Jessica Osborn [00:00:00]:
Foreign. Welcome back to she's the Business Podcast. So good to have you here today. Today's episode is how to identify your ideal client for your coaching business, for your consulting business or your practice. Now let's talk about this because this is a really important part of your marketing strategy, of your business's strategy. If you don't know who your ideal client is, then how are you creating your service offerings? How do you know how to price them, how to market them, where to market them, who you're speaking to? As you can see, it is absolutely essential to know who it is that you're marketing to so that your marketing actually works.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:49]:
Right.
Jessica Osborn [00:00:51]:
Sounds really simple. So why would you not know who your ideal client is? There are so many businesses that start struggle with this, so many coaches that I've helped over the years who really found it hard to identify their ideal client. And that's okay, that's normal. I did a Google search this morning because I thought, well, let's see what Google says. Let's go and do what people are probably doing. If you don't know who your ideal client is, maybe you've turned to Google, maybe you're now asking your AI, but essentially it's, it's the same thing. It's going to go through the information that exists on the Internet. So what advice is actually out there? Let's see what people are consuming and the guidance that you've been given from the Internet.
Jessica Osborn [00:01:37]:
Now, straight away, with step number one that was provided in the Google search results, I can see exactly where we're all going wrong with this. Because here's what it said says, step one, analyze your existing customer base. I'm just going to say big fat no to that. That is probably the worst thing that you could possibly do as you're starting. Why? Because if you're analyzing your existing customer base and trying to figure out through all the data what are the common demographics and ages and population places that they live and what are their common pain points. You're working from the past, you're working from what already exists. And your view and your vision and what you create is therefore going to be a version of that. It's going to be a version of what already exists.
Jessica Osborn [00:02:38]:
Now if you're here today saying, well, I don't know who my ideal client is, I'm confused, then how would the answer be in something that is already in the past, that you've already experienced and known? Because trust me, if one of your past clients was your ideal client, you would know it you'd be like, oh my goodness, if I could have 100 of them, I would be absolutely happy.
Jessica Osborn [00:03:03]:
Right.
Jessica Osborn [00:03:04]:
That may or may not have happened, but trust me, trying to generalize, combine the data from your past clients to create a profile is a really long way to spend a lot of time time with a useless outcome. Because it's going to give you then a very generic, very broad, very unspecific outcome. Because if you don't know your ideal client, more than likely you have been working with many different clients. And this is the challenge that a lot of my clients tell me they're like, oh, but I have so many different types of clients I work with. I'm like, great. You can. That doesn't mean that they're all your ideal client. Just because they have bought from you in the past does not automatically make them ideal for you.
Jessica Osborn [00:03:48]:
Your ideal client does not equal someone who will pay me. Okay? And that is what the advice on Google seems to be telling you to do. It's not finding who is your ideal client, it's telling you how to find someone who will pay me. Now you might think, well, that sounds amazing. I want someone who will pay me. Yeah, maybe that does sound amazing on the surface when you first hear that, you think, that's what I want. Surely. But let's go into the detail and the depth of this.
Jessica Osborn [00:04:22]:
Your ideal client is far different from someone who will pay me. And in what way? Let's look at the differences. Someone who will pay you is someone who a may be in desperate need right now. They might have spotted you go, yes, I'm going to buy that. And then turned into the nightmare client. They might have turned into your most high maintenance, difficult to deal with, complaining, uncommitted person, unresponsive. How many times you had to chase clients because they're not doing the things they need to do. How many times have you felt like we're on different planets here? I'm trying to help this person and they are just not taking the steps, they're not taking the actions, they're not doing what they need to do.
Jessica Osborn [00:05:06]:
Because, you know, there is a partnership here. We're all involved in this process together. That is not an ideal client.
Jessica Osborn [00:05:14]:
Right?
Jessica Osborn [00:05:15]:
Because think about what is the opposite of that. Imagine if your clients not only pay you, that's like a prerequisite because otherwise they're not a client. They are a beneficiary of a charity if they haven't paid.
Jessica Osborn [00:05:27]:
Right?
