Ep. 080 Redefining the "Ideal Client Avatar" - What You Really Need to Consider When Choosing Clients

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How specific do you really need to be about your ideal client?” 

If you’ve been following me for awhile or listening to The Support Squad Podcast, you know that I’ve talked a lot in the past about getting really specific about your ideal client avatar down to what types of books they read, where they look to shop, etc. etc. 

Determining your ideal client in this specific way can be good if you’re really feeling stuck on your marketing and you need to have a very clear picture of a person in your mind.

But just like choosing your service specialty, determining your ideal client is not meant to box you in.  

Today I’m going to be sharing how my thoughts about the “Ideal Client Avatar” have shifted over the last couple of years, what you really need to consider when thinking about your ideal client, and why you should niche your services before your niche your ideal client.

Tune in to hear:

• My old description of my “Ideal Client Avatar” and my new updated version
• The questions you should be asking yourself about your client on discovery calls
• Why niching your ideal client isn’t as effective as niching your services

How my thoughts about the Ideal Client Avatar have shifted:

For a fun little exercise, I thought I would share my old Ideal Client Avatar and my new updated one. I want you to pay really careful attention to the differences.

Old:

Sydney is a successful and soulful female life coach between the ages of 30 and 45. She is already kicking butt in her business, raking in 6 figures, but she wants to spend less time working in her business and more time enjoying her life and finding fulfillment. I know that she loves shopping at Anthropologie, going to yoga classes, practicing mindful and compassionate parenting, and that she probably loves finding great gluten free cookie recipes. 

She understands techie stuff, but doesn’t enjoy doing it. She hates answering emails and would prefer that someone else manage her calendar. Aesthetics and authenticity are important to her in her business. She loves non-toxic beauty products and essential oils. Gabby Bernstein is her mentor. 

New:

My ideal client is someone who has an established and profitable business, with some systems and processes already in place. 

They believe in maintaining a strong work-life balance and respect and value that for me as well.

Nothing in their business is an emergency. Launches and content are planned in advance, customer service matters are kept to regular office hours and automated when possible, and they understand that small errors can and will occur when they are working with team members. 

They have a commitment to diversity and inclusion. 

They have a sense of humor and a creative mind. They value collaboration and input from expert service providers and are not interested in micro-managing others work. 

They are happy to invest in service providers that are skilled and knowledgeable in their area of expertise.

I like them and they like me. We have a mutual trust and respect for each other.

What you really need to consider when thinking about your ideal client: 

Are they nice to you?

Do they trust you and vice versa?

Are they happy to pay the rates that you set?

Do they respect your boundaries?

Do you like them and vice versa?

Niche your services first

I know that some new virtual assistants come into the online space and may have a background in a specific industry like real estate or photography. In that case, it makes more sense to be a little more specific about your ideal client because they already have specialized skills and services that they can offer within an industry.  

But if you are a new virtual assistant and you keep hearing about your “ideal client”, but you're not sure who that is - you do not need to be 100% clear on that right now. 

What I really recommend doing first is specializing your services. When you niche down your services, you're going to automatically be able to command higher rates. Whereas if you niche down to a specific industry or a really specific type of client, you could still be a general virtual assistant.

There won't be that much of a difference in your hourly rate between being a general VA for any kind of client versus being a general VA for this a super-specialized ideal client. The place where you start to scale your business and really earn more is when you specialize your services.

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