and sales efforts on the kind of customer that’s the best fit for one’s products and services. But I have come to see that this revered exercise actually limits a business’ potential for growth. It’s smarter to approach the marketplace with what I call a “client family”.
What’s a “Client Family”?
Look at any family portrait and you’ll see an array of unique and diverse individuals, yet a family that’s knit together by a set of common characteristics. A client family is the same. On the surface they may seem vastly different–different industries, different sizes, different business models–but below the surface the members of a client family have the same enabling conditions that make them a good fit for your work.
For instance, this week I’ll mentor a group of solo consultants, I’ll facilitate a remote sales team meeting, I’ll coach an executive VP at a start-up technology firm, I’ll debrief a 360-degree profile for a sales manager at a Fortune 100 corporation, and I’ll advise the husband and wife owners of a growing small business. What could all of these clients possibly have in common? They all have the same enabling condition: every one of these people wake-up in the morning and are responsible for making money. There’s a number they have to hit, and no one else is going to do it for them.
This approach embraces the core concept of the ideal client, focus, without its unnecessary narrowness. The focus of my consulting practice is working with business leaders who are responsible for generating top-line revenue. Note my focus on a certain kind of client, business leaders (versus government, health care, education, or non-profits), and then my focus on a specific enabling condition. That is, the dynamics below the surface irrespective of industry that drives day-to-day activities, the responsibility for generating top-line revenue.
Strike Marketing Gold
When you uncover the primary enabling condition of the clients you serve, you’ve struck marketing gold. You’ve discovered the common needs of a family that you’ll be able to meet more deeply. And you’ve discovered the key to your future. For many other clients, perhaps bigger and better than the ones you serve right now, share these same enabling conditions and can also join your family. This vastly exceeds the binary alternative (Are they or are they not?) that the ideal client approach proposes, which you’re probably ignoring anyway because intuitively you know it’s flawed.
So, please, put the matches away and untie my hands from the stake, because I think I just made you a ton of money.
