One way to grow your EOSⓇ business faster is to attract and cross-sell ideal clients. These are the types of clients that appreciate what you do and can buy everything that you sell.

Unless you have a limitless marketing budget and massive sales team, trying to sell to everyone is a recipe for failure. Both your message and efforts get diluted, lost in a vast ocean of noise. Plus, you end up wasting a lot of time talking to prospects who really don’t value what you do.

It’s kind of like your garden hose. When you first turn it on, there is a stream of water, but not much pressure. When you add a nozzle to the end, you can focus the stream of water and create pressure. If you want to kick it up a notch, connect your hose to a pressure washer.

The more you focus your stream of water, the more effective you can be. Similarly, the more you focus your marketing and sales efforts around ideal clients, the faster you can grow your business.

In Traction, Gino Wickman talks about building “The List”. We call the companies on this list, “Ideal Clients.”

Let’s explore how to identify ideal clients and focus your efforts to grow faster.

Building The List

In our Revenue Growth Workshops, we lead teams through the process of building their ideal client profile. At the end of the process, they have identified three things:

1. Value: The revenue potential of an ideal client over 10 years
2. Description: The characteristics of an ideal client
3. Data Profile: The data profile of an ideal client

With the description and data profile in mind it is possible to identify “The List” talked about in Traction.

In reality, you should have two lists:

1. Ideal Clients: Current clients that fit the profile of being an ideal client.
2. Ideal Prospects: Target companies that fit the profile of an ideal client.

With your ideal client profile, it becomes possible to build a list of ideal prospects. These refined lists can be created with the help of data providers who can source information on the specific companies that fit your ideal client profile.

Once you know the companies that fit the profile, you also need data on the key decision makers and influencers in each of these companies. 

What To Do With The List

These ideal clients and prospects should be clearly marked in your CRM and marketing automation systems. This makes it possible to track metrics around sales and marketing processes such as:

• Sales
  • 100% Management of ideal clients
  • 100% Coverage of ideal prospects with prospecting
• Marketing
  • Communication cadence with ideal clients
  • Outbound marketing to ideal prospects

Processes can be created, trained, and documented in each of these four core areas.

Step one is to get clear about your list. The more focused your Ideal Client Profile, the more you can focus your marketing and sales efforts. This will help you accelerate your growth.