3 Reasons Why You’re Struggling to Find Your Ideal Client

“Find your ideal client,” they say.

“Then it will be easier to get clients,” they say.

So you bust out your notebook and start writing down the following information about your ideal client:

• Gender
• Name
• Occupation
• Geographical Location
• Relationship Status
• Number of Children
• Favorite Stores
• Favorite Books + Magazines
• Favorite Leisure Activities
• A bunch of other information super-specific to one specific individual

Then you think to yourself, “Sweet! There’s my ideal client. Come find me (insert the fake name you’ve given this fake person here)!”

Why Writing Down Your Ideal Client’s Attributes Isn’t Enough

So cool… you have a list of attributes that make up this fictitious person you’ve concocted in your mind. Are you confident in saying you know exactly who your ideal client is now? If your answer is yes, I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you but you are so far away from understanding who your true ideal client is.

These types of attributes give you a picture of what their life is like. Where they live, the type of activities they enjoy, and even how much money they make based on their occupation. But this doesn’t really help you sell your product or service because people don’t buy products or services, they sell solutions to problems. And in the nifty list, you created above, you didn’t list a single problem your ideal client may be facing… which means, you don’t really understand who your ideal client is.

Why you’re struggling to find your ideal client

There are 3 huge reasons why you’re struggling to find your ideal client and get them onto a sales call with you right now. Let’s dive into them.

1. Your Messaging is Wrong

Like I just mentioned above, people don’t buy products or services. Instead, people buy solutions to problems. Odds are, if you’re struggling to get your ideal client on a sales call (or maybe even struggling to get your ideal client to engage with your content) it’s because you’re messaging is all wrong.

Your messaging needs to be completely on point in order to get your ideal client on a sales call. What does that mean? You need to speak to their problems, not the problems you think they have. You need to be using their language, not the language a past version of themselves used. And you need to be speaking to their desires, not what you think a random Joe Schmoe would like to achieve in life.

2. You’re Promoting Yourself in the Wrong Places

Once you’ve fixed your messaging it’s time to think about the places that your ideal client hangs out… online.

The second biggest reason why your ideal client isn’t getting onto a sales call with you is that they don’t even know who you are! If you’re messaging on Instagram when your ideal client is a big corporation, then you’re messaging yourself in the wrong place (try LinkedIn!).

Fixing your messaging is only going to fix part of the problem. If that new messaging isn’t getting in front of the right eyes, you’re really going to struggle to land your ideal client. So be sure that you know exactly where your ideal client hangs out online (or if you’re into print advertising, where they hang out IRL) and start promoting yourself in those places.

3. Your Prices Aren’t Right

Note: I didn’t say your prices are too low or your prices are too high. Your prices just aren’t RIGHT.

If you’re targeting brand new service-based business owners who don’t need or aren’t willing to invest in a big website, then you may have prices that are too high if you’re charging $3,000+ for your services.

On the other hand, if you’re targeting established business owners who are making $10,000+ a month and you’re charging less than $3,000 for a website, you may be charging too little for your services.

Just as something can seem too expensive to someone who isn’t willing to or doesn’t have the money to spend on an expensive service, someone who DOES have the money to spend tends to see something that is inexpensive as also not being good enough.

Price your services for your target market. Whether that means a price increase or price decrease, if you’re not landing your ideal client, your message is on point, and you’re promoting your services in the right places, then change your pricing.

Recap

There are 3 major reasons why you’re not landing your ideal client, having trouble even getting them to agree to a sales call, or simply not getting them to engage with your content whatsoever.

1. Your messaging is wrong
2. You’re promoting yourself in the wrong place
3. Your prices aren’t right

Figure out which one, two, or all three are wrong with your current marketing and sales strategy. Fix your messaging first, followed by your promotion strategy, and then increase or decrease your prices to more easily target and land your ideal client.