Yeah I know, discriminating is illegal in many instances but not the type of discrimination I’m going to talk to you about. Not only is it NOT illegal, but it will improve response rates and profitability in your business if you utilize it and it’s done properly. I’m talking about

Segmenting Your List

Discriminating (Segmenting your list) is even more important today than it has been in the past, even just a few years ago.  It definitely will be more profitable for you, if done right. I’m saying that all of your customers/prospects/clients/patients should NOT be treated the same. They’re not.

The days of us going out and advertising to just anybody are gone – or at least they should be! I had a coaching client call me for his one on one consultation a little while back concerned that his customer count was down. I’ve gotten this call many times before. This was after I had asked him how his sales numbers for the year were so far, and his answer was that they were up!

After talking through this with him, I got him to look at several other numbers and it soon revealed that not only were sales up, but his average sale was also up. Then, once we dug a little deeper he realized that, yes, his profit margins were also up! I convinced him that this was good.

You see, I say I convinced him, not because he was a business owner that didn’t get it, but because I was telling him something that went against what he was used to. He had been ingrained to think that the more customers he had the better it was! Now I come along and point out to him something different! I know, I’ve been there. At one point in my business, I was willing to take just about anything that walked in the door; it’s called desperation!

Once I learned that I could control my customer count with my marketing, I soon learned that I could also control what type of customers/clients I had coming in the door and or responding to my marketing. I then realized I wanted more of what I deemed “the ideal customers” and less of the “bottom feeders” or the “pain in butt” type of people who wanted everything for next to nothing.

Attract Ideal Clients

One of the greatest revelations for me was when I realized that I was getting those types of customers because that’s what I was attracting due to how and what I was advertising.

You see, what was happening with this client whose customer count was down but sales and profits were up, is typical of a business once I’ve helped them fine-tune their marketing. They begin to attract more of the type of customers who are willing to buy more services/products. They are seeing more of their “ideal customers” and less of the type they’d rather not have. It’s really not about how many customers you have, it’s about how much profit the business makes. Yes, it’s good to have as big a list as possible, but bigger isn’t necessarily better. The right kind of list is.

This is where list segmentation comes in. In my next post, I’ll go into the Who, What, Where, Why and How in more detail.

If you’d like information on the availability of Dan to help you fine-tune your marketing for your business, contact Lois@greatresultsmarketing.com or call her at 440-842-8938.