Adding To My Ideal Client Profile
June 22, 2009
Have you started developing your ideal client profile? It is important for every business owner to identify who that ideal client is and create a list or profile. At first, this was a challenging concept for me to grasp coming from the corporate world where I really had no choice in who I worked with. As a Virtual Assistant, I work with many different clients and have been continually learning who meshes with my personality. When our partnership is successful, I make note of those characteristics. Having this profile has helped me initiate conversations with potential clients as well as feeling comfortable letting clients go if our styles don’t blend.
Most recently, I added a very key characteristic to my client profile. A potential new client noted that she was direct. A bell went off in my head because I am too, but I hadn’t identified it. As a bookkeeper, I find this works very well with several of my extremely busy clients. I like to be quick and to the point in my emails. My questions are small and words few but there is no love lost in the directness of my message or their quick reply. We are not ego involved in the communication.
I struggle with email because fluffy writing does not come naturally to me. In fact, I normally don’t charge for my email time because I know this. I must carefully craft emails writing and rewriting sentences to get my message across. Just this past month, a client let me know they prefer email over phone contact and it proved to be more than challenging. I was told I spent too much time answering an email. Initially I felt discouraged but now realize that had I relayed my direct communication style to this client ahead of time, I may have been able to spend less time crafting and worrying if I was going to offend her in some way. Adding directness as a core characteristic to my client profile will definitely encourage me to seek such partnerships with my future clients. What characteristics would you include?
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