In the story of Cinderella, the King was searching for a bride for his son, the Prince. He invited every available maiden to the Royal Ball to meet Prince Charming in hopes of finding him the perfect wife.
When Prince Charming and Cinderella met, they were enchanted with one another. The problem, Cinderella had to leave before midnight. In her haste to leave on time, she lost her glass slipper. With nothing more than the glass slipper in hand, the Prince set about to find the lady with the perfect fit.
We all know how that story ends. The funny part is, this idea of a perfect fit isn't just for fairy tales. If we want to live happily ever after, we have to find clients who are the perfect fit.
Today you’ll learn how to use The Cinderella Filter to find clients who are a perfect fit. Let’s dive in.
You have to know what you want (and don’t want)
Prince Charming knew exactly what he wanted, the girl who fit perfectly into the glass slipper. It’s a lot tougher when you’re running your own business. It’s tempting to choose any client who can afford to pay you. This temptation could easily ruin your business if you choose the wrong clients.
You know you're working with Cinderella Clients when you learn as much from them as they do from you. Working with the right clients is like a dream come true. The question is, how do we choose Cinderella Clients? Let’s take a look at the first part.
It’s time to make your list
The first part of The Cinderella Filter is making a list. Like Prince Charming, we must know what we want from our perfect clients. As an example, here’s what we look for:
- Are they decisive action takers?
- Is this person coachable?
- Do we want to help them on their mission?
- Is this a person of high integrity?
Here are some things we avoid at all costs:
- Is this person scared or unsure?
- Are they uncoachable?
- Do they have a scarcity mindset?
- Is their offer unclear?
Some people find it easier to start with the negative. You can make a list of all the things you don’t want, then use the opposites.
Now that we've mad our list, let's move to the second part of The Cinderella Filter.
Who’s keeping score?
Peter Drucker was one of the most influential thinkers on management. He famously said, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” If we want to pick perfect clients we’ll need one more thing to complete The Cinderella Filter. It’s a simple scoring system.
After you’ve made a list of all the things you want and don’t want, put them side by side and score each person who applies to work with you. Here’s what ours would look like:
Wondering how this works? It’s simple, we give each box a score of 1 or 0. If they have the trait in the box we add a 1. If they don’t have it we add a 0. At the bottom we tally up the scores on The Cinderella Filter to see if this person would be a perfect fit.
In our business the person would need a minimum score of 3 to be considered. Looking at the table above, the person scored 4 “yeses” and 1 “no.” Subtract the two and we’re left with 3. That’s the minimum acceptable score to be one of our clients.
We covered a lot today, why don’t we have a quick recap?
Having perfect clients isn't a fairytale
If we want to have a business that allows us to live happily ever after, we can use The Cinderella Filter to choose perfect fit clients. By clearly identifying who we can help, and who we can't help we have much better results. We need standards in place to ensure we're working with the right clients. When we get this right, we'll be able to get our clients the magical results they've been dreaming of.
One last thing…
When we pick the wrong clients, life can be miserable. That's why today's article was all about picking perfect Cinderella Clients. Similarly, when we try to do too much for other people without taking care of ourselves, we are miserable. That's why I want you to be more selfish. Being selfish actually makes you more generous. Don't believe me? Then listen to this training now https://thepodcastfactory.com/dwp003/
If you need help attracting more Cinderella Clients to your business we should talk. Our system has helped 50+ experts just like you attract perfect clients pre-sold using podcasting. I can show you how it works in a quick 30 minute call. Book a time to talk here: https://thepodcastfactory.com/start/
