NUgget #42 - Focus your prospecting on your Ideal (Partner/Customer) Profile

An earlier Nugget (#7 to be exact) made the point that prospecting is sorting, not selling. Same concept applies in the dating world. When you're meeting people you're getting to know them & intuitively if they fit within the profile of person that interests you or not. It's a natural qualification process. You are not supposed to be selling yourself as you're getting to know people. You're there to see if there is a mutual fit to continue the conversation or not. Your ability to do so in a confident, charismatic way will determine much of your success. You'll develop your "type".

Everybody has a type. Some types of people/customers you simply resonate better with. As you get the conversations increased you will identify patterns. Pay attention, learn what feels right to you, and feedback loop your learnings into identifying better opportunities. As you find more patterns you can better see the uniqueness in people/customers.

People/customers are unique, but they aren’t that different. You will see the same profiles of people/customers over time with enough reps. You will develop a better pattern recognition system to avoid bad fit opportunities and pursue good fit opportunities.

You can’t be all things to all people. When you identify your I(P/C)P you are able to develop a deep sense of how to demonstrate your value. By getting deep on providing value to a subset of people/customers that appreciate your value you will find it’s significantly easier to generate opportunities.

It doesn’t diminish your value if other people don’t see it. You are unique. Your value is differentiated. Some people/potential customers can’t or won’t see that value. That’s okay. Don’t take it personally if someone/a prospect doesn’t appreciate your value. Learn from that situation, update the criteria of persons/customers you’re looking for and improve your process.