Who Are Your Ideal Customers and Why You Need to Know ASAP

If you're selling products and services, you might be under the impression that the entire universe is a great fit for your business. If so, you're in the right place.

This is the thing... trying to sell your products and services to everyone on the planet will keep you overworked, underpaid and continuously stressed out, trying to figure out where your next sale will come from.  

I know it sounds counterintuitive, after all we talk all the time about reaching a global audience, right? Maybe... but there's a catch in the term "global", that you'll learn about as you read on.

In this article we'll show you how to sell more by being picky about who you talk to about your business. You'll also receive resources you can use to attract your ideal clients and get rid of the notion that you should be selling to everyone. 

This post includes a podcast episode that discusses how to identify your ideal customers and attract them to you. Wouldn't it be great to only work with people who are an ideal fit for your products and services?  

There's a Better Way...

You might be direct messaging and spamming those who are close to you (and even perfect strangers) in order for them to see what you have to offer.

You might be finding that those that are closest to you are really not interested, and neither are those strangers you keep trying to talk to.

What if there was a much better way to sift through those folks who have no interest in what you're trying to accomplish?

What if you could implement something that would reveal the people who want and need to hear from you?  

What if I told you there is a solution that will not only help you weed through the nay sayers, this solution will also help you get loads of people to reach out to you, to ask about your business?

Have You Found Yourself Doing This?

Here are a few scenarios that many of us have experienced when starting out. If this sounds like your experience, this article is a great resource for you.  

If you’ve been involved in any of the scenarios below, you know how awkward it can feel. Going through this each day can leave you feeling stressed out, frustrated and helpless. You might feel that you’re at the mercy of others. You are left feeling that way, because you are... basically at the mercy of others.

• Do you routinely reach out to everyone in your network (people you know) to tell them about your product or service?
• Do you randomly post about your products on social media, hoping that "someone", anyone will buy from you?
  
• Have you notified all your friends and family that you have a business? And maybe lost a few along the way? 
• Have you tried to sell your products and services to someone who made it obvious that they were totally not interested?      
• Have you tried to talk a friend or family member into buying from you?  
  
• Have your friends started avoiding you because they don't want to hear anymore about your "new product or service"?
  

When you take actions like the ones described above, you hand over any leverage or power you had at the beginning of the interaction to the person you're trying to convince.

Running your business becomes stressful, because the person you're talking to holds your future in their hands, and they know it.

When you don't have a clue who your ideal customers are, (the people you should be talking to), you go into the interaction with no confidence.  You are basing your interaction on a hope that this person is the right person. The right person that will give you a sale. 

When this happens you are totally at the mercy of the other person, waiting for their response to see if they are at least interested in hearing your pitch.  They have total control over whether you have a good day or a bad day depending on one of two simple words, yes... or no.

That's a stressful way to navigate your business.

Let's Turn the Tables On the Nay Sayers

Let's try another approach that gives you confidence, and assurance that you are talking to the right people.

You change the dynamic by being selective and only talking to people who approach you about your business.

Instead of trying to talk people into buying, you change your language (speech, marketing materials, social media) to focus on the things your ideal customers are interested in hearing about.

People want to hear about things like solving their problems, or new ideas and information that will make their lives better.

Changing your language helps you to turn the tables, enabling you to reach people who are super interested, not running the other way when they see you coming. You'll reach people who would be the perfect fit for your products. 

The Solution

The solution to finding an engaged, ready to buy audience is very simple. Know your market, know the people in that market. Identify your ideal customers and clients.

Watch the video below to learn about market research and finding your niche. This is the key to building a thriving online business that reaches the global audience we talked about earlier.

Only this global audience is more about reach and capabilities, and less about trying to run down and convince everyone on the planet to do business with you. Even when you have the ability to reach a global audience, you still want to be selective about who you work with.

