Defining Your Customers

Develop buyer personas for those you serve

One of the drawbacks of the hourly pricing model is its one-size-fits-all nature. Every client is charged the same rates per hour. The only difference is the number of hours each uses. 

But the world isn’t made up of identical people, working in identical businesses and driving identical cars to and from their identical homes. Thank goodness!

Clients are as different as you or me, but we can group them into a bucket, called personas, based on shared values or traits. In a client-centric firm, it helps to understand these basic personas so you can more efficiently meet the needs of each. You probably have a handful of personas in your firm right now, you just haven’t seen them as a grouping because, in your bill-by-the-hour model, it doesn’t matter who they are.

Once you understand the concept of personas, you can start building service packages around each persona’s unique needs, and then further customize those service packages to meet the specific needs of individual clients.