the Social Professional’s

High ValueClient Profile

What are High Value Clients?

High Value clients are your firm’s dream client. As the name suggests, they are incredibly valuable to a professional service firm, but also they require high value. Handled poorly, these are nightmare clients - demanding, always wanting more, even micromanaging.

What is a High Value Client Profile?

Our high value client profiles are composite, idealised versions of our high value cilents.To be most effective they should be highly realistic and personal, but based on careful study of our existing and prospective clients. Specifically - what do these clients value, want and need?More specifically, what high value services can we match to real clients to form the high value client relationship?

How to Use this Profile tool

We’ve prepared the high value client profile to help you create your own idealised dream client personas without any fuss or technical expertise.The template will talk you through the process and act as the medium for your finished high value client profiles.

Perfect Alignment

The most important aspect of creating your client profiles is understanding what HIGH VALUE means to you and your client.Remember this is more than a buyer persona – it’s a tool to help you identify your firm’s highest value and the ideal clients to match.It’s a process of pairing and aligning your high value offering, brand and message with a specific personality – the high value client..

The Low down

To discover your high value client profiles, you need the right information.

You need to identify and understand your ideal clients.

To find them, start with talking to your team, especially front line staff like customer service agents and receptionists who your best clients are – who really loves what you offer?

The Low Down

Identify the existing customers who value your work most and interview them.

We’ve given you some interview questions here to get you started – but you think of some more that are relevant to your business and clients. Again – ask your customer service staff about what your top clients say.

Tip: Consider using open-ended questions and drilling into the answers to get to the core of the problem.

Interview Questions

Role:1. What is your job role? Your title?2. How is your job measured?3. What does a typical day look like?4. What skills are required to do your job?5. What knowledge and tools do you use in your job?6. Who do you report to? Who reports to you?

Company:7. In which industry or industries does your company work?8. What is the size of your company (revenue, employees)?

Goals:9. What are you responsible for?10.What does it mean to be successful in your role?

Interview Questions

Challenges:1. What are your biggest challenges?

Watering Holes:2. How do you learn about new information for your job?3. What publications or blogs do you read?4. What associations and social networks do you belong to?

Personal Background:5. Describe your personal demographics (if appropriate, ask their age,

whether they're married, if they have children).6. Describe your educational background. What level of education did you

complete, which schools did you attend, and what did you study?7. Describe your career path. How did you end up where you are today?

Interview Questions

Shopping Preferences:• How do you prefer to interact with vendors (email, phone, in person)?• Do you use the internet to research vendors or products? If yes, how do

you search for information?• Describe a recent purchase. Why did you consider a purchase, what was

the evaluation process, and how did you decide to purchase that product or service?

Buyer Persona Template

Background:• Detail the personas job role and responsibilities• Include pertinent information about the persona’s company• Education, experience, hobbies, etc. • Married? Children?

Demographics:• Gender (skews male/female?)• Age Range• Joint household income• Geographic (Is your persona urban, suburban, or rural?

Using the data you’ve collected in your interviews, fill in your personas accordingly.

Here’s a template to get you started – add your own ideas to make it your own!

Buyer Persona TemplateIdentifiers:• Key personality traits (extroverted? Reserved?)• Mannerisms• Job identifiers (Works 60 hours/week, prefers email over direct mail, etc.)

Goals:• Primary Goal• Secondary Goal

Challenges:• Biggest challenge to persona’s success• Needs in order to achieve success

Value Proposition:• How your company solves your persona’s challenges• How your company is positioned to achieve persona’s goals

Quotes:• Include actual quotes from buyer persona interviews. These help to further

represent your persona accurately as well as help your team understand them better.

Common Objectives:• What are the most common objections to your product/service from

this persona?

Marketing Message:• How will you convey the value and position your solution to this specific

persona?

Elevator Pitch:• This should be a simple description of your solution that everyone in

your company understands.

Buyer Persona Template

Sample Persona: Craig the CEOBackground:• Founder & CEO• Has owned company for over 10 years• Previously worked in the industry prior to ownership• Married with children

Demographics:• Skews Male• Age 45-60• Suburban

Identifiers:• Calm demeanor• Has an assistant screening calls • Spends 12 hours pricing jobs and running business• Blogs; Harvard Business Review, Killer Startups, Huffington Post• Social Media; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn• Prefers Ebooks vs webinars; “I can read it when I have time. It’s tangible, quick & to

the point.”

