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exercise you can determine in
which vertical markets you have
the greatest sales and profitability.
•
Classification.
Next, look carefully
at each client and determine
their hierarchy. I like using an A
through F system; let me explain.
ºº “A” listed companies aremy
top-level clients. I consider
themso because they
appreciatemy value, don’t
beat me up on price, are open
to suggestions and ideas,
pay on time, are easy towork
with, have potential to grow,
spend $30,000 annually, their
business givesme a high
gross profit, etc.
ºº “B” through “D” listed
clients and prospects are
just a step down at each
level—each category and its
characteristics are different
for each distributor. You set
the rules.
ºº “E” listed clients are ones
that have all negative
characteristics: pay late,
always complain, don’t
appreciate or valuemy
suggestions, not profitable,
etc. Consider getting rid of
these clients because they are
wasting your time.
ºº My “F” listed accounts are
held in this category for 120
days for evaluation purposes
so I can determine their true
value tomy organization.
Evaluation And Marketing
To Classification Levels
By having a baseline
understanding of my best and
worst clients, I can now look at
mapping these characteristics
when creatingmymarketing plan
and determining which clients I
market to first. Remember, you have
only 24 hours in a day, and only
“x” number of hours for business
activities, so it’s imperative to spend
themwisely with those clients that
give you the greatest returnwith the
least amount of drama. Youwant
to nurture your accounts—trying
where possible tomove themup the
scale: “C’s” to “B’s” and “B’s” to “A’s.”
Keep inmind this doesn’t always
happen, but it should be your goal.
Targeting The Right
Prospects With
The Right Message
This process will also help assure
that your marketingmessage
resonates with your targeted
audience. Marketing is testing and
is not an exact science; however,
marketers canmake a strong
impact with their messaging if it’s
targeted properly.
In today’s world it’s not
uncommon for distributors to show
a self-promotion product, a pen,
for example, to their client and
cross their fingers that they’ll get
the order. But if the client is trying
to drive their audience to an event,
a penmay not be the right product
to accomplish that result. So in that
case, themessaging is irrelevant
and, therefore, so is the distributor.
When I target prospects I use a
funnel sectioned off in layers (see
diagram). For example, the number
of lawfirms in Chicago is huge. But
when I insert a layer of criteria, I
manage to narrowdown the field.
Themore layers or criteria, the
narrower the field.This is important
because, generally, we try to go after
toomuch newbusiness at once.
The average distributor couldn’t
handle 50 to 100 new clients; it
500 Law Firms
in Chicago
Practice
Corporate Law
5 mile radius
of downtown
100+
employees
Have a marketing
department
Bilingual
By adding criteria
you narrow down the
targeted field; remove a
criterion or two and you
expand the target list.
When we
understand the
specific needs of
our clients, our
efforts will pay
big dividends. It
is imperative that
our messaging be
about them and
not about us.
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