Defining Your Ideal Client

The 6 "W's" of Your Ideal Clients

How well do you know your ideal client?

Do you even have an ideal client or are you just taking anyone who will schedule with you?

Let me address the second question first? If you do not have an ideal client, how do you know you are doing your best work? If you are taking everybody that will work with you, there's a good chance that some of them do not allow you to do your best work, worst yet, some of them might even be draining to you. Further sapping your ability to do your best work with your other clients.

Moving forward, have you heard of the 6 "W's" before? I'm sure you have, maybe just not in the context of an ideal client.

The 6 "W's" are: Who, What, Where, When, Why & hoW (there's a "W" there, just not the first letter, ).

Defining the 6 W's for your ideal client, the one who you love working with because they allow you to do your best work, the more easily you will be able to find them and begin your marketing program geared specifically with them in mind.

Exercise: As completely as possible, answer the following questions...

• Who?
  • who is your ideal client
  • who do they associate with
  • who do they seek for help and information
  • who do you absolutely not want to work with
• What?
  • what challenges are they facing
  • what activities do they engage in
  • what websites, periodicals & groups do they engage with
  • what are their aspirations & goals
  • what do they stand for
  • what are they doing with their lives
• Where?
  • where do they congregate
  • where do they go to relax
  • where do they go to learn
  • where do they seek help
  • where do they socialize
  • where do they do business
• When?
  • when would they seek your help
  • when would their challenges begin to start (proactive assistance)
  • when would their challenges being overwhelming (reactive assistance)
  • when would they not need your help
• Why?
  • why would they need your help
  • why would they hire you
  • why did they get in this situation in the first place
  • why are they repeating these cycles/patterns/habits
• How?
  • how do you want them to find you
  • how do you want them to engage with you
  • how often do you want to work with them
  • how many clients do you want to work with each week
  • how else do you want to engage with potential clients and present clients (multiple streams of income)

You will find that as you begin to answer these questions and really flesh out who you were meant to work with, a mental clarity of your work will begin to appear.

You will notice that some of the events or situations that you were seeking clients was the wrong environments, and also you will begin to see other places that may have never occured to you before.

The best result that I have seen when I share this concept with my clients is the freedom they feel when they meet a less-than-ideal client. They have better clarity about the work they were meant to do and who they were meant to share that gift with, so when they meet someone who doesn't match this criteria, they are able to easily and happily not feel a need to try and book an appointment with that particular individual and to do it without regret.

The same benefits will occur to your business, as soon as you can clearly define the 6 "W's" of your ideal client, it will allow you to better focus your marketing program.