If you are an entrepreneur or a small business owner, let me ask you a question: do you really know your market? Do you understand the characteristics of your ideal client?

I’ve been in sales for about 25 years and own several different businesses. I’ve been fairly effective in sales and marketing but it took me a while to understand who I needed to target and with what.

 

The Client Avatar

 

 

One of the things that helped me was putting together a client avatar—a profile of the perfect client. Why is that important? Whichever business you are in, you shouldn’t be trying to market and sell to everybody out there, because not everybody needs what you’ve got.

 

There will be a niche of people, or an industry, or a profile of a person who does need what you provide. These are the people that you should be targeting.

 

But if you don’t know them intimately, how do you target them? That’s where the client avatar comes in.

There are some key elements to this:

• Create a business profile of your ideal client
• Focus on their needs and frustrations
• Try to understand why they are not buying from you.

In a nutshell: A client avatar is a fictional person created through intensive analysis of data, whose detailed characteristics come as close as possible to depicting your target market.

 

The Importance of Avatar Authenticity

 

Don’t make the mistake of creating your client avatar by amalgamating the characteristics of all your current and potential customers. Your description must be crammed with important details, not merely a vague list of attributes based on lazy guesses.

It is very important to create a realistic avatar, also known as a marketing persona, because this is the type of customer you want to reach with your product. If you get this right, you will save yourself from targeting the wrong market and promoting the wrong message.

 

My Example of a Client Avatar

 

 

Her name is Sandra. She’s 42. She’s married with two children. She’s a professional with lots of industry knowledge and experience. She’s got very clear goals, plans, steps, and stages. She is happy to share those plans and partner with those who give her support.

Sandra is very entrepreneurial and has a good deal of vision. She’s a great communicator and is good at using planning tools. She is happy to share those and train her support staff. She’s realistic and not too demanding.

 

Wants, Fears, Frustrations, Desires

 

When it comes to Sandra (and this is what you need to do for your ideal client), we need to think about her wants, fears, frustrations, and desires.

 

 

Don’t just jump out there with a shotgun and try to sell them your stuff. Sandra, for example, wants to dominate her niche but she needs a bit of technical support for things she can’t do.

 

She’s very time-challenged. She’s got two kids, she’s running a business. She needs help with things like websites and CRM systems, that kind of thing.

 

 

She could do with an assistant to manage emails and diaries. Maybe she wants, later on, to get into social media and SEO.  She recognises what she wants but just hasn’t quite got there yet.

 

Sandra is our Ideal Client—Why is she not Buying from Us?

 

The questions we need to ask are, ‘Where does Sandra hang out (online and offline)?’ and ‘Who does she network with?’

 

 

Maybe Sandra doesn’t know we exist, so we need to pop up on her radar with our marketing, wherever that may be. It could be with particular groups (again online and offline), or particular journals, and so on.

 

The client avatar is a very good way to focus in and understand exactly your ideal client in your niche, and what they’re looking for. It helps you build rapport with your target market.

 

This is very useful if you’re putting a video together, writing articles, or conducting sales meetings. It puts you in a powerful position if you understand your clients’ issues and the challenges they are facing. It allows you to respond to them in the right language.

 

Do This and Watch Your Sales Grow

 

So, the message is, you need to understand your target market at a very deep level so that you really get to know your clients and what they want. A personal rapport with clients is very important when it comes to boosting your sales.

If you’ve enjoyed the tips in this article, you might like to know that it is based on a Virtual Done Well YouTube video. There are plenty of other titles available, some of which are sure to address subjects of interest to you. So why not take a look at the channel and see what you can find?

 

 

Best Regards,
Chau Lim
Email: chau@virtualdonewell.com
Phone: +61 413 981 888