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It’s time to put a wrap on our conversation about target accounts. It is important to emphasize here that lacking specific criteria for choosing the right client can be a death sentence for early stage companies.

Not all clients are a good fit for your company. It is your responsibility as a leader to choose wisely and thoughtfully about with whom you do business. Here are some questions you should ask yourself when analyzing your client base:

• Are all of our clients profitable? If you don’t know, find out. For those that are not, put a plan into place to make them profitable. If that cannot be accomplished, or if they are unwilling to become profitable - it’s gut check time…I say walk away.
• Which of our clients are not paying in agreement with our terms? Then do the same analysis as above
• Are any of our clients putting such pressure and demands on us that it is negatively impacting the rest of our base? Then ask - is it worth it?
• Are any of our clients too big or too small for us to effectively service? Some symptoms of this are, 1) unrealistic demands from the larger companies, 2) services requirements that are outside your capabilities (again, usually larger companies, 3) support agents upset about the amount of time it takes to service accounts vs. what they are paying (could be either too small or too big of clients)…etc. Once a reasonable service range is established then do not extend beyond that range

With these answers in hand, you are now able to build a target client description that will allow you to focus. This focus will save you time (in service, marketing and sales), money (in service, marketing and sales) and headaches (from staff and personally). So, let’s now take a look at an example of a well-documented target account.

Target Account for “Well-Run Inc.”

Employee Size - Privately Held (25-250)
Revenue Range - ($3M - $100M)
Contact within Account - CEO
Geography - Greater San Francisco Area
Payment Terms - ACH or Credit Card
Contract Value Range - $10 - $100,000 / year
SIC Codes Serviced - Major group (47,60-67, 70-89)
Unique Conditions -

• Strong Management Team
• B+ Better D&B rating
• 50% of staff uses computers
• Windows Environment (non-Mac)
• Internal IT Department
• Willing to work within Scope
• Consistently Meets Delivery Schedule or adjusts timelines when they do not
• Willing to attend quarterly review meeting
• Will refer you to others

For those of you in the professional service industry, this description probably sounds like a dream…and in some ways you are right. But there are companies that closely match this description. There may not be 1,000’s but there are at least a few hundred given the geography (Greater San Francisco Area) I’m sure.

And wouldn’t your company be more predictable, easier to run and more enjoyable if you were able working with them verses the alternative?
Comments?

Here are some additional resources for you to review:

Wikipedia on Target Market

Entrepreneur Magazine

Duct Tape Marketing

All Business

In this cast we discuss estimating the time it takes to complete your deliverables. From our previous casts on this subject, we outlined the importance of determining deliverables for your team - now we are going to look at how and why you should take the next step - and that is estimating and tracking deliverable time.

The Goals of today’s cast are to share with you:

• The importance on estimating deliverable time
• The importance of measuring deliverable time
• How this process can greatly impact your ability to execute
• Steps that you can take today to start estimating and tracking your deliverable time
• Making sure that the priority of deliverables are clear

 

 Estimating Time [6:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In my last post, I shared suggestions on how to create a target client profile. Now that you have a draft it is time to share it with you management team as well as others within your company. The purpose of this step is to get feedback to make sure that what you think makes a great client is inline with their view.

Your managers should now take what you have put together and run it by their team to gather feedback. One of the mistakes that I see leaders make is coming to the incorrect conclusion that their view of the world is entirely correct. The best source of insight into clients are those that connect with them on an every day basis.

It wouldn’t hurt to run a couple of brainstorming sessions with the internal teams who are interact with your clients everyday. You can ask them the same questions I posed in my last post to see if they answer similarly.

Once you have consensus on the important components of a great client it is time to finalize this part of the plan. In the next post, I will share with you an example target client profile for you to use.

Dr. Larry Thompson

President of Ringling College of Art & Design

This is a must listen to cast from Dr. Thompson. The Ringling College of Art & Design is on the forefront of the Conceptual Age and his insights into the future of business/design are something that every CEO should hear. In this interview, he shares:

• Information about the Ringling College of Art and Design
• The most significant design breakthrough in the last 5-years
• The role that design plays in business today
• The role design will play in the future of business
• The difference between Left Brain and Right Brain thinking
• How to better manage the millennials
• What Ringling has done to build a bridge between design & creative and the world of business
• About his involvement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland
• Advice he would give our listeners in pursuing their vision

Enjoy!

 

 Dr. Thompson [18:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today we will be discussing the importance of documenting dependencies to help increase execution.

