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How To Identify Your Best Target Clients

This article is more than 2 years old.

To attract high-paying clients, trusted advisors must be crystal clear on their ideal prospect.

Once I asked an attorney what kind of law he practiced. He replied: “Rent law. Any law that pays the rent.”

Before a trusted advisor like a consultant or professional can generate solid client leads, they need to clearly define their target prospect. 

The search begins with this question: What problem do you solve and for whom?

Here are some examples:

Financial advisor: “I work with people who do not know if they will have enough money to last after they quit working.”

Family law attorney: “I work with couples who want an amiable divorce and do not want a judge to force them to liquidate assets.”

Accountant: “I work with leaders of nonprofit organizations to make sure they do not run afoul of the IRS 501c tax codes.”

Business consultants: “I work with owners of multimillion-dollar family businesses who do not know how to exit so they can afford to retire.”

Some say there are only three flavors of problems: money, health, and love. But it is the specifics that create powerful business development.

But a target market with a problem is not enough. Trusted advisors also must find target clients that can afford to pay what you want to charge.

Finding a target market takes time, effort and a dedication many would-be trusted advisors do not know how to give.

In researching a target market, here are ten filter questions to ponder, in the following order:

1.   Are you interested in solving the problems this group has? If their problems do not energize you, that should be a nonstarter.

2.   Have you worked with any already? Targeting prospects you have never worked with is possible, but not probable. Prospects want a successful track record.

3.   Can they afford you? Money isn’t everything, but it is certainly one important thing.

4.   Are they willing to pay more for better service? There is no winning the low-price provider game. You cash bigger checks by providing better service to those willing to pay for it.

5.   Do they already know they need a trusted advisor like you?  If you have to educate the prospect that they need a trusted advisor like you, then you are waging an uphill battle. Everyone knows they need tax help (some call the 16th Amendment to the Constitution the Accountant Full Employment Act).

6.   Are they numerous? One of my clients goes ice fishing. He says: “If you want to catch fish, go to a fishing hole where the fish are. The more fish there are, the better the fishing will be. That’s just math.”

7.   Do you have few real competitors? If this is an attractive market, then it will attract other trusted advisors. Even if you discover and create a new market, others will find it too. The trick is to offer a unique problem-solving process, which you document and trademark. Clients like process and differentiation like a proprietary process that you value as intellectual property.

8.   Can you find them easily enough through lists and associations? Demographics matter. You should be able to define with numbers your target market. Psychographics are well and good, but it’s hard to find a list.

9.   Can you find a target-rich environment where they gather? Go again to the fishing hole metaphor. If you prefer, what is their watering hole? What do they read and what do they attend? You can Google that stuff (I know, I used a noun as a verb).

10. Will some make marquee clients, advocates and references? This might be a hush-hush group that never wants it known that you helped them. That will make it hard to demonstrate a successful track record in your testimonials.


Bottom Line: The more quality thinking you do upfront, the easier your business development will be.

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