Finding your Ideal Client Prospects

Creating a satisfying and successful business depends on making good money and working with people you care about. In other words, it’s about working with Ideal Clients.

Ideal Clients are those that you get so much joy from that you’d help them for free if you could. You smile when you think about them. You’re happy to see emails from them, and you’re grateful to take their calls.
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Who exactly is an Ideal Client?  They are

• Easily identified and contacted
• Happy to pay what you’re worth without negotiating
• People who get results
• Raving fans of your work
• Fun to work with!

Think through the folks you’ve worked with so far.  You’ll know immediately which ones were ideal clients. Now think about what they have in common. The more you can identify the characteristics, the more easily you can go find others just like them.

If you need a little more help, try answering these questions to help identify your Ideal Client:

     What keeps them up at night? What do they pull their hair out about?
     What is it that they really want?  What’s the biggest obstacle to getting it?
     If they could learn 1 thing, what would it be?
     What’s the biggest change they’d like to make in their nonprofit?
     What would they pay anything/do anything to solve, get rid of, increase or decrease?

     Where do they already congregate?
     What do they read? (magazines, blogs, etc.)
     Who else do they follow?
     What workshops, seminars, conferences do they attend?
     Who else do they do business with regularly?
     What organizations or associations do they belong to?
     Where can you find a room full of them already assembled?

Often, you are your ideal client.  I remember back to when I was a Development Director and the things I struggled with.  I remember wishing I had someone to tell me what to do and help me shortcut my learning curve!  Interestingly, this is part of what I provide my clients now.

The two most important questions to answer about your ideal client are:

1. Who are they?
2. Where do they hang out in large numbers?

When you can clearly identify them and find them assembled in large numbers, marketing gets really easy!