One of the most useful tools in your marketing tool kit should be an Ideal Client Description.  You could spend all of your marketing time, effort and dollars in trying to tell the almost 7 billion people worldwide about your services or products (or if you want to narrow that down a bit – the 311 million people just in the United States)!

But don’t you think that your time and dollars would be better spent sending your message out to those few companies (or clients or customers) who have a specific interest in your organization or product?  Or better yet, what about those who have a specific market problem that you know your product or service solves?

This is a major problem that I have seen with most small business owners.  They apply the “shotgun” approach to their marketing – hoping that if they shoot wide enough, tell their story loud enough, someone is bound to get it.  Most small businesses, however, only need ten or twenty really good clients.  Clients that know, like and trust you.  Clients that constitute a healthy business relationship – where both parties have responsibilities, needs and goals, and help each other get what they need.

You should have at least one of those clients already.  So study them.  Put together an Ideal Client Description based on that client or customer.  The top three questions you need to be asking are:

1. What are the Basic Characteristics of your Ideal Client?

Start with the name of the firm or individual, their industry, their size, the service or product they purchase and the revenue they have generated for you over the past 3 years.

2. What Problem does your Ideal Client have?

Every business has a problem or a pain point.  And to be truly successful, you need to pinpoint that problem and provide specific relief to your client.  You will never have a firm foothold until you can solve your client’s problem.  And this is a great time to really evaluate what problems you are solving for them.  Unfortunately, no matter what you THINK you are selling or providing, it is ultimately the customer who determines what you are selling or providing.  You don’t sell goods or services – you sell solutions to problems!

3. How does your Ideal Client Make Decisions?

Do you know what is hard for most small business owners to accept?  It really doesn’t matter what you like or dislike.  What truly matters is what your target market likes or dislikes.  And they will be making their decisions based on that very principal.  Talk to your current Ideal Clients – ask them how they came to choose you, and ask them to describe what it is you do for them.  I guarantee, it will be eye-opening!

The more information you can compile into this Ideal Client Description, the easier it is to begin to create content on your website, your blogs, and your promotional material that is specifically targeted to this group.  One additional benefit to focusing this narrowly is that you will often encounter much less competition.  You will have a huge edge over all the other businesses out there who claim to do it all.  Your potential clients aren’t fooled by that claim anymore.  Once they see that you know and understand their specific problem – and have a great game plan to solve that problem, you are already far ahead of the pack.

And the icing on the cake?  Your well-crafted and organized content (especially on the web) can lead qualified visitors right through the sales cycle.  They will easily move from Ideal Potential Clients to Ideal Current Clients.

You know, the kind you got into this business to serve?