One of the first things I do with my clients when we’re looking at the business model for growing their business is to ask, who are the right clients that they want to attract? Because that’s really going to define how much you’re going to be enjoying your business, how much money you’re going to be earning, and lots of other important aspects of your business model.
In this week’s episode, we look at…
- Why attracting the right clients is key to building the business and life that you want
- How to identify who the ‘right clients’ are in the first place
- 5 areas to focus on in order to attract those clients to want to work with you
Have a listen and see where you are already doing a great job and where you might need to make some shifts.
*Resources mentioned during the episode*
The Outsiders Business Incubator – A mentoring programme focused on implementation support and accountability to help you grow your expert business faster – without sacrificing your personal life to do so. onestepoutside.com/grow
Attract the right clients
Hello, hello, and welcome back. I’m your host, Anna Lundberg, and I have a good one for you this week. I mean, I like to think that they’re all good. But this one is particularly good, in my humble opinion. So we’re talking about how to attract the right clients. And this is a really important one, for many reasons, because it’s really at the heart of having a successful business. Meaning, of course, in my philosophy, financially successful, but also enjoying working with certain clients, and for it to work with your business model, the way you deliver it, that they share your values and all these things, right, all that jazz. So how to attract the right clients is what we’re talking about today. And I want to give you five strategic priorities, five areas I suppose they need to be looking at in order to do this now the first one, and hopefully you can guess this by now who’ve been listen to me for a while. The first one is to ask yourself, say it with me. What does success look like? So specifically, who are the right clients? Right? Because how to attract the right clients, I have a certain view of what that is. Yours is certainly different. Part of that is right. Part of it might be need some tweaking and so on. And But who are those right clients? Now I almost named the episode, you know, the right caliber of clients are high quality clients, but that’s equally meaningless, because the question is what’s right for you.
And depending on your business model, depending on of course, the transformation, you’re providing the ATB journey you’re taking people on and so on your own background and personality, your values, the right clients, for you will be different. But it’s really important to understand a few principles. As I said, one, and this is a perspective that I have that I think is quite a little bit more rare, I suppose in the sort of the hustle world of just carrying my financial success. As I said, for me, the right clients are people who will respect your boundaries, who share your values of, for example, family first, you know, I really struggle when I ended up having conversations with people who are emailing me and messaging me late at night. And that, of course, that happens with time zones, and that’s fine. But Saturdays, or at the moment, I’ve got the kids on Tuesdays, and they’re wanting to booking calls, and that, you know, it’s just a, it’s a different mindset. And it can jar a little bit if their schedule is completely different to mine.
Now, I set the boundaries, and those are respected and in fact, valued.
And I, of course, want a role model that’s for my clients. So that’s really important, but it’s just something to watch out for, you know, if you’re working with and I stereotype, a high performance stressy old school hierarchical law firm, let’s say, they might not be too impressed and less like me, I would be coming in to, you know, argue the virtue of having a better work life integration and moving away from that kind of hustle, intention. But if that’s your kind of client, then possibly you won’t be able to set the boundaries you want. If it’s a massive corporate, you have less bargaining power, and so on. Right. So that’s one thing to think about the values will they respect your boundaries, and so on. Then there are all sorts of other basics that we talk about in the Business Academy, for example. So if you don’t know, at all who your clients should be, you might want to check out that as a self paced course, at one step outside.com, forward slash course, it’s in the third module, the business model module, and we’re looking at identifying the right clients for you. Um, that could be you know, high level b2c business to consumer or b2b business to business. If it’s b2b, it’s what kind of company you know, start up their corporation, charity, NGO, number of people, industry location, etc, etc. And if it’s individuals, and you can look at the psychographics, the demographics, and all those things, right, then there’s the whole, as I said, the journey of an unknown going quickly, but like I said, I’m assuming that you kind of know these things, and just reminding you, if not, then do check out that Business Academy, and but understanding the transformation you’re giving, what’s the point at which, you know, what do they need to have in place before they work with you? And you know, what is it like a certain income level, or, you know, they need X, Y, Zed strategy in place, they need a certain number of clients before you can take them to the next level, or whatever that looks like, right? So that’s the first thing who are the right clients. And one generic thing to say, and it’s subjective, but I think it applies quite universally, is. Well, in fact, there’s a piece of on pricing that I’ll talk about in a moment. But there’s, there’s the factors.
