594: Who is your ideal client?

My Business On Purpose

We spend a lot of time here at BoP figuring out who our ideal client is. We think through what their frustrations are and how they spend their day. We look at what motivates them and how that meshes with what we offer. Is it a fit? No? How can we make it a fit? Because here’s what we know…for every person we spend an hour with who is NOT our ideal client, equals an hour that we’re not spending with someone we need to be working with. It’s that simple.

So…who is your ideal client? How do we figure that out? Well, let’s talk about that today, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.

We really are serious about our ideal client. For a series of reasons, but 3 quick ones.

1. Because we know we have the tools to solve our ideal clients' problems. An ice skater that needs help with her choreography? Nope, that’s not the scope of work we need to be involved in. We don’t have the tools to truly change their life, so why spend our most valuable resource, our non-renewable time, on that. But a business owner with 2-50 employees? Swimming in chaos? Frustrated over more money leaking out the back door than they realized and unsure how to lead their team towards a clear vision? Bingo! That’s us. We can nail that! And so every sales call we have we can know with 100% certainty that we have what they need. It makes it very simple for us.
2. The quicker we identify if a person is our ideal client, the quicker we can lock in on them and try to build a relationship. It helps us narrow our focus and not have to cast as wide of a net. It also helps us focus in on a niche and not spend time figuring out if someone is a fit or not. If we spend a ton of time on the front end identifying the characteristics of businesses we have success with, then that helps us care for business owners well and not waste their time and also be able to point them another direction to get help with whatever they need.
3. Because it helps us deliver our best value. When we work with our ideal client, we know we can deliver at or above the perceived value for our services. If it’s not a great fit from the beginning, it’s going to be a waste of time and resources for the business owner to try to make it work. It’s that simple. We deliver the greatest value to our ideal client.

So, if I asked you who your ideal client is, would you even know where to start? What do they look like? Dress like? How do they spend their time? Where do they congregate for business meetings and how do you get in front of them?

What phrases come out of their mouth and what do you hope to hear come out of their mouth so you know…YES, we can solve that problem!

Many of us go, “Oh we can work with anyone!” While that may be true if you’re selling bottled water, I would push back and say, yes, you CAN work with anyone, but why not put your energy towards an ideal demographic? Your ideal client! Your marketing and sales has to be focused. Because those will become your raving fans and the ones to help grow your business organically. Not the ones you just, “Made it work” for.

So…spend some time today diving in on this. Get incredibly detailed. We have a 2-page document simply outlining our ideal client. That way when we go to a former client or current client and ask for referrals we can tell them exactly who we’re looking for and know that we will be able to deliver on our promises.

It’s worth spending the time to do this now…right before everyone jumps back in this fall. Figure it out, look for them and watch your business do what it is designed to do!

Thanks so much for joining, have a great day!