Tag people by what they have in common, like kids, hobbies, careers and life stage, instead of business labels, starting with your A's.
The idea
Most people tag contacts in work terms: buyer, prospect, newsletter, the event they came from. The Common Model tags people by things about them instead: kids, careers, hobbies, life stage. Those tags show you who your audience actually is.
How to do it
List what you're interested in yourself. (In my coaching we compared it to filling out a dating profile.)
Start with your A's. For each, ask what you know about them: young kids, works in tech, plays tennis, over 55.
Tag the commonalities. Skip anyone you don't know anything about.
Don't worry if a tag only has a handful of people. These lists grow over time.
Do this regularly and look for patterns: "I have lots of people with young kids," "I have lots of people who play tennis." Know who your audience is, and who you want it to be.
Example
Say you go through your A's and notice a handful of them play tennis. That's a tag, and a list that will grow as you learn more about people.
Groups vs. Tags: Put each person in one group by how you know them (client, past client, sphere, prospect, vendor, peer) and use tags for everything else.
Tag Hygiene: Delete auto-generated tags and any tag with fewer than five people; tags are where overthinking starts.
Uncommon Commonalities: Seat guests next to people they share a surprising, non-obvious overlap with, found in advance, and invite your closest people first.
A/B/C Spheres: Sort everyone into three tiers by gut feeling (love, like, don't know) and spend more time on A's than B's, and more on B's than C's.