The Power of Knowing
It is important to be a student of your business as well as the operator of your business. It is important to learn, for example, which workflows and systems work best for you and your clients. But to feel more confident, more in control of your business, you have to know your ideal client. Many of your fears about selling are tied to the fact that you don’t know them. You may know their type, but you don’t know them because you haven’t talked to them.
Getting to know their ideal client is the part in the business development process where business operators start to rebel. The idea of picking a client profile feels like they are excluding other people. Also, these business operators feel they will get more sales by appealing to more people. I totally get this. If you have not run a business consistently and with results, common sense logic says the more people you reach, the better you will do.
Lots of different people can buy from you, but you are limited in the amount of time, money and energy you can use to let people know what you do. You have to use the time, money and energy you have to show YOUR people you understand their (one) problem and have (one) solution for their problem. If you are claiming to solve multiple problems for multiple types of people, no one will hear you. When you try to solve everyone’s problems, you speak with less authority, with a more shallow understanding of their experiences, with less confidence. (by the way: If you are natural snake oil salesperson, none of this applies to you. Then again, if you are, you probably wouldn’t be here.) …continuing on…
The people whose problem you want to solve need to hear over and over again and in different ways you understand their problem. They need to hear over and over again and in different ways you have the solution to their problem.
Talking to your prospective clients, before you need a sale, will help you understand at a deep level what they want and need. People love to give their input. Your prospective clients will give you the exact language you need to talk to them.
Social Media
Where people tell you what they need and want is just as important as what they tell you. Many entrepreneurs think all businesses live and die by what they do on social media. Social media platforms can be powerful tools for many businesses, if used based on the specific needs of your business. However, if you cannot map how social media gets you to more engaged followers; to prospective clients; and ultimately, to sales, you are working for the platform. The platform is NOT working for you.
Social media platforms can help you gather useful business data. However, social media is, by design, a noisy environment. It is theater. That’s not a bad thing; just a thing. You’re performing there. Even if they are not a creator on social media, your prospective client is performing there. It’s what the space demands of us. It is important to move people to quieter spaces, like this newsletter, to really understand what the performance on social media means.
In this newsletter space, away from the larger attention economy, I can hear your needs and wants more clearly. I have a combined total of about 113K followers across two TikTok accounts and hundreds of connections and followers on LinkedIn. You, one of the almost 50 people who have subscribed to this newsletter in less than two months, help me see my business and see you with greater clarity than I can through a social platform.
Edit: 52 subscribers
Social platforms ARE important to my business. More than likely, it’s how you got here. But, as I have matured as a business leader, I am passionate about getting to know people better in quieter spaces. For example, I invite people into one-to-one interviews with me to enhance my understanding of what YOU are seeking. This newsletter exists because of those interviews. Hosting these interviews has changed the trajectory of my business.
I know what my people need and want.
I know when they are ready to buy.
I know how much they think they should be paying for what they buy.
I know all this because I talk to people in quieter spaces. I used to be afraid to go in close enough to understand these basics.
Moving to Quieter Spaces
My history in business is the history of my learning to listen to the people I say I want to serve. The infographic connected to this post shows you what talking to people in quieter spaces has done for my business. A summary of my history in business is below as well. While the line from one decision to the next was not as straight as described below, you get some idea of the different phases:
Early in my business I offered services to Neurodivergent Adults in general to support them in their every day lives (examples of neurodivergencies they have: Autism Spectrum Disorder - ASD, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder -ADHD, Bipolar Disorder and others).
I realized that to be fulfilled in this work, I needed to help my clients work towards a goal, such as a strategic plan for their businesses. I had tucked away my higher education administrative experience, but my organizational experiences were exactly what people needed to hear from me. I narrowed my focus to coaching/consulting Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs.
I narrowed my focus to coaching/consulting Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs, but my message to Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs was too broad. I was effective with clients, but too vague in my marketing on the problem I could solve. I narrowed my focus to coaching/consulting ADHD Entrepreneurs.
Narrowing my coaching/consulting to ADHD Entrepreneurs clarified the general profile of my prospective clients. Then, my one-to-one conversations with entrepreneurs filled in the details.
In the interviews, I am finding coaching/consulting to be too big for some ADHD Entrepreneurs. ADHD Entrepreneurs need hands-on coaching/consulting when they don’t know where to start, and especially when they don’t understand their ideal client.
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Now, I have more focus around who I serve and how I serve them. While I still deliver big coaching/consulting packages to a few ADHD Entrepreneurs, my focus is on embedding myself in your business as the person who runs your business newsletter. I show you where to start. I show you how to start. Then, I start for you, so you don’t lose any more time not gathering critical business intelligence. The same knowledge needed to run your newsletter is knowledge you can apply directly to your business.
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My running your newsletter gives you technical assistance, coaching and consulting at the same time. You learn what the next steps are, as I take them for you. Our taking these steps together will help you get clear on who is really your ideal client. My offering this service to you provides us both analytics to gauge how connected you are to your subscribers.
Your Problem - My Solution
The growth I talk about above has come from my taking the time to really understand what I am doing and who I am doing it for. Separate from running my own newsletter subscription, I help ADHD Entrepreneurs in their client development process by running their newsletters. I can help lots of entrepreneurs in their client development process, but I market this newsletter service (my running your newsletter for you) specifically to ADHD Entrepreneurs. The coaching/consulting through newsletter development is my solution to your problem of not knowing how to connect consistently with your ideal client to understand their needs and wants. I step in to support you in feeling more directed, more knowledgeable, more in authority and more confident with your clients.
Your can pivot rapidly (saving time, money and emotional energy) by getting clear on your ideal client, but you’ve got to listen to people in quieter spaces - that you control.
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Let me know if you want to talk about how a newsletter can help you pivot in your business and in your confidence.