Reaching those who count

When I first started out as a speaker, I was a newbie coach and frankly my ideal client was anyone with a heartbeat and a credit card. A decade ago, I wasn’t picky.

Then along came ABC Four Corners, filming me as part of a ‘new workstyles’ segment and overnight my business went nuts.

A few months into working all day and all night and the penny dropped on the topic of selecting clients more carefully.

Thereafter, when invited to speak at events I was less concerned with how many people were in the room and much more interested in who was in the room.

Then things shifted again.

Today my goal is to spread the word about Flying Solo far and wide, so to some extent I’m back to being more aware of numbers. That said, I’m conscious the audience make up is very important. A roomful of middle managers doesn’t float my boat (nor I, theirs).

That’s enough about my strategy. What’s yours?

In a landscape where the count of friends, likers, followers and connections is hard to ignore, it’s easy to get drawn into the numbers game and feel inadequate if you’re not being pursued by the equivalent of a small nation.

As I’ll be banging on about next week, we need to be sure we’re putting sufficient focus on precisely who we are trying to reach. Armed with this clarity we can ensure the thrust of our marketing is directed towards attracting this group, regardless of size.

Seth Godin spoke on this topic a while ago, you can watch his short video online and I look forward to reading your comments.

Now before you rush off, please consider forwarding this article to a few thousand of your closest friends!