Who are your ideal clients, the people you’d like to work with on every project, in every session, on every day?
If you believe that your business can help everyone, that you don’t have an ideal client, this post is for you. I’ll explain why this type of belief is holding back your business by preventing your ideal clients from finding you.
The Myth of “I Can Help Everyone”
It starts with the belief that a business can help every person. Often this idea begins as a genuine desire to help anyone who will listen or who seems interested in your offerings.
I’m going to speak to this directly: No business is for everyone, and no service offered will work for everyone. This idea can be difficult to accept if you’re following your soul’s calling, doing the work you’re meant to do because you genuinely want to help as many people as possible.
After working with hundreds of small businesses, I can tell that no business is for everyone.
Your business and your unique offerings are for a specific type of person. I’ve created a few broad categories that help define your specific ideal clients. Your specific ideal clients must have the details you define in this exercise to be a perfect client for your business. The categories to use and that I’ll break down in this post are:
- Identity Details
- Qualifying Details
- Pain Points
Now that you have them let’s break down each category in more detail.
Identity Details
What words do your ideal clients use to identify themselves? It can be in how they introduced themselves or in how they describe themselves to others. Take an honest evaluation of the specific words your ideal clients use.
For identifying details, you’ll want to start with their words rather than yours. For example, if you think of your ideal clients as teachers, but they introduce themselves as educators, take that as a queue that you may need to shift the word you use for the professional title of your ideal clients.
A factor in this category of detail is to note how often your ideal clients use their identity details when talking about the issue/problem that you solve by working with them. To continue with this example, does the title of educator matter to the service you provide for them? Or, do you prefer to (or happen to) work with educators more than people who have a different title?
Your ideal clients may not fall into one professional title and may instead fall into a broader personal title such as parent, mom, dad, grandparent, runner, ski boarder, cyclist, etc. Any details that relate to the identity of all of your ideal clients will be what you’ll want to note for this category.
Qualifying Details
Does your ideal client need to have a specific life event happen before they’re ready to take the step to work with someone like you? Do they need to have hit a breaking point, a point of no return, in their life before they can truly commit to working with you?
Getting specific about what your ideal clients need to have experienced or be currently experiencing before they work with you can be an essential step toward seeing the situation through their eyes AND toward preparing to write copy that truly connects with them.
Some examples of this category may cover personal experiences such as a divorce, becoming a parent, losing a loved one, or the diagnosis of a severe medical condition. If your ideal clients must have had a specific experience to then qualify to work with you, that detail will need to be part of what you do every time you share it.
Pain Points
What is going on for your ideal clients before they work with you? How much of that is related to your work? Is it causing them discomfort, displeasure, mental or physical pain?
Truly dig into the details of what inspires them to be ready to seek out someone (like you) who can get them to the results they want. Knowing exactly what pushes your ideal clients to move out of their discomfort/displeasure/pain will be critical to creating copy that inspires action, and it starts with getting to know their primary pain point. It will also be an important detail of getting specific about your ideal clients.
Did this post help you define your ideal clients? I’d love to know! Catch up with me on Instagram to share your insights.