Jessica Osborn [00:05:28]:
So yes, they've paid you, but they're also really Committed to what it is that you're doing. They are invested in it. They're invested in getting a great outcome. They're respectful, they show up, they are pleasant to deal with. They are probably low maintenance, low complaining. And why would that be? What makes somebody a high complainer versus a low complainer or high maintenance versus low maintenance? It is about fit, right? Because somebody could be a high complainer in one area and a low complainer in another. Well, it's probably because of a better fit for them, a better fit for their personality, for what they're looking for, for their expectations for the outcome. And so when you understand who your ideal client is, it is the client that fits best for you.
Jessica Osborn [00:06:22]:
You may not have met them yet. So trying to figure out or create a profile based on the past, based on your existing clientele or past clientele is only getting you one little perspective of the total opportunity that's out there. You may not have met your ideal client yet. So I'm not saying discount the past clients. Sure. Have a look back through the people who you've worked with. Ask yourself these questions instead. Who was a dream client to work with? Who did I really enjoy working with? As in I enjoyed all of it? Who showed up? Who did the work? Who was easy? Who was a really profitable client for me? Like what? Maybe it.
Jessica Osborn [00:07:12]:
Maybe you found one, Maybe you found a person, Maybe you found a few of them. If there were a few, you can now look for similarities between them, but just know that they are not the sum total of it all because they're in the past. There are a whole lot of people who have never purchased from you before who maybe haven't because you haven't been marketing to them. And they could be your absolute ideal client. They just haven't been in your world yet because you haven't been speaking to them. So yes, there is a chicken in the egg, which means that I want you to use your imagination. You've got to step out from what has been from the past, take some of it into account. If it is relevant, if it is useful to you, by all means.
Jessica Osborn [00:08:02]:
If your clients have been like a bit meh or they've been fine, but you know, they're not blowing my mind. I don't feel inspired by it actually. They have been quite high maintenance and hard work. Then don't use any of that data because you don't want to create more of that.
Jessica Osborn [00:08:21]:
Right?
Jessica Osborn [00:08:21]:
We don't want to attract more of that. You want to attract in the ones that are going to Help you have the right sort of business that's fulfilling for you, that's exciting, that's inspiring. Inspiring. That enables you to deliver your highest value. There's nothing worse than attracting clients who want something that's your, you know, lowest value offerings that the things that you're like, well, you know, that's what I do, but that's really basic. I can do so much more to help you. And they're just not even ready for it. They're not in the zone for it.
Jessica Osborn [00:08:54]:
They can't see it or they don't value it. Why would you want to attract in more people who just want the lowest common denominator? Like, I don't understand it, but that is a lot of advice that is out there. That's what Google is telling you. That's what the AI responses are telling you. Because that's what the majority of people's blogs, they are basically reproducing the same stuff that's already out there. And they're telling you to do this. Working from the past is not going to give you your ideal future. You're just going to create more of the past.
Jessica Osborn [00:09:29]:
The other step that I have seen on Google is says look at your past clients and figure out the problems that you solve. Now here's a giant clue that we're looking in the whole different wrong place. If you don't know what the problem is that you solve, what have you been selling? Like, what are you selling into whom? How have you even got clients in the first place? Like, this is bamboozling information and instruction that is on Google. So let's talk instead about what should you do? How do you identify your ideal client? Now, it goes beyond the surface level. Okay. Most profiles that I've seen out there in the world will touch upon things like age, you know, maybe gender, maybe marital status, income levels, you know, the basic demographics of society and asking you to pick a person in there. Thing is, if you think about it, even if you do that exercise and you say, right, well, a woman who is 40 years old who has two kids and is living somewhere in this paradise city, that is my ideal client. Like, is every woman who's 40 your ideal client? Really? Well, no, they're not going to be.
Jessica Osborn [00:10:50]:
What is it that they are actually looking for? What is the problem that they're wishing to solve? And it's not like what all women who are 40 want to solve. Because if we keep approaching it from the external, you're going to get something that's far too broad and Wishy washy. The challenge. The reason why most people have a problem with this, why most people struggle to identify their ideal client, is because they're trying to incorporate so much stuff into it. It's like, that's not one person, that's a whole crowd. Like, that's a whole team. That's an entire segment of the population. You're not clear on your ideal client because you actually haven't drilled down into a person.
