PRECISE PROSPECT PROFILE INSTRUCTIONS & WORKSHEET. Precise Prospect Profile

Transcription

1 INSTRUCTIONS & WORKSHEET How to make your voice cut through all the marketplace noise? It s a challenge. Better, Faster, Cheaper. Everyone is screaming the same things and buyers are inundated with offers. You will be different. Your razor- sharp marketing sword will slice through the noise and resonate with your ideal prospects. You ll spend your sales time with high- value prospects who are likely to buy and will stay with you for a long time. They ll become your best customers. Don t make the mistake of thinking of this as some fluffy marketing exercise it s not. This is hard- core selling. What you are doing is qualifying the customers that will be a great fit for your company. It s $1,000 per hour work! Two clear insights are needed to realize this result: Precise Prospect Profile (PPP)- Describes your ideal prospect completely and clearly. Unique Selling Proposition (USP) Answers the question your ideal prospect has, Why should I buy from you? Precise Prospect Profile Our objective is to clearly define your ideal prospect the center of the bull s eye. Many clients worry they will focus too narrowly, and won t have enough prospects left. Remember this: Your Precise Prospect Profile is only for marketing purposes. It exists to make your marketing effective and have your prospects hear you. You can still do business with customers that don t fit your ideal profile that s up to you. Having the bull s eye gives you a target a place to aim your marketing. Even when you miss the target, you ll still get good customers! Another common question is, How many prospects profiles do I need, or can I have? If you have less than $5M in annual revenues, the answer is one. Just a single ideal prospect is enough. Companies smaller than this size don t have the resources to spread their marketing more broadly. You may struggle to answer some of these questions. Don t worry, that s normal. It s easy to take a first pass and scribble something down. It s hard to get to the precise answers we want. Take heart, though. You are willing to do the work and will have a huge advantage over your competitors. The best results come from looping. Complete the exercise, wait a week or two, then come back and do it again. You ll still get results from just your first pass that will only improve.

2 Let s get started. 1. Who are your favorite clients to work with? Think about current clients, past clients, and even ones who got away. Which competitors have clients you d love to have? Add them to your list. Make a list of 8-10 people or companies where you added great value and where your enjoyed your business relationship. 2. For each item on your list from step 1, what characteristics made them a favorite customer? Was it the type of work you did for them? Was it something about their personality? The business they were in? Be as detailed as you can, and capture as many characteristics as possible of your best customers. 3. Make a list of 8-10 people or companies you did not like working with or where things went badly. 4. For each item on your list from step 3, what characteristics made them a poor customer? Again, consider the type of work, their personality, their business, etc. Be as detailed as you can, and capture as many characteristics as possible of poor customers. 5. Create you customer criteria. Which customers do you want to work with? Which ones do you not want to serve? Example Criteria: Companies with at least $5M in revenue. No startups No retail companies These examples are all broad. Make yours much more specific be as precise as you can!

3 6. Go back to your list of favorite clients in step- 1. For each client, list the problem you solved or the result you delivered. At first, it s OK, to just list what you did for each customer. Then, go back, and translate it into the problem or result in the customer s words. What You Did: Implemented a Cloud Storage System. Customer s Problem: My documents are never where I want them. I need access to my documents whether I m using my desktop computer, tablet, or even my smart phone. 7. Complete your Precise Prospect Profile using the example below. If you don t know the answer or it doesn t apply put that in. You ll improve your precision over time. 8. Put everything away for a few days or a week. Come back and review it to see if you think of any more examples of ideal customers, poor customers, criteria or problems. Keep reviewing the list every few days until you think you ve really described your ideal prospect. Keep improving your Precise Prospect Profile. After a few iterations, you ll have a great tool to ensure your ideal prospects will hear you and respond to your offers.

4 Precise Prospect Profile: My Company Campaign Name: Best Customer Campaign Company Profile Size Revenues Number of Customers Number of Employees Number of Locations $ M 100 or more 100 or more 5-25 Sector Industry Job Functions (Titles) SIC Codes NAICS Codes Keywords B2B or B2C Computer Products VP or Sales, Director of Sales, Sales Manager Don t Know Don t Know Computer, storage, networking B2B Location Geography Language Nationwide English Company History Age Startups OK? 4+ Years Old No

5 Key Contacts Job Title Age Marital Status Sex VP of Sales 40 Married Not Applicable Current Situation Primary Drivers Problem Desired Result Pain Wants to grow sales. Is failing to meet quota. More good leads at a lower cost. Sales people are wasting time talking with unqualified prospects and are not closing. Business Goals Grow revenues now Triggers Just wrote a proposal for an unqualified prospect wasting time. Growing or Shrinking? Growing or Shrinking slightly. Urgency Don t Know

6 Structures Organization Existing Systems Has at least 5 direct salespeople Has an effective CRM Has a clean list Access to Decision Maker Can count on the support and commitment of the CEO Unique Sales Proposition (USP) USP Lifetime Client Value Have a USP or knows their differentiators and the unique value they can deliver. Lifetime customer value of at least $50K with recurring sales. Behavioral Culture and Traits Motivation Willing to invest Will value results Fit Yes, they purchase our services from outside suppliers

7 Collaborative Wills see us as a partner and value our contribution Willing to Focus Don t Know Action- Oriented Will do what they promise to do Marketing Attitude Believe in investing in customer acquisition

8 Persona Buyer Bill Bill is the owner of Notes

9