Most Entrepreneurs start a business with an idea of what product or service they will provide. They spend a lot of time figuring that part out. When you ask them who the product or service is for, they say everybody. They give this general picture of a big group of people who need, will benefit from, and pay them for it. The problem with that notion is that it is extremely hard to market to everybody. There is a saying in marketing, “to speak to everybody is to speak to nobody”. It means to stay general with the messaging for your product or service will catch the attention of fewer people to buy from you. Think about it like this: to say you have a shoe everybody doesn’t garner as much attention as to say your shoe is specifically for runners. Can someone who is not a runner buy your shoe? Of course. However, the majority of sales will come from runners who feel the shoe was made especially for them.

You’ve heard it over and over again “niche”; to have a narrowed focus. The niche for the shoe company is athletes. To niche your product or service, you have to know who your Ideal Client is; who you want to buy from you. To identify your Ideal Client, think of what problem you solve and who needs your solution. Instead of thinking of a group of people, be more specific, think of one person. Who is the one person you think of when you think of who your product or service is for? In keeping with the example: the one runner that needed better support from shoes to run faster and longer. Who is the one person that needs the solution you offer? Who comes to mind? Now, what is their income level? What are their buying habits? Where do they usually purchase shoes?

Here are three ways that knowing the answers to these questions about your Ideal Client can help you to strategically grow your business:

1. Pricing. Knowing what your Ideal Client is used to paying for products or services like the ones you offer, gives you inside information on how to price your offerings. It doesn’t make sense to overprice, underprice. or guess on what they will spend money on. Research the price range your Ideal Client is willing to pay. Instead of putting your offerings out there for different prices to see which one works, you save time by using what you know about your Ideal Client and pricing your offerings accordingly.

2. Marketing. Knowing the details of the problem that your Ideal Client has allows you to know how to help them identify with what you are offering as the solution. You can use language around their pain points to highlight your solution as their best option. Going back to our example of the running shoe, in the marketing it should be highlighted that the shoe keeps the foot in a position for optimum performance, has padding that gives support against the foot’s impact with the ground, and provides a shape that is better suited for how the length of the foot touches and leaves the ground for swifter steps. Taking the obstacles a runner has and using them to show the shoe is their solution will attract more runners to buy the shoe. More runners buying the shoe to solve their problems means more revenue coming in. Find the obstacles and problems that you solve for your Ideal Client and tell them how you provide those solutions when you market to them.

3. Location. Knowing where your Ideal Client goes to buy products or services like yours lets you know where to go to offer your products or services to them. You need to know whether they will buy from you online or from a brick and mortar establishment. If online, are they more likely to purchase from a computer or their mobile phone? When you know where they buy what you offer, you can be there to sell to them.

These are just a few ways that knowing your Ideal Client can increase your revenue.

Download your Ideal Client Worksheet HERE!