Common Characteristics of Great-Fit Clients

In our last newsletter, I discussed several bad-fit client types who, if you allow it, will steal the joy from your professional services business.

The world is filled with great clients for you and your practice, however, and over time you develop a keen sense of the common characteristics of those clients.

Depending on the nature of your business and your service discipline, some of the characteristics you’re looking for will be different. For example, if you're a professional organizer, you'll have your own unique questions for prospects in a value conversation, and you will be listening for different indicators, than will a business attorney, for example.

That said, here are several common traits and indicators of a great-fit client which generally apply regardless of the services you provide.

The Investor

Investors are individuals who understand the concept of return on investment and operate their business accordingly. They do not view their expenditures as sunk costs, but as investments which are meant to deliver a return. The return they are looking for could be in the form of additional revenue or expense savings. The best investors, though, also see intangible returns such as time savings for themselves and their team as possessing extremely high value.

These clients are ideal because they will understand the need for a value conversation which allows them to identify the tangible and intangible value you can deliver (return) relative to your fee (their investment).

You must respond to the investor by aiding them in articulating and understanding the value of the outcomes, both tangible and intangible, which you will deliver because of your work. Moreover, you must continue to have this value dialogue during the engagement, verifying with them that they continue to see significant returns from their investment in you.

The Exasperated

An exasperated client is one who is tired of the status quo. They are ready to get unstuck and want to go in a different direction. Their anxiety for a solution to their issues overwhelms whatever do-it-yourself or cheapskate tendencies they might have been affected by previously. You’ll get a sense of the level of their exasperation by the speed with which they want to get to “what’s next?”

Their level of exasperation may cause them to be impatient with the value conversation you are seeking to have with them. In such cases, you’ll need to explain that while you understand their desire for a solution, the questions you’re asking are necessary for you to craft high value solutions for them.

Otherwise, you need to move your keister. Don't delay in responding to questions, preparing and delivering a proposal, or getting the work started and providing updates. While the source of their exasperation may not be your fault, your role, nonetheless, is to give them comfort that help is on the way. They'll start to feel calm as they gain comfort in the decision to hire you, and that calm has enormous value.

The Decision Maker

In this context, I don't mean the individual who is making the buying decision per se. More specifically, I'm referring to the client who is not only the check writer, but one who is ready to quit dawdling around, hoping a problem will go away, attempting a solution on their own, or some other delay tactic. They are ready to decide on a course of action and move forward, and often they’re so ready they’ll tell you that. When you ask them what’s involved for them to make a decision on engaging you, they will have a ready answer.

As with the exasperated, there's a need for your speed with the decision maker as well. Get moving so that they'll start to realize the value of calm in having made the right decision to hire you.

Friends and Family

These individuals are those among your friends and family who, unlike the bad-fit friends and family who want special treatment, are those who are perfectly happy being treated just like any other client you have. They’re happy with no special treatment because they understand that they are helping you build a better business this way. They’re giving you a learning laboratory which will help you improve. They expect you to do the work, of course, but they’ll give you more latitude to correct mistakes and set things right if needed.

Don’t take advantage of their good heartedness by giving them any less service than what you’d offer to any other client. Give them the same excellent value and service, if not something extra, that you’d give to any other client. After all, they’re helping you with more than just revenue.

The Grace-Filled

The grace-filled are clients who are empathetic and see beyond the boundaries of their own engagement with you. They are full of enough grace and awareness to understand that you are a human being and not a machine. If you're a CPA, for example, they know, without having to be told, that your response time in March and the first two weeks of April isn't the same as it is in December, and they don't get freaked out about that.

They also understand that you need time away from your work to recharge. They intuitively understand that such times of rejuvenation serve to benefit them. They know that the fresher and more engaged you are, the better it is for them.

The grace-filled will ask how you are doing and sincerely mean it. Arguably even more important, they’ll ask how your spouse or your family are doing. They’ll never call you at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning unless it’s in your scope of service or they truly have an emergency. The grace-filled are a delight to work with because they operate with a generosity mindset themselves.

Don't Settle

You will never have a perfect set of clients. Everyone is human and has their quirks and their own bad days. Clients who are great fits for you and your business, however, have a lot less of those foibles.

Great-fit clients bring joy to your business. They pick you up when you're having a tough day or are down on yourself for some reason. They deliver value back to you which goes well beyond whatever revenue they account for in your practice.

Why would you settle for clients who don't give you such incalculable value?

#clients #professionalservices #businessdevelopment #pricevaluejourney

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John Ray?advises solopreneur and small professional services firms on their pricing. John is passionate about the power of pricing to change the trajectory of a business and the lifestyle choices of a business owner. His clients are professionals who are selling their “grey matter,” such as attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, consultants, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.

This post is an excerpt from John’s book,?The Price and Value Journey: Raise Your Confidence, Your Value, and Your Prices Using The Generosity Mindset Method, which will be released later this year. The book covers topics like value and adopting a mindset of value, pricing your services more effectively, proposals, and essential elements of growing your business. For more information on the book, as well as John's podcast,?The Price and Value Journey, go to?pricevaluejourney.com.