When Desiree Scales posted this photo the other day it stopped me dead in my tracks and I knew I had to share this on my blog!

Universal Casket – In passing one may guess their target market is anyone that plans on being buried in a casket. However, I would bet that their marketing plan has a very specific consumer who is in a specific age, sex, psychographic and economic group.

Does the description of your target market go something like this…”Women or Men between 20-55″ or worse yet “Women and Men between 20-55″? I hear this and cringe and hope for a further elaboration…because this description is what I call the shotgun approach to hitting the broad side of a barn.

Personally, Michael Port is the teacher that got me to let go of the limiting belief that I couldn’t or shouldn’t narrow my target market. I didn’t want to limit my options. He teaches about the ‘red velvet rope’ that must be in place so that you don’t spend your time courting all the wrong customers. When I followed his instructions, my business went to from nothing to booked.

Here are 3 keys that changed my entire target market perspective and have resulted in success for me:
1) Write a narrative story of your ideal client. Give your character a name. Describe everything about them (where they live, what they do in their spare time, what their pain points are, what they are passionate about, what they watch, EVERYTHING).

2) Identify the average sale value and annual revenue of your ideal client. Yep – if you are wasting your time trying to sell services to people who can’t afford you then what are you doing? Is your product or service an investable opportunity for your prospect? While you don’t know what is in their bank account, it is important to be aware of your pricing and packaging as it relates to your target.

3) Be picky about your networking choices. Review where you feel at home networking and where you feel like you are swimming upstream. I quit wasting time and money attending networking events with people who weren’t in my target market and amazingly my confidence increased, my qualified leads increased and most importantly my referral business grew. I changed from networking to being a part of my business community of birds of like feather.

To your passionate success~ M