Strategy Problems
Of all the strategy problems that new and even partly-established business owners make, there’s one that burns them out, ruins their relationships with their customers, and puts them in a state of chronic stress and frustration faster than almost every other.That problem is, they try too hard to get too many clients… instead of using the right strategy to get the RIGHT clients.
To determine whether you have this problem, let’s see if you have any of the following symptoms:
- You feel pressured to be good at everything, because you’re trying to sell anything you can to anyone and everyone.
- You think you have to take on every project right away, regardless of your availability, for fear of losing a client by saying “no” or “later”.
Price is always an issue with your clients. - Your customers say “I can’t afford it”, ask for a discount, or try to guilt you by saying that you’re overcharging, and they clearly don’t see the value of your offering.
- You consistently attract the wrong types of clients – the ones who are demanding, unreasonable, and unable or unwilling to pay you what you’re worth.
- You’re struggling to stand out from your competitors and show how valuable your offering is.
- You feel like your business and time are commodities that are constantly at others’ disposal, instead of being your own to control.
If you’re experiencing any or all of these problems, it’s time to look at your marketing strategy and see what’s going wrong.
IT STARTS WITH KNOWING WHO YOUR IDEAL CLIENT IS, AND NOT CHASING EVERYBODY ELSE
You’re probably familiar with the 80:20 rule: 20 percent of your effort creates 80 percent of your results. Obviously, the exact numbers will vary, but the principle behind the concept holds true.
Why is the ratio of effort to results so disproportionate from one activity to another?
Because that high-producing 20 percent was focused on doing the right things, while the low-producing 80 percent was largely wasted effort.
If you don’t know who your ideal clients – the people who will bring you 80 percent of your profit – are, then you’re wasting a LOT of time, effort and possibly money by marketing to people who will only give you 20 percent of your results.
By the same logic, if you focus 80 or even 100 percent of your efforts on the people who will be your best customers, you’ll get a higher return on your investment. And by identifying your ideal client, you’ll know what kind of people you want to attract, and who you DON’T want to draw to your business.
Imagine being able to work exclusively with high-quality clients who are a joy to interact with, and to turn the difficult and unreasonable ones away, because you have enough potential clients that you can afford to pick and choose!
YOUR CONFIDENCE AND THE QUALITY OF YOUR SERVICE WILL ALSO INCREASE
When your strategy centers on attracting high-quality clients whose needs match your skill set, you’ll no longer feel pressured to perform services you aren’t great at, because you’re focused on providing a service at which you excel.
As a result, the quality of your offering will improve, because you’re working from your strengths, and you’ll feel more confident in your abilities.
You’ll also stand out from the competition, because instead of being just another general practitioner, you’ll be a specialist who creates a specific, highly desirable result in a way that no one else can.
THE 80:20 RULE DOESN’T JUST APPLY TO CHOOSING THE RIGHT 20 PERCENT OF CLIENTS.
Just as approximately 20 percent of your clients will bring you roughly 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your activities will bring you 80 percent of your results.
Your job as a business owner is to focus your time on those top activities, and for the less productive activities, to determine whether they’re truly necessary.
If the activity is necessary, and it’s either unskilled busywork or highly skilled work in a field where you don’t excel, hire it out as soon as you can.
And if the activity is not necessary, and it isn’t generating enough of a return to justify spending time on it, either adjust the way you do it so that it brings a greater return, or stop doing it altogether, and focus on something more productive instead.
What’s the first thing you need to do?
If you want to consistently attract great, high-paying clients, with less effort than you’re currently spending to attract bad clients, your first and most vital step is to identify your ideal client.
At onCOREventures, we help our clients to complete this important step, and we help them create a highly effective marketing plan to attract their chosen clients.
In just a few months, our clients have a fully built and operational system that brings them a steady stream of high-quality clients, so they can make more money, enjoy their work more, and stop spending effort on things that don’t work. Here is a link to the strategic marketing process that we use.
And if you’d like to start implementing some of the ideas in this post yourself, we have a free eBook on Strategy from Duct Tape Marketing, which provides priceless ideas and tools that you can start using right away. Click the image below to get your copy.
