There is a logic to identifying and pursuing 60 dream clients. These 60 clients already buy what you sell; in fact, some of your competitors are supplying them now. Because your dream client is already spending a lot of money in your category, you don’t need to qualify them, nor do you need to wonder if they value what you sell.
You need a displacement strategy, which has you working to remove your competitor from a large client, replacing them with you and your company. Those who practice this approach will know what it is like to win a client from a competitor. But they will also know what it feels like to be displaced by a competitor. What follows here is an understanding of the logic of 60 dream clients.
Strategizing for Success: The Importance of Targeting 60 Dream Clients in B2B Sales
The first thing you need to know about displacement is you are playing the long game. Displacement takes time, so there is no reason to pursue a small number of clients using this strategy. If you have two or three dream clients you are pursuing, you won’t have enough strategic targets to use this strategy.
Pursuing 60 dream clients provides you with a greater chance of finding at least a few who are dissatisfied with one of your competitors. Over time, sales organizations get comfortable with their clients and believe their relationship is safe from any threat. The client realizes that the sales organization no longer offers the same attention and value it once did. When a client senses their provider has become apathetic or entitled, they start to entertain competitors. The logic in having 60 dream clients to pursue is that you will be able to identify the ones who are unhappy in their current relationship and earn their business over time.
Calculating Your Path to Victory: The Strategic Math Behind 60 Dream Clients
The number 60 isn’t an accident. It is intentional because it is divisible by four. Over the course of four weeks, you can dedicate five days to pursue each dream client.
In the first week, you reach out to 15 of the 60 dream clients. This requires you to call, email, mail, or walk in the front door of three dream clients each day. Even if you are unable to secure a meeting, your attempt will be noticed, if not now, certainly later.
Once you check the box for the first week, you follow the same approach with the next 15 dream clients on your list. Over the course of a month, you will have reached out to all 60. This strategy will allow you to be persistent without becoming a pest, as you will be communicating with each of the 60 dream clients once every month.
Winning Over Time: The Timeline for Converting 60 B2B Dream Clients
Given a long enough timeline, every one of your 60 dream clients will change partners. You will find some of your dream clients are unhappy with their current provider and agree to take a meeting. Others will have competitors who are doing good work for them, causing them to avoid a meeting. But as time passes, every one of your 60 dream clients will change partners.
Perhaps you have called a strategic target intermittently without getting a meeting, only to call again to find your contact explaining they just found a new supplier. This displacement strategy will prevent this from happening to you again.
Maximizing Impact: Effective Reach and Outreach Strategies for 60 Dream Clients
Your reach is 60 dream clients. Your outreach should be designed to position you as a consultative salesperson. Your communications must differentiate you from your many competitors, including your dream client’s current provider.
When salespeople use an insight-based approach to make the case for change, they prove they are aware of the changes in the environment and the potential challenges of the headwinds in their industry. This makes it easier to introduce yourself to prospects.
Your outreach includes a phone call, a voicemail, an email, a letter, a FedEx mailing, an invitation to a webinar, walking in their front door, a text message, or some asset designed to provide them with a set of insights that prove your approach is different from your competitors’.
The Resilience of the Long Game: Why Persistence Wins in B2B Dream Client Acquisition
It is difficult to lose the long game unless you give up. Most salespeople don’t even want to call on a client that has a supplier, believing it is a waste of time. You should worry less about getting a first meeting on the first try and more about being known to your contacts.
As long as you never give up, you are still in the game. You can continue your pursuit until you get a first meeting and an opportunity to replace the current provider, improving the client’s results. Those who live by the sword often die by the sword. While you are working to displace your competitors, they are probing your clients, looking for some weakness that opens an opportunity for them to displace you.
Leaving this article, pick up two books that will help you with this strategy. The first book is Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competitors, and Elite Sales Strategies: A Guide to Being One-Up, Creating Value, and Becoming Truly Consultative. These books will do more to improve your results when it comes to displacing your competitors and winning deals.
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