The notion of "choosing your customers" is a strange one - but it is really the key to faster and more profitable business growth.

It is tempting to look at a broad market and salivate at its potential. But if you go after the entire market, you often end up watering down your proposition and end up making customer acquisition more of a challenge.

If you think about it, by understanding and being very clear about WHO you want to acquire, your sales and marketing efforts can be that much more effective, efficient and directed towards your ideal customer group. When I present this notion to my clients the concept becomes immediately intuitive.


The process (ugh...did I really say "process") of understanding your "ideal" customer group is usually a lot easier than you might think. If you are a successful business then you obviously have done something right to acquire customers in the past. In fact, you likely acquired most of your customers for the same reason. The key is to figure out what that reason or reasons are.

Even though the answer 90% of the time is "Of course, we knew that" discovering the reason often takes some prodding from an external source who knows how to ask the right questions of you and your customers (hmm...external resources huh...who could that be!)

The idea is that the customers you are good at acquiring...and good at keeping are likely those customers that you are already best set to serve and are often your most profitable.

So imagine a universe where you only acquire those customers that are profitable, that will stay with you a long time, and that you enjoy working with.

It IS possible. You just need to figure out who they are, and then help them identify themselves as great prospects for you.

If you look around most companies spend a great amount of energy and words talking about themselves, their products, their services and so on...but very few talk about their clients. Who do they serve? Which types of customers have they best served.

This type of approach allows you to allow prospects to self select. Anchoring your marketing messages in "Who You Are" vs "Who We Are" is a fundamental shift in favour of acquiring more and higher quality prospects.

Customers want to buy from companies who will solve their problems and have solved the problems of customers or businesses just like them.

By focusing on who you best serve in your marketing programs and targeting your messaging at them...you don't give them any choice but to want to follow up and contact you. Chances are you are the only company actually speaking to their specific needs (a topic for a future post).

So the next time you get around to developing a marketing program, think about choosing your customers first and then building your program around them.