In Luke 8:8 Jesus talks about spreading seed on good soil... “But others fell on good soil, and when they came up, they produced a hundred times as much as was planted.”

This Biblical principle can be seen today in the sales environment by correctly identifying your best target (good soil).

Questions:

1. Where is the good soil?
2. How can I get my seed on that soil?

We all only have 24 hours in a day and while we can spend it being very active and touching hundreds of prospects every week, wouldn’t it make sense to spend some time concentrating on the people who can multiply your “best customers” and make a real difference?

If you have been in business for any length of time, you know that there are good customers, great customers and probably a few customers you wish you never had. Targeting you customers is a strategic – before you move – concept.

Set aside 20 minutes today or tomorrow and do this drill: Write down your top ten BEST customers. Chances are you can get through the first 5 pretty easy. The next 5 might be a little more difficult because you start to weigh challenges vs. revenue and whether the revenue is really translating into profits. This is exactly the thinking that you want to enable so you can clearly see who is a BEST client.

Inevitably, characteristics will emerge from your top customers – in Business to Business sales look for trends of employee size, revenues, location, their business; in consumer sales look for age, gender, income level, zip code and even church denomination. The fact is, it doesn’t matter what the trend is – it just matters that you figure it out!

Once you figure it out, you can concentrate exclusively on “good soil” because you will know what “good soil” looks like. Which will bring us to the next subject – disciplining yourself to concentrate on your best prospects and it’s not nearly as easy as you think, but we will show you why it is important.

Let’s say your best customer is worth between $50,000 and $75,000 per year and they make up 20% of your customer base. That means 80% of your time and focus is spent outside your best customer matrix. Even worse, the bottom 20% probably take up more time than your top customers because they are really not very good customers for your company – yet you still try and sell them because “at least it is something” right?

Here is what that customer is costing you:

Let’s say you are hustling and getting in front of people and you close a $2,000 sale. Not bad right? Let’s dive deeper. Travel and meeting time took you 3 hours. Your close ratio on accounts that size is probably about 25% so multiply the 3 x 4 and you have 12 hours.

Instead of chasing that sale, let’s get strategic and spend that 14 hours meeting with 4 pre-qualified companies that meet your criteria of a best customer. You sell only one at $60,000. That $2,000 sale cost you $58,000.

Sowing your seed in the right places WILL yield a crop that is hundreds of times that of others. It’s Biblical, it’s practical and it’s On Point from Dave & Dave.