If you sell a product or a service to clients, you may have hears about defining your “Ideal Client Avatar”.  If you are like me – you may be resistant because you think you will miss a great client.  When we start out in sales or having a slump; it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that we have the answer to everyone’s problem in our solution.

What happens is that we end up trying to be all things to all people – and our ideal clients can’t find us.  It will change your business when you decide to spend the time identifying who you want to work with.  Who would you like to be around every day?  You can find great clients, or clients that don’t fit your model and are problems from the very start.  Have you ever had a client like that?  Why did you take them on?

I had the opportunity to work on this recently with some down time.  Since I am a coach who helps clients achieve BIG goals – you would be hard to identify yourself in that sentence, and you wouldn’t know who to refer as a great client.  I started to do the work and build the idea of who my ideal client is.

Here is the process that I used (you’ll need to spend time answering these questions and writing, refining), and at the end you’ll be able to write a story of who they are.  I used information provided by Amy Porterfield in one of her on-line classes, but there are plenty of resources if you just google ‘ideal client’.

Questions to get you going: (Define the ideal customer for your product/service)

What is the physical picture of your ideal client?:

• Male/female/both?
• Age?
• Single/married/divorced? 
• Education? 
• How do they earn a living? 
• Financial situation? 
• Children? 
• Where are they located? 

Where will you find them?

• What books do they read?  Blogs?  Podcasts? – Why do they like them?
• Are they on-line, where? 
• Are they part of groups?

What would they be looking for and seeking?

• What is their biggest pain point? 
• What are they worried about? 
• Do they have current challenges? 
• What problems do they need help with?
•  What keeps them up at night?

What is the solution that they need and want from me?

• What do they want?
• What do they hope to gain from me?
• What goals are they trying to get to?
• How do they buy?
• Have they bought something similar in the past?
• What must happen in their life or work for them to buy your product/service?
• What transformation does your ideal client want or need?
• What do they want others to notice in them or say about their transformation?

Once you have gone through these questions (and a few more that you created), take this information and put it into a story that tells you who you are serving.  You may continue to fine tune this story as you work through the details.  This story is for you, not for the public.  You attract what you think about – and I’d rather work with fun clients each day. 

You can now begin to tailor your message and know who you are speaking to.  I thought I’d include a sample to get you going:

Jane is a busy mom of 2 who lives just outside of Atlanta.  She has been a financial advisor in the financial services field for a few years, but struggles in attracting high net worth clients.

Jane wishes she could increase her average account size of her clients and add significant new assets each year.  She’s not sure why others seem to succeed with little or no effort.  She feels that she hasn’t figured out how to run her business. 

What she really wants, and needs is clarity and confidence that she has the plan that will double her income, and the ability to create her business the way she envisioned it when she began her career.  Ultimately Jane wants to live her life to the fullest, get unstuck for good, and change the life of her family.

Once you put in the time and effort (I know it is not something to be finished in a few minutes), but the information is valuable to growing your business.  You now know who your ideal client is (don’t worry – others will still find you), more important – your ideal client will be able to identify just how you will be able to help.  Isn’t that why you do what you do?  It is for me.