An ideal customer profile is a standardization description of the type of prospect that would realize the most value from your company. Understanding your customers is an essential step to selling a product or service that people are willing to pay for.
Prospecting is one of the keys and most challenging stages of the sales process. Without a sales pipeline full of good quality leads, no other new sales are going to happen. The more prospects or opportunities you generate, the more chances to close a sale you have.
In larger organizations, decision-making is spread across many departments and managers. Typically, the sales cycle is longer because multiple stakeholders in the organization influence the buying decision. You might have a good idea of the roles and titles of the stakeholders most likely to buy your products or services.
Take some time to find out what your ideal customer profile looks like and do some research. Who are your top five customers? Who are your worst five customers? Who are your most profitable customers? Which ones are the least profitable? Create profiles for each of these groups. In most cases, your “best” customers are your most profitable customers. Take the time needed to define your ideal customer profile, the effort you put in this process can pay off in the long run when you are working with customers that are a great fit for what you have to offer!
Look for companies as similar as possible to your ideal customer profile, then start cold calling them. What you need is not a scripted sales pitch, but a dialogue during which you can learn about their pain points, needs, and wishes, and most importantly maintain an interesting conversation. Your task is to impress them with how much you know about their company or industry.
