Your ideal client and how to target them

Your ideal client is not only the person you are solving a problem for or helping to solve a problem but at the same time the person who is WILLING AND READY to pay for your services.

How do you find your ideal client?

1. Do your research. What kind of people might need your services? Let´s say you help people find new clients over Linkedin. So your potential target group is all those, who do business on LinkedIn.
2. Narrow down your potential target group. Let´s say you have specialized in online marketing. Divide your potential target group in different segments you would like to work with. For example: coaches, trainers and consultants. Not the same by the way. Then create subsegments for each of these segments. For example leadership coaches, career coaches, sales trainers, personal trainers, business consultants for SME, and IT consultants.
3. Pick one subsegment and find out what their biggest problem is. Don´t just assume that you know, but go and talk to them. By talking to your potential clients, you will realize that not all of them need or want your services. And you will learn a lot about them and their daily struggles which might help you in the future.
4. Pick one subsegment after another, until you find out who needs and wants your services the most. On your way, you might realize that you need to refine and sharpen your services and most probably also the subsegments. During this process, you never once sold your services, but you learnt everything about their struggles, and people got to know you.
5. Your next step is deciding in which subsegment your ideal clients are, and letting them know how you might help them overcome their struggles. By doing your research, you might have realized that not many career coaches know how to use LinkedIn effectively to gain visibility and to drive traffic to their website.
6. Give your ideal clients something to work with. Don´t tell them that you can help them generate more leads and that you can increase their conversion rate throughout their sales funnel. If they have never come across these expressions, they will have no idea what you are talking about. And they won´t care. Rather tell them how writing an article on career-related questions and including a link to their website with a special offer, and sending it to their network with a personal note might help in driving traffic (aka potential future clients) to their website. Show them how it is done, and offer to help them if they don´t know how to start.
7. Once you have helped them with the first steps, chances are more likely, that they will come back to you when they need further help and that they will recommend you to others.

Always remember, you have to gain people´s trust before they will do business with you.