Build your position for your ideal customers.

That's how you attract and convert more of the clients you actually want—those who buy quickly, pay more, stay longer, and don't micromanage your team to death.

Easier said than done, especially when you don't know who your ideal customers are or what makes them tick.

I've said it before, and I'll say it a million times more:

The most important thing you can do for your business is to know your ideal customers.

Define them first. Then, do what you can to understand them.

Why Knowing Your Customers Matters

The more you know your ideal customers, the more effective your marketing and sales efforts will be.

Take these documented findings:

Knowing your ideal customers is the key to landing larger, longer deals that make your business more profitable.

Yet, most marketers and founders skimp on customer research.

They make assumptions about their ideal customers, create messaging that doesn't resonate, launch marketing campaigns that sound like everyone else, and then wonder why they struggle to attract more customers.

The more you know your ideal customers, the more money you make.

The research proves it.

Airline Segmentation Exercise

So, how do you get to know your ideal customers?

Start with the Airline Segmentation Exercise.

I run this exercise with every Brand OS client to define and understand their ideal customers.

Here's how you can run it with your team.

Step 1: Create 3 Columns

Grab a sheet of paper, whiteboard, or Miro Board, and create 3 columns:

• First Class: Your dream clients. These are the clients you wish every other client was like.
• Economy Class: The clients you'll take, but don't necessarily want every client to be like. They are profitable, but not ideal.
• Banned Class: The clients you'll avoid. You learned your lesson with them and never want another client like them.

Leave yourself enough room to place existing clients (or prospective clients you lost) in each category.

Step 2: Categorize Your Clients

Grab a list of current and past clients, as well as prospective clients you wanted to land but lost.

Work with your team to categorize each client into one of the columns.

Be warned: categorizing clients is harder than it seems.

• Some will fit under multiple categories. They started as economy but, over time, moved to banned.
• Some will sit between first and economy class. You like their team and how they work, but they didn't spend as much with you.
• Some used to be first class but are now economy. When you landed them, they were first class, but your business has grown, and now they aren't.

Talk through those nuances as a team, and decide together how you will categorize them.

Where clients fall is a spectrum. Some will be economy but fall closer to first class than they do to banned class.

Be okay with that nuance, and show it in where you place them, even within the category you assigned.

And, yes, you can put them on the line between two categories. Just limit how many you do that with.

Step 3: Document the Why

While you're placing each customer, talk through (and document) why you assigned them to that category.

• They paid quickly
• They micromanaged your team
• They bought the biggest package
• They referred others to you
• They respond quickly
• They upsold

Document anything and everything that comes up in your discussions.

When you're done, look for the trends that come up in each category.

Those trends help you understand:

• What makes a client ideal
• What red flags to look for
• What problems to address
• What transformation you bring
• Who your differentiator is really for

Map out those trends, and build a customer profile.

​Grab our free template (with examples) here.​

Position for First Class

Build your brand position for your first-class clients.

Your messaging, offer, marketing, content, experience, identity, design, sales, pricing, and even who you hire should all focus on attracting and converting those first-class clients.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but it's psychological.

By targeting first-class clients, you'll attract more of them and more of your economy-class clients.

Because your economy-class clients want to be seen as first-class clients—and often see themselves as first-class clients.

But first-class clients never want to be treated as economy class.

Focus on who you actually want. You'll attract both first- and economy-class clients that way.

And grab our free Ideal Customer Profile Template.

It'll give you and your team the information you need to attract and convert more of the right clients.

Until next week,

#SassyJason out.

✌🏼