4 ways to Pick Your Prospects to Power Your Profitability

You probably do not need to be told this: some customers are more profitable than others.  If you can learn to pick the RIGHT prospects to be your customers, you will truly accelerate your profitability.

While this is more challenging to do than to say, there are some things you can do in your marketing to bring yourself more profitable customers.

1.  Target those prospects with a bigger reason, or “Why,” they want your product.  This is not a question of how they will use your product.  It is really about the emotions associated with what you sell.    A good example is a landscaper who markets not to people who just want a nice-looking flowerbed; but to the people who want top win “Yard of the Month.”  So, instead of dropping flyers off at the houses with ugly  lawns; they introduce themselves to the people with the BEST lawns in the neighborhood.

2.  Make your Advertising about your most profitable Customer.   I am sitting here looking at numerous ads that are basically a list of items or services.   When you do this, you are BEGGING people to shop you around.  And those people who are looking to “shop” you are very price sensitive.    A construction company that says they do Patios gets less profitability from their customers than the contractor who offers Backyard Entertainment Areas.

3.  Position yourself as an INVESTMENT instead of a purchase.    Interestingly enough, many businesses strip away features and benefits from their offerings to be able to offer (what THEY think is) the lowest price.  Unfortunately, this moves you closer to becoming a purchase instead of an investment; and, when that happens, you end up targeting prospects who are MORE price sensitive.   Wal-Mart can sell bicycles to children who want to ride them around the neighborhood; you should sell bicycles to people who are looking to ride in triathlons.

4.  Focus your marketing on customers for whom your product is a LOW % of their cash flow.  The smaller the percentage; the easier it is for you to get them to “try it out” if they have never used your product/service before.   The key word in this rule:  FOCUS.    This rule is almost never broken intentionally; but because you think that promoting yourself to “as many people as possible” is the way to go.    Whether you have $1,000 or $100,000 to spend on Marketing;  focus your resources on those who can more easily afford more of your product or services.    As an added benefit, once these prospects become your customers: you can increase your profitability by offering them more opportunities to invest in and benefit from your products and services.

In your business, the more you work you do around making sure you are marketing to the RIGHT prospects; the more likely they will come to YOU, and the less work you will do trying to convince them to buy.