Building Your Clients Base - The ‘Selection Framework’

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“How can I get more clients for my practice?”

…is a question I have always been asked when helping professionals or a professional firm to grow their practice.

But actually, they are unconsciously asking another question (or they should):

?? “How can I get more of the RIGHT clients for my practice?”

So my first reply is to ask them a question. I want to ask you as well:

Do you have a strategy in your practice to select your right-fit clients?

If not, how do you know how to select the clients that fit with your practice and those who are not?

One thing is for sure, if you never addressed this issue, you’re probably slowing the growth of your own practice significantly in the short and definitely in the long term.

Let me explain.

The Essence of Selecting the RIGHT Clients

Having a process to select the right clients for your practice is essential.

Most professionals (especially in a down economy) are willing to take just about any client and/or project that comes through the door.

After all, if someone is willing to give you money, why turn them away, right?

Wrong.

Unfortunately, this line of thinking actually hurts the bottom line of your practice.

Let’s take your practice as an example.

Do you agree that in your current practice each new client that joins you represents a tremendous opportunity?

New clients mean new streams of revenue and new ambassadors for your practice that can generate new referrals in the future.

Even better, really great clients help us become better professionals, as we learn from their success (or failure), experience, and knowledge.

Avoid the Risk and Embrace the Opportunity

Many of us know that new clients mean also the need to invest more time, energy, and resources within your practice.

Successful professionals use their?business development time to invest in existing clients, to know them better, their wishes, their needs etc.

You also probably invest a lot of thinking time or a mental investment in your clients as a professional.

But if the client is the right client, this investment pays off 10x more.

If the client is the right client, this investment pays off 10x more.

CLICK TO TWEET

In contrast, when a client is a poor fit for your practice and the relationship is a struggle, most (or all) of that initial business development investment is wasted.

You find yourself spending a lot of valuable time only to put out fires with these clients in the end.

Pity, since your time is your biggest commodity.

…And actually, it’s also just not fun.

When the relationship with the poor-fit clients finally comes to an end, you often do not get any referrals and “follow-on work”.

A pure lose-lose scenario.

Learn to Say “No”

In my experience of helping many professionals from all over the world to grow their practice, I learned that many professionals have a problem with saying “No.”

Look at it this way:

Saying “no” to poor-fit clients means having more time and energy to say “yes” to good-fit clients.

This single decision will SWITCH your practice to make it more efficient, and to turn relationships into more referrals and revenue.

To help you understand it, even more, let’s do a small exercise together.

OK?

[I actually learned this exercise many years ago when I was looking to make changes in my own professional practice then. It works!].

(1) Get a piece of paper (or use an excel sheet on your computer) and draw 3 columns.

(2)?In the first column, list your current clients in order of their profitability – most profitable at the top, least profitable at the bottom.

(3) In the second column, write the annual revenue the client brings to your practice.

(4) Use the third column to apply adjectives to each client (ex: joyful, easygoing, loyal, energy-boosting, pleasant, fun, energy-draining, untrusting, etc.)

(5) Now go back and circle all of the clients that have negative adjectives.

[Go do this exercise before continuing reading this below…]

What is very interesting and clear from this exercise – there is a direct link between the great clients (those you gave positive adjectives) to the most PROFITABLE clients in your practice (don’t confuse this with gross revenue!).

Your business development activities will be fun and joyful when you spend your time selecting the clients you want to work with.

The Process of Selecting the Right Clients

To find your RIGHT client we need to create a process within your practice.

To find your RIGHT client we need to create a process within your practice. CLICK TO TWEET

It is easier than you think, but you need to be willing to dedicate time to work on it [I will be happy to help if needed!]

Here is the process, in short. I warmly recommend you to adopt it in your practice:

Step #1: Research

The first step is to create small research.

You want to check the list of your clients in the last 12-18 months.

Of those clients, which were a pleasure to work with?

Why? What is the reason those clients decided to work with you???Who were the most profitable?

