The How To Get Ideal Clients Exercise

We all want to find the PERFECT, IDEAL, BEST clients. The ones that are the easiest and best to work with, pay a premium, pay it upfront and fast and never gripe but only rave about your work to everyone.   In our WProsper surveys, “finding better or ideal clients” has been the biggest struggle (and theme) we’re hearing from you. Great clients make our lives better. And we all strive to work for and with these type of clients (even if our definitions are different for who they are). But how do you find those ideal clients? In this post, I wanted to offer some thoughts and exercises that I use to figure out who our best clients are and how to work with them more. OK, let’s dig in to the Ideal Client Exercise … First, you start with where you are, by thinking through who have been the best and worst clients. (Pro Tip: Before I had a ton of clients, I thought about the various bosses I’ve had in the past and went through the exercises I’ve listed below and found doing that to be very helpful when I was just getting started.) For things like this, I use a mind map, typically because it’s easy to get a lot of thoughts out and organize and add to them. But I’ve also used a spreadsheet too. (Your choice!) Sometimes you’re going to be guessing. Sometimes you have real data. Either way, you’re trying to form a picture of who these best and worst clients are so you can find or flag them. But the key is to reflect back and immerse yourself in these bad and good experiences so you get a clear picture of WHO you’ve worked with that you’ve enjoyed most and WHO you don’t ever want to work with again.

Step 1: Name Your Best Clients

List your top 5 FAVORITE clients you have worked with. Just put their names down. The ones that instantly come to mind. You should be smiling as you type their names.

Step 2: Name Your Worst Clients

List your top 5 WORST clients you have worked with. Just put their names down. The ones that instantly come to mind. You are probably frowning and your stomach hurts.

Step 3: List the Reasons They Made the List

For each list of Best and Worst, start listing out WHY you listed them in each category. You might get started immediately by listing out what first comes to your mind about them. But here are some questions to guide you:

• What was the project type or product?
• What were their expectations at the beginning?
• What did they say they wanted? What were they seeking to get? Why did they start a project with you? (In their own words as best as you can)
• How did they react to your quote?
• How much was their project total?
• What about payment? Did they pay fast or slowly and how did they pay? If they didn’t pay, why didn’t they?
• What was the entire process like? (Highs & lows – and why they were either)
• What was their attitude like through the process of working with them? (And why did they have that attitude?)
• What was the communication like? (Pre-sale, sale, project, after launch/project)? What method of communication did they prefer? And what was that like?
• What were their demographics and job titles or organization type? (Male or female? Age bracket? Small Business? Etc.)
• How did they find you? What or who was the referral source?
• What did they think/say they gained from working with you? As best you can, in their own words, what did they get?
• OR … What did they think/say they LOST from working with you?
• If there was tension or conflict, what was it about? If communication broke down, what happened?
• What didn’t they like about working with you?
• Why did they love working with you? What were the keys they would say attracted them to you?
• Have they referred other people to you?

Step 4: Dig Deeper to Get to the Why and Because

For each attribute for both good and bad clients, go back and now ask WHY? and write the answer starting with BECAUSE … For example, “They paid fast. WHY? BECAUSE … they knew I had a wait list and were eager to start.” You want to push yourself here, don’t settle for quick and shallow answers. Dig in even if it’s not a pleasant experience because you need to figure out why these things happened or were true so that you can better find and filter them in the future. Ask: What were their beliefs, expectations, hangups, philosophies?

Our actions betray or display our beliefs.

By asking why they did something, and digging in, you can get to a core belief or expectation. And again, finding a commonality that’ll come in handy in the next exercise. i.e. “This client believes that web designers are merely assemblers. They are the masterminds of their marketing and we are just cogs in their machinery.” i.e. “They value what their expertise and time … and seek out experts for what they don’t know best. They choose me because I am their web design expert and they know they make more money concentrating on their field.” OK, now here’s a hard question as you dig in … what about YOU?

• What were YOUR beliefs, expectations, hangups, philosophies? (i.e. I do not like talking on the phone. In fact, I hate it. My best clients were the ones who did not demand or request phone calls. It was my hangup not theirs. But simply knowing that helped me find and filter the best clients for me.)
• Are there things in your process that you can manage or communicate better? (It’s likely you’ve seen some things that you can do in your communications with them, or on your site, or in the process.)
• What was your attitude toward them — both good and bad clients? And why?
• What were your expectations about the projects?
• Could some of the problems or conflict you had with the “bad” clients have actually been your fault?
• Turn the tables and ask why they might have thought you were a bad provider.

Step 5: Find, Flag and Filter

Now, it’s time for the awesome part where you ask: What do they all have in common? You’re looking for commonalities in both groups so that you can identify them better and faster. In two separate nodes or columns, I put BEST CLIENTS and WORST CLIENTS and then start listing the commonalities. “They pay fast.” “They think of me as the expert.” Or … “They micromanage every aspect of the work.” “They insist on calling me at night and on weekends.” By now you should have a great list to start finding more of the best and flagging and filtering out the worst. This list will grow and adapt over time to you, your client base and your business. It will become your checklist and as you talk with prospects, you’ll hear red flags then be able to better manage their expectations or refer them to someone else. You might also find something your ideal clients have in common that you can explore (are they mostly nonprofit organizations, or Internet marketers). Based on the previous exercises, it might also be time to tweak or change your process, communication and approach. Ask yourself:

• How did they find you?
• Are there things you can do better on your site to manage expectations and attract the right clients?
• Are there things in your process and communication that you need to fix?
• Are you asking for referrals and testimonials from your best clients?
• Are you getting input from all your clients after delivery of the project in order to know in their words how things went, like sending a post-launch email survey?
• Are you keeping in touch with your best clients?

I hope these exercises have been helpful to you. I typically take this kind of data and let it simmer, too. Sometimes new thoughts will breakthrough as you ponder who you’ve worked with and why they were great. It’s likely you’ll come up with new ideas for marketing your work to the cream of the crop. And that’s the fun part!