As a coach do you already know who is your ideal client? In this week’s guest post Cindy Hillsey shares her thoughts and expertise about how to identify your ideal client and why that’s important.
Who Is Your Ideal Client and Why Do You Need One?
By Cindy Hillsey
The topic of the Ideal Client is being discussed more and more frequently these days. Look around you. How many times have you read an article, attended a teleseminar, and/or had a conversation with someone where the topic turned to, “Who Is Your Ideal Client?” Why do you suppose this is? In fact, you may have gotten to a point where you’ve heard this question posed so often that you dismiss it with a wave of the hand and think, “of course I know who my Ideal Client is, who doesn’t?!” A truism in business is that if it’s a recurring theme it means that it’s not only important, but that it’s not being done by the majority. If everybody was doing it, there would be no need to discuss it.
If I were to ask you right now, “Who is your Ideal Client and why?” what would you tell me? Would you be able to do it without hesitation and in a crystal clear and concise manner? Would you have to pause before you answered the question? Very few people can answer this question without hesitation and pause. If you can answer without hesitation and pause, I want to congratulate you. Keep doing what you’re doing! For the rest of us, the ability to answer this question could mean the difference between having clients and not having clients.
While this seems like a very simple question, it really is not. It is a question you should spend a significant amount of time thinking about and getting very clear around. Let’s take a moment and review some essential elements of the Ideal Client:
- It’s counter-intuitive in the sense that it is most effective when your Ideal Client is highly specific and narrow.
- When you try to be everything to everybody, you end being nothing to anybody.
- There is a common center of interest and/or lifestyle of your Ideal Client.
- Your Ideal Client exists in a sufficient quantity.
- Your Ideal Client has the ability to pay you.
What does having an Ideal Client do for you and your business?
- An Ideal Client provides you with a clear vision and an obvious focus.
- It enhances your credibility and your reputation.
- It increases the demand for your services because of the specialized market.
- It greatly simplifies marketing and increases your return on investment (ROI).
- It provides a firm base from which you can expand your business.
I do want to take a moment to make certain you understand we are not talking about a Target Market or a Niche Market. Your Ideal Client is different from your Target or Niche market. People get stuck in the Target Market/Niche Market terminology. As a matter of fact, many times you will hear someone use Ideal Client, Target Market, and Niche Market all in the same sentence. Talk about confusing! Discovering your Ideal Client goes far beyond the Target Market/Niche Market terminology. Knowing who your Ideal Client is at a deep core level is one of the foundational pieces of your business.
It is important to remember that a Target Market/Niche Market is not your WHO. It’s a classification system. Just because you identify someone as an Ideal Client who is in a particular Target Market/Niche Market, it does NOT mean that ALL members of said Target Market/Niche Market are YOUR Ideal Client! It’s more foundational to identify the qualities and characteristics that you want to work with in a person than it is to identify some broad classification, because ultimately no matter what business you are in you end up dealing with individuals, right?
In fact, Target Markets/Niche Markets are actually derived from the more fundamental Ideal Client piece. For example, here are some of the characteristics I look for in my Ideal Client: Female, age 35-45, Service-Based Entrepreneur, who is positive, energetic, and honest. They respect my knowledge. They are do’ers. (This is not a comprehensive list, but will give you a feel for what I’m talking about.) From my clients who fit this criteria, I can clearly identify two Target Markets: Virtual Assistants and Coaches.
Note that I started with the Ideal Client and their characteristics NOT the Target Market/Niche Market. Conversely, let’s suppose for a moment that I insisted that I wanted to pick a Target Market/Niche Market, and I chose Coaches. It stands to reason that because I’m choosing a classification many of the coaches that come to me would not be my Ideal Client, because my Ideal Client is based on attributes and characteristics.
So, how do you go about determining who your Ideal Client is? I would suggest you write a story about your Ideal Client. Give him/her a name, an education, a family life (single or not), a social life, a business, and a problem they have in their business that you can help them with. Get very detailed. Let me repeat that…get very detailed. I want you to know this person like you know your family!
These questions should help you begin to craft your Ideal Client:
- What are the basic characteristics of your Ideal Client? (demographics, age, gender, salary, education, location, etc.)
- Who are your clients? Are they business executives, artists, small business owners, micro business owners?
- What kind of values does your ideal client have? Do these values match yours?
- What exactly do your Ideal Clients do? How do they need your help? (Be very specific in your answers to these two questions.)
- How do your Ideal Clients treat you? Do they pay on time? Do they understand you are a business owner and treat you as such?
Whether you know exactly who your Ideal Client is or not, please take the time to answer the above questions so that the next time you are asked, “Who is your Ideal Client? you can answer them without hesitation!
About the Author/Further Resources
As a Business Coach, I work with Service-Based Entrepreneurs, and I specialize in working with Virtual Assistants. Visit http://virtualpartnering.com for my FREE mini e-course on, The Six Basic Keys Every Business Should Have, along with other free resources.
Connect with me:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VirtualPartnering
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cindyhillsey
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cindyhillsey