It is important that you know how to describe your ideal client. Why? There are two reasons:
1. Doesn’t it make sense that you know what you are looking for? If you know what you want you have a better chance of finding it? You could waste a lot of time looking for oranges in an apple orchard.
2. More importantly, you have to be able to tell referral sources what type of client you want. Have you ever gotten a referral that you didn’t want? The way you keep that from happening is making sure that referral sources know what you want. If your minimum is $1 million, they aren’t going to send you a $35,000 referral that in the past you have probably accepted because you didn’t want to appear unappreciative.
There are two parts to your ideal client. The first is your minimum. You do not have time to provide a superior, Supernova level of service, to everyone. Your minimum allows you to control the size of your practice.
The second part of the ideal client model are the very important “soft” issues. What are soft issues? They are things such as trust, like-ability, following your advice and treating your support staff well. The easiest way to find the soft issues most important to you is to look at the characteristics of your favorite clients; the one you most enjoy.
The next time you are talking with your current clients, a COI or anyone you want to explain your service model to, make sure they understand what you consider an ideal client.
Exercise: Create a script explaining who your ideal client is and rehearse it with an associate until you can say it with no hesitation.