Identify Your Ideal Coaching Client & Your Target Market
Your Target Market is the group of people you'll offer your services to; such as Management Professionals, Attorneys, Single Parents, Parents of Teens, etc. And within that target market, you'll identify your Ideal Clients to who you'll be selling your life coaching services.
For example, your Target Market could be management professionals; and your Ideal Clients could be Managers who Feel Overwhelmed and Unproductive and want to improve their performance.
The key concept to remember at this point is that it's essential to pick an ideal client who
a) you'd absolutely LOVE to work with
and
b) who can afford your fees
In order to make sure your Ideal Client pays attention to your messages and takes action, you have to be very specific when choosing your target market. You can’t just say I'll provide my services to a broad target market such as “women, men, single moms, people who want to bring change into their lives, or people in transition” because that is still way too vague.
What women - what do they do? What are their challenges?
Which single moms? Why would they need your service?
People who want change? What type of change? (lose weight? find love? move to another country? - you'd approach each differently)
People in transition - the transition from what to what?
When defining and choosing your target market, there are many things to consider.
There are a few factors to consider below - I highlighted (in bold) the ones that I believe are most crucial to keep in mind for us (life) coaching professionals:
- Age
- Income
- Interests
- If it’s a man or a woman, marital status may come into play
- If it’s relevant (for a parenting coach or life-style coach for example), you might want to have an idea about the age of the children;
- Works outside the home
- Self-employed
- Wants, wishes, and burning desires *
- Values & beliefs *
- Problems/pain areas /challenges that need to be resolved *
*These last three are particularly important because these are the areas that really motivate people to reach for their wallet and invest in solutions that'll help them in these areas of their lives.
The key is to really understand what motivates your target market - what are their needs, wants, and burning desires. When you have such a level of understanding of your ideal client, you can sell them the right service or product.
By understanding their problems, challenges, needs, and/or burning desires, you'll be able to offer the solution that matches their need.
The Problem with Being Too Vague:
I see many life coaches who keep their target market and marketing vague, offering the “be everything to everyone approach” and it’s really tough to make that work as a small service business owner, selling a premium-priced service.
These Life Coaches (consultants or speakers) who try to cater to everyone might believe that by keeping their options open, they can serve any type of client, giving them a higher chance to get hired; however, for 99% of coaches, the opposite is true: when your marketing is this (mega) wide, no one really hears or notices you.
The challenge of being "everything for everyone"
→ What will you blog about? How will you ensure that your ideal client will be excited for each of your upcoming blog posts?
→ What will your YouTube videos be about? Will your subscribers stay subscribed and excited for each new video, or will they unsubscribe after a few (unrelated) videos?
→ What will your webinars be about?
→ What types of posts will you post on social media...?
Bottom line is, without clarity of WHO your ideal client is AND without know WHAT their challenges or burning desires are, your marketing is equal to target-shooting in pitch dark and hoping to hit the target.
Identify Your Ideal Customer:
It is crucial to Identify your Ideal Customer - or the Persona of Your Ideal Client - and know her as intimately as humanly possible:
What are her wants, needs, challenges, and burning desires?
If your ideal client was approached by a genie and offer them to resolve one (or 3) of their challenges, what would they choose?
What are her beliefs? And more importantly, what are her Limiting Beliefs? (why isn't this need fulfilled yet?)
If you don’t already know the answers to the above questions, try surveying your existing clients and past clients; as well as your ideal clients who gather in groups (fb, li, etc.). Or get the research from others who already conducted similar inquiries.
If you are conducting your own research, ask your ideal clients a few questions about themselves - about their challenges, goals, etc. - whatever is relevant for you to know in order to serve them best.
In return for their answers, offer them a free gift or something of value, just to get that feedback (some even go so far as to give away $10 to $25 amazon gift cards). This information will be extremely valuable to you (not to mention that - if the survey is not anonymous - you'd be able to offer your service to those who obviously are a great match for your coaching).
Why Should Someone Hire You?
What is the single most important reason your ideal client/target audience would want to hire you?
You need to be able to relate to and empathize with your target market, identify their problems and show how your solution solves that problem or need. If you think too generally about your target market (or your offer), your ideal client will NOT even remotely realize that you could help them and it'll be tough to get anyone excited about anything.
Just think about it, if someone is looking for a coach to help them with their constantly crying toddler; or help with their drug-addicted teen... or help with their struggling romantic relationship... and they come to your website, and they read something along the lines of "I can help anyone with any goals..." and they see other websites that address their exact need, who do you think they'll hire...?
What I'd like you to walk away from reading this, is to realize that you will sell your services way more easily to a highly-targeted group of people than trying to approach everyone with a general offer. Leave general marketing to Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and other huge companies; and decide to specialize instead!
Click HERE for 4 Steps on Finding Your Ideal Niche -
- Also find out why you don't have to "marry" a niche...!
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Exercise:
Create Your Customer “Avatar” – or a Good Description of Your Ideal Client. Become crystal clear on WHO will your coaching services help.
The better you know your ideal client AND your ideal client’s needs, the easier it will be to:
1) find them and offer your coaching, programs, or products to them; and
2) to create (marketing) messages and web-presence that will engage your ideal clients' attention and increase their desire to explore your offers.
Make sure to invest adequate time in this exercise, as your entire marketing will be built on this. After all, when you have a clear idea on who your Ideal Client is, it will become effortless to talk directly to “that person” -- yes, "that person," as we’ll narrow it down, actually, to one person that embodies your ideal client. Some even go so far as to print out a picture of their ideal client and keep it in front of them, each time they communicate with them (write an email, prepare a webinar, create a course, etc.)
a) Make a list of types of clients you'd really enjoy working with AND who have a burning need that you could resolve - such as overwhelmed managers who want to increase their productivity; parents struggling with a relationship with a teen child; attorneys who want to improve their public speaking skills, etc.
* - try to be as specific as possible
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b) When you look at the list you created above, WHO would benefit from your coaching the most? Who out of those potential ideal clients has a need so burning that they'd be willing to pay to resolve their need?
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c) WHAT exact challenge(s) or strong desire of this ideal client did you identify? Make a list and identify their top 2 to 3 most burning challenges or needs:
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d) HOW will your coaching help them? WHAT transformation will they experience as a result of your coaching?
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e) Where are these people? (Or rather, this person?) Can you easily find them? Can you easily get in front of them?
LI Groups,
FB Groups,
FB Targeted Ads,
Magazines,
Associations
(where else?)
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(worth repeating)
You may find it helpful to print out a picture of your ideal client AND name your ideal client - perhaps the picture and name of an old client who you really enjoyed working with and fits your IC description, or simply print out an image of someone who you imagine would be great working with. Each time you write an eMail, write an article, create a product…, you imagine this specific client AND you write/create content that they’d find useful
When you become clear on WHO your product will help; HOW will it help them; and WHERE can you find your ideal clients, approaching and enrolling your ideal clients into your programs will become almost effortless.
If you’d like feedback, post it below or send me a message with the description of your ideal client
Once you are clear on your Target Market,
Click HERE for Step-by-Step Instructions on
How to Create a Powerful Elevator Pitch
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How to Get Life Coaching Clients, PART 1 – 12 Habits of Highly Successful Life Coaches