Jessica Osborn [00:11:32]:
And more specifically, not just a person or a market, we want to look at it from the place where you are, right, your corner of the Internet, your niche and beyond your niche. What we call in business jam, your expert zone. Now, your expert zone partially is made up out of what it is that you do specifically. But the part that is absolutely connected to that cannot be disconnected is who you do it for.
Jessica Osborn [00:12:03]:
Right?
Jessica Osborn [00:12:05]:
We, we don't have a what you do on its own. And then now I'm going to just do that for thousands of all these different people with all different needs. That's not, that's not a specific positioning in the market. That's definitely not an expert zone. That's broad still. So what you do and who you do it for are connected. They are connected together in this beautiful tango. And when you define that from both aspects and then we always add a third layer in business down.
Jessica Osborn [00:12:37]:
But let's just think about the two first, because a lot of people get this wrong. By the way, I have spoken to so many, even very successful coaches, people who are, you know, making multiple six and even seven figures. And a lot of them think they just need to be specific about one thing, either what they do or who they help and have the other one a little bit broad and loose and wishy washy. You can, but you're never going to get to the level that you could get to reach your potential unless you get specific about both. And ever since the, you know, Covid's happened, every year, we've had more and more and more people entering the online space. There are more people looking for help, there are more people providing help. And the broader you are and less specific, the more you're hidden in the market because you can't stand out if you're not clear. If you have no sharp outline, you can't be seen.
Jessica Osborn [00:13:36]:
Right?
Jessica Osborn [00:13:38]:
We need to be clear and specific. So what do I do when I'm looking to identify my ideal client? Well, the first of all, I ask myself questions such as who would be a person? What would it look like if I had a client who was absolutely the right person to work with me? What type of person would they be? What sort of traits would they have? How would they look to work? What are their values? What are their perspectives? Start from the actual person and the person who they are being. You might want to ring fence in a few of the demographic details but you know that can vary. You can have somebody who's a different age and is a completely an ideal client, somebody who's years and years apart from them, who's also a great ideal client. So unless you have a niche that is specific to a certain age, like as in you literally help people who are turning 40 deal with the, the fact that they're now on the, on the top of the hill or going over the hill as we used to call it. I don't really believe in that anymore. I think it's moved to far older. Maybe once you're over 50 or 60, we, we now think but it always used to be, I remember certainly when I was growing up my parents generation, you know, you'd say you're 40 years old, you're over the hill, starting to roll down the other side.
Jessica Osborn [00:15:08]:
So unless your business is specifically helping someone with a age date based moment in their life like that, then more than likely your ideal client age has a range. More than likely, quite a few of those things have a range.
Jessica Osborn [00:15:24]:
Right.
Jessica Osborn [00:15:25]:
Um, you might also think they need to be earning a certain amount in order to be your ideal client. Well, who says, what if they have money from other places? What if there are funds elsewhere? I would love for you to start thinking and challenging some of these thoughts or beliefs that the old way of creating your ideal client avatar is just so out of date, so restrictive and so unhelpful that it is not helping you. So inside business jam and in the niche challenge I'm doing right now, it's a live challenge I'm taking guiding people through the process to identify who is the right client for them, who is going to be the one that if they market to them it's going to be a much easier. Yes, it's going to feel like a no brainer for that person because there's such a strong synergy, there's such a strong match and relevance and this is really understanding your ideal client from a person perspective. So we ask things such as, you know, what is it that you do and what therefore is the, the problem that you're helping to solve. Now if you've still got multiple people in mind, you won't be able to answer that. Question. Because you'll be going, well, I help them with this and with that, and there'll be so many different outcomes that you're coming up with, then that is a clue to show you.