The Goals of today’s cast are to share with you:

• An explanation of just exactly what dependencies are
• Why identifying them is so important
• The impact they can play on goal obtainment
• The impact they have on the entire business
• How to start measuring your dependencies execution
• The steps you can take today to incorporate the identification and measurement of dependencies in your business

 

 Dependencies [5:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Think Fast. Visualize your very best client. Got em?

Now jot down some specific things that make them the best or answer these questions:

• What is their annual revenue?
• What industry are they in?
• Why are they so good? (is it because they pay on time, buy all of your services, understand your shortfalls, bring you to the table when making big decisions, etc.) Write as many of these down as you can
• What is that client’s demographics/psychographics makes them so attractive?
• Where are they located?
• How many employees do they have?

Once you feel like you have a good working description save it. Come back a few days later and make sure that it still seems correct.

Next you will want to share it with your management team. We will talk about that next.

In my last post, I shared some examples of companies that established a strategy that was so clear, it could be recognized by sharing just two simple themes.

Now it is your turn. To create your first theme - write down the industry in which you compete. Think carefully about this to ensure that you accurately capture it. For example, if you a marketing company that designs web sites, handles SEO programs, designs logo’s, etc. - you could say that you are in the marketing services industry or the web advertising industry or the design industry. Whatever it is that you decide, make sure that the term/terms that you use describe the entire industry that you serve.

Next write down some words that describe how you are different than all of your competitors. Be very specific. If you provide superior quality - try to answer “how” you do that. If you are innovative - how do you innovate - through design, technology, products…again the more specific the better.

Finally put the two together - it should look like this:

Inexpensive Retailer - the industry is retail, their difference is that they are inexpensive and the company would be? Wal-Mart

Designed Technology - the industry is technology, the difference is design - the company, Apple

I made up these two examples so they may not be dead-on…let’s here what you put together, send me your comments…

When Seth Godin puts out a book, I buy at least one copy. So when Meatball Sundae was released…of course I got it. As a long time reader of Seth’s work, IMHO, his best works are still The Dip and Purple Cow.

Meatball Sundae’s premise is that if you are not incorporating marketing in the entire design of your product or service - then (as an analogy) - it is like placing desert toppings on a bowl of meatballs. The two just won’t fit.

Looking at it another way - if you have a boring brand no amount of New Marketing will pretty it up - so don’t waste your money.

Before we get into my take on the book, you should know that he put a 3-page executive summary right at the beginning - read it first to see if you like the subject matter - nice touch, give the reader a taste to see if they want more.

Observations:

• If you are new to the world of blogs, social networking, youtube and Web 2.0 then this book is a great resource. Consider it crib-notes for the world of New Marketing - a term Seth’s references frequently in the book
• If you have a product or service that would not fair well if it was transparent to the world - then you need to get cracking - the trends are not in your favor
• Seth shares 14 trends, here are my favorites; #2 Amplification of the Voice of the Consumer and Independent Authorities, #3 The Need for Authentic Stories, #5 The Long Tail, #12 The Shift from “How Many” to “Who”
• The case studies at the end are a great read for what to do and what not to do

In summary, Seth gives us all the points to consider for the future of marketing. It’s more of a call to action based on what is happening…voices are getting heard faster and they carry more power; authentic relationships matter (so BS will not fly anymore)…it’s the age of the individual.

“Online Auctions”, “Fast Oil-Changes”, “Low-Fare Airline”

Now name the companies that these phrases describe.

Ebay

Jiffy-Lube

Southwest Airlines

As an organization, if you can simplify your company’s strategy (or difference) into two words or two themes just think how powerful that is to help you make decisions.

Herb Kelleher the former CEO of Southwest Airlines once was asked about how he ran the company so well. The abbreviated version is - “It’s simple, we are THE low-fare airline - after that all decisions are easy.” For the extended version, check out this excerpt from the well written book Made to Stick.

In part 3, we will build your two-themed Strategic Position

In a few months, Execution Revolution, will hit the shelves. This is the new book from Gary Harpst, founder of Six Disciplines (disclosure - for those of you who don’t know, I am the President of Six Disciplines Tampa - we help companies hit their goals more consistently).

The early buzz is that this book will be a hit. Ads are already up in the print editions of Fast Company, Inc. Magazine. There maybe more that I haven’t seen yet too.

We will be giving our readers the chance to win the book on our site, but if you want to get a preview, here is where you can learn more about it on Amazon.com.

Please share a comment on this post or send me an email and I will try to hook you up when we get them.