Red Light, Green Light, Yellow Light

by Bill Zipp | May 11th, 2010
Marketing

An exercise most of us have completed is writing down a description of our ideal client. While I applaud the intent of this exercise, I think it falls short in truly defining what most of us need in a target client.

Instead I lead my clients in an exercise I call The Class A Client (or Customer) Profile. We start with listing all the characteristics of an ideal client, but then add to that list other information like business size, buying motives, geographical limitations, and budgetary requirements.

The end result may be pages of information that we edit, edit more, and edit again, getting the list down to five essentials that total no more than 50 words.

Here’s the tenth or twelfth version of my Class A Client Profile:

I work with independent small business owners
In business for 2 years or more
With 25 employees or less
Who are working harder, longer for less money than they ever would for someone else and want to change that reality
By engaging in weekly consulting for 3 months or more

How do I use this profile?

If a prospect meets only one or two of the criteria that I have learned over time is a good fit for me, they get a RED LIGHT, which mean STOP. Nothing good comes from misaligned work. I refer them to a friend or colleague and everyone thanks me later (including my wife). If a prospect meets four or five of the criteria, they get a GREEN LIGHT. In other words, GO. I get started with them immedately.

But, let’s face it, there are times when our client load is not full. Here’s a way to identify those who are close to ideal: if a person possesses three out of the five criteria, then it might make sense to work with them without the down-side of opening the doors to anyone who could fog a mirror and sign a check.

In other words, they receive a YELLOW LIGHT, and yellow means CAUTION. You may GO. You may STOP. Just think it through and have very good reasons for moving forward.

Finally, look at your five-point list (You’ve started working on one, right?), you may find one or two of the things on the list are deal-breakers for you. That is, there are no conditions under which you would do work if these criteria are not met. It may be as simple as working in a Windows environment versus Mac, or working with engineers versus graphic designers (or visa versa). If there’s an item on your list like this that’s true for you, make sure that it’s present every time.

How do you see the red light, green light, yellow light approach working for you?

Bill Zipp

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Reader comments (3)

This is a cool tool, Bill. Narrowing the list to 5 helps to bring focus. Making sure your dealbreakers are in the list keeps you aligned properly. (Ask for what you really want.)

I can see using this for my own client profiling, and for helping my clients focus on theirs. Thanks!

Lainie Turner | May 12, 2010