Have you looked at where your time is spent keeping your clients happy?
Spending time to identify similarities in your clients will make a major impact on your business. For instance, if you discover that many of your current clients are low income producing, yet use much of your time and energy you will be able to shift your energy to attracting a different kind of client.
When I owned an insurance agency, I had one client that produced about 30% of my income. As I began to track how much time I was using to keep this client happy, I realized that I did not really like this client, they were difficult, demanding and taxing. They used more that 80% of my time just to keep them happy. At the same time the rest of my clients were getting less than 15% of my time, they were responsible for 70% of my income, and they regularly sent me referrals. While the big client, sent me nothing but headaches. As I shifted my focus, spent more time with the clients I liked working with, and developed better relationships with them, I began to make more money and enjoy my business again. When my difficult client left for a lower bid, I did not feel the pain.
What I learned from this experience is not everybody is or should be my target market.
I understood the best target market for me were more clients like the ones I had. Businesses in the blue collar industries, like tool and die shops, and manufacturing companies who themselves had a niche market in the auto industry. When I understood that, I was able to build relationships with other people who wanted to do business with that target market.
Who are your clients?
Where are you spending your time?
Who are the clients that take little of your time but bring you consistent income?
How much income is each of your clients responsible for? (track the money)
Are you being referred to the clients you want or are you getting anybody?
The more time you spend identifying your target market, the more successful you will be at training referral partners to find those target market clients for you.
