What you REALLY need to do to attract your dream clients.
I once had a client hire me to create 5 Ideal Client Avatar’s (ICAs) of their customers. This was a major corporate and the project was a preeeetty BIG deal for me. I had to get it right!
The ICAs were supposed to help their staff to really understand their customers and be able to recommend the right products/solutions to them. They had to be easily identifiable and feel ‘human’
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐚𝐬: 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝟓 𝐈𝐂𝐀'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲. 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞. 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝟐𝟓𝐦𝐢𝐥+ 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞.
The ICA's were focused on things: like what Jamie’s favourite breakfast was, or which sports Julie’s 5 kids played after school. And none of the answers were relevant to the solution being offered.
Plus - Sandra's 2 kids didn’t play any sports (so which ICA did she fit?) and Jackson didn’t eat breakfast (so which ICA did he fit?).
Ugh… things could get real messy, real quick. Instead of clarity - we were creating confusion. Lots of it.
Sooooo… what to do…
I tried. Really. Hard. to make it work. After weeks of hitting my head against the wall I decided it was time to change the game. I gathered up all 5.8inches of myself, walked into the boardroom and suggested we take a different approach.
One that focused less on the fact that Annie’s 2 year old loves unicorns and glitter, and one that focused more on Annie the human being:
- how she was feeling in that moment
- and what her real needs were.
- What her real pain points were.
- Aaaand how the company could actually solve those problems.
EUREKA! They loved it - and they became one of my most loyal clients into the future.
I see this same mistake happening in coaching all the time!
Everyone is saying you have to get your Ideal Client Avatar done and then clients will just roll in.
They’re not wrong. But they’re still focused on the unicorns and glitter. The fluff that’s distracting you from really understanding your client and speaking their language.
𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴. (𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.)
ICAs are more general. They focus on a target group. Your ideal target group.
It’s not putting your client’s in a box. (𝘐 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 25+, 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘫𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴, 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘺’𝘴 𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘺 𝘳𝘦-𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 (𝘺𝘦𝘴 - 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 - 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳? 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨.) When you do that, you loose.
𝗜𝗖𝗔’𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 #𝟭 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲, 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺, 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀. It’s all about marketing.
And that means your REAL FOCUS should be on:
① How are your clients feeling?
② What are your clients pain points?
③ How do they express this (what language / phrases do they use)?
④ How can you solve them?
⑤ How can you communicate that to them in their words?
⑥ ...so that they feel understood. “𝙄 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪. 𝙄 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪. 𝙄 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪." Aaaaand most importantly, "𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙮𝙤𝙪."
It’s really thaaaat simple.
When you get this right, minus all the fluff that’s distracting you, thats when your clients start telling everyone who’ll listen how awesome you are because. you. just. ‘𝙜𝙚𝙩’ them.
And that’s when you start building a business that attracts your dream clients. on. repeat. without all the struggle.
So tell me: Who’s your ideal client? Aaaand if you know who they are, are you speaking their language in all of your messaging?