Why you need to stop focusing on your ideal prospect

I’ve been playing this marketing game for over 20 years.

Marketing 101 teaches you how to create your ideal client persona or ideal prospect.

I was watching a video from Jon Benson, and he talked about focusing on your ideal buyer.

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Wouldn’t it be better to focus on your ideal buyer instead of your ideal prospect?

An ideal buyer is further along in the buying cycle.

They are problem and solution aware.

They know they have a problem, and they know there is a solution.

You may or may not know where your ideal prospect is in the buying cycle.

Reminds me of the old marketing qualified leads vs. the sales qualified lead debate when I worked in a corporate marketing department.

Sales always said the leads were not sales-qualified leads because they weren’t ready to buy right now.

The sales cycle for our software was 12–18 months with many people involved in the purchase decision.

I used to run three types of ads to match where they were in the buying cycle.