Here is our fun analogy:

Imagine you own a salon and a bald man in his seventies walks in and purchases $500 in shampoo. Will you sell it to him? Of course. Do you want to market to him….I don’t think so!

Excellent post!

Actually I don’t think you disagree at all – you simply interpreted ideal to mean what most people consider ideal – ideal is ideal to you and that’s what you are attracting – you actually helped make my point quite well.

I agree – when you help someone be a great client you’re going to deliver more value through that process alone.

I think when you can identify the behavior that makes a client idea it gets much easier to spot who is and who is not a fit

It got me thinking about our journey to define our “ideal client” so that we can recognise them when they come along, and seek them out more proactively.

I’ve eventually worked out that “Marketers with some skin in the game” are my ideal buyers.

And I’ve learnt that clients with big budgets are nice to have, but not as good as clients who are nice decent people and who want to learn. I’ve tried to introduce affordable “price points” from free to 6+ figures to cater to our “ideal clients” depending on their budget and where they are in their journey.

Plus I’ve said no to a few wrong clients along the way too, which frees me up to service ideal clients better!

thanks B, This is why i wrote the provocative comment — to generate this kind of feedback, and advice.

I disagree. Sure, there are nice people and mean people everywhere, and you run into some of each in business. I don’t think this is what this is about, though. I used to be a fitness trainer. I found a sweet spot in people who were going through LIFE changes (career, marriage/divorce, pregnancies) and, for whatever reason, coped with that by pursuing physical change through exercise. These people varied in how much money they actually had. The common thread was where they were psychologically. Now these people weren’t EVERY trainer’s Ideal Client. They fit my particular style, philosophy, and how I liked to relate to people. I learned to vet for this state of affairs when I interviewed clients. I took the kinds of continuing education that built the skills most applicable to these clients. These people were less price sensitive because they wanted exactly what I had to offer not just in the vicinity of what I had to offer.