Jessica Osborn [00:17:14]:
You don't have one person in mind here. So when you're thinking about what it is you do, try to imagine that you're helping a person and this is going to be your passion project, Right? This is a person I know I could help so much. They want it. That is an absolute necessity. There is no point marketing to someone who does not want what it is that you help people with. And to give you an example of this, let's think about somebody who maybe they bite their nails a lot, so they have a problem. And maybe you're somebody who does work around nails and growing nails and having really strong, healthy nails. Now, if the person who's biting nails actually doesn't care and doesn't want to stop biting their nails, it doesn't matter how good your marketing is around what you do, the mindset, maybe the health, and how you can grow beautiful nails, your messaging is not going to be meeting that person.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:20]:
Because they're just thinking, I don't care. I actually like biting my nails, whatever it is. And you might think that's crazy. You might be like, well, who wants to keep biting their nails? I know I am someone who struggled with nail biting a lot in my life. And I have moments where I'm, you know, I'm really on a mission to grow beautiful nails. And then I have other moments where I couldn't care less than I bite them. I will put my hand up and say that. Having said that, there are other people who really bite them all the time.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:49]:
Like, they have no desire ever to grow lovely nails. So your marketing won't be hitting that person. Even though they have a need for what it is that you do, they have to want it. They've got to want the outcome. They've got to really, really want it in their bones. So think about that, because I know that sounds really simple. And yes, this is simple. The reason why it's hard because people over complicate it, because you apply your thinking and your perspectives onto your clients and you think they should want these things, they should want to change.
Jessica Osborn [00:19:25]:
They should want something different. I know people who are diabetic who have not wanted to change their diet at all. Even though they know that the facts, they know that it could help them. They know it would definitely help with a lot of their health issues if they change their diet and they could maybe manage their diabetes better, but they just have no desire to. They're like, no, I like this. I want to eat these things and I'm going to do it. Even though I have the diabetes. It doesn't matter what you say to them, they are not changing their mind.
Jessica Osborn [00:19:57]:
So, you know, that is not your ideal client. If you're someone who helps diabetics with a better lifestyle and better diet, you have to be talking to the ones who want the change.
Jessica Osborn [00:20:09]:
Right?
Jessica Osborn [00:20:10]:
So that's really important. We have a whole set of questions. I've actually been building a really cool AI bot where you put in answers to a bunch of questions and it spits out this really amazing, detailed customer profile for you, something I'm going to be using inside my Business Jam program. I'm going to have them trying it all out first and I will probably share it in this niche challenge as well. I'm excited. I'll let you know a bit more about it once. Once it exists. But these are the.
Jessica Osborn [00:20:43]:
Or once it's out there and completed. At the moment, I'm doing a whole lot of testing on it myself just to make sure the profile really, really works. But those are some of the questions that we work through in a really easy way. Like, I ask simple questions and then the outcome gives this deep, rich answer. It'll tell you things like, what are their biggest barriers that are stopping them from buying? What do. What do they think? What do they believe about this that's potentially having them stay stuck in that place? What are they seeking? What are they seeking? The answer to these are the questions that help you to identify who your ideal client is. And once you know that, you know what it is that they're doing, you know the mistakes they're making, the perspectives they have, then just think about how easy is that to create content, to shift it, to create the right sort of content, Right. That's going to help them take that step closer to working with you.
Jessica Osborn [00:21:50]:
It's impossible to do it if you don't have the depth of understanding of the world that this person is living in right now, what they're battling with, what they believe to be true, what they're telling themselves, the stories that they tell themselves that we need to know. This, this is the stuff that goes into your marketing. It's almost the same as what we're putting out.
Jessica Osborn [00:22:13]:
Right?
Jessica Osborn [00:22:14]:
And that's why, please, if we still were not convinced, please don't go and Google how do I find my ideal client and follow any of the nonsense that you're finding on there because your past clients are not the sum total of your future ideal clients. There may be some clues in there. There may definitely be a few patterns you can pull out and use, which would be fantastic. But you it's okay if you think none of them are my ideal client. I actually haven't met them yet. You can still figure out who your ideal client is. Do not need that previous experience with someone in order to define it. And the more that you do attach to the past, then really the more that you're just calling in more of that in the future.
Jessica Osborn [00:23:04]:
And that is the real danger that most people are experiencing. The reason why they keep having the same result because they're creating from that same place. They're creating from the past. So I hope you found today's episode interesting and potentially sparking a few new thoughts and ideas in your mind about how you're approaching your ideal client. How do you create an avatar? It is about getting inside their heads and that is the the place where you create your content from, where you create your offers from. And all of these things connect and integrate together so that you've got the right offer, you're talking about it in the right way to the right person. It's a no brainer. That's what the no brainer means.
Jessica Osborn [00:23:53]:
It's impossible to have a no brainer if we haven't integrated these things together. So enjoy the rest of your week. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode and I will speak to you soon. Bye for now.