Smple Persona: Craig the CEO

Goals:• Scale business to the point where I only work 20

hours (or less) per week• Hit a stride of generating a high volume of

qualified leads and SQL’s every month• Hire new employees• Make business not reliant on me

Common Objectives:• I’m spending $X every month; what exactly am

I getting? • What’s the difference in service from clients who

pay more to those who pay less?

Challenges:• Have too many advertising companies • Want a one-stop shop for everything • No time to research new information to make job

easier• Traditional marketing isn’t working anymore• Creating a consistent flow of quality content

Value Proposition:• Act as a one-stop shop for all

marketing/advertising needs • Make it easy to implement and execute the marketing

initiatives that drive online business• Develop and implement a content strategy that generates

traffic and leads

Sample Persona: Craig the CEO

Quotes:• “I prefer email. People have selective amnesia. When it’s

written, you can throw it back in their face.”

• “I’m an avid learner. I read 3-4 books a month as well as recommendations from people I respect the most.”

• “In 6-8 months, I really want this to hit a stride of generating more qualified leads. I’d like to shoot from 50 a month to 300 a month. If it does, that’s a sign that it’s working.”

Sample Persona: Craig the CEO

Common Objectives:I’m spending $X every month; what exactly am I getting? What’s the difference in service from clients who pay more to those who pay less?

Marketing Message:Full-service Inbound Marketing Agency

Elevator Pitch:We’ll make marketing and scaling your business easy for you. Forget the day-to-day tasks, we’ll handle everything from your website to business cards to ensure the initiatives are in place to effectively grow your business.

Sample Persona: Craig the CEO

Persona NameBACKGROUND:• Basic details about persona’s role• Key information about the persona’s

company• Relevant background info, like education or

hobbies

DEMOGRAPHICS:• Gender• Age Range• HH Income (Consider a spouse’s income, if

relevant)• Urbanicity (Is your persona urban,

suburban, or rural?)

IDENTIFIERS:• Buzz words• Mannerisms

You can find this

information by

administering

online surveys of

your target

audience.

Persona NameGOALS:• Persona’s primary goal• Persona’s secondary goal

CHALLENGES:• Primary challenge to persona’s

success• Secondary challenge to persona’s

success

HOW WE HELP:• How you solve your persona’s

challenges• How you help your persona achieve

goals

Conduct interviews with your target audience to learn about their goals and challenges in more detail.

Persona NameREAL QUOTES:• Include a few real quotes –

taken during your interviews – that represent your persona well. This will make it easier for employees to relate to and understand your persona.

COMMON OBJECTIONS:• Identify the most common

objections your persona will raise during the sales process.

Identifying common objections will help your sales team be better prepared during their conversations.

Persona NameMARKETING MESSAGING:• How should you describe

your solution to your persona?

ELEVATOR PITCH:• Make describing your

solution simple and consistent across everyone in your company.

Establishing your messaging prepares your entire organization to

convey the same message.

Including a real

photo from

Creative

Commons or

iStockphoto

helps everyone

envision the

same person.

Sample SallyBACKGROUND:• Head of Human Resources• Worked at the same company for 10

years; worked her way up from HR Associate

• Married with 2 children (10 and 8)

DEMOGRAPHICS:• Skews female• Age 30-45• Dual HH Income: $140,000• Suburban

IDENTIFIERS:• Calm demeanor• Probably has an assistant screening calls• Asks to receive collateral mailed/printed

Sample SallyGOALS:• Keep employees happy and

turnover low• Support legal and finance teams

CHALLENGES:• Getting everything done with a

small staff• Rolling out changes to the entire

company

HOW WE HELP:• Make it easy to manage all

employee data in one place• Integrate with legal and finance

teams’ systems

Sample SallyREAL QUOTES:• “It’s been difficult getting company-

wide adoption of new technologies in the past.”

• “I don’t have time to train new employees on a million different databases and platforms.”

• “I’ve had to deal with so many painful integrations with other departments’ databases and software.”

COMMON OBJECTIONS:• I’m worried I’ll lose data transitioning

to a new system.• I don’t want to have to train the entire

company on how to use a new system.

Sample SallyMARKETING MESSAGING:• Integrated HR Database

Management

ELEVATOR PITCH:• We give you an intuitive database

that integrates with your existing software and platforms, and lifetime training to help new employees get up to speed quickly.

Learn how to integrate high value client profiles personas into your overall marketing strategy.Schedule your free assessment with one of our inbound marketing consultants.

You’ll receive:• A 30-minute conversation with an inbound marketing consultant.• How to integrate buyer personas into your marketing campaign.• An evaluation of your current website and marketing strategy.• Suggestions for improvement.• Real solutions to achieve your business and marketing goals.

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