The answers to these important questions will give you the first important clues of who are the RIGHT clients.

Tip: You may want to add some qualitative information about your former clients to your research.

Information like: What are these good-fit clients’ interests? What do they like to do in their free time? Etc.

This sort of information will help you to also know WHERE and WHEN you can look for your typical good-fit clients and get connected to them.

Remark: this is relevant to business development efforts of finding the right clients both offline as well as online.

Step #2: Commit

The answers you have gathered are a list of criteria any of the future clients of your practice should fulfill (or at least the majority of the points).

So, your next step in creating your process to find the right clients is to commit to using the criteria you just defined as your new rulebook for accepting new clients.

In other words, if a new potential client doesn’t fit, then respectfully decline from accepting them.

Yes, decline them! [you’ll thank me later...].

Step #3: Act & clean

Now, the next step is two-folded.

First, you need to continue, on a regular basis, to find other potential clients like the good-fit clients.

You want to replicate and get new clients like your most profitable, best-fit clients.

This should be clear guidance for many of your business development activities with your practice.

The second part is a bit more difficult.

Over the next 12 months let go of the poor-fit clients that you still serve.

Yes, get rid of them!

I am aware that it is one of the hardest things you will have to do…

(I know, I did it too!)

…but at the end of the process, it will be definitely rewarding.

Trust me.

Having a practice full of clients who appreciate and respect the work that you do for them and are a great fit for your business development goals – should be your ultimate goal.

It is one of the most important business development activities you can take within your practice.

Finding the perfect process for your practice can take some testing, but once you find the right one, you’ll know that your business development time of finding the right clients is spent wisely and will get more results for your practice.

I know that your next (natural) question is –

“Okay great, I am getting in front of the right clients but how do I engage them and make them my clients?”

I will leave the answer(s) to this question to be a subject of a new future newsletter.

But for now, I am happy that you got a process to find the right clients for your practice.

Poor-Fit not Bad: It’s All Relative

What we’ve written so far is focused on preparing to reach more clients, but once you have your process, it’s time to act.

The most obvious approach is to reach out directly on your own.

And when you don’t have time to do it, you can outsource that work to me and my SWITCH team, we will be happy to help.

As a parting thought, I’d like to share why I’ve talked about “poor-fit” clients and avoided talking about “bad clients” in this newsletter.

Certainly, there are truly “bad” clients in the market.

Maybe you had experience with one of them. They’re unethical, disrespectful, dishonest, etc.

However, the majority of clients have good intentions and are truly looking for a good professional to help with their needs.

Your goal, as a professional, is to identify those clients that align and are a good fit with your services and values.

Your goal, as a professional, is to identify those clients that align and are a good fit with your services and values. CLICK TO TWEET

They’re with no doubt?your BEST clients?and will lead to the long-term success of your practice.

What is your way to select and attract the right clients to your practice? Please share.

??Want to discover more on how to build your authority in your field on a consistent basis and attract the right clients – and the steps you need to take?

???Download my workbook [for free] here and answer all the relevant questions or schedule a strategy call here.

If you have any specific questions with regards to building your authority position and your personal brand or building authentic relationships with clients and internally, please send us an e-mail and I will be happy to help.

???Looking for a mentor? I have 2 last places in my new mentoring program. If interested, send me a PM or email to: [email protected]

Until the next edition, SWITCH ON and keep STANDING OUT!

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Warmly,

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Itzik is considered the global leading authority on business development, business networking & personal branding. He is a highly sought-after international speaker, trainer, business mentor, & attorney-at-law. He is also the bestselling author of “The Attention Switch” & Founder of THE SWITCH?? , the leading online training, and education platform for professionals globally. Itzik teaches trains and mentors lawyers, other professionals, and firms to attract and win their ideal clients by becoming seen as authorities in their field, creating and maintaining successful and strategic relationships, and learning to SWITCH their relationships to referrals+revenue+results.

See more information: itzikamiel.com | THE SWITCH???or connect with Itzik via: [email protected]