Imagine the impact of more ideal clients!

The following blog is part of a series on “Sales” from Darren Bosch here at DeliberateU.

Your business won’t thrive without ideal customers. Your business won’t survive without providing high value to your customers' specific needs. That's why it’s crucial to understand your Ideal Client Profile and Unique Value Proposition - so you can effectively serve your target audience.

You don’t just need “more customers”. You need better quality customers translating to better success for your business. Let’s unpack this further…

Every Salesperson despises chasing unproductive leads. Oh, the pain of wasted time and money, nevermind the headaches that come from not being able to suitably serve them.

Here’s some good news... your sales and marketing people don’t need to be trained psychologists. They just need the right tools and a clear focus on serving the right audience... and the results will follow! They need an Ideal Client Profile (ICP) in order to wrap their heads around who your business should specifically serve – and then a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) on how to best serve them. 

WHAT IS AN ICP & WHY DO I NEED ONE?

A well-defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) outlines which clients are a good fit for you and which ones are not. Here are 4 things it does:

1. Steers lead generation

It positions your business for success because it forces your team to articulate the key attributes of ideal clients, those who will benefit the most from what you do.

An ICP provides the clarity to steer and bolster your Marketing & Sales efforts by determining the best messaging, offers, products, and services to attract, resonate with, and serve your ideal client.  When your marketing is properly positioned for your ideal audience, you’ve better positioned yourself for attracting high-quality sales leads.

2. Saves you time and money

You should develop an ICP if you need help knowing when to say no or yes to new sales opportunities. Saying no to leads that are a poor fit will save your team time, money, and aggravation. In turn, you serve poor-fit leads better by showing them the misalignment and introduce them to someone who’s a better fit for what they want.

3. Solves your customers’ pain

The value proposition for your ICP targets the real problems they have and identifies how you can solve them.  Looking through the lens of your customers’ pain will help you both attract and retain your ideal customers. 

How you solve your clients’ pain - and what they gain – should be your business’ key ingredient. This should differentiate you from the competition resulting in a competitive advantage. As a result, you gain more delighted clients who then refer others like them. In turn, this builds a referral machine that delivers a consistent and sustainable flow of quality ideal leads. Click here to check out our past blog post and learn more about how to generate these ideal leads.

4. Shapes your offering

By better getting into the pores of your customers – their needs, pains, what they value – you will be able to orient your products and services to them. This allows you to create a tailor-fit approach for them, solving their pain and resulting in a Unique Value Proposition for your company.  From there you can develop a “how-to” plan to execute your UVP for your team.

Below is an excerpt from an Ideal Client Profile I prepared some years ago...

( Excerpt from an Ideal Client Profile )

WHAT MAKES THEM IDEAL?

You might ask: What are some things that make up my Ideal Clients? 

1. They have the pain you are uniquely positioned to solve
2. They value what you bring to the table for them
   1. They want your level of expertise (examples: craftsmanship, creativity, one-stop-shop, innovation, proprietary product, etc.)
3. They are low-maintenance, high-profit clients who see high-value
   1. They don’t require excessive energy to serve, yield good margins and they receive high-value – making them delighted and delightful
4. They have the means to pay for what you do for them
5. They’ve experienced what you’ve done for others - and when delighted - refer others
   1. Click here to learn more about how to gain better referrals

( Client Pains & Wants - Ideal Client Profile excerpt )

WHAT IS A UVP?

As a sales leader, I often refer to our Unique Value Proposition as our list of “trump cards”. It’s not only a sales tool to share our competitive advantage. It helps ideal clients see what we do differently and how do we do it.

A UVP must show how:

• You solve their problems or improve their lives (compelling relevance)
• You deliver them specific benefits (quantified value)
• You guarantee their experience (mitigating risk)
• Your team can consistently implement it (get 'r done)

APPLICATION:

Let’s say you’re a custom home builder or contractor, and one of your “trump cards” is that you do full Design or Engineering in-house for your clients’ projects.  You invest in a well-trained, seamless “one-stop-shop” - because you know that gets better results.

Simply telling your customers “you’re a one-stop-shop” is only half the story… and not very compelling.  You must describe to them what tangible value and benefit it provides… and how it meets their specific pain.

Track with me here. The intel from your ICP informs you that discerning homeowners often fear contractors because many have a reputation of over-promising and under-delivering. They often don’t do what they say, and notoriously go over time and budget, leaving the customer frustrated with surprise overages.  Your ideal client has hired a contractor before and unfortunately experienced this pain first-hand.

What is the pain this customer faces?  Risk management. They fear the unknown because it will cost them time and headaches.  They’re trying to manage their risk.

So how do you meet that pain with a “one-stop-shop”?

I would suggest you need to show how:

• the in-house team of planners/designers/engineers collaborate with your seasoned construction experts to “pre-build” a plan that’s taken all the risks and “watch-outs” into account
• it increases accountability & quality control, ensuring outcome
• it reduces risk - allowing you to even contractually guarantee it – so they get peace of mind
• this gets them a design-build result perfectly fit to what they want and value most
• you did this for others… which creates trust, confidence and ease

In a nutshell, figure out who your ideal clients are and why.  Know the specific pains, needs, and fear they arrive with.  Let that shape your product and service offerings.  Then, show them how you uniquely help them overcome their challenge… so they can enjoy an inspiring, great result specifically tailored to them!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Ask your team how they would define your ICP (and their unique pains/wishes)
2. Are there any changes you want to make to your ICP? Maybe you have been targeting the wrong customer?
3. Vividly map out your ICP both in words and pictures
4. Adjust or reframe your UVP according to your ICP
5. Develop helpful SOPs and implementation Tools to equip & train the team to execute

This is not necessarily a quick or straightforward exercise.  But, just imagine the impact having more ideal clients would have on your business!  If you need help, contact us so you can get a head start on driving better business results!