How to Use AI to Help You Find Your Niche

Here are 15 actionable prompts to help you narrow down your niche and find your target audience:

1. Passion Assessment: What topics, industries, or hobbies are you passionate about? List three areas where your passion aligns with your skills.
2. Problem Identification: What common problems or pain points can you solve for others in your area of expertise?
3. Market Research: Conduct research on your interests. What gaps exist in the market that you could fill?
4. Audience Persona: Imagine your ideal customer. What is their age, gender, income level, lifestyle, and values? Write a detailed description of this persona. 
5. Competitor Analysis: Who are your competitors in the niches you're considering? What are they doing well, and what opportunities are they missing?
6. Profitability Check: What products or services in your niche can generate consistent revenue? Explore potential price points and demand.
7. Survey Your Network: Ask friends, family, or existing customers what challenges they face that relate to your potential niche.
8. Skill Inventory: List all your skills and certifications. Which of these skills is most in demand within your potential niches?
9. Test the Idea: Launch a small-scale pilot project (e.g., create a product sample, host a workshop) to gauge interest and collect feedback.
10. Keyword Research: Use tools like Google Trends or Ubersuggest to identify high-demand, low-competition keywords related to your niche ideas.
11. Community Involvement: Join online forums, Facebook groups, or Reddit threads where your potential audience interacts. What topics or concerns are trending?
12. Personal Experience: Reflect on your own experiences. Have you overcome a challenge or gained expertise that others might benefit from?
13. Focus on Specificity: What unique angle or specialization can you offer that makes your business stand out?
14. Validate with Data: Analyze market trends and consumer behavior data. Does your target niche show potential for growth?
15. Create an Elevator Pitch: Summarize your niche and target audience in one or two sentences. Does it clearly communicate who you serve and what you offer?

Performing Market Research

To reach your goals, start learning as much as you can about the people in your niche.  Learn their language, shop where they shop, hang out where they hang out when you're online and in social media groups.

Perform research to try and understand more about their struggles and the things they may be looking for to help them figure things out and live their best lives.

After you've done your research, post information on social media, conduct training sessions and webinars that will provide this group with amazing solutions (products) that will help them solve their problems. Educate your ideal customers about your business and how your solutions (products) can help them. 

This is Where Your Research Pays Off

If you've done well with your research, your message will resonate with the people who would be a great fit for your products and services. You'll attract a growing audience of people who like what they see and eventually with consistency, your ideal customers will reach out to you. 

In this second "picky" approach you come across as a confident professional who knows what he or she is doing.  And when you do a good job of and identifying the person who would be a good fit for your products and services, you speak a totally different language than someone who is trying to convince or talk someone into taking action.

You speak a language that gets to the heart of what your ideal customer is looking for. And instead of talking them "into taking action", they self identify as someone who is interested and will "ask you how to take action".

Once you have identified your ideal customer, you can be selective, only working with people who meet your criteria.

It's amazing how one small change, having people reach out to you, versus having it the other way around, puts you in a totally different light with potential customers. 

When people reach out to you, the conversations change, and the dynamic totally shifts.  You gain the confidence to move from product pusher to trusted resource.

The Podcast Episode: Identifying Your Ideal Customers

Niche Down to Sell More. Really?

I know it doesn't seem like it makes sense to narrow your focus to sell more. The natural inclination is that you want to reach absolutely every person possible in order to sell more and reach a truly global audience.

If you haven't reviewed the exercises from last week's podcast episode you might go back and listen.  The episode is available above in the previous section. Once you understand the concept of specializing to grow your business, you will never want to go back to trying to reach everyone.

The exercises from last week's episode will help you examine your interests and select a niche as well as products in your niche that are a good fit for you and the things you enjoy.

Niching down and selecting a product that matches your interests, and what you're trying to accomplish is the first step in identifying your ideal customer and creating a marketing plan that works for your business. 

If you're wondering, niching down means focusing on your ideal customers and aligning your marketing efforts to match. You ideal customers should match the niche your business is serving. 

Once you have a product or service to offer, consider who will be the best fit for that product. 

Build Out Systems That Do the Heavy Lifting

Next, build out systems, like lead generation, email marketing and a shopping cart platform that makes it easy for your ideal customers to do business with you.

Perform A/B testing to determine the kinds of products and the process that work best for your audience. 

To test, give a select group of people (friends, family, website visitors) a coupon code for a free product and ask them to go through your buying process and give honest feedback.

People who are looking for information on your topic will sign up to get the information or the benefits of what you're selling. You will receive invaluable data that you can use to improve and sell more... it's a win, win. 

Make it easy for test participants to give you feedback by creating a short form or survey they can take online. 

Ask your test group what they like, what they don't like about the product, the buying process and anything else you want to know, while keeping it brief.

Get testimonials from your test group and strive to improve the things that your group didn't like. Place the focus on improving and doing more of what works.

Once you have data on what works, and you've made the necessary improvements, you can launch (or re-launch) your products and start promoting them in places where your ideal customers hang out online. 

You'll find that having an online business can be fun, profitable and rewarding when you place your focus in the right places and talk to the right people. Happy selling!