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Many self-employed professionals THINK they have a clear idea of exactly what their best clients are all about, but often, this is just demographic information (male/female, size of company, geography, etc.). In my book, that’s simply not enough information. You’re just skimming the surface there.
If you want to start attracting your ideal clients in droves, it’s time to do some serious drilling-down to find out as much as you can about that target’s critical problems. Without knowing their critical problems, challenges, issues and stumbling blocks, you simply won’t be as Client Attractive. The good news is, it’s relatively easy to find out everything you need to know about them.
Put yourself in their well-worn comfortable shoes, completely, and then ask yourself these questions:
- What is it that keeps them up at night worrying (as it relates to what you do)?
- If they were to "pull their hair out" about something, what would it be?
- What is the biggest struggle they encounter on a daily basis?
- What is the biggest obstacle they deal with?
- What is their biggest money/time leak?
- What is the one goal that seems unattainable to them?
- If they wished they could learn how to do ONE thing and one thing only, what would that be?
- What is the biggest improvement they could make in their lives/business (as it relates to what you do)?
- And finally, what would they do ANYTHING and pay (relatively) ANYTHING to solve/get rid of/achieve?
Let me give you a personal example of why this works in helping you become more Client Attractive. When I was simply a dime-a-dozen business coach helping everyone—corporate types, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and solo practitioners—get better in business (I felt I had to do this in the beginning), I had a difficult time getting a hold on a marketing message that would fit ALL of them.
My message was weak and diluted. Some clients wanted to work on time management, some on achieving sales goals, some on staffing issues, some on selling their music CDs, some on marketing and getting clients.
Although I was pretty good at coaching in these different capacities, what I truly enjoyed the most and got the BEST results with was coaching the sole practitioner who needed more clients. It came naturally, I could do it in my sleep and I had a ton of personal experience with it myself, having done it twice successfully, in less than eight months each time.
It’s not until I answered the above questions that I really got clear on who my best client was and how to help them. This changed EVERYTHING for me. I was then able to steer all my marketing to that type of person and their problems. Client Attraction became a lot EASIER for me at that point because clients starting coming to me!
Your Assignment:
Answer every one of the following questions as if your business life depended on it. (Hint: it does.)
- What is it that keeps them up at night worrying (as it relates to what you do)?
- If they were to "pull their hair out" about something, what would it be?
- What is the biggest struggle they encounter on a daily basis?
- What is the biggest obstacle they deal with?
- What is their biggest money/time leak?
- What is the one goal that seems unattainable to them?
- If they wished they could learn how to do ONE thing and one thing only, what would that be?
- What is the biggest improvement they could make in their lives/business (as it relates to what you do)?
- And finally, what would they do ANYTHING and pay (relatively) ANYTHING to solve/get rid of/achieve?
Once you answer these questions in depth, you’ll have a very clear direction of how to position yourself in the marketplace and a way of speaking to your prospects that will have them saying, "WOW, that’s EXACTLY what I need, I want to work with you!"
If getting a handle on WHO your ideal clients are in the first place is an issue, you’ll want to get yourself a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™. All the time grids, tools, and strategies I’ve developed and used successfully over the years are all there for you to use right away, so you can start attracting lots of clients fast. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ will save you LOTS of time in filling your practice quickly and consistently. You can get it at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
