If you're looking to win high-value clients you could do a lot worse than listen to the advice in Frederick W. Lanchester's 1916 book “Aviation in Warfare”.

It's advice that was taken up by Deming after the second world war and used to great effect by Canon to enter and dominate key markets.

Lanchester's observation was that in battle (and in business), advantages are typically exponential rather than linear. And that in military terms a smaller army is therefore far better off concentrating its forces to attack a small outpost where it can have superior numbers locally than it is to try to take on the enemy head-on.

When it comes to winning high-value clients the same thing applies.

You're far, far better off concentrating your “forces” on a small number of high-potential clients than spreading yourself thinly pitching for a large number of projects.

Firstly, high-value clients take a lot of winning.

The stakes are higher so they need more convincing. And that means more time spent building credibility and trust.

And often there are multiple people involved in the decision-making process and official hoops and processes to go through. Again, more time needed.

And secondly, you're likely to be up against more competitors aiming to win the same big prize.

You can't just do a little bit for a lot of clients and expect to win a percentage of them in this situation.

You have to be selective and go “all in” on a few.

Make sure you invest the time to stand head and shoulders above the rest.

And the great thing is that by focusing your efforts you can beat much bigger competitors. Because no matter how big they are, they still divide their resources “efficiently”.

It means that you can spend much more time and energy on your selected prospects than they do.

You can be the one that's top of mind with a stronger relationship and better credibility.

But only if you focus and choose to spend time with some prospects and not others.

It starts with picking a “Perfect 10” and I'll cover that in our next email.

PS Credit to Paul Denvir and Kevin Walker who were the first to talk about “Lanchester Strategy” for winning clients in their book Growing Your Client Base.