How do you attract more clients like your most profitable clients?

If you’ve been involved in the business development activities of a professional services firm for any length of time, you’ll be very familiar with the ‘Pareto Principal’ – also known as the ‘80/20 Rule’. The ‘80/20 Rule’ is so named because, when applied to your firm’s profit analysis, it suggests that roughly 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your clients. Subsequently, the remaining 80% of your clients are only contributing 20% of your profit.

Knowing this, why aren’t you doing more work for the 20% over the 80%? In this article, we look at five key strategies to do just that.

Phase 1: Work out the persona of your most profitable clients

Before you can attract more of your ideal clients, you need to know what those ideal clients like. So, the first thing you need to do is audit your current client base and identify those that bring in the most revenue and profit. 

Things you need to be looking for are:

• Do they share a similar industry sector?
• Are you doing the same type of work for them?
• Are they of a similar business size (for B2B)?
• Is there a consistent approach to pricing?
• How are you wining this work – referrals, tenders?
• Why do they want to work with you?

Once you have some idea of what your ideal client persona looks like, you can then move on to the next phase of this process.

Phase 2: Understanding your ideal client’s pain points

In this phase, we need to dig a little deeper into the challenges your ideal client will likely be facing and how you solve these problems for them?

Keep in mind: 

1. Your ideal client might not know they are facing a problem; and 
2. Your ideal client might not know who you are and the services you provide.

Don’t worry too much about this right now. We can address that in phase 3.

Phase 3: Implement a strategic marketing campaign

Now that you have a clear idea of who your ideal client is, and the problems they are facing, get rid of all your other marketing campaigns and adjust your marketing strategy to focus only on this group. 

Focus on:

• Targeted content: Develop content that addresses the specific needs, pain points and interests of your ideal clients. This includes blog posts, whitepapers, case studies and videos that showcase how your services solve their problems.
• Social media marketing: Join social media platforms where you know your ideal clients are most active (this could be LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr, etc). Share relevant content, engage with their posts, participate in industry discussions and run polls (a great way to garner even more insights about them).
• Email campaigns: Craft personalised email campaigns (Mailchimp or Substack are good options) that speak directly to the needs and challenges of your ideal clients. Highlight the benefits of your services and include testimonials from similar clients.

Phase 4: Leverage client testimonials and case studies

Nothing builds credibility like social proof. 

Gather testimonials and case studies from your best clients that showcase the results you’ve helped them achieve. Highlight specific success stories on your website, social media and marketing materials. Potential clients who fit the same profile will see themselves in those stories and be more inclined to work with you.

Also, people like working with people they like. So don’t be shy to ask your best clients for referrals.

Phase 5: Invest in client retention

Finally, make sure you keep the clients you win. Invest in 

• Exceptional client service: Provide a consistently high level of service to keep your clients happy and satisfied. 
• Regular check-ins: Schedule regular check-ins to ensure that your clients are getting the most value from your services and to address any issues promptly.
• Exclusive offers: Don’t reward unprofitable new clients with discounts! Provide your ideal loyal clients with exclusive value-added offers, easy access to you, or, if needed, personalised discounts.

Conclusion

Attracting more clients like your most profitable ones requires a strategic approach that starts with understanding who those clients are and what makes them valuable to your business. 

By creating a persona of your ideal client and then implementing a marketing strategy around this, you will go a long way to making sure you work with profitable clients over non-profitable clients who eat up a lot of your time! 

Find this article useful or interesting?

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• Why your firm needs a Key Client Program
• 10 benefits of having a Key Client Program
• 5 after-sales services you should be providing to your clients
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