You ideal client, your niche, your customer avatar – these are all different ways to describe the same thing in your business:
The person you are especially made to especially help in this season of your business.
Maybe you’re a practitioner who is looking to pivot during these stressful times during the pandemic.
Or maybe you’re a business owner who is looking to carve out and live the life they love that doesn’t revolve around managing client loads, stressing about health plans, or analysing pathology results 24/7.
When it comes to creating a business you love that is purposeful and aligned with your true self, one of the first steps you need to take is understanding exactly WHO it is you’re helping.
From there you can work on your ideal business model, but first, it’s all about know who your ideal client is.
What Good is Knowing Who Your Ideal Client is Anyway?
The thing about going into business, especially as a health practitioner or healer is that you WANT to help. You’re drawn to serving others and finding solutions to their worries, their problems, to the things that keep them up at night.
So of course, you might think that you want to serve everyone!
But the other thing about going into business – and this is probably no surprise to you – is that you just can’t serve everyone.
Yes, you could potentially help everyone that you see or touch, but the reality is that you’ll help one person at an in practice or online consultation, and that person will take the message and share it with others who have a similar kind of type or vibe or symptomology.
That one person will talk to others in their circle, refer to you, and discuss some of your blog posts or podcast interviews.
Those that resonate with what you have to share will come into your circle and you’ll end up serving similar people. Which is such a great way for clients to find you!
But the other side of the coin is for you to have identified these clients and for you to think about who they are and if they are your ideal client.
Here are Three Ways to Identify Who Your Ideal Client Is
Knowing who your ideal client is can come down to understanding the type of person you are. Are you a heart person, a head person, or a story person?
Let me explain a little more:
A Heart Person
To find your niche or your ideal person if you’re a heart person is by thinking about who your favourite person is to help.
As you sit with this thought, your mind might wander off. Take it along with you as you start to visualise your rockstar client. The one who you see in your calendar, or their name pops up in your reminders, and you’re 100% looking forward to seeing them.
Make a note of who they are and what they stand for because they are your most treasured and fantastic client.
A Head Person
A second way to determine who your ideal client is, is by thinking through the process using your head by considering these questions:
- Who do you love to help?
- What type of conditions do you love to help?
- What type of people do you love to help?
It’s easy to get stuck on the type of conditions that you like to work with, but conditions are as different as the people who present with them.
Start to go wider and be more realistic because, when it comes to pivoting your business away from consults to an online model, you really need to consider the type of person you love to help.
A Story Person
If the first two examples don’t resonate with you then consider that your ideal client is actually who you were a couple of years ago.
What was your past story?
Maybe it was five years ago when you had slightly different ways of thinking about your health and wellbeing. Or maybe it was ten years ago when you were considering different stresses in your life.
Your ideal client could be living through your past experiences, and you could be perfectly placed to support their needs, today.
You’ve Identified Your Ideal Client, Now What?
When you have really created a picture of your ideal client – their age, gender, health issues, lifestyle, income, family dynamics, maybe even given them a name – you are in a far better position to be able to help them find you.
When you have taken the time to understand who they are, where they’re coming from, and what words they use to describe their health problems, then you will be able to deliver a solution to them where they are able to see themselves in it.
It starts with understanding their language and how they go about trying to find answers to their problems.
Believe me when I say they are not going about using practitioner speak when they Google their problems. They are using their everyday language to describe their health issues.
Your role as a health practitioner pivoting to an online business model is to step into your ideal clients’ shoes and deliver them offerings that match their needs at that point in time.
What Can You Offer to Answer Your Ideal Clients’ Problems?
Working through the questions in my Ideal Client Worksheet is going to help you to get a clear understanding of who you are ready to serve in your business.
You’re going to understand:
- How your ideal client wants to feel
- The words they’re using in online searches
- What they stand for and what is important in their lives
The work that you put in when you complete the workbook help you take that next step towards implementing a successful online business model.
How?
Because once you’ve nailed your ideal client and identified your niche, you’re then going to start to get a feel for what you can actually offer these people that is outside the scope of a one-on-one or face-to-face consult.
You’re going to be in a better place to be able to deliver a:
- Blog that will give them some solid information about their specific health issues.
- Book with more detailed information or pin-pointed education around their particular problem.
- E-course that clearly provides them with drip-fed actions they need to take to see improvements to their general health and wellbeing.
- Program that provides practical next steps for them to take to see long-term benefits.
And it all starts with identifying your ideal client.
Take Action
Simply head on over to download my free Ideal Client Worksheet to start mapping out who you want to serve in your business and visualise how you will connect with them.
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