Getting Totally Clear About Your Ideal Client Opens Up New Opportunities (True Story)
If you read my blogs, you may have noticed that I’m obsessed with how getting totally clear about your ideal client is the key to a profitable and sustainable business – and one you love, too.
Real quick, here’s how this all started for me:
A few years ago, I launched an online course called Blog School. I wanted to teach entrepreneurs how to create optimized blog posts that Google would display, and as a result, would direct tons of prospects to their websites. It was a strategy that I used for my retainer clients for years with tremendous success.
I had invested in a yearlong program to learn how to create and launch an online course. In the course, we learned how to give free webinar trainings and offer free private strategy sessions, which were the thank you for attending. The strategy session model allowed attendees to get to know me better and consider enrolling in my course.
It made total sense.
After a few of weeks of presenting webinars, I had 45 appointments for strategy sessions set-up. However, after all of those meetings only two (yes, only two) people had enrolled in the course.
I was devastated. I knew Blog School had value. I taught it the year before to my current clients and they loved it and were getting results. So, what the heck was I doing wrong? Was there something wrong with my course? Was there something wrong with me??
But then it hit me – I was simply talking to the wrong people! Yes, my webinars got tons of attendees but the most of them just wanted the free training – and who can blame them? However, they either weren’t a good fit or weren’t ready to invest in a deep-dive course like Blog School.
In other words, I wasn’t totally clear about my ideal client.
I had to figure out who my ideal client really was. First, I took a deep look at the clients who took my course the year before. Who were they? What did they have in common? What made them see value in Blog School and why were willing to invest in it?
I started to see a pattern. They had a lot of similarities: gender, age group, the maturity of their businesses, what they wanted more than anything else for their businesses, etc.
I went even deeper and then created a prototype of my ideal client. I gave her a name. I found a photo that looked like her (she was a conglomeration of two of my clients). Then, I updated my website content, I updated my sales pages, and I created a new and much different webinar.
What happened next? Strategy sessions became not only productive but fun, too. Blog School filled up. And when I checked out the roster, I noticed that almost every enrollee was a close match to my ideal client prototype.
Everything changed for the better – including my outlook on life!
Fast forward to today. I have created a unique process and formula that I use to guide businesses through the process of getting totally clear about your ideal client. What you can discover along the way can be transformative and exciting. I want to share one story with you.
Meet Christine Luken
I met Christine at a local Chamber of Commerce event. She is a brilliant entrepreneur who coaches people on how to better manage their personal finances. In fact, I highly recommend her book Money Is Emotional, which I just finished reading. (See the link below for more info on Christine and the book.)
The other day Christine and I began the process of identifying her ideal client. She wants to grow her business and get more visibility for her book. That involves creating compelling content for her website and all her marketing. She wants to be able to make an emotional connection with her ideal clients the instant they land on her website.
As part of this process, I ask people to choose one or two of their favorite clients to think about as we work through identifying their perfect-fit client.
During the process, Christine suddenly realized that both of her favorite clients are Catholic. In fact, she realized that a large percentage of her client base happen to be Catholic. She knew it but she had never really thought about it before.
The area where Christine lives has a high concentration of Catholic churches, so it’s not a surprise that she has a lot of Catholic clients. But here’s what is interesting – both of her favorite clients send their children to Catholic school. Something they specifically deal with is struggling to figure out how to save for college while they are paying for private school. That struggle is one of the reasons they are open to working with a financial coach in the first place!
One of Christine’s big goals this year is to get more speaking engagements. Armed with this new knowledge, she can now create a talk or workshop that will help parents understand how to save for college while they are paying for private school.
Now, Christine won’t turn away a couple that doesn’t have children in private school. But through the process of identifying her ideal client, Christine discovered something that will allow her make some really smart business decisions this year.
This is the kind of epiphany that happens all the time for my clients and what makes it so rewarding.
To find out more about Christine Luken, click here.
Give me 30 mins and I’ll give you a tip about your ideal client (or customer) that will make a difference in your business right now. Click here to schedule.
Thanks for reading!
