How we finally figured out our ideal customer

We've had two conversations recently about identifying your ideal customer. One was with other agency owners, and they were mostly skeptical. The other was with a new client, and they were dying to figure it out.

When we first started, we were excited (and a little surprised) at every new project that came our way. They were all over the place, but we were eager to learn and happy to see money coming in.

Word of mouth and networking helped us grow from one project to the next. It was great until it wasn't.

We had cash-flow problems, and our revenue plateaued.

We offered too many services to too many types of clients, creating a steep learning curve on every project. Our expertise was growing, but it was too wide to be meaningful. We couldn't apply the learnings from one project to the next because they were so different.

Your story is probably similar, because we work with the leaders of professional and financial services firms, and they all have their version of this same story.

Fear kept us stuck. We were afraid of narrowing our offerings or narrowing our client base, because when you aren't in control of generating leads, saying no is terrifying. What if potential clients stop reaching out?

But you can take control. And the way out is always the way in. Through your clients.

Here's what we did.

We thought about it for two years (two years too many), but one exercise helped it click. We downloaded our entire client list for reference and put three categories on the whiteboard:

+ Who did we get the best results for?
+ Who did we enjoy working with the most?
+ Who engaged with our content and closed the fastest?

And surprise, surprise, there was a ton of overlap with professional and financial services firms. It's obvious now, but it took seeing it on the board to give us the confidence to step out of what was comfortable and into deeper water. Give it a shot.

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