Business adviser and author Chet Holmes uses a strategy called “The Dream 100” to identify the 100 prospects he would most like to obtain as clients. He then puts strategies and actions into place to do so.
Think about your market. It might be tough to come up with 100 “best” clients you’d like to have, but it’s easy to think of 10 when you categorize them differently.
Your list might look something like this:
- List the 10 clients you’d most like to have a testimonial from.
- List the 10 clients whose CEOs / business owners you would learn the most from.
- List the 10 clients who, after using your products/services, would have the biggest “upside”.
- List the 10 clients who would test your company’s strengths.
- List the 10 clients who would expose your company’s weaknesses.
- List the 10 clients whose demanding nature would will your company to step up their game.
- List the 10 clients who, as a group, would produce a wave of revenue that would transform your business.
- List the 10 clients who need products and services you don’t yet offer, but need to.
- List the 10 clients who wouldn’t likely survive without your help.
- List the 10 clients who would make you wake up in the middle of the night and think to yourself “I can’t believe I got those guys.”
Why break down 100 prospects into a list like this? Asking you to name 100 random prospects would like result in an impact focused on one thing – “just the sales”.
This set of lists takes you well beyond that. Instead of having to think of 100 ideal prospects, you have only 10 of a specific type to come up with and each one has a context.
More importantly, each of the 10 groups has a specific purpose.
- The 10 testimonial prospects need to be well-known in your market. Influencers. People or companies that, when mentioned, make people think your company hits home runs.
- 10 CEOs you’d learn the most from – Obvious. Good to have their business, but great to have them, effectively, as business partners.
- The 10 biggest upsides will make great turnaround / rags-to-riches stories that bring in more clients. Powerful stuff.
- The 10 clients to test your strengths are there because your strengths needed to be pushed – they ARE your strengths, after all.
- The clients to expose your company’s weaknesses are there because you need to be reminded of them and decide whether to let them be or eliminate them.
- Clients with a demanding nature are there to make your team better. Like your strengths, they too need to be pushed.
- The transformational wave of revenue is going to be needed if you get these other things right – because a lot of change is going to come one way or another.
- The 10 clients who need what you don’t have really need YOU. The fact that you don’t yet offer what they need will force you to stretch in your market.
- The 10 clients who wouldn’t likely survive without your help are there for several reasons. They’ll remind you of the small fry you might be ignoring. Maybe they shouldn’t survive without your help. What will you learn from that process?
But the 10 clients who would make you wake up in the middle of the night and think to yourself “I can’t believe I got those guys” are there for all the above reasons. They’ll push most of the buttons the other 90 clients will push – but in different ways.
The real reason they’re there is to push you and your business well beyond your current boundaries as you see them.
You need to be pushed. You need to realize that you have another level inside your business that you’ve yet to discover.
All that’s left is to go get that 100 clients.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site or contact him via email at mriffey at flatheadbeacon.com.