Show notes
We're going to interact with people who are not ideal clients. But salespeople have trouble when they're afraid to disqualify a prospect. To say, okay, I'm no longer going to follow up with this person.
I've always viewed it a little like the game musical chairs that you played as a kid? You have a certain number of people going around, and a certain number of chairs. When the music stops, everybody scrambles to get a chair. If you don't have a chair, you're out, right?
I view prospecting that way in some respects. Where you have to, at some point, start to prune the list. You have to start to get rid of the people who are not likely to become clients. If you're afraid to do that, you will continue to leave the same number of people and chairs.
Jay: Yes.
David: And if none of them are buying, it's not going to work well.
David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing letting ideal clients know you're alive. Welcome back, Jay.
Jay: Hey, so good to be here, David. And I think this is, again, such an interesting topic. I find that I'm so caught up in the daily. I'm taking calls and the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And some of those ideal clients kind of go by the wayside sometimes.
David: Yeah. A lot of times we don't even know who they are until we first try to identify them. So, in a sense, the topic itself goes kind of deep. You can't know they're an ideal client until you know they're alive. Then you have to let them know that you're alive. Then you have to determine if they're an ideal client.
Jay: Yeah.
David: So there are actually a few steps in this.
Jay: Yeah, and I think that's such an important thing to know. You need to have a system, like you always have, of identifying those ideal clients. It's hard for me to really figure out if they're ideal up front. But I'll tell you one thing I can tell is when they're not ideal.
I was on the phone call with somebody yesterday. He's going to become a client. But I regret the relationship I know I'm going to have with him, because he's already so demanding. And I'm like, this guy's not ideal, but he's a customer. And so, how can I not sell him the product?
David: Yeah, that's a great question.
And it's harder for some than others, I think. You get to a certain point in your business or a certain point in your career or whatever and you weigh it. Well, I guess we all do that. We have to weigh it. How much of a pain is this person going to be? And what's my tolerance for pain essentially, right?
Jay: Yeah. Yeah.
David: But you're exactly right. You don't really know that necessarily upfront. So a lot of times when we're working with our clients, what we'll do is start with the people they think are likely to be their ideal clients. And whether that means in a certain geographic area or in a particular industry or in a certain sized company, if they're selling B2B, You can make some initial judgments based on who has been a good client for you in the past, and then say, okay, how can I get more people like that?
And then when you're introducing yourself to those people who meet those similar criteria, as you're having those conversations, you can then start to make those determinations about whether or not they are an ideal client, or if they just sort of fall in that general ecosphere of people who could potentially be ideal clients, but maybe aren't.
Jay: Yeah, exactly. And not just finding new ideal clients, turning your existing ideal clients into more business. Because if they were ideal the first time, if you can keep that to be a generating ongoing revenue source and relationship... Man, I'd rather do that every day than deal with the other type of customer.
David: Yeah, no question. And when you get to the topic we started out with, which is letting ideal clients know you're alive, that does go for your ideal clients as well. The ones that have been buying From you for a long time, the ones that you already know are ideal. Sometimes it's just about remaining in touch with them, staying in front of them, remaining top of mind with the people that you already know are your ideal clients. And that's something that not everyone does. Sometimes the allure of future business is so strong that it pulls us away from the people that we know buy from us, trying to bring new people through the door. So there's definitely a balance that comes with all that.
Jay: Yeah, absolutely. So what would you say? I kind of have an idea in my mind. How would you describe in your business the ideal client?
David: Well, of course, it's different for everyone, but ideal clients, I think for most people, it's going to be somebody that you don't mind interacting with.
That's a good criteria to start with. I think willing to communicate is key. Because if they're not going to have conversations with you, they're not going to be a great client. It's just going to be very difficult to get information out of them and to be able to get them what they want when they want it, if they're not willing to communicate with you.
So likable, communicative, and ability to buy. Do they have the ability to spend money on the products they want? Some people are really nice to interact with. They're very pleasant, but they just don't have the financial wherewithal. They don't have enough of a desire to be able to invest the money to be able to become a really good client.
I mean, those are just some of the criteria, but like I said, it's different for everyone. And there are a lot of people who don't even take into consideration the first one that I mentioned. Are they pleasant to deal with? And... I know in the early stages of my business and maybe even into the mid stages of various businesses that I've been involved in that wasn't always the criteria.
It's like, can they make a purchase? And sometimes people who are not all that pleasant to deal with can make purchases. But then what does that do to your quality of life? And what does that do to your customer service people and the other people in your organization who have to interact with people like that?
So, definitely a balancing act. But when I think of ideal clients, and one of the reasons that I even use that word is to say we all get to decide what that means. So whether it's personality based, whether it's dollars based, whether it's proximity, availability, all those things go into it. But it is going to be different for everyone.
Jay: Well, and again, like we talked about at the beginning, just having that thought process, because as so often before I talk to you, I think, I've never sat down and kind of drawn out what my ideal client is. I can tell you when my phone rings and I see the caller ID and I'm like, Oh, please, I don't want to talk to that person.
That's probably a good indicator that that's not an ideal client. But on the other hand, I've had people that will talk to me all day. I know who their kids are, you know, I know everything about them, but they never purchase, but they love to talk to me. So on both ends of that spectrum, I don't have an ideal client.
David: Yeah, but you probably are forming an idea even now because just based on what you said, it's like, Oh yeah, there's that person that talks a lot and doesn't buy. There's that person that's rude and obnoxious and does buy. Neither of them are ideal clients. So where's the middle ground? There are very likely clients that you have.
I think a good way to do this, this is something I've recommended to my clients a lot, is to print out a list of your clients, people who have spent money with you, in dollar order, from the most down to the least. Take a look at the top people on your list and ask yourself, how many of those meet the criteria of, you know, I like interacting with them, they're a good client, they're willing to communicate.
Chances are a lot of them are going to be that way. And some of them might not be, but very often the ones who cause you to flinch when you see their name come across the caller ID, very often they're not the ones that are at the top. They're down lower and they're taking up a lot of time. They're not generating a lot of revenue.
And at that point you can start making some of these determinations about what does constitute an ideal client from your standpoint?
Jay: Yeah, I love that. Being very deliberate. One of the other things you might find is one of those clients that you really like working with, you find out they're not really spending a lot of money, but they're taking a lot of your time because they love to chat and you have a great relationship.
So you may, in your mind, think this is an ideal client. When you actually put in the numbers and take a look, you may realize... It's not really working out the way I thought it was.
David: Yeah, you may also realize that somebody that you think of as an ideal client is actually a former client. Like they might not have purchased from you in years, but you like them so much that you tend to want to think of them as a client. And...
Jay: Yeah.
David: That's an important distinction to make. Because if you just like talking to them, that's great. Don't stop talking to them. But also don't make the mistake of thinking they're a client if they haven't purchased from you in a really long time.
Jay: Yeah, someday, somewhere in the future, they're going to purchase again and they're just not planning on it. They've moved on or they needed your service one time and you built a relationship with them and that's it. That's all you're ever going to have is a relationship, but not a financial one.
David: Yeah. And as salespeople, we're all prone to this. There are people we like, people we enjoy interacting with. It's like, Oh, well, at least I'll be able to have a nice conversation here.