And I’m hesitating, just to say this in the right way. The fact is that, you know, the more people pay, to some extent, the higher caliber of client they will be. And this is where I use that language of caliber, which is an interesting one.
But in my experience, and many people in my peer group have had similar experiences. And you probably have to if you’ve been around for a while, and the people who pay the least, are the ones who give you the most grief. Someone who joins for free, first of all, probably isn’t committed to even show up in the first place. And if they do if they either pay nothing or very small amount, they’re often the most demanding because if they’re a really budget conscious customer and this is not always case, of course we’re generalizing, then then they’re just they, they expect the world for very little. And it gets really stressful, you’re over delivering, or you can’t, and they’ll be disappointed, and so on. Right. So that’s just the experience that a lot of us have had. And you only need to think about, you know, when you pay to join a gym or something, if you pay that, you know, suddenly, you’re committed to show up, you pay a personal trainer. And of course, if you pay a coach or someone, you’re going to damn, well show up to that call, right? Because you’re committed, and suddenly, there’s a different level of accountability, and so on. And I’ve certainly had that, and I’ve talked about this a few weeks ago, in terms of, you know, cheaper courses that you do, that just don’t have any support or accountability. And you end up just, you know, for all well intentioned, people who sign up at the beginning wanting to do all the work, you end up gradually kind of drifting away, and the numbers are very low, as to people who finish a course, let alone actually implement what’s in it, right. So there is a degree of, you know, you want the kind of client who, in my case, who’s a lifelong learner, because they’re committed and invested in learning and improving, you want them to be and I’d say, I want them to be open to hearing a different perspective to learning to listening to me, because otherwise, what’s the point, and you know, they need to be respectful and show up on time, and so on, you know, all these things, there are certain kind of basic parameters of respect and commitments, and so on. So that’s number one, who are the right clients.
And I mentioned pricing there a little bit, if you are doing, you know, providing a group coaching program, with all the bells and whistles, and it’s for an advanced entrepreneur who’s earning six figures, and you’re pricing it at 50 pounds a month, there’s a bit of a disconnect there.
Obviously, that’s extreme, but the six figure entrepreneur who’s at a certain level is going to look at that and think that’s obviously not what I need, because it’s far too cheap. And it’s ridiculous that it is that way. And you might think, oh my gosh, it’s such incredible value. But it doesn’t matter, because there’s just too much of a disconnect, you’re not able to deliver the value that that kind of entrepreneur needs for such a low price. So they will immediately know, I’ll immediately know that this person doesn’t know what they’re doing, because that’s not going to ladder up to in order for that to be a financially viable model for that person, they’re going to need to have hundreds 1000s of people in that program, in which case, I’m not going to get the support that I want, right. So that’s just, you know, the pricing needs to reflect the kind of client that you’re wanting to attract, and the positioning you’re after. Now, this is not to say that you just suddenly go, Oh, I’m going to charge hundreds of 1000s of pounds, because of course, you need to actually be able to back that up with the value of the transformation, you need to be credible to that audience. So it’s not just pricing, it’s the brand look and feel. And it doesn’t mean that you have to, and I certainly don’t have perfect makeup and nails and a suit and whatever it is, but maybe that’s the look you need and want to have for your clients. You know, you can be a creative business, that’s a different expectation than, again, that kind of traditional law, finance kind of customer, how you present yourself, confidence, body language, all these things are an important piece of that positioning. And the language that you use, I had a funny conversation with a client and America is very much in sort of the not in Silicon Valley, but in that kind of tech startup IP world and use some poker language that I hadn’t thought of before, because that just isn’t in my world. And if you’re speaking to a target, it’s very into sports.
And the I mean, a lot of sports metaphors are very, you know, ubiquitous in our language now, too. But you know, if you’re trying to attract, you know, a cricket player, let’s say then you know, the certain language you would use, if you’re trying to attract a more elevated, high net worth individual, you’d use different language than if you’re talking more to the masses, the communism OS. So everything from your, your pricing your business model to your the look of your website, your content, how you present yourself, and the language that you use will support that positioning in the market. So that’s number two, to attract the right clients. The third, and this is where it gets really interesting is your content. And this is such a challenging one. But so important to get right at two levels. You want to attract the right people with your content rights. You want to speak to the right people, but you also and this is a bit trickier and more controversial. You also want to repel the wrong people. And that sounds a bit aggressive, but you want to be attracting the right people.
Meaning that again, you want to speak to the pain points. They have the problems they’re facing the dreams and aspirations they have with your teaching content.
You know, in my model, we have the sort of instructional teaching content in the middle you also have the aspirational, mission driven content at the top and then you have your invitations more kind of sales messages, but each of those three levels needs to be attracting the right kind of person If I’m wanting to again, and I’m drawing simple examples that you can easily understand, we can all kind of relate to, if I’m wanting to attract a multiple, whatever figure business, if I’m in my content talking about, here’s how you get your first client, here’s how you should charge for your foot, you know, that kind of thing, that’s not going to attract the right people. And what’s really interesting and important to remember is that people aspire to a higher level. So if I talk about a seven figure business as a goal, then I’ll get the people who want a seven figure who already have the six figure, but I’ll probably also get the people who aren’t there yet, and who want to get there, right. So it trickles down. So always aim higher. And especially given that it takes time. And so it gets a bit complicated, but it takes time to build this content attract people. So if you aim too low at the beginning, by the time you’ve built your reputation there, you’ll already have evolved in that year or two. And you’ll be at a very low level compared to where you want where you are, and where your audience will be and where you want them to be. So you need to pitch yourself a little bit higher, with the future in mind of where you want to end up, you can still mix in, you know, I have, and this is what’s challenging, I have a mix of, you know, as you see, if you look on my Instagram, let’s say some of the more early stage, hey, this is your roadmap for transitioning out of your nine to five, maybe that’s the kind of person who still in their corporate job early on. But then more and more, I tried to really address the the more advanced needs of my community, partly because I’m at that more advanced level now 10 years later. And also because I know people have followed along with me, and so on, right, so you need to pitch the content at the right level, talk to the right pain points, and, and filter for the right clients.
And so that comes to the repelling piece, you don’t want to again, I don’t want to have content that says hey, here’s how you start a business with no money.
Because what’s going to happen, I’m attracting people who have no money, and probably can’t invest in my programs. And that’s not the kind of business that I want to be building, I want to help people who can invest. It’s still a very simple model, the kind of expert business service based business that I advocate for, it doesn’t require huge amounts of investment, but I need someone who is willing to invest their time and money in learning and growing, and in playing big in their business, right. So the type of content you’re putting out there needs to be repelling people, as well. So I’m trying to think of an example. But you know, you can both attract somebody with a video or a message. And also, you know, if I put my sort of flag in the sand, as to the kind of business that I’m helping you build, if someone then wants to get that VC funding, and so on, if they want to build a startup with a team, and they want to have the hustle, and they believe that’s what it takes to be successful, then my message around non hustle, not having a team, not scaling and so on will hopefully put them off, because I won’t then want to help them or I can’t help them with my programs, right.
So you need to have content that’s Attracting and repelling people. Even more concretely, then the number four strategy here is to qualify people.
And this is where you’re getting really proactive about this. So it’s not just the stuff you’re putting out there, your positioning and so on. But the conversation you’re having with people via your DMS, via phone calls on your different webinars, and whatever it is that you’re doing need to be qualifying people, and whether it’s a formal list of criteria, you know, I know someone who helps coaches build their first group program, blah, blah, blah, and she has, okay, you need to have at least 500 people in your group, you need to have at least this income, blah, blah, blah, and 500 people in your group, not in your group program, by the way, in your Facebook group or on your list or whatever it is, right. So you need to be clear on what those criteria are. For me, it’s maybe for the incubator, let’s say, if somebody already has their business idea, they know they want to build this and so on. But they now need support and implementation, obviously, I have a more detailed understanding of what that is, if somebody has already hit their consistent revenue, then they’d rather be appropriate for one to one mentoring or the accelerator. If they don’t yet have the business idea, then they need to go to the academy to get that that basic understanding in place. So you need to know especially if you’ve got multiple programs, what are the criteria for each one, and by the way, this is so helpful. It helps you write your copy, of course for your website helps you with your content, it gives you the confidence when I speak to people, and I know right away on the call, well, of course you need to be doing the incubator, that’s where you are, or you’re not quite there, I suggest that you start with the course or you know, Oh, I’d love to work with you in a more advanced program or one to one capacity, right. So that gives you the confidence and clarity that will also then be mirrored in your prospect who will see that and reflect that back to you to qualify people. And then the final piece, the fifth area is actually having an application form and this is very, very concrete.
But I have two levels of application forms that I would recommend along the way for you. The first one is and I’ve shared hundreds of times. So Apologies if you’ve heard this before, but it’s important to hear again, Arianna Huffington shared one of my posts years ago, and I suddenly got 1000s of people coming to my website and 100 people booked a call with me, I had my calendar completely open on that site. I can’t now remember, remember the exact details. But I’ve summarized this experience in my head as to most of these people didn’t show up to the call, the ones who did, were just looking for free advice, or weren’t a good fit. And I didn’t really know what to do with them afterwards, right, I sort of gave them a little graphic where I summarized their next one step and not a single one of them worked with me in a paid program afterwards. Since then, I’ve developed an application forum, it’s quite simple to keep it simple, but fewer people are going to apply for that call. Now, however, the ones who do I’ll know, have bothered to write it, there’s a question around, you know, how committed are you? What kind of investments have you made before so I get a sense if they say, I’ve got no money I’m not committed, then obviously, that rarely happens. But if at times, I can say, hey, here’s my free blog that you can read, or you can get this resource, maybe you know, when you’re ready, we can have a conversation about working together. So an application form for calls just to filter out those people, again, to repel the lazy ones. And of course, for a program again, for the incubator. Ideally, you will have worked through the academy or worked with me as a one to one client in the past. If not, there’s an application form to make sure that the people who are applying there are again, at the right level for that program, it’s only, first of all, it’s right for them.
Because if I get someone in who I can’t help, then that’s, you know, very unethical of me to take their money for a program that isn’t going to help them. It’s unfair to the people in the program, if I bring someone on who’s going to bring down the group, either where their negativity and whatever it is, or you know, disconnected values, or they’re not at the right level, in the business, and so on. And so it’s really, really important then to have that application filter at the program stage as well for certain types of programs if there are criteria to get into there. So to summarize, and I know there’s a lot in this, you might want to listen again, to attract the right clients, you need to first of all know who those clients are. Secondly, it’s about your positioning, how you’re positioning yourself in the market. So pricing, look and feel how you’re presenting yourself the language that you’re using. Third, you need to have the content that’s attracting those right people and repelling the wrong people. Fourth, you want to be qualifying people with all this knowledge, right via the conversations you’re having online or on the phone in person. Again, filtering, asking questions to help you understand you don’t just say, hey, yeah, sure, no problem. Here’s the link, by all means, ask them questions, you understand if they’re the right kind of person that you can help, and if so how, and then finally having an application form for the call stage, and all the programs stage as well. So I hope that’s helpful, some really important pieces there. And I know it requires quite a bit of work, in particular, the content one, and of course, to begin with identifying really clearly what those criteria are for your clients. Again, if you’re not sure how to do that, you can go to one one step outside.com. Forward slash course, to learn the course curriculum, the foundational course curriculum, which includes a piece on the business model on your personal brand, and lots of other bits as well. And but I hope that was helpful in terms of Attracting and repelling those right and wrong people. And it will really be so valuable for you in terms of getting you to where you want to be, you’ll enjoy working with them or you’ll get them results or they’ll raise the value. So it’s such an important thing to get right. So best of luck with that, and I’ll speak to you next week. Bye for now
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A mentoring programme focused on implementation support and accountability to help you grow your expert business faster – without sacrificing your personal life to do so.
