I Gave In

I fought it for long enough. I knew I was fighting it.  I preached and pointed to it for so long, yet I didn’t follow through when it was my own time to live it out.  However, as I started talking to more people, I began to realize that some conversations just flowed more easily. I found I was far more valuable to the wonderful people in those conversations and subsequently they were far more willing to share their story.  We were building a connection by sharing similar experiences, good, bad, and ugly.  

So, who were the people in these conversations versus others?  They were my ideal client.  I gave in.  I gave in to being very specific on the individual or business that I’d be most suitable to help.  Before this realization, I was hesitant to say something too specific for fear of someone thinking I’m not a good fit.  When in reality it was quite the opposite.  Generic representations get generic results, i.e. not a good fit. 

Relief. Once I changed this mindset, relief is what I felt most.  I can now craft all of my messaging, my conversations, and most importantly, the service I deliver to cater to the very specific needs of my ideal customer.  The customer I can have the greatest impact for.  I no longer have to walk on egg shells trying to navigate sales conversations by snooping for a possible pain point and deciding if I can help in the moment.  I already know challenges, I understand them, and most importantly I can help solve them. The positives are many, I’ll leave it at that.  

One of the other things I’ve found in my conversations is that a lot of folks don’t have their ideal customer identified.  Mostly for the same reasons it was a problem for me.  What’s most interesting is that there are just as many that think they have an ideal client but as they describe it, it still comes across fairly generic.  Some businesses can get by with a generic customer profile or offering but they will always be most subject to market disruption, encounter issues with scaling, or simply be the vendor for now.  Though it seems a world ago, Amazon started by just selling books. 

Last but not least, I’ll leave you with my ideal customer.  I am focused on small to medium sized creative and marketing service companies of anywhere from 1-50 employees who aren’t satisfied with the status quo of their current business.  Likely, they are hitting a wall of opportunity or challenges and are looking for the ways around, over, or through.  

Thank you for reading.  I suppose I could give the the TL;DR.  Being super specific about your ideal client = GOOD, anything less = COULD BE BETTER.  For those that have asked, I’m on 95 of 150 conversations.  Unless I start attending speed networking and cheating a bit, the 150 is not going to happen.  I’m ok with that, I’m a quality over quantity kind of guy.  

Have a very safe, fun, or whatever kind of holiday season you enjoy best.

Sincerely,

Russel
“The Backboard”