The majority of you reading this will have an ideal client (i.c. from here onwards).
You may have named them (mine's called Kate but it took me 18 months to figure out a name!!).
You have most likely figured out your i.c.’s demographics; age, gender, income, relationship status, etc.
Hopefully, you’ve gone a step further and delved into their psychographics; values, lifestyles, goals, personality characteristics.
So far, so good.
Now here’s my question to you? Hand’s up everyone who’s gone further than that?
Look, you’ve done great work getting this far. A lot of my clients haven’t even done that work.
But I’m telling you right now, YOU NEED TO GO DEEPER!
You really need to get into the head of your i.c. to understand the most important question you can ask yourself.
Why do they want to work with me?
I’m not talking about your experience, your offerings, your testimonials.
I’m talking about what exactly is driving your i.c. to take action right this minute.
There’s a lot of factors to be uncovered to answer this but today I want to talk to you about the most important.
This is a step beyond understanding your i.c.’s pain point.
Bleeding necks are your friends
Ask yourself this oh-so-important question – “What is my client’s bleeding neck problem?”
According to marketer Perry Marshall, “20% of leads who generate 80% of your revenue are those suffering from ‘bleeding necks’”.
Pretty graphic description, right?
Pretty accurate description, right?
We all have people come into our world who might be thinking about working with us, who we know we can help.
So why don’t they sign up with us?
Because they don’t have a bleeding neck that’s going to send them to the hospital (that’s you) right now.
They’ve been living with their problem for a while, maybe even years.
It starts to heal over but then opens up again. They keep sticking a plaster on it when it starts oozing again.
And so the story goes on and on and on. Until it finally gets to a point where they know it has to get fixed.
What does a bleeding neck look like?
If you’re supporting businesses or business owners, it comes down to huge pain to the business or owner, loss of income, potential to save a lot of money/time/resources or helping the owner get their sanity back!
For the coaches in my audience that work on the personal side, a bleeding neck really comes down to an emotional issue. Overwhelm that they know they cannot continue to carry, damage to their closest relationships, the desire to find peace and start loving themselves again.
The tipping point needs to be reached. A pain point isn’t strong enough to drive someone to work with you right now. They might take notice of you, they might even reach out to you but chances are they’ll stick another plaster on it.
Again.
Tell me Chris, why do I need to understand this?
The great thing about understanding your i.c.’s bleeding neck problem is that it allows you to create content that resonates with them on an emotional basis (that “it’s like you’re inside my head” content) and it helps you pre-qualify the leads that you should be nurturing the most and those that may need an education piece first (not everyone is aware of the true nature of their problem).
Are you clear on your i.c.’s bleeding neck point? What’s brought it on? How does it make them feel?
Why is it so bad right now that they’re willing to take that trip to the hospital?
Spend a bit of time really digging into this.
I promise you it will get you more clients than knowing their marital status and where they holiday!!!
Want some help figuring out your i.c.'s bleeding neck? Grab yourself a complimentary strategy session and let's sort it out!!