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Ideal customer profiles are not ideal

They lack the It factor that makes working with a client a joyful, rewarding experience.

Ideal customer profiles are not ideal
People walking at night near a roundabout. Taken by Alberto.

At best, they represent an accurate customer segment. At worst, an inaccurate one. 

Tag along to move from inaccurate, to accurate, to ideal. 

Stage One: Inaccurate

This is where every consultant start, and where most stay. 

Take a Persona template, fill in the blanks, and voilà! You have created your Ideal Client Profile (ICP). Or did you? 

How do you know?
How do you know that ICP represents a real human being?
How do you know those traits you've selected ring true to them?

Skip those questions at your own peril. If your gut feeling end to be wrong you might be offering innovation, for instance, to a prospect who's seeking efficiency, thus missing the opportunity. 

This "How do you know" question is annoying because it demands confronting the fact that you might have no clue about what your client want. 

The easy way is to use the ICP as it is, declare it useless after a while, and put that customer discovery workshop in the past. 

The courageous way is to assume you're wrong unless you find evidence that validates your point of view. 

Enter stage two. 

Stage Two: Accurate

Discerning consultants will answer the "How do you know" question with either of these three alternatives: 

  1. "I have no clue".
  2. "I have an educated guess".
  3. "I have data".

Moving from "no clue" to "data" requires observing, interviewing, and researching. Those who persevere, find out that being right is overrated. 

"Being right and winning are very different things. And you have to make sure that you're romantically attached to winning, not being right" 

– Steven Bartlett[1]

Completing this stage will give you an accurate description of an existing customer segment with real needs. 

Will this improve your conversion rate? Sure. It'll also shorten your sales cycle. It'll also allow you to work with every type of clients, including ideal, okay, bad, and lousy clients. 

Wait, what? 

Unlocking the final stage. 

Stage Three: Ideal

"I still thank the me of 20 years ago for firing my biggest client because they were horrible. They sent a lawyer to every meeting. They were undermining us." 

– Seth Godin[2]

Working with draining clients suck. Perhaps, you don't need to be reminded about that. 

Let's focus on great clients instead. 

Let's attract people who: 

  1. Act on your advice. 
  2. Lead to more work you want to do. 
  3. Consider you an ally, not an extra pairs of hands. 
  4. Are happy to pay your fee in full (aka with no discounts). 
  5. You will be happy to help them for free, even, because you believe in their goal. 
  6. You're the right person and have the right skillset to help them win, and win big. 

Those are the traits I currently use to decide which opportunity say yes to. Trait number five, for example, helped me to decline an offer, who opened the door, a couple of weeks later, for an opportunity that checked all six.

Sidenote: working with great clients is part science, part being okay about changing your mind. 

Take those traits as inspiration. Feel free to build upon on them. In fact, I learned traits #1 and #2 from Josh Spector, my expert positioning coach, and Leadsticks' collaborator. 

Was this helpful? 

Being clear about who you enjoy working with is as healthful as designing your days. 

Take care. Enjoy the day. See you next Thursday. 

Alberto. 

Footnotes: 

  1. “So I'm romantic like we all are about what I do. But I'm also romantic about winning. And so you have to be less romantic about being right. And they're like very different things. Being right and winning are very different things. And you have to make sure that you're romantically attached to winning, not being right”From The Colin and Samir Show: LIVE: How Diary of a CEO became YouTube's #1 Show, 29 Sep 2025
    https://podcasts.apple.com/cl/podcast/the-colin-and-samir-show/id1379942034?l=en-GB&i=1000729058243&r=560↩︎
  2. “I still thank the me of 20 years ago for firing my biggest client because they were horrible. They sent a lawyer to every meeting. They were undermining us.”
    From The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show: Why Strategy Always Beats Talent | Seth Godin, 23 Oct 2024
    https://podcasts.apple.com/cl/podcast/why-strategy-always-beats-talent-seth-godin/id1127915772?i=1000674155218&l=en-GB&r=1150↩︎

On the cover:

People walking at night near a roundabout. Taken by Alberto.

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