In Evergreen, I introduce two types of “problem” customers: Hungry Hippos and Problem Children.
Both have been mentioned in my Tuesday Tidbits before:
Click Here To Read About Hungry Hippos and Problem Children >>
But as we start the new year, and new marketing initiatives get underway, I found myself thinking about one of the most important, yet highly overlooked, parts of new customer acquisition:
Which types of customers don’t you want?
In some cases, knowing the types of customers you don’t want might be more valuable and useful than knowing exactly who you do want.
Here are a few questions to consider:
What types of customers are antithetical to your company’s values?
What types of customers continuously disrupt your sales and marketing team, taking their time and focus away from the right customers?
What type of customers are a constant source of frustration, complaints, and trouble costing you additional time and money in your customer service efforts?
If I’m talking to a prospective client, and they tell me that they’re looking for the cheapest hourly rate for a management consultant, I politely interrupt and tell them that we’d both wasting our times in continuing the discussion.
Because my best clients know that what’s important isn’t cost, but VALUE – the return on investment is what matters to them, not the perceived initial cost.
And so when a prospective client refuses to focus on value, and instead gets distracted by fees time and again, I know it won’t work for either of us.
And that’s not just because I’m never the cheapest option (although I never am).
Here’s the main point.
It’s because the heart of my work is about helping my clients provide tremendous value for THEIR clients. If they can’t understand the concept in their dealings with me, I know they’ll never understand it in their dealings with their clients.
Would you rather invest your precious marketing dollars in acquiring a lot of the wrong customers, or would you rather spend more to acquire a few of the right ones?
