Dearest Heart, I have a million dollars for you. Why Ideal Customer Targets Matter.

Ever gotten an email that starts something like this, with a silly story about how you can get millions for doing almost nothing?  Ever wonder why people send these?  After all, you’re not that dumb to believe you can get millions of dollars that easily.  Why do these get sent out?

Because sometimes they work.

These are mass emails sent out to almost any email address.  They are purposely written to be as unbelievable as possible.  They are not written to get savvy people to respond.  Savvy people will figure out right away it’s a scam.  They are written to get unsophisticated, or naïve people to respond.

If you’re savvy and respond, you’ll figure out it’s a scam.  You’re a waste of their time.

Email marketing is almost free, especially if you’re are just mass spamming email addresses. This approach works for these scammers because they write the most unbelievable offers to attract the attention of the most trusting, unsophisticated, desperate, or naïve among us. 

There are two lessons here.  The first is that if you are emailing and calling EVERYONE to try to drum up customers, you need to be ready for mass rejection, and being massively being ignored.

The second is that you can learn from this approach and modify it to make it better.  Your message needs to be targeted to the person you are trying to reach.  The scammers purposely write to attract the naïve.  Your target is different, but you need to tailor your message to the recipient.

First, you need to understand your ideal customer.  Who is the prospect or customer that:

1.     Most needs your product set (has a problem that you can solve)?

2.     Who can best benefit from your expertise (needs and wants advice)?

3.     Who has the where-with-all to afford your solution (Budget to spend)?

4.     You can get access to the decision maker (s).  You need to demonstrate credibility to get access.

Second, you need to tailor your message to this prospect.   I get ten messages a day about my website saying they are experts in SEO and can ‘guarantee’ to get me on the front page of google results.  I don’t care if I’m on the front page of google, and I know there is no way they can guarantee this.  No understanding of my needs, and no credible message.

Your approach should not be a mass approach, but a targeted list of prospects using email and the telephone.  

Your messages must do the following:

1.     Show knowledge of the prospect’s business and potential business problems they might have.  Do your research.  Use the language of their business.

2.     Provide a point of differentiation.  I am working with some clients who really are the only truly local owner of a media business in their market.  Being a local person provides a point of differentiation from out of market competitors.  What is your point of differentiation?

3.     Provide a proof point.  Link to a case study, provide the name of a reference or successful client you have helped, and how you helped them.

4.     Explain what it’s like to work with you.  If you are consultative, explain your process, briefly, to take the pressure off the prospect.  No one likes salespeople, show them you are different.  

5.     Ask for a meeting.

Dearest, you can spam everyone in the world to ask for business.  But focusing on the right prospects and using that same targeted approach will get you a better return on your prospecting investment.