How to build your 'Ideal Client' Pipeline in 4 easy steps

Do your customer research

Analyse your current & past customers to find similar characteristics, could be either based on specific sector criteria, company demographics and/or be product & service related. Ask yourself these important questions to start building a profile;

How do they engage with you?
What influences their buying decisions?
How did they find you?
What makes them an ‘ideal client’- is it their annual spend, are they the most profitable, is it the service or product they buy or any other factor?

Pull together the research to understand the key characteristics of your ‘ideal client’ so you can search and find similar businesses with the same criteria.

Understand your marketplace

Look at your products and services to see which ones meet your ‘ideal client’ wants and needs? Do your products/services fulfil a need or provide a solution to a problem? Ask yourself these important questions;

Why do customers choose my service/product? Do our service/product meet the market demand?
Could our product/service be improved? Is there an opportunity here to exploit further?
Are they buying from other competitors? How do my product/service compare with them?
What is our unique selling proposition (USP)? Is it clearly defined and understood in the marketplace?

Understanding and gaining a clear picture of which product/services to promote to your ideal clients and highlighting the benefits they will receive if they deal with you and not your competitors is essential.

Build a list of Prospects

Search business directories, search engines and online directory enquiries such as Yell.com to build a list of potential businesses that match the criteria of your ‘ldeal client’. Use an effective CRM database to data-capture the list of businesses. Ensure you set-up your CRM to segment each business and categorise them to ensure they meet the qualifying criteria of your ‘ideal client’.

Telemarketing is a very effective and quick way of verifying the decision maker(s) and building a list of qualified businesses.

Engage and Follow-up

Before you start to interact with your qualified prospects, look at the marketing channels they use to communicate – write a communication plan using the same ‘channels’ to encourage them to engage with them. Try to incorporate a mix of both online and offline activities. Write relevant ‘content’ linked to your USP and use case-studies and testimonials to educate and inform.

Make sure you are consistent and engage with your prospects frequently. Always set campaign objectives and targets and ensure you measure results from all marketing activities.

If you need help building your ‘ideal client’ pipeline the team here at Approach Direct will be more than happy to help. Contact us

Posted by Tracy Marshall Dip DigM on 10 Aug 2019

Ideal Client, Marketing Strategy

About the author

Tracy Marshall Dip DigM

Director at Approach Direct Marketing providing Marketing and Telemarketing services for SMEs, predominately in the East Anglia region.

Over 30 years in a wide variety of industries, both in the private and public sector, instrumental in setting up Telemarketing Departments back in the 1980-1990s and further developed her career by holding various internal & external Sales & Marketing management roles.

In 2007, launched own telemarketing business primarily focussing on the B2B sector. For almost 10 years, the company built up a solid reputation for providing excellent results in all telemarketing services, from cold calling, list building, database management, market research & in-house telemarketing training.

In 2015, gained the IDM (Institute of Digital & Direct Marketing) Professional Diploma in Digital and Direct Marketing qualification and expanded Approach Direct Marketing services to include creating marketing strategy, writing implementing marketing plans through targeted marketing campaigns.

Developed own Marketing Planning Tool 4R's - 'Review, Reach, Respond and Retain' - which works alongside other Marketing Frameworks like SOSTAC to assist clients in actively engaging with their customers, face-to-face.