Let’s say you’ve dedicated time to work on your own Salesforce practice. One of the first steps is to determine who is your ideal client and what services you plan to offer.
To determine your ideal client and positioning, start by yourself the following:
1. What kind of clients do I enjoy working with?
Different clients have different needs and communications styles. For example, working with banks will be a completely different experience than working with nonprofits. If you’re going to worry about a type of client, who do you want to worry about?
2. What industries or Salesforce clouds or other areas do I currently have access to?
You might want to work with banks, but if you currently don’t or don’t even know anyone in banks, you’re going to have a harder time. Instead, consider what areas you already work with and want to expand.
3. How can I refine my mission statement to attract my ideal client?
Having a clear purpose and mission statement will help you with your marketing plan. These don’t need to be very formal, but you need to know in which direction you want to go.
4. What is my marketing tag?
This is a useful notion: “I am a {title} that helps {type of clients} with {problems they have/solution your provide”. Mine is, “I am a Salesforce Architect that helps nonprofits improve their social impact”. This is also my LinkedIn headline.
The takeaway
Taking the time to identify your ideal clients and your positioning then is an important step when creating your own business. You’ll have a harder time trying to please everyone with everything.