Who is your perfect client or customer? Is it just that they need your services? Or is it something they bring to the table?
The other day I was meeting with a prospective client who had seen me speak and then contacted me about helping him with a new business venture. After a bit of chit chat we sat down and he asked me:
So what can you do for me?
Well, that’s often difficult for me to answer because I do a lot of things, and what I do is tailored to each specific client. Is it Social Media marketing? Yes. But it’s also much more. In the moment, I decided that the best way to begin answering the question was this way:
I’ll tell you what I WON’T do for you. I won’t tweet for you and post your updates on Facebook. I won’t do the day to day management of pretending to be you.
Quite frankly, I often don’t know what to expect in response when I say something like that. I think that a lot of small businesses are looking for just that: a solution where they can just pay someone to do it for them. It’s just one more thing they don’t want to be bothered with. But this particular person’s response to me was refreshing:
Oh, no, I want to do all that in house. Why would I let someone else do it for me. It’s our business!
I sat there; I smiled: and, I responded:
You’re my perfect client.
That’s what I love to hear. I love a client who “gets it”, but also understands that there’s more to it than just creating some accounts and tweeting and posting. That’s where I come in. I get to work alongside them, teach them, educate them, and help them understand the possibilities. I can help them build a strategy that they can then run with in order to really benefit from a strong, fully integrated online presence.
Believe me, I’ve had all sorts of clients. Many of my early clients really only wanted me to tweet for them and be their voice on Facebook. I wouldn’t do it, so we moved on to the next step, but for some of them, they never really “got it” or bought in to my model. And it didn’t work out. I was doing with them what I wanted to do, but didn’t really have them on board.
But that’s for my business model. Take a look at your business model. Who is your perfect customer? What “perfect storm” of circumstances makes for the perfect client? Yes, in some business categories, perhaps some retail and services, it’s best if they hire you and then let you be, but not in my field.
The beauty of finding the perfect client is that when you can work with them and make them happy, they’ll help you with that word of mouth thing so that you can find more perfect clients. Funny how that happens.
Do you know who your “perfect” client or customer is? What are you doing to find them, or have them find you? And how are you equipping your perfect clients so they can help you find more perfect clients? Are you marketing to your perfect client? Or are you just marketing…period?