IT Consultants: How Can You Attract Your Most Profitable Clients?

How to attract your most profitable clients

What kind of clients are you working with in your consulting practice or professional services firm? Are they the ones you want? Or, just whatever clients you can find? What if you could consistently attract your most profitable clients? In this video, I show you how.

If you’re attracting the wrong clients, your marketing is out of alignment. Marketing Misalignment is a pitfall you run into when you haven't clearly defined your target audience. Because if you don't know who they are, it’s impossible to know what motivates them or create marketing that attracts them. Let me give you an example.

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Case study: marketing alignment

When I started business coaching in 2011, I helped a small business in the financial sector generate millions in revenue. Their company was part of a highly fragmented industry. And when I first began helping them, they were struggling.

Their small business clients offered little potential for growth. They wanted more enterprise clients but had no idea how to get them. I looked at their situation and saw an opportunity they were missing.

A market research report revealed my client's most profitable market. And the end users wanted to create custom reports. So, I suggested to my client they offer a web portal with built-in reporting tools.

To help them generate leads, I suggested they send prospects an email with a login to an example web portal. This process became a key part of their marketing. And within a few months, they won a multi-million-dollar account.

Within a year, they had six enterprise clients and a steady stream of work. The key to their success was identifying their most profitable target market. Then they could discover the most effective way to get the best results.

So are you now convinced Marketing Misalignment is a pitfall worth avoiding? If not, here's my Open Letter on the subject.

Don't make the biggest mistake in marketing

Face it. The more misaligned your marketing is, the harder it will be and the longer it will take to get a client. And you won’t necessarily get the ones you want.

Philip Kotler is a Professor Emeritus of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He’s written over 80 books on the subject and is known as the father of modern marketing. And he says… “There’s only one winning strategy. It’s to carefully define the target market and direct a superior offering to that target market.”

So I’m shocked when I hear business owners say things like: “We can help any customer,” Or “We don't want to limit our options.” Or “Do we really need a target market?”

My point of view is that if your marketing is untargeted you're in a state of Marketing Misalignment. Since you’re not focusing on your most profitable clients, you’re losing money and working harder than you need to. So what can be done?

The solution is Marketing Alignment. Profile your most profitable past clients and identify all the factors that made them profitable. As you get new clients, keep realigning with your best opportunities to increase your profitability and build brand equity.

Pull the most effective marketing lever you've got

To summarize, Marketing Misalignment makes your business untargeted and unprofitable. Instead, create Marketing Alignment and attract your most profitable clients for your greatest return